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Microsoft Dynamics 365 & Power Platform Solution Architect

Srinath Pega

A Complete Guide to Dynamics 365 Fields and Entities

The primary goal of any business management software is to collect data to speed up processes and to generate reliable reports (such as revenue forecasts). With a poorly built CRM, “bad data” is a common complaint: management teams request a “simple report”, but when the data is “bad”, there is not much that a developer can do to generate the report.

This problem can be eliminated by proper field and entity definitions. A great CRM system has field types defined to guide the user to enter the correct data type, which can lead to robust and colorful reporting.

Planning and defining the business process can make or break a CRM or Dynamics 365 deployment.  Do I need to plan each field?  Not necessarily, but you will need to define how your data relates to itself. How does the Account entity relate to the Opportunity entity? How does the Contact entity relate to the Claims entity?

Here, we will walk through an example of an entity and fields based on a medical insurance example.

What are the Fields? What are the Entities?

Entities and their Fields are the foundation of Dynamics 365. As a visual example, you can think of Entities like a table in Excel, and Fields are each column. Dynamics 365 removes the rigidity of the tabular appearance by giving users a very appealing interface, but at its core, Dynamics 365 is a very sophisticated set of tables with lots of columns.

Just like in Excel, if you want to generate a meaningful chart or pivot table, you need to ensure that the data entered in the column is the correct type by restricting the column to be a number, or a date, or even a currency. The same principle applies to Dynamics 365. In order to generate meaningful charts and reports, you need to restrict the data entry to make sense.

Scenario: Claims Entity

You work at a medical insurance provider. You are a business analyst who has been recruited to assist the system administrator with defining the structure of a new Dynamics 365 deployment. Where do you start? How do you tackle translating the current process into “Dynamics 365 Lingo”?

This is a huge task, so we are going to boil this down to one area: claims. After multiple discussions with the claims processing team, where they detailed their day-to-day process, and with senior management, where they provided current reports and desired future reports, you are ready to plan out this section of the solution.

At a high level, the claims processing team needs to know which claims are assigned to them, the priority level for processing, who the contact is, and document processing which is dependent on medical service type. Senior management wants to know how long a claim is in each stage of the process, broken down by claims representative and by medical service type.

Disclaimer: With any Dynamics 365 deployment, there are multiple ways to accomplish the same goals. Here, we will walk through creating a claims entity and adding the relevant fields for the claims processing team. However, another valid approach would be to repurpose the out-of-the-box Claims entity and rename/customize it to become the Claims entity. There are many other things to consider when planning your structure (security privileges, automation, end-user experience, etc.); this is simply an illustration.

Step 1: Create Claims Entity

From the Components area within the solution, click New Entity. Enter information for Display Name, Plural Name, Name, and Ownership in order to save (note: these are  Business Required , so it’s mandatory to fill them out and save them).

Since the claims processing team has ownership of a Claim, the Ownership needs to be set to User or Team. This is something you cannot change after creating the entity. The other option is the Organization, which means no user has ownership of the record (example: Competitor Entity).

Besides the entity definition, there are seven sections to fill out when creating an Entity: Areas that display this entity, Options for Entity, Process, Communication & Collaboration, Data Service, Outlook & Mobile, and Help.

• Areas that display this entity: where on the  Sitemap  does this entity show up? This can be changed after entity creation.
• Options for Entity: is this entity enabled for an interactive experience?
• Process: is this entity enabled for Business Process Flows? This cannot be changed once selected and saved as yes, since fields related to tracking the stage is created.
• Communication & Collaboration: This is a very large section that contains options like Activities, Mail merge,  OneNote Integration , and Queues. Most of these options cannot be changed once saved as yes.
• Data Service: This section is critical. Will this entity be enabled for auditing? Duplicate detection?
• Outlook & Mobile: can this entity be available in the Dynamics 365  Mobile App ? Is it available from within  Outlook ? These can be updated at any time.
• Help: will this entity have a custom help link?

Here, we will keep it simple. This is a claims entity that is owned by a user or team, available within Service, with Activities and Notes, that is audited.

Step 2: Edit Form and Add Fields

Once the entity is created, there are two ways to add more fields. The first is under Fields within the Claim entity. The second (and probably more intuitive) method is through the Field Explorer on the form you want to edit.

Going back to the requirements…

At a high level, the claims processing team needs to know (1) which claims are assigned to them, (2) the priority level for processing, (3) who the contact is, and (4) document processing.

• Ownership field is automatically created when we selected the user or team when we created the Claims entity — Status = Done!

• Pro-tip #1: Do not overlook Use Existing Option Set – 90% of the time (or more) you will want to change this value to Yes. This enables you to use the same option set values across multiple entities and workflows.
• Pro-tip #2: Change the Name of the field to end in “code” for option sets. Example: Display Name = Priority Level, Name = hsdyn_prioritylevelcode. This gives developers some insight into the field type.
• Pro-tip: Change the Name of the field to end in “id” for lookups. Example: Display Name = Contact, Name = hsdyn_contactid.
• Pro-tip: Change the Name of the field to start with “is” for bit fields. Example: Display Name = Document Processing Complete?, Name = hsdyn_isdocumentprocessingcomplete.

After adding these fields and updating the form layout, here is the end result:

Dynamics 365 lets you update the entity icons from the solution.

Previously, you needed to use XrmToolBox or other developer tools to add 16×16 and 32×32 images, but now you can easily add icons to custom entities using the Update Icons button.

Customer Fields – New Data Type

Dynamics 365 has 12 data types  available : Single Line of Text, Option Set, Two Options, Image, Whole Number, Floating Point Number, Decimal Number, Currency, Multiple Lines of Text, Date and Time, Lookup, and a new Dynamics 365 Data Type called Customer.

This data type has been available on out-of-the-box entities such as Opportunity, but Dynamics 365 now allows you to create your own on custom entities. In our example above, if the requirement had said “ to know the contact or the account associated with the claim ”, then a Customer field would have been a natural choice.

Awesome! How Do I Get Started?

If you are starting off a project and are planning out your CRM system, make sure to meet with subject matter experts to explore their day-to-day process. It is also critical to analyze the current data – this will help guide you to natural data type choices.

For example, if you are currently using Excel, some users might enter “Y” and “N” while others use “Yes” and “No”; and some might even use “Maybe”. Understanding what the data currently is will help you build out an appropriate solution, and will give you a head-start with data mapping and migration efforts.

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Published by Srinath Pega

Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) Bizz Apps | Dynamics 365 & Power Platform Solution Architect & Technical Consultant | The #MSDyn365 Guy🏄 | Azure DevOps 🚀 | Power Platform | Traveller🛫 View all posts by Srinath Pega

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Un tour d'horizon sur Dynamics 365

Project Operations getting started : Ergonomy and synchronization

Version française disponible ici.

Since Project Operations has been available, I finally found some time to have a look on this new tool for the Dynamics suite. Basically, it aims to replace the Project management and accounting module embedded in MS Dynamics 365 for Finance and Supply Chain. It means every customer using the Project management and accounting module have to migrate by the years to come. The impact is already visible according to the licensing point of view because now there is 3 Full license type : Finance, Supply Chain and Project (Operation). Even if you want only to deploy the project embedded within the original ERP, you have to license users with the new PO license.

One big thing, the updates an enhancements are continuous as I’ve notice some change since January 2020. I expect a lot from this new tool so I will have a look on updates.

So, after deploying the environnement by following the procedure Provision a new environment | Microsoft Docs  , let’s have a look on what is hidden behind this tool.

Link between « PO » and « F&O »

Project Operation doesn’t work by essence with a legal entity aggregation, so you first need to build the relation between your PO available and the legal entity of your F&O.

First, activate the Enable Project Operation Integration feature setup from the Project management and account parameters.

Go under Global project management and accounting parameters from F&O and select the appropriate legal entities to use.

To access to PO, click on the 9 points in the top left of your F&O screen, and open all applications.

Then, select the Project Operations environnement deployed.

Like CRM environnements (Field Service, Customer Service, old PSA, and so on), the modules are available on the bottom of the screen.

You will retrieve Projects / Resources / Sales / Settings and Training. I have not yet tested everything here but you will have an idea of what it is about I hope.

The left column is updated depending of the selected « Area ». For instance, when selecting Sales, here is the result.

For the CRM expert it’s not new. But for those who came from the ERP like me, it’s a bit surprising. It takes couple hours to be comfortable with it.

There is a lot of sub-menu available on each module as you can see below that could be pinned if wanted.

It’s possible to access to every menu items of PO from the + button on the top right of the screen. There is also filter possibilities, help and user setting.

For instance, I’ve found a product creation from here, but not able to make it create something and not able either to retrieve it from the main navigation (Projects / Training / Sales…).

From F&O impact, the project functionalities are now very limited and restricted. You will see more in the next post on that topic.

Synchronization example between « PO » and « F&O »

Let’s focus on the synchronization between PO and F&O thanks to dual-write. The whole list of mapped entities (up to PU 29) is available on the following link : Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations Data Entity List – Dynamics Tips (dynamics-tips.com).

Now let’s see an example by creating a customer from Project Operations.

We first create a customer from F&O, as we used to do.

Instantly the customer has been creating in miror in the PO environnement as you can see below.

Dual Write works in both directions. We could have created the customer from PO. In PO, a customer is an « account » in which we need to specify the Relationship Type (in our case Customer).

From F&O, it’s possible to see the list of entities running for Dual Write within Dataverse (Access from Data Management workspace > Dual Write).

Let’s keep going, by creating contacts attached to the customer from PO this time.

The synchronization is also working in real time in F&O. Note that it’s also possible to create a hierachy of contacts in PO through the Open Org Chart functionality.

Use Drag and Drop to define the hierarchy. There is no such functionality embedded in F&O that’s why it’s not retrieved there.

That’s it for the first overview. In the next post I will detail an end to end process from creation of a contract until posting an invoice.

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Hi Yohann: thanks so much for your blog. I configure my on-premise virtual machine one by one according to your content. When I content with all office applications, I can’t find the project operations. Would you please so kind to reply for me, how shall I do next?

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Dynamics 365 Musings

Useful things I've learned along the way

How To Create A D365 Data Entity

In this article, learn how to create a D365 Data Entity. Previously, you learned what a data entity is, and when they are used. In this lesson, walk through the steps of creating a data entity in Visual Studio. Then, see it within the Data Management workspace.

Before learning how to create a D365 Data entity, take a minute to review what data entities are.

First, read my article on What is a D365 Data Entity?

Second, let us talk through why data entities should be used instead of just the tables directly.

Note: it is not actually possible to load data directly into D365 tables. Data entities must be used. But even if it were still possible, the following will explain how data entities are the best to use.

Tables Are Normalized

As a reminder, data within D365 is normalized. To explain, this means that for a given type of data, such as items, customers, sales orders, and many others, the data is stored across several different tables.

The benefit of this is that it allows the data to take up less space by only creating records for fields that is has data. Additionally, it increases the system performance when searching, reading, and writing this data.

However, this approach is not helpful when outside systems need to interact with this data. The outside system or user would need to understand and work with all of those related tables to read or write data in D365.

Data Entities are De-normalized

Therefore, data entities were created to address this problem. Data entities de-normalize the data. To explain, fields across multiple are added to a single data entity, that acts like a single table or view.

Whenever data is read from the data entity, the definition of the data entity understands the relationships between the tables so that the calling system does not need to understand them.

Similarly, whenever data is written using a data entity, the system will handle populating reference record ID’s needed to allow the tables to relate to each other. This saves so much time and effort!

Data Entity Examples

Before learning how to create a D365 data entity it is helpful to look at an example. This will help you see the end result.

Below are the names of some common data entities. The second name is the name used within Visual Studio.

• Items (Released products V2), EcoResProductV2Entity
• Customer (Customers V3)
• Vendors (Vendors V2)
• Sales order header (Sales order headers V2)
• Sales order lines (Sales order lines V2)
• Warehouses (Warehouses)

Every time Microsoft publishes a new version of a data entity, they create a new entity and add V# on the end. This ensures they do not break existing integrations.

Items Data Entity Example

Next, look at the items data entity in Visual Studio. After opening Visual Studio, open the ‘Application Explorer ‘, by going to View>Application Explorer .

Next, expand the node AOT>Data Model>Data entities . Then, locate the node EcoResProductV2Entity . Alternatively, search for EcoResProductV2Entity in the search bar at the top of the Application Explorer.

Right click on the data entity EcoResProductV2Entity , and select ‘ Open designer ‘.

The designer window opens. Next, expand the ‘Fields’ node, and see all of the fields that you can read or write to in the data entity.

Remember, data entities are similar to tables in that they have fields, and allow you to interact with data. The key differences are that data entities can be interacted with from outside systems, whereas tables cannot. And, data entities show fields that often span across multiple related tables. I am repeating this concept several times as it is the most important thing to understand.

To prove this, expand the data sources node, and see all of the data sources that contribute fields to this data entity.

Lastly, click on each field in the Fields node, and look at the properties. Notice how the Data field and Data Source values come from more than one table.

Create A D365 Data Entity

Now that you have seen an example of what we will build, let us create a D365 Data Entity.

Create A New Project

For this example, we create the same example that Microsoft does in this documentation.

First, open create a D365 project in Visual Studio . Name it tutorialDataEntity, or whatever you like.

Second, right click on the project, select properties , then set the project to your custom model. Follow this article on how to create a model in D365 . Or, use the Fleet Management model.

Additionally, set the Synchronize Database On Build property to True .

If you use a custom model, make sure that your custom model has a reference to the ‘Fleet Management’ model, since we will be referencing a table that exists in the Fleet Management model. See How to Update Reference Packages. Specifically, go to Extensions>Dynamics 365>Model Management>Update model parameters.

Next, set the ‘ Model name ‘ drop down to your custom model. Then click ‘ Next ‘.

Next, check the checkboxes next to the ‘Fleet Management’ model, and click ‘Next’. Finally, click ‘Finish’ on the wizard.

Add a new data entity to your project

First, right click your project, and select Add>New Item.

Second, select ‘ Data Entity ‘ from the list. Next, enter ‘ FMLabCustomerEntity ‘ as the name. Or, come up with your own name. Then, click the ‘ Add ‘ button. Note, it is helpful to name data entities with the suffix ‘Entity’.

The Data Entity Wizard will open.

Set the Primary Data Source and Public Entity Name

When you create a D365 Data Entity, you need to specify a primary data source.

First, set the ‘ Primary datasource ‘ to the main table or view you want your data entity to interact with. For this example, set the ‘ primary datasource ‘ property to ‘ FMCustomer ‘. This should be the parent table that is always present. There may be exist child tables that relate to this main table that do not always exist.

Secondly, set the public entity name to ‘ FleetLabCustomer ‘. And, set the Public collection name to ‘ FleetLabCustomers ‘. This is important to remember as these are the names that will be used by an outside system to interact with your data entity.

You should not need to change the rest. Finally, click the ‘ Next ‘ button.

For more information about these properties, see this Microsoft documentation.

Specify The Fields

The next step to create a D365 Data Entity is to specify what fields you want on the data entity.

Often there may be many fields on the tables your data entity is interacting with. However, a data entity should only contain the fields that an outside system needs to read or write. While you could list all the fields, this would hurt performance and make the data entity harder to work with.

Check the checkboxes next to the fields you want to include. Uncheck the checkboxes for the fields you wish to exclude. Change the values in the ‘Data entity field name’ to be what you would like the outside system to use.

For this example, first, check the ‘Convert labels to field names’.

Second, uncheck the fields LicenseImage , and Image .

Thirdly, check the ‘ Is Mandatory ‘ value in the row where the ‘ Field name ‘ is set to ‘ DriverLicense ‘.

Fourth, let us add some fields from a table that is related to the primary data source. Click on the carat next to the ‘ Data source ‘ property value. The drop down ‘ PrimaryAddress ‘ will show. Click on ‘ PrimaryAddress ‘.

Fifth, ensure that all of the checkboxes on the PrimaryAddress data source fields are checked. Also, rename the ‘Data entity field name’ fields to match the following screenshot.

Finally, click the ‘ Finish ‘ button.

Notice, the data entity ‘ FMLabCustomerEntity ‘ was added to your project. Additionally, the staging table ‘ FMLabCustomerStaging ‘ was added. And, two security privileges were added to your project: FMLabCustomerEntityMaintain and FMLabCustomerEntityView . All of these names were specified on the first screen of the wizard.

Build Your Project

After you create a D365 data entity you must build your project so that the views and tables are creating on the SQL server database.

Again, right click on your project, select properties , and ensure that the ‘ Synchronize Database on Build ‘ property is set to True .

Next, in Visual Studio, click Build>Build solution . Validate that the build was success and that there were no errors.

Make Further Changes

When you create a D365 Data Entity, it is easiest to let the wizard create the data entity, staging table, and security objects for you. However, after you have created the initial data entity you make need to make changes. Let us go through how to do that.

Validate the Public Entity Name

To change a D365 data entity, right click the data entity, and select ‘ open designer ‘.

Right click the data entity node, and select ‘ Properties ‘. Validate the properties are correct. Often, users may want to change the ‘Public Collection Name’ or ‘Public Entity Name’ to something different. Ensure the ‘ Is Public ‘ flag is set to Yes .

For this example, set the ‘Label’ to ‘ Fleet lab customers ‘.

Change Data Source Properties

Next, expand the ‘ FMCustomer ‘ data source, and select the ‘ PrimaryAddress ‘ data source. Set the ‘Is Read Only’ property to ‘ No ‘.

Optionally, you can add or remove fields from your data entity.

To add a field, drag the field from the data source Fields nodes to the Fields nodes of the data entity.

To remove a field from the data entity, right click the data field from the Fields node, and select ‘ Delete ‘.

Validate the Entity Key

Whenever you create a D365 data entity it is important that the data entity has a unique key. This means you must have a combination of one or more fields whose combination of values will always be unique.

For example, on an item, this is the ItemId field. Additionally, for a customer, this is the customerID field. On a sales order, this is the SalesID field.

In this example, we do not have a customer ID. And, the fields FirstName and LastName by themselves will not necessarily be unique. There could be more than one person with the same first and last name. Therefore, we must also include the field DriversLicense . That should ensure we have a unique key.

Update The Staging Table

Every D365 data entity will have a corresponding staging table. This is a table that the system uses to allow the data entity to function. The staging table must be kept in sync with the fields in the data entity.

It would be nice if the system fully kept this table in sync for us without our intervention. But that is not the case. Instead, every time you make a change to the data entity’s data sources, fields, or entity key, you need to tell the system to update the staging table.

Note, you should not try to update the staging table manually. Instead, right click on the data entity, and select ‘ Update staging table ‘. The system will then update the staging table to match the fields currently in the data entity. Do this anytime you make a change to the data entity . It does not hurt to do it even when you did not make a field, data source, or entity key change.

Finally, in Visual Studio, go to Build>Build Solution once more. This will cause the SQL server database to get updated as well.

Afterwards, you can open the staging table, and validate that all the fields are listed.

To see the name of the staging table, right click on the data entity, and select ‘Properties’. Next, see the value of the ‘Data Management Staging Table’ property.

Additionally, validate that there exists an index. The index will have all the fields in the data entity EntityKey plus the DefinitionGroup and ExecutionId fields.

Regenerate Staging table

In rare occasions, you might receive synchronization errors, or other strange errors relating to the staging table. If you have tried to resolve the issues but are still not successful, you can try to regenerate the staging table.

In these cases, you can go to the staging table in Visual Studio and delete the table.

Then, go to the data entity, right click, and select ‘ Regenerate staging table ‘. This may fix the issues.

Since the staging table acts like a temporary table and does not actually contain data when not in use, doing this will not result in loss of data.

Data Management Workspace

After you create a D365 data entity, you can see it in the Data Management Workspace.

In Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, search for ‘ Data management ‘ in the top bar. Select ‘ Data management ‘ under System administration>Workspaces .

Next, once the page opens, click on the ‘ Data entities ‘ tile.

Scroll down or filter until you see the entity that you created. If you do not see it, ensure you have the ‘Synchronize on Build’ property on your project set to ‘True’, and build your solution again.

Testing A Data Entity

After you create a D365 Data entity, you will want to test it. You can do this in several different ways.

First, you can use the data management workspace and import or export a file.

Second, you can use a web request tool like Postman to call the data entity using OData.

Third, you can actually just write an x++ job to populate your data entity and call the ‘insert’ method. If your data entity is setup correctly, data should now exist in the destination tables. See Microsoft’s example for this here.

In this tutorial, you learned how to create a D365 Data Entity. You learned how you can use the wizard to help create the initial data entity. Afterwards, you can manually update the data entity using Visual Studio like you would any other object. In the next lesson you will learn how to test and use a data entity to read or write data in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations. Thank you!

6 thoughts on “ How To Create A D365 Data Entity ”

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Sorry about that. I think some extension is causing issues. I checked now and can see them. Can you try again and see if you can see the pictures?

Fixed! Thank you very much! Love the site, very helpful for me in my work!

I am so glad! Thanks!

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As we continue to grow and learn together, it's important to reflect on the valuable insights we've shared. For today's #TuesdayTip, we're excited to take a moment to look back at the last 10 tips we've shared in case you missed any or want to revisit them. Thanks for your incredible support for this series--we're so glad it was able to help so many of you navigate your community experience!   Getting Started in the Community An overview of everything you need to know about navigating the community on one page!  Community Links: ○ Power Apps ○ Power Automate  ○ Power Pages  ○ Copilot Studio    Community Ranks and YOU Have you ever wondered how your fellow community members ascend the ranks within our community? We explain everything about ranks and how to achieve points so you can climb up in the rankings! Community Links: ○ Power Apps ○ Power Automate  ○ Power Pages  ○ Copilot Studio    Powering Up Your Community Profile Your Community User Profile is how the Community knows you--so it's essential that it works the way you need it to! From changing your username to updating contact information, this Knowledge Base Article is your best resource for powering up your profile. Community Links: ○ Power Apps ○ Power Automate  ○ Power Pages  ○ Copilot Studio    Community Blogs--A Great Place to Start There's so much you'll discover in the Community Blogs, and we hope you'll check them out today!  Community Links: ○ Power Apps ○ Power Automate  ○ Power Pages  ○ Copilot Studio    Unlocking Community Achievements and Earning Badges Across the Communities, you'll see badges on users profile that recognize and reward their engagement and contributions. Check out some details on Community badges--and find out more in the detailed link at the end of the article! Community Links: ○ Power Apps  ○ Power Automate  ○ Power Pages  ○ Copilot Studio    Blogging in the Community Interested in blogging? Everything you need to know on writing blogs in our four communities! Get started blogging across the Power Platform communities today! Community Links: ○ Power Apps  ○ Power Automate  ○ Power Pages  ○ Copilot Studio   Subscriptions & Notifications We don't want you to miss a thing in the community! Read all about how to subscribe to sections of our forums and how to setup your notifications! Community Links: ○ Power Apps  ○ Power Automate  ○ Power Pages  ○ Copilot Studio   Getting Started with Private Messages & Macros Do you want to enhance your communication in the Community and streamline your interactions? One of the best ways to do this is to ensure you are using Private Messaging--and the ever-handy macros that are available to you as a Community member! Community Links: ○ Power Apps  ○ Power Automate  ○ Power Pages  ○ Copilot Studio   Community User Groups Learn everything about being part of, starting, or leading a User Group in the Power Platform Community. Community Links: ○ Power Apps  ○ Power Automate  ○ Power Pages  ○ Copilot Studio   Update Your Community Profile Today! Keep your community profile up to date which is essential for staying connected and engaged with the community. Community Links: ○ Power Apps  ○ Power Automate  ○ Power Pages  ○ Copilot Studio   Thank you for being an integral part of our journey.   Here's to many more Tuesday Tips as we pave the way for a brighter, more connected future! As always, watch the News & Announcements for the next set of tips, coming soon!    

Calling all User Group Leaders and Super Users! Mark Your Calendars for the next Community Ambassador Call on May 9th!

This month's Community Ambassador call is on May 9th at 9a & 3p PDT. Please keep an eye out in your private messages and Teams channels for your invitation. There are lots of exciting updates coming to the Community, and we have some exclusive opportunities to share with you! As always, we'll also review regular updates for User Groups, Super Users, and share general information about what's going on in the Community.     Be sure to register & we hope to see all of you there!

April 2024 Community Newsletter

We're pleased to share the April Community Newsletter, where we highlight the latest news, product releases, upcoming events, and the amazing work of our outstanding Community members.   If you're new to the Community, please make sure to follow the latest News & Announcements and check out the Community on LinkedIn as well! It's the best way to stay up-to-date with all the news from across Microsoft Power Platform and beyond.    COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS   Check out the most active community members of the last month! These hardworking members are posting regularly, answering questions, kudos, and providing top solutions in their communities. We are so thankful for each of you--keep up the great work! If you hope to see your name here next month, follow these awesome community members to see what they do!   Power AppsPower AutomateCopilot StudioPower PagesWarrenBelzDeenujialexander2523ragavanrajanLaurensMManishSolankiMattJimisonLucas001AmikcapuanodanilostephenrobertOliverRodriguestimlAndrewJManikandanSFubarmmbr1606VishnuReddy1997theMacResolutionsVishalJhaveriVictorIvanidzejsrandhawahagrua33ikExpiscornovusFGuerrero1PowerAddictgulshankhuranaANBExpiscornovusprathyooSpongYeNived_Nambiardeeksha15795apangelesGochixgrantjenkinsvasu24Mfon   LATEST NEWS   Business Applications Launch Event - On Demand In case you missed the Business Applications Launch Event, you can now catch up on all the announcements and watch the entire event on-demand inside Charles Lamanna's latest cloud blog.   This is your one stop shop for all the latest Copilot features across Power Platform and #Dynamics365, including first-hand looks at how companies such as Lenovo, Sonepar, Ford Motor Company, Omnicom and more are using these new capabilities in transformative ways. Click the image below to watch today!   Power Platform Community Conference 2024 is here! It's time to look forward to the next installment of the Power Platform Community Conference, which takes place this year on 18-20th September 2024 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas!   Come and be inspired by Microsoft senior thought leaders and the engineers behind the #PowerPlatform, with Charles Lamanna, Sangya Singh, Ryan Cunningham, Kim Manis, Nirav Shah, Omar Aftab and Leon Welicki already confirmed to speak. You'll also be able to learn from industry experts and Microsoft MVPs who are dedicated to bridging the gap between humanity and technology. These include the likes of Lisa Crosbie, Victor Dantas, Kristine Kolodziejski, David Yack, Daniel Christian, Miguel Félix, and Mats Necker, with many more to be announced over the coming weeks.   Click here to watch our brand-new sizzle reel for #PPCC24 or click the image below to find out more about registration. See you in Vegas!       Power Up Program Announces New Video-Based Learning Hear from Principal Program Manager, Dimpi Gandhi, to discover the latest enhancements to the Microsoft #PowerUpProgram. These include a new accelerated video-based curriculum crafted with the expertise of Microsoft MVPs, Rory Neary and Charlie Phipps-Bennett. If you’d like to hear what’s coming next, click the image below to find out more!   UPCOMING EVENTS Microsoft Build - Seattle and Online - 21-23rd May 2024 Taking place on 21-23rd May 2024 both online and in Seattle, this is the perfect event to learn more about low code development, creating copilots, cloud platforms, and so much more to help you unleash the power of AI.   There's a serious wealth of talent speaking across the three days, including the likes of Satya Nadella, Amanda K. Silver, Scott Guthrie, Sarah Bird, Charles Lamanna, Miti J., Kevin Scott, Asha Sharma, Rajesh Jha, Arun Ulag, Clay Wesener, and many more.   And don't worry if you can't make it to Seattle, the event will be online and totally free to join. Click the image below to register for #MSBuild today!   European Collab Summit - Germany - 14-16th May 2024 The clock is counting down to the amazing European Collaboration Summit, which takes place in Germany May 14-16, 2024. #CollabSummit2024 is designed to provide cutting-edge insights and best practices into Power Platform, Microsoft 365, Teams, Viva, and so much more. There's a whole host of experts speakers across the three-day event, including the likes of Vesa Juvonen, Laurie Pottmeyer, Dan Holme, Mark Kashman, Dona Sarkar, Gavin Barron, Emily Mancini, Martina Grom, Ahmad Najjar, Liz Sundet, Nikki Chapple, Sara Fennah, Seb Matthews, Tobias Martin, Zoe Wilson, Fabian Williams, and many more.   Click the image below to find out more about #ECS2024 and register today!     Microsoft 365 & Power Platform Conference - Seattle - 3-7th June If you're looking to turbo boost your Power Platform skills this year, why not take a look at everything TechCon365 has to offer at the Seattle Convention Center on June 3-7, 2024.   This amazing 3-day conference (with 2 optional days of workshops) offers over 130 sessions across multiple tracks, alongside 25 workshops presented by Power Platform, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams, Viva, Azure, Copilot and AI experts. There's a great array of speakers, including the likes of Nirav Shah, Naomi Moneypenny, Jason Himmelstein, Heather Cook, Karuana Gatimu, Mark Kashman, Michelle Gilbert, Taiki Y., Kristi K., Nate Chamberlain, Julie Koesmarno, Daniel Glenn, Sarah Haase, Marc Windle, Amit Vasu, Joanne C Klein, Agnes Molnar, and many more.   Click the image below for more #Techcon365 intel and register today!     For more events, click the image below to visit the Microsoft Community Days website.      

Tuesday Tip | Update Your Community Profile Today!

It's time for another TUESDAY TIPS, your weekly connection with the most insightful tips and tricks that empower both newcomers and veterans in the Power Platform Community! Every Tuesday, we bring you a curated selection of the finest advice, distilled from the resources and tools in the Community. Whether you’re a seasoned member or just getting started, Tuesday Tips are the perfect compass guiding you across the dynamic landscape of the Power Platform Community.   We're excited to announce that updating your community profile has never been easier! Keeping your profile up to date is essential for staying connected and engaged with the community.   Check out the following Support Articles with these topics: Accessing Your Community ProfileRetrieving Your Profile URLUpdating Your Community Profile Time ZoneChanging Your Community Profile Picture (Avatar)Setting Your Date Display Preferences Click on your community link for more information: Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Pages, Copilot Studio   Thank you for being an active part of our community. Your contributions make a difference! Best Regards, The Community Management Team

Hear what's next for the Power Up Program

Hear from Principal Program Manager, Dimpi Gandhi, to discover the latest enhancements to the Microsoft #PowerUpProgram, including a new accelerated video-based curriculum crafted with the expertise of Microsoft MVPs, Rory Neary and Charlie Phipps-Bennett. If you’d like to hear what’s coming next, click the link below to sign up today! https://aka.ms/PowerUp  

Super User of the Month | Ahmed Salih

We're thrilled to announce that Ahmed Salih is our Super User of the Month for April 2024. Ahmed has been one of our most active Super Users this year--in fact, he kicked off the year in our Community with this great video reminder of why being a Super User has been so important to him!   Ahmed is the Senior Power Platform Architect at Saint Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. He's been a Super User for two seasons and is also a Microsoft MVP! He's celebrating his 3rd year being active in the Community--and he's received more than 500 kudos while authoring nearly 300 solutions. Ahmed's contributions to the Super User in Training program has been invaluable, with his most recent session with SUIT highlighting an incredible amount of best practices and tips that have helped him achieve his success.   Ahmed's infectious enthusiasm and boundless energy are a key reason why so many Community members appreciate how he brings his personality--and expertise--to every interaction. With all the solutions he provides, his willingness to help the Community learn more about Power Platform, and his sheer joy in life, we are pleased to celebrate Ahmed and all his contributions! You can find him in the Community and on LinkedIn. Congratulations, Ahmed--thank you for being a SUPER user!

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Data entities overview

• 11 contributors

This article defines and provides an overview of data entities. It includes information about the capabilities of data entities, the scenarios that they support, the categories that are used for them, and the methods for creating them.

A data entity is an abstraction from the physical implementation of database tables. For example, in normalized tables, a lot of the data for each customer might be stored in a customer table, and then the rest might be spread across a small set of related tables. In this case, the data entity for the customer concept appears as one de-normalized view, in which each row contains all the data from the customer table and its related tables. A data entity encapsulates a business concept into a format that makes development and integration easier. The abstracted nature of a data entity can simplify application development and customization. Later, the abstraction also insulates application code from the inevitable churn of the physical tables between versions. To summarize: Data entity provides conceptual abstraction and encapsulation (de-normalized view) of underlying table schemas to represent key data concepts and functionalities.

Capabilities

A data entity has the following capabilities:

• It replaces diverging and fragmented concepts of AXD, Data Import/Export Framework (DIXF) entities, and aggregate queries with single concept.
• It provides a single stack to capture business logic, and to enable scenarios such as import/export, integration, and programmability.
• It becomes the primary mechanism for exporting and importing data packages for Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) and demo data scenarios.
• It can be exposed as OData services, and then used in tabular-style synchronous integration scenarios and Microsoft Office integrations.

Entity example

A consumer wants to access data that is related to a customer object, but this data is currently scattered across multiple normalized tables, such as DirParty, CustTable, LogisticPostalAddress, and LogisticElectronicAddress. Therefore, the process of reading and writing customer data is very tedious. Instead, the following customer entity can be designed to encapsulate the entire underlying physical schema into a single de-normalized view. This enables simpler read/write operations and also enables abstraction of any internal interaction between the tables.

Supported scenarios

Data entities support all the following scenarios. Learn more at Configuration data and data migration in Dynamics 365 implementation projects .

Integration scenarios

Synchronous service (odata).

Data entities enable public application programming interfaces (APIs) on entities to be exposed, which enables synchronous services. Synchronous services are used for the following purposes:

• Office integration
• Third-party mobile apps

Asynchronous integration

Data entities also support asynchronous integration through a data management pipeline. This enables asynchronous and high-performing data insertion and extraction scenarios. Here are some examples:

• Interactive file-based import/export
• Recurring integrations (file, queue, and so on)

Business intelligence

• Aggregate data
• Standardized key performance indicators (KPIs)

Application Lifecycle Management

Besides integration and business intelligence (BI) scenarios, data entities also initially support two critical ALM scenarios. The following two progressive levels of an ALM scenario show the scope of coverage by data entities.

Configuration data provisioning

A system implementer will use both a guided data collection wizard and bulk data input mechanisms to bootstrap the initial deployment (or module) with configuration data through Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services (LCS). Configuration primarily targets to cover the following entity categories:

• All of Parameter
• System parameter
• Number sequence

Data migration from legacy or external systems

After the initial deployment is up and running, the system implementer will migrate existing data assets of the customer into the application, especially the following assets:

• Master data (for example, customers and vendors)
• Subsets of documents (for example, sales orders)

Built-in entities

You can use data entities to import data in Dynamics 365 projects, such as for data migration or integration scenarios. The following list shows some of the entities that are most often used in Dynamics 365 solutions.

Accounts receivable

• Customer definitions entity
• Customer details V2 entity
• Customers V3 entity
• Sales order headers V2
• Sales order lines V2

Accounts payable

• Vendor invoice header entity
• Vendor invoice line entity
• Vendor invoice charges entity
• Vendor invoice line charges entity
• Vendor invoice document attachment V2 entity

Product information management

• Products V2 entity
• Released products V2 entity

Categories of entities

Entities are categorized based on their functions and the type of data that they serve. The following are five categories for data entities.

• Functional or behavioral parameters.
• Required to set up a deployment or a module for a specific build or customer.
• Can include data that is specific to an industry or business. The data can also apply to a broader set of customers.
• Tables that contain only one record, where the columns are values for settings. Examples of such tables exist for Account payable (AP), General ledger (GL), client performance options, workflows, and so on.
• Simple reference data, of small quantity, which is required to operate a business process.
• Data that is specific to an industry or a business process.
• Examples include units, dimensions, and tax codes.
• Data assets of the business. Generally, these are the "nouns" of the business, which typically fall into categories such as people, places, and concepts.
• Complex reference data, of large quantity. Examples include customers, vendors, and projects.
• Worksheet data that is converted into transactions later.
• Documents that have complex structures, such a several line items for each header record. Examples include sales orders, purchase orders, open balances, and journals.
• The operational data of the business.

Transaction

• The operational transaction data of the business.
• Posted transactions. These are non idempotent items such as posted invoices and balances. Typically, these items are excluded during a full dataset copy to reduce the volume of data that is copied/migrated. Migrating completed transactions can also lead to further complexity in trying to preserve the referential integrity of related data in the new system. In general, transactions from a completed business process are not migrated in detail but in summary.
• Examples include pending invoices.

Building an entity

There are multiple ways to create an entity. For example, you can use a wizard, or you can build an entity from a table.

Building an entity by using a wizard

The simplest way to build an entity is to use a wizard. This wizard lets you select a root data source and expand to other related data sources, and then select fields for the entity. To start the wizard, add a new item of type Data entity to your project. For step-by-step instructions for using the wizard to build an entity, see Build and consume data entities . The following table provides information about the properties that you set for an entity in the wizard.

Adding data sources

When you build an entity, you start with a root data source. However, you can add additional data sources. You can either manually add new data sources, or select a surrogate foreign key field in the root data source to automatically expand the required data sources.

When you complete the wizard, it produces the following items:

• Data entity
• Staging table (optional, if data management was enabled)

Building an entity from a table

You can quickly create an entity from a table, and then customize the properties, data sources, and fields later. Right-click the table, and then select Addins > Create data entity .

Entity list refresh

Entities in an environment must be refreshed using the following guidelines.

• When a new environment is deployed and the user navigates to the data management workspace, entity list refresh starts automatically.
• When code packages are deployed to an environment where data management has already been used, entity list refresh must be manually started from Data management > Framework parameters > Entity settings > Refresh entity list .
• When configuration keys are modified, entity list must be refreshed manually from Data management > Framework parameters > Entity settings > Refresh entity list .

Refreshing the entity list ensures all entities are available in the environment and that the entities have the latest metadata.

Configuration keys and data entities

Before you use data entities to import or export data, we recommended that you first determine the impact of configuration keys on the data entities that you are planning to use.

To learn more about configuration keys, see the License codes and configuration keys report .

Configuration key assignments

Configuration keys can be assigned to one or all of the following artifacts.

• Data entities
• Tables used as data sources
• Table fields
• Data entity fields

The following table summarizes how configuration key values, on the different artifacts that underlie an object, change the expected behavior of the object.

If an entity has another entity as a data source, then the above semantics are applied in a recursive manner.

When the entity list is refreshed, the data management framework builds the configuration key metadata for runtime use. This metadata is built using the logic described above. We strongly recommend that you wait for the entity list refresh to complete before using jobs and entities in the data management framework. If you don't wait, the configuration key metadata may not be up to date and could result in unexpected outcomes. When the entity list is being refreshed, the following message is shown in the entity list page.

Data entity list page

The data entity list page in the Data management workspace shows the configuration key settings for the entities. Start from this page to understand the impact of configuration keys on the data entity.

This information is shown using the metadata that is built during entity refresh. The configuration key column shows the name of the configuration key that is associated with the data entity. If this column is blank it means that there is no configuration key associated with the data entity. The configuration key status column shows the state of the configuration key. If it has a checkmark, it means the key is enabled. If it is blank, it means either the key is disabled or there is no key associated.

Target fields

The next step is to drill into the data entity to view the impact of configuration keys on tables and fields. The target fields form for a data entity shows the configuration key and the key status information for the related tables and fields in the data entity. If the data entity itself has its configuration key disabled, a warning message is shown informing that the tables and fields in the target fields form for this entity will not be available, regardless of their configuration key status.

Child entities

Certain entities have other entities as data sources, or are composite data entities: configuration key information for these entities is shown in the Child entities form. Use this form in the similar way to the entities list page described above. The target fields form for the child entity also behaves like what is described above.

Run time validations for configuration keys

Using the configuration key metadata built during entity refresh list, run time validations are performed in the following use cases.

• When a data entity is added to a job.
• When user clicks Validate on the entity list.
• When the user loads a data package into a data project.
• When the user loads a template into a data project.
• When an existing data project is loaded.
• When a template is loaded into a data project.
• Before the export/import job is executed (batch, non-batch, recurring, OData).
• When the user generates mapping.
• When the user maps fields in the mapping UI.
• When the user adds only 'importable fields'.

Managing configuration key changes

Anytime that you update configuration keys at the entity, table, or field level, the entity list in the data management framework must be refreshed. This process ensures that the framework picks up the latest configuration key settings. Until the entity list is refreshed, the following warning will be shown in the entity list page. The updated configuration key changes will take effect immediately after the entity list is refreshed. We recommend that you validate existing data projects and jobs to make sure that they function as expected after the configuration keys changes are put in effect.

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