Advanced Portal Designer Documentation
Index

Permissions

Advanced Portal Designer includes permission sets that control access to APD functionality. This guide explains how to configure permissions for your users.

Permission Sets Overview

APD ships two permission sets. The names below are what you'll see in the Permission Sets list — the system IDs are APD_Hgd and APD_Content_Hgd:

Permission Set (Caption) System ID Description
Advanced Portal Designer APD_Hgd Full RIMD access to all APD tables, plus execute access to all APD pages and codeunits
APD Content Editor APD_Content_Hgd Read access to most APD tables; Read+Modify on the Markdown Content table; no insert/delete on configuration

Advanced Portal Designer Permission Set (APD_Hgd)

What It Includes

The main APD permission set provides:

  • Full access to APD setup
  • Create, modify, and delete actions
  • Manage templates and content
  • Configure security profiles and filters
  • Manage portal users
  • Access to all APD pages

Who Needs It

Assign the APD permission set to:

  • System administrators
  • Portal developers
  • Full APD administrators

Assigning the Permission Set

  1. Go to Users in Business Central
  2. Select the user who needs APD access
  3. Navigate to User Permission Sets
  4. Add the Advanced Portal Designer permission set (system ID APD_Hgd)
  5. Save changes

APD Content Editor Permission Set (APD_Content_Hgd)

What It Includes

The content editor permission set provides:

  • Read access to APD configuration tables (actions, templates, users, security setup, etc.)
  • Read + Modify access to the Markdown Content table (APD Page Content Hgd)
  • Read + Modify access to Content Types (APD Content Type Hgd)
  • Read-only access to the main Content table (APD Content Hgd)
  • Execute access to APD pages and codeunits, so the content editor pages can run

Who Needs It

Assign to users who:

  • Edit existing markdown content in the portal
  • Write documentation
  • Manage portal text without changing technical configuration (actions, security, users)

Assigning the Permission Set

Follow the same steps as above, but add APD Content Editor (system ID APD_Content_Hgd) instead.

Business Central Permissions

APD users also need appropriate Business Central permissions for the tables they'll work with through the portal.

Table Permissions

Portal actions often access Business Central tables like:

  • Customer
  • Vendor
  • Sales Header / Lines
  • Purchase Header / Lines
  • Item
  • etc.

Users configuring APD need permissions to:

  • Read table metadata
  • Access field information
  • Execute codeunits (for codeunit actions)

For APD administrators, combine with:

Permission Set Purpose
D365 BUS FULL ACCESS Full access to standard BC tables
or D365 BASIC Basic read/write access
or D365 READ Read-only access to tables

Security Profile Permissions

Within APD, you can further restrict what portal users can do using Security Profiles.

Security Profile vs BC Permissions

Feature BC Permission Sets APD Security Profiles
Scope Business Central users Portal users
Controls Table/Page access in BC Portal action access
Assigned to BC User records APD User records

Configuring Security Profiles

  1. Open the Advanced Portal Designer menu page (search for it in Tell Me) and click Security Profiles
  2. Create profiles for different portal user roles
  3. Configure security settings for each profile
  4. Assign profiles to portal users

Web Service Permissions

APD communicates via web services. Ensure:

API Permissions

  1. The service account running APD has web service access
  2. Required APIs are published and accessible
  3. CORS is properly configured

Troubleshooting Access

If users can't access APD features:

  1. Verify they have the APD permission set
  2. Check they have permissions to underlying tables
  3. Review security profile assignments
  4. Check web service access

Permission Set Details

APD Permission Set Contents

The APD_Hgd permission set grants RIMD (Read/Insert/Modify/Delete) on all APD tables and execute access on all APD pages and codeunits. To see the exact, current contents, open Permission Sets in Business Central and view the Advanced Portal Designer permission set — the authoritative list is what's declared in the Permissions/APD.permissionset.al file inside the extension.

Viewing Permission Details

  1. Go to Permission Sets
  2. Find "APD" permission set
  3. Click Permissions to see detailed access rights

Custom Permission Sets

Creating Custom APD Permissions

You can create custom permission sets for specific needs:

  1. Copy an existing APD permission set
  2. Modify permissions as needed
  3. Assign to appropriate users

Example: Read-Only APD Access

Create a permission set for viewing APD configuration without editing:

  1. Copy the Advanced Portal Designer permission set
  2. Change Insert/Modify/Delete to "No"
  3. Name it (for example) "APD - Read Only"

Best Practices

Principle of Least Privilege

  • Assign minimum necessary permissions
  • Use APD.Content.Editor for non-technical users
  • Create custom permission sets for specific roles

Regular Review

  • Periodically review who has APD access
  • Remove permissions when no longer needed
  • Audit changes to permission assignments

Documentation

  • Document who has which APD permissions
  • Record reasons for elevated access
  • Include permissions in onboarding/offboarding procedures

Troubleshooting Permission Issues

User Can't Access APD

  1. Verify the Advanced Portal Designer permission set is assigned to the BC user
  2. Check the user has signed out and signed back in after the permission change
  3. Clear browser cache
  4. Test with a known working account

Portal Actions Fail

  1. Check security profile assigned to portal user
  2. Verify table permissions in security setup
  3. Review action-specific security settings

Compilation Errors

If users can't compile templates:

  1. They need access to AllObj and Field tables
  2. Verify APD permission set is fully assigned
  3. Check for any permission conflicts