Adding Image field on the form in Dynamics 365 CRM | Power Platform Modern Form Designer [Quick Tip]

August 24, 2022 priyeshwagh777 Microsoft PowerApps image field in dynamics 365 crm, model driven apps, modern form designer, power apps

If you are predominantly working in Dynamics 365 CRM i.e. the classic Form Designer and have one of the below fields –

You won’t be able to find it to add it on the Form in the Classic Editor.

And you are wondering how you can get this field on the form, then this quick tip is for you!

Modern Form Designer

Given that you are aware of how to get to the modern form designer –

Once you open the Form from Power Apps (https://make.powerapps.com/), you can go to the Solution your Form/Fields are put in.
Then, open your Form from the Solution
And in your Form, if you look for the fields / Columns section to put on the form, you can see the Thumbnail field we created is present.
You can then double click it and add on the Form. And then, this field will also work when using Dynamics 365 CRM Apps like Field Service, Sales etc.

Hope this was useful!

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Migrate data with original record GUIDs using Excel Import in Dynamics 365 CRM

August 16, 2022 priyeshwagh777 Dynamics 365 CE

Although, there are many tools/provisions which you can use to migrate data in one-go which also helps you retain or take over the original GUIDs from source instance to target instance.

Scenario

Let’s look at this scenario –

You have a Source Environment (https://chcft166.crm.dynamics.com/) from which you want to move data over to the Target environment (https://cft166sales.crm.dynamics.com/).

Source

Target
Now, you want to move Accounts from the Source to Target environment and also want to retain the GUIDs from the Source environment.
Let’s note the Source GUID in a Notepad just to show an example –
Now, when we export these records and import into the Target instance, the source GUID should be retained. Let’s look in below sections as to how we can achieve this.

Export to Dynamic Sheet

Here’s how you use Export to Dynamic Sheet in order to also get supporting fields to be imported into Production –

In your desired view, expand on Export to Excel option and look for Dynamic Worksheet.
Select the fields you need and click on Export.
When you Export, you’ll get the Excel file in your system. Open it up!
Just notice that there are 3 hidden fields in the Excel which have other data stored in them. The Excel columns start from “D” instead of “A”.
And when you expand the columns, you’ll see the A, B & C as well. Now, A column has the GUID which you need to be set in the Target instance.
Save this file as .CSV in case this is .XLS

Import into Target Instance

Once you have saved the File in .CSV, let’s import the CSV into the Target instance –

In any view, expand on Import (Look in the Ellipses menu).
You’ll find the Import from CSV button.
Now, choose File by clicking on this button and selecting the File from your system.
Once the File is selected, click on Next.
Proceed further if you don’t wish to change any other preferences.
In Mapping, you can see the fields from the Excel file i.e. (Do Not Modify) Account which is Not Mapped.
Then, for this field look for the Primary Key field of the entity in question. Account’s Primary Key field in this example.
Once this is mapped, you can Finish Import.
Once you Finish Import and check back and open the Imported record.
When you open the Imported record, look at the GUID of the record itself.
If I click on the URL and see the end of the URL, I’ll have the same GUID as the Source record from the Source environment.

And when you try to match the GUID, you’ll find the same GUID on the target instance.

And that’s how you can Excel Import / Export without other tools to move data with source GUIDs to the Target GUIDs.

Hope this was useful!

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Authenticate Dataverse connector using Service Principal in a Power Automate Flow

August 9, 2022 priyeshwagh777 Dataverse, Power Automate azure active directory, Dataverse, Microsoft Azure, Power Automate, service principal

Many times, users/admins are not comfortable using their credentials being used as Connections. Some connectors do provide the ability to authenticate using Service Principal.

Let’s jump into this! 😊

Setting Up App Registration for Dynamics 365 CRM

Here’s how you setup an App Service to be used as a Service Principal for Dataverse connector in Power Automate –

Go to the Azure Portal (https://portal.azure.com/) and the look for Azure Active Directory.
In Azure Active Directory, look for App Registrations in the menu.
Now, create a + New registration record.
Now, give this App Registration a suitable name. And you can select your preferences on how the tenant type should be. I’ve left it to Single tenant or simplicity of the example.
Now, once this is created, go to the API Permissions section.
Now, look for a button to Add a permission.
Then, select Dynamics CRM and select it.
Once this is selected, you’ll get to select user_impersonation. Then, clicked Add permissions.
Once added, you’ll see that the Status column is blank. Then, click on Grant admin consent for <TenantName>.
Once you click on Grant admin consent button, you’ll be asked for confirmation. Confirm the same.
Once you confirm, you’ll see the status as Granted as shown below.
Then, go to Certificates and secrets. Once in that, click on + New client secret.
You’ll be asked the the Description, do so and Save it.
Now, you need to copy the value onto Notepad.
Now, let’s move to adding this App Registration to the Power Platform Admin Center so that you can then give appropriate permissions so that it can be used for Authentication into Dataverse.

Add Application User in Power Platform Admin Center

Go to the Power Platform Admin Center (https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com/) and the to the Environments section and select the correct Dataverse environment –

Select the environment which will have your Flow that will use the Dataverse connection in question.
And click Settings.
Now, expand Users + permissions section and look for Application Users.
Now, in Application Users, you’ll need to add the App Registration as a User and give Roles. Now, click on + New app user.
Now, click on + Add an app.
Now, any App Registration that has not yet been created in the current environment as user will automatically appear. Select the one you created – “Dataverse Service Principal” in this case and click on Add.
Now, select the BU.
Next, click on Security Roles’ pencil to give roles.
I’m just giving System Administrator for simplicity of example.
Now, you should be good to create this user. Click on Create.
Finally, your Application Record will look like this –
Now that your Application User is set in Dynamics / Power Platform Admin Center, you are all set to add this to authenticate the Dataverse Connector in Power Automate. Let’s do that!

Authenticating using Service Principle in Dataverse action

Now, let’s say you are starting a Flow with the Dataverse connector –

Select the Dataverse trigger you want to use. I’ll pick a common one.
Now, click on the three dots and look to add a new Connection if it already authenticated using the logged in user which is the default behavior.
Now, you’ll see the option to select –
Now, you’ll see these fields to fill in.
Now, first give the connection itself a suitable name.
Now, for Client ID – Go to the App Registration in Azure and look for the Client ID in the information section. It’ll look like this –

Paste it in the Client ID field and it’ll look like this –
Now, look for Client Secret – open the Notepad where you saved the Secret we copied while creating the Client Secret record in Azure.
Now, finally – Go to the App Registration record and you’ll find the Tenant ID here –

And paste is where it says Tenant. Now, Create this connection!
Ensure that the Connection is selected.
I’ll just add an extra variable in order to save this simple Flow and then we’ll create an Account (simple example if you see the screenshot below) in order to Run this Flow.
My Flow looks ready to be tested.
Now, I’ll create an Account in my Dynamics 365 CRM.
And the Flow would have Run already.

Validate

In order to ensure the connection is run by the Service Principal itself, you can do this –

In advanced options, you can choose to “Run as” as “Flow owner“
And when you check the details in the Flow Run, you can check the attribute in the trigger “RunAsSystemUserId“
And if you check this GUID, it belongs to the Dataverse Service Principal user we set up.

And that’s how you can setup to run the Dataverse action to use Service Principal instead of user credentials!

Hope this was useful!

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Thank you!

Dynamic content behavior for Get a row by ID and List Rows action in Dataverse connector | Power Automate Flow

August 8, 2022 priyeshwagh777 Power Automate Dataverse, flow, get a row by id, list rows, Power Automate

Here’s an observation in one of the actions in the Dataverse connectors in Power Automate, which is “Get a row by ID”.

Select Columns

If you have selected specific columns in the Select Columns parameter of the connector, only those will be shown in the Dynamic content in next steps of the Flow.

All Columns

When you have not mentioned/selected specific columns and kept it blank, you’ll see the complete list of fields in the next steps of the Flow.

List Rows action

The same is also true for other action like “List Records” which shows all the attributes when selected columns are not mentioned, but shows only the ones mentioned with other required attributes if you have specific column names entered as shown below.

Hope this was useful!

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Select the item based on a key value using Filter Array in Power Automate

August 8, 2022 priyeshwagh777 Power Automate Power Automate, select elements in flow, select item from array in power automate

In case you need to select an item from an array in Power Automate based on the value of a certain attribute, here’s how you can do it.

Scenario

In the below example, we want to select the item / array of objects where we want to select based on a value of an attribute. Here, the attribute is “key” and we want to select the condition to match the value “RelatedEntities“

As you see, the array of objects have different structure – All of them have an attribute called “key” and that’s the one you want to select and then process further.

Let’s see how we do it.

Filter Array

Let’s see how you can select the item from the array based on the value of the “key” attribute instead of looping through all the items and matching.

Now, let’s say the data is stored in the variable for demo purposes, that’s what I’m feeding into the Filter Array action in the Flow.
Remember what goes into the Filter Array action has to be an array data.
In Data Operations connector, you’ll find the Filter Array action which we’ll need to pick the item with “key” = “RelatedEntities”
In Filter Array, you set the Input to the array data which is stored in the variable shown above.
Once you select, you then need to provide the condition to filter the Array.
In this example, we want to filter based on the “key” = “RelatedEntities” as seen in the Scenario section above.
So, in the dynamic content section, go to Expression section and then use item() function and just like you access an element in a JS, you can mention what attribute you are trying to access.
And in the value, you can mention what the value has to be.
And in the answer, when you run the Flow with the sample data, you’ll get the below result.
The other elements are filtered out. If you have two items of the same value, both will be returned.
Below is how the actual code looks like when you edit in Advanced Mode –

Hope this was useful!

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Select values from an array using Select action in a Power Automate Flow

August 7, 2022 priyeshwagh777 Power Automate array of objects, Power Automate, select action in flow, select action in power automate

In case want to pick a value from the attribute from an array or array of objects, here’s how you can do it.

Scenario

Let’s look at the below array of objects –

Here’s sample data in a variable where there are 2 objects in an array.
And we want to retrieve the value of the attributes called as “LogicalName“

Select action in Data Operations

In order to fulfil this, let’s look at the Select action in Power Automate –

In Data Operations, you’ll find Select operator
When you choose Select, it’ll ask for the source of data, in this example – it’ll be the variable where we have Array of Objects.
Now, you can choose what the resultant attribute should be called. You can enter custom name here.
In this example, I want to call it “Name of Entity“
Now, in the Enter Value part, you must select the Logical Name attribute. So, you can use item() function to pick the value. Here’s how you use it –
Once completed, your Select action will look something like this and you are ready to test.
And when you run this test, here’s the result you’ll get –
You’ll pick all the values in each of the “Name of the Entity” attribute in this array.

Array vs Object

In case you have just a single Object and not an array, you still need to use an Array.
Let’s say you choose Object type. The Flow will let you save.
But, at runtime, it’ll throw the below error –
“The ‘from’ property value in the ‘select’ action inputs is of type ‘Object’. The value must be an array.”

So, the workaround is to store this in an Array itself and keep the type to Array.

Hope this was useful!

Here are some Power Automate posts you want to check out –

Thank you!

Locking fields on the Form by adding dependencies in Dynamics 365 CRM

August 6, 2022 priyeshwagh777 Dynamics 365 CE lock fields on the form, non-event dependency in dynamics 365 crm

As a best practice, you must ensure that other Customizers of your system don’t accidently remove the field from the Form which is dependent on your JavaScript code on the form.

Scenario

Let’s consider this scenario and securing this field from removal from form –

You have a Budget Amount field on the Opportunity form which is used in your JavaScript and should not be removed. Or could be some other reason like Business Rule or plugins.
This field can be easily removed by clicking on Remove because if you look at the Field Properties, this has not been locked yet.

Let’s ensure no one is able to remove this field.

Lock Fields on the Form – Manual

First step is to manually locking this field on the form.

If you open the Field Properties, you’ll see that you can actually select Lock the field on the form.
This will work and ensure that the field is locked on the form. But, it is open for a new person to simply unlocking from Field Properties and removing the field later on.
Hence, let’s look at a recommended way to secure these fields further.

Lock Fields on the Form – Creating Dependency

Here’s a recommended way to lock fields on the form in a better way –

Assuming this field is still unlocked on the Form and you need to secure it.
In Form Properties, go to Non-Event Dependencies tab.
Now, select the field in question. Budget Amount in this case.
Move it over to Dependent fields list from Available fields and click OK.
Now, you can see that the field is locked on the form again.
And if you try to unlock it from Field Properties, it won’t be unlocked from there since you have created a Dependency for the same.
You can see that the option to unlock/unselect the Lock the field on this form is disabled.
And to remove this, you actually need to go to Form Properties and remove it from the Non-Event Dependencies list which is a good measure instead of locking it from the Field Properties itself.

Hope this was useful!

Here are some Power Automate posts you want to check out –

Thank you!

Adding N:N Relationships in Sub-grids correctly in Dynamics 365 CRM | [Quick Tip]

August 6, 2022August 6, 2022 priyeshwagh777 Dynamics 365 CE N:N relationship subgrids, N:N relationships, subgrids in dynamics 365 crm

If you are new to customizing Dynamics 365 environment and have been creating N:N Relationships between 2 entities and you are not able to add them in the sub-grid. Let’s see below what are you missing –

Scenario

You have created an N:N relationship in your environment between 2 entities but you still can’t see the option to add it to the sub-grid on the form

Let’s see the relationship you have created below –
But, you can’t seem to find it on the Form Editor while adding a sub-grid on either of the entities.
Let’s look at the Opportunity form for example
Here’s where I want to put my grid for the Reviewers i.e. the N:N Relationship between User and Opportunity
But you are not able to see it on the selection while trying to add it to the grid –
(The one appearing in selection by default is not the one we are looking for)

Now, let’s see what needs to be done to make the relationship selectable here.

Display Option

The reason you are not able to see the N:N relationship is because you had not set the Display Option for the Relationship you created –

Open the relationship itself.

You’ll notice that the Display option is set to Do not Display in your relationship editor.
Now, let’s set this to Custom Name and name each of the relationship with the purpose of the relationship you had created this for. Using Custom Name is recommended since you might create multiple N:N Relationships between the same 2 entities based on the requirements –
In this example, I’m giving the Users entity side a name which is ‘Review Users‘. This will help me identify it while adding it on the sub-grid.
The other options available are –
Now, once I save the publish the changes, the same relationship will appear in my list while adding sub-grid.

Hope this was useful!

Here are some Power Automate posts you want to check out –

Thank you!

Access elements from Array variable in Power Automate

August 5, 2022 priyeshwagh777 Power Automate array variable, index of an array in power automate, read elements from array

In case you are looking on how to access a particular value based on the index, here’s how you do it.

Array

Here’s an example Array –

Let’s say you have an Array variable declared which has 3 values –
And if you want to access the second element, ‘B’.
Then, here’s how you read the same in another variable (or any other place for that matter)
variables(‘nameOfTheVariable’)[index]
Since at Index 1, letter “B” is present, the result will be as below –

Here are some Power Automate posts you want to check out –

Thank you!

Users cannot create Flows in Power Automate | Environment Maker permissions

August 1, 2022 priyeshwagh777 Power Automate environment maker, power apps, Power Automate, Power Platform Admin Center, security roles

If you are someone who has been asked to create Flows in Power Automate, and you go to Power Automate portal (https://make.powerautomate.com/) to make your first Flow in your environment, you may come across this if you are not an Administrator yet –

The error message would say -“You are not permitted to make flows in this ‘<EnvironmentName>’. Please switch to the default environment, or to one of your own environment(s), where you have maker permissions.“

Now, let’s see what the issue is about.

Environment Maker Permissions

As a Power Platform Administrator yourself, you’ll need to provide Environment Maker privileges (Security Role) to the affected User in your environment –

Navigate to the the Settings for the Environment in PPAC (https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com/)
And look for Security Roles in Access area –
Look for the Environment Maker role.
When in Environment Maker role, look for the Add People button on the top.
Now, search for the user who should have the Environment Maker permissions and click Add (which will be at the bottom of the pane).
Now, you’ll see that this user is added.
Now, when the User will refresh the Flow Editor, they’ll no longer see the error message and will be able to create/save Flows.

Hope this was useful!

Here are some Power Automate posts you want to check out –

Thank you!

D365 Demystified

A closer look at Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Month: August 2022

Adding Image field on the form in Dynamics 365 CRM | Power Platform Modern Form Designer [Quick Tip]

Modern Form Designer

Migrate data with original record GUIDs using Excel Import in Dynamics 365 CRM

Scenario

Export to Dynamic Sheet

Import into Target Instance

Authenticate Dataverse connector using Service Principal in a Power Automate Flow

Setting Up App Registration for Dynamics 365 CRM

Add Application User in Power Platform Admin Center

Authenticating using Service Principle in Dataverse action

Validate

Select the item based on a key value using Filter Array in Power Automate

Scenario

Filter Array

Select values from an array using Select action in a Power Automate Flow

Scenario

Select action in Data Operations

Array vs Object

Locking fields on the Form by adding dependencies in Dynamics 365 CRM

Scenario

Lock Fields on the Form – Manual

Lock Fields on the Form – Creating Dependency

Adding N:N Relationships in Sub-grids correctly in Dynamics 365 CRM | [Quick Tip]

Scenario

Display Option

Access elements from Array variable in Power Automate

Array

Users cannot create Flows in Power Automate | Environment Maker permissions

Environment Maker Permissions

Modern Form Designer

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Scenario

Export to Dynamic Sheet

Import into Target Instance

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Setting Up App Registration for Dynamics 365 CRM

Add Application User in Power Platform Admin Center

Authenticating using Service Principle in Dataverse action

Validate

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Select Columns

All Columns

List Rows action

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Scenario

Filter Array

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Scenario

Select action in Data Operations

Array vs Object

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Lock Fields on the Form – Manual

Lock Fields on the Form – Creating Dependency

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Display Option

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Array

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Environment Maker Permissions

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