🌟 Understanding Report Labels in Business Central: Why and How to Use Them

Report labels are text fields you define in a report to pass static or semi-static text (like titles or captions) into the report layout. These are not coming from the database but are essential for presenting your report in a user-friendly way.

Examples include:

  • The title of a report (e.g., “Sales Invoice”)

  • A caption for a chart (e.g., “Monthly Revenue Breakdown”)

  • Custom static notes in the report layout

You can define these labels in your AL report object, and they automatically become available in your report’s layout parameters.

 Why Use Labels Instead of Hardcoding Text?

Here are the key advantages of using labels:

✅ 1. Multilingual Support

  • Labels are added to the translation file (.xlf).

  • This means your text elements can be translated into multiple languages effortlessly.

  • If you hardcode text in variables, these strings don’t appear in translation files and won’t support localization.

✅ 2. Better Report Performance

  • Labels are parameters passed to the layout, not added to the dataset.

  • A smaller dataset = faster report rendering.

✅ 3. Clean and Maintainable Code

  • Keeps all static texts centralized in one place (the labels block).

  • Easier to update and maintain titles or captions later.

Example of Hardcoded Text:

var
    ReportTitle: Text;
begin
    ReportTitle := 'Sales Invoice Report'; // Hardcoded text
end;

Here’s a simple example:

labels

{

    ReportTitle = 'Sales Invoice Report', Comment='Title for the report', Locked=true;

    ChartCaption = 'Sales by Region', Comment='Caption for Sales Chart';

}

✨ In the next blog, we’ll dive into a practical example of how to define and use report labels in Business Central. We’ll see how to reference them in both RDLC and Word layouts to make your reports multilingual and efficient.

📌 Stay tuned for a step-by-step guide with code samples!


Thanks For Reading...!!

Regards,
Khushbu Rajvi

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