Dynamics 365 Solutions’ New Experience in Power Apps, Solution Checker and more

If you’ve recently noticed Settings > Solutions area in Dynamics 365, you’ll see a notification that this has been moved

And you’ll be redirected to Solutions Area in Power Apps –

Solution Checker

Solution Checker is a helpful feature where it runs a validation of components in the Solution itself –

If you see for your custom Solutions, if you haven’t ever Run a check on the solution, the status will be Hasn’t been run

I’ll zoom it below –
Now, you can run the Solution Checker against your entity to find potential issues and add/remove component that matter.
Once the Run starts, it will show the status of Running… for the solution as well as in the Power App ribbon.
Once the run is complete, you can see the time stamp it completed on and also View/Download the results –
You can see the results as below –

So basically, it’ll show what best practices should be followed in order for the Solution to be meeting highest standards of configurations and customization.
Another example from another solution is this –
Or something like – under Upgrade Readiness category

Full details can be found here on Microsoft’s official document – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/common-data-service/use-powerapps-checker#review-the-solution-checker-report

Solution Export Versioning

Now, every time you export a solution, by default it is set to Managed unlike Unmanaged in the Classic UI.

Also, notice the Version number is auto-incremented to x.x.x.1

And in further exports, the version keeps on auto-incrementing

Hope this helps!!

Setting Retry Policy for an HTTP request in a Flow | Power Automate

April 19, 2020April 19, 2020 priyeshwagh777 CRM with .NET Web Applications, Microsoft Flows, Power Automate http request in flow, Microsoft Flow, microsoft power automate, retry policy

Often times, There could be an issue where your HTTP request isn’t hitting well. So, to overcome this, you might want your Flow to Retry after a certain duration and for some number of times.

You want to setup a Retry policy for the same. Here’s how you do it!

Setting Retry Policy

Follow this to setup a Retry Policy of your Flow

Locate your HTTP step and navigate to Settings

Once you’re in Settings pane, scroll below and look for Retry Policy.

Default type is set by default, if you expand it, you can select what should be the Retry Type. In this example, I’ve set to Fixed Interval for simplicity
Default is set to 4 retries at an exponential interval. (Exponential increment type is a little confusing to explain, you can check this post as users discuss how exponential time increments work – )

In Fixed Interval type, I’ve set number of retry count to be 3 and duration between each retry should be 30 seconds (represented in ISO-8601 format)

With that, the policy is set. And the HTTP request step will try for 3 times at the interval of 30 seconds each.

If you want to test using some HTTP request, you can sample HTTP requests from here – https://httpstat.us/

How it works

Look for Failed Runs to see the result –

Open a Failed Run where you know HTTP request could have failed

Now, look for your HTTP request where you set the policy on. Expand the same.

Upon expanding, you can see that there were 3 retries and it failed due to a timeout i.e. 408

You can also check on the right hand side of the page which says that the total duration of all these retries were 1 min 30 seconds

If you observe the Flow Runs, you can find the the Flow did consistently try to run at an interval for the number of times specified.

In case you’re looking for more Flow/Power Automate related posts, check below –

Hope this helps!!

Debug Ribbon button customization using Command Checker in Dynamics 365 CE Unified Interface

April 14, 2020 priyeshwagh777 CRM with .NET Web Applications, dynamics 365 administration, Dynamics 365 CE, dynamics 365 customization, Dynamics 365 Unified Interface, Ribbon Workbench command checker, D365 Ribbon Customization, Dynamics 365 Unified Interface, Ribbon Workbench, unified interface

Developers, it’s a little irksome to keep struggling with issues around making your ribbon buttons work correctly during the development phase.

At times, you wonder why your button didn’t show up on the form although you had set everything up correctly. Or even for out-of-box button, that didn’t show?

Scenario

In this example, I’ll find out by my Project Service Quote record doesn’t have a Activate Quote button on the ribbon.

We can use Command Checker to find out why.

Enable Command Checker

Remember, this only works in the Unified Interface and not on the classic UI.

Command Checker is a developer feature to identify how a certain ribbon button has or has not rendered on your form/view. So let’s begin –

Add this command to the end of the Entity form page URL: &flags=FCB.CommandChecker=true&ribbondebug=true

Add make it look like something like below –
https://<ORG_NAME>.crm<REGION>.dynamics.com/main.aspx?appid=7fbb5a25-b903-ea11-a816-000d3a58f769&pagetype=entityrecord&etn=account&id=aaa19cdd-88df-e311-b8e5-6c3be5a8b200&flags=FCB.CommandChecker=true&ribbondebug=true

Command Checker

Form Command Checker

Now, if you navigate to the ellipses on the ribbon, check that Command Checker has now appeared.
A Command Checker Window will appear as below. Navigate to the button you are having issue on.
Then, click on Command Properties as shown above to see what didn’t pass through. And as shown below, we could see that one of the conditions in Enable Rule didn’t get through and hence, the button didn’t show up on the ribbon.
In case you are also looking at how to hide out-of-the-box ribbon buttons, check this – Hide Custom Ribbon Button [Easy Way] – Ribbon Workbench

Global Command Checker

And with that, you must have also observed the Command Checker on the Navigation Ribbon bar as well.

And it opens up as below –

Some other Ribbon Workbench related posts –

Hope this helps! Happy 365ing!

Using Parse JSON to read individual List Records in Flow|Power Automate

April 12, 2020April 12, 2020 priyeshwagh777 CRM with .NET Web Applications, Microsoft Flows common data service, Microsoft Flow, Microsoft Flows, Power Automate

This is a scenario I came across when I was using Common Data Service connector [not Common Data Service (Current Environment)] connector to read Opportunities tied to an Account.

Example

In this scenario, I wanted to retrieve the Opportunities tied to an Account. So, my filter query was _parentaccountid_value(‘ACCOUNT_IDENTIFIER’)

Here’s my Flow starts. I want to read Opportunities that are tied to my Account in context –

Flow Inside a solution vs. Outside a Solution

Inside a Solution

Now, when I had this Flow inside a solution, the result didn’t have a body and instead just gave me Status Reason value as below –

Outside a Solution

Whereas, outside the Solution, I was able to get the array of Objects i.e. Opportunity data in the Body in the Output itself.

So, what can we do about the Flow which is used inside a Solution and you want to actually see what was the output? You may or may not require to see the records (depending on your implementation)

But let’s say you want to see what was returned, let’s just parse these results as is using Parse JSON to see what we got.

Use Parse JSON from Data Operation

Another way to read what you’re retrieving is using Parse JSON Data Operation.

Search Parse JSON and you’ll see the result in Data Operation type of Actions as shown below –
Now, you have to apply this to Current item from the retrieved List records in Apply to each operation. In case you don’t have the schema or not sure what to put it in. Simply use {} in Schema field. This will just pass through as is.

Checking Result

Now, let’s test using the above and see if we can get the results

Now, you can actually see the Inputs and Output of Parse JSON which is basically the same. This is useful if you want to visually see what’s going on through your Flow.

But, if you don’t want to see what’s being passed through when in Production? You can Secure Input/Output in Power Automate Run History

Hope this helps you!!

Enable/Disable the need to Approve Email for Mailboxes in Dynamics 365 CRM CE

April 9, 2020 priyeshwagh777 Dynamics 365, dynamics 365 administration, Dynamics 365 CE approve email, dynamics 365 crm, dynamics crm mailbox, mailbox in dynamics crm, office 365 global admin

This is one of the most useful common scenarios where you have to approach a Global Administrator every time to Approve Emails. Even when you want to create a few Queues or test Mailboxes on a non-production environment.

I would recommend this to be used only on Sandbox instance and let Production instance have this layer of approval of Global Administrators, but then it depends what you want to have. 🙂

Approve Email

Every time, you want to enable a mailbox for Server Side Synchronization, you are asked to Approve Email.
(If you want to enable Server Side Sync for enabling D365 App For Outlook, check this post Summarizing D365 App For Outlook Setup in 3 steps with Exchange Online mailbox)

And even if you try to Test & Enable the mailbox, you’ll see the error as This mailbox is disabled for email processing.

And you get the error as IncomingEmailS2SApprovalNeeded. Let’s look at how even System Administrators who aren’t Global Admins can enable Mailboxes.

Disable Approve Email for Mailboxes & Queues

So, if you want to not have each mailbox need an Approval from Global Administrator, go to Settings in site map > Administration > System Settings > Email tab

In the above screenshot, you select which of the mailboxes or queues or both, you want to allow to process emails without approval. Now, I want to only disable the need for approval for Queues and keep the users as is.

But doing so myself, gives me the following error

That’s because, to disable this, you’ll need a Global Administrator once. Once they disable this, if you have the appropriate rights to Test & Enable Mailbox, you can directly Test & Enable a mailbox even though the error message is still displayed on the Mailbox after disabling this feature.

The mailbox for the Queue is now active.

In case you are also looking to create a Support Queue for your organization, you can check this post Create a support Queue in D365 CE.

Hope this helps!!

Make HTTP request from Flow in Power Automate

April 7, 2020April 7, 2020 priyeshwagh777 Power Automate HTTP, Power Automate

One of the most common asks I’ve come across lately is people asking whether or not, we can make external HTTP requests using Flow in Power Automate. Well, yes! Let’s quickly take a look at how you can do that.

Scenario

To keep the example really simple, I have an API that I can use to call to get weather information. (By the way, you’ll find MSN Weather connector in Power Automate too)
So, the API I’m using to test the call is OpenWeatherMap. Their API is really easy to understand for this example.

Note: You can create your account here and you’ll get an API key which you can use.

Now, Let’s say I have the API key and I’m ready to consume their API.
You can have your Flow start any which way you want, I’m just running it on schedule –
Select HTTP in the search and select the HTTP trigger
Now, I can fill in the data required to make the HTTP call. In my example, the API is expecting Query String, so I’m passing the values in Queries as needed. It could be different in your case.
I’m select GET method since we are trying to retrieve data by calling the API

And then go on to write the rest of the request.

Let’s say, if you’re required to pass headers to a POST request with Body, you can do that as well.
And I’m capturing the response in a variable in Flow to further use it. I’ve chosen to store it in an Object type of variable.
Easy!

Making HTTP Request

Now, let’s test it. I made a sample request and I’ve received the response as below –
I’ll open my response part –

Check this, in case you want to also secure the data your receive – Secure Input/Output in Power Automate Run History

And I’ve received the data successfully! Hope this gets you started in making HTTP calls.

Pass data to HTML Web Resource using browser’s sessionStorage in Dynamics 365 CE

April 3, 2020 priyeshwagh777 CRM with .NET Web Applications, D365 WebAPI / JavaScript, dynamics 365 customization dynamics 365 customization, dynamics 365 javascript, javascript, sessionStorage

If you’re using Xrm.Navigation.openWebResource(webResourceName, windowOptions, data), you probably are already using ‘data’ to the HTML Web Resource you are opening.

Here, I’m using an alternate method. I use JSON to send my data since it is widely preferred and used. Basically, I’ll Stringify my JSON object and add it to session storage, then – retrieve it from sessionStorage and Parse is back to object.

Opening Web Resource

Now, in my example, I’m not passing my data in the ‘data’ parameter provided by Xrm.Navigation.openWebResource(), instead I’m putting it in JSON.

Let’s say, somewhere in my code, I want to send out a JSON to the HTML Web Resource which will open in a new window.
So, instead of passing ‘data’ to Xrm.Navigation.openWebResource(), I’ll simply do the following –
First, create a JSON object of what I want to send as data.
Then, I’ll use sessionStorage.setItem(“<key>”, JSONObject); to add it to the sessionStorage and then open the WebResource using Xrm.Navigation.openWebResource()

Reading from Session Storage

Reading from sessionStorage is as easy as putting data into it. Just the reverse –

Assuming you are familiar with HTML and JS references, make sure you have correctly referenced the JS file you want to use with your HTML. Provide the name of the Web Resource in which you have your JS code.
Once the HTML document is loaded (I prefer using JQuery here to put things into document), you can read the same using sessionStorage.getItem(“<Key>”);
And then, JSON.parse() the object retrieved from sessionStorage.
Also, if you look at the Application tab in Dev Tools of your browser, you can check for Session Storage info.
You’ll find the Item you stored to the session

That way, you can use sessionStorage to keep your data in the browser session if you don’t have any other concerns or reasons not to use sessionStorage.

Hope this helps!!

Retrieve only active Dynamics 365 CE licensed Users in CDS connector in Power Automate

March 30, 2020April 7, 2020 priyeshwagh777 CRM with .NET Web Applications, Office 365 Administration, Power Automate, Power Platform dynamics 365 users, flow, office 365 licenses, Power Automate, Power Platform

Let’s say you have a requirement where you want to work only on Dynamics 365 and you are using Office 365 Get User Profile action to retrieve all users.

In this example, I have some Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement licenses assigned to uers. And I want to retrieve only the Active D365 Users in my Common Data Service Connector.

Here’s how I do it –

Retrieve Users with Filter Condition

Now, the best thing you could do is identify what is the userlicensetype field of other Dynamics 365 users you might have retrieved in your previous executions.

I’ve used the query userlicensetype eq 6 to query for Active D365 users

If you want to retrieve Users who have been Disabled, you can check by using userlicensetype eq -1

Note: You’ll need to check the respective values for other users who have licenses like Team Member or Sales Professional. Since I haven’t tried those, I don’t have their exact number codes. Best way is to identify a user whose licence configuration you are looking for and look for their userlicensetype field value in Flow.

Result

This gave me only those users who have D365 Customer Engagement License assigned to them

And if I look at my O365 Portal, I can see that 4 users have the Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement License

There are even more ways you can use to identify for different licenses used. I recommend it’s good practice to retrieved only those users which are needed for your operation.

If you’re also looking to secure the Input/Output data in Flow, refer this Secure Input/Output in Power Automate Run History

Hope this helps!

Refresh button missing on Roll-Up fields in D365 UCI? Quick Tip.

March 27, 2020March 27, 2020 priyeshwagh777 Dynamics 365 CE roll up fields, unified interface

As we are transitioning to the Unified Interface, some visual cues are a little misplaced or say, hidden.

If your Roll-up field on the Classic UI appeared like this where you could simply click on refresh and update the Roll-up field

It doesn’t seem to be the case in terms of UCI-

It’s Hidden!

So, simply click on the Calculator icon –

And the Recalculate button will be revealed which updates the value

And results into the below in my case –

Note: Toggling the calculator icon will reveal/hide the button.

Hope this quick tip helps!!

AutoNumber field in CDS | PowerApps

March 23, 2020September 26, 2020 priyeshwagh777 CRM with .NET Web Applications, Microsoft PowerApps autonumber, autonumber field in cds, cds, common data service, Power Platform, powerapps

The most desired feature is ability to create/customize your own auto-number field. ANd CDS let’s your do just that!

I remember the good old days when I had to write a plugin to function for AutoNumber which used to configuration from a supposedly separate Configuration entity and it scary to maintain the code and entity. But this solves all that with so much ease!

Create an AutoNumber field in CDS

Now, you can start by creating a field in CDS’ Solutions > [YourSolution]> [YourEntity]
Then, under Accounts, you can see that you can actually create an Autonumber. This is not available in Classic UI.
Also, please note that you’ll need to keep this field Not Required and Locked (on the form) in order to function.
Give it a suitable name and then you have 3 options to format your auto-number field.

String Prefixed number

You’ll need to define the Prefix, Min Digits, Seed value

Date prefixed number

With Date prefixed, you’ll need to define Date Format, Min Digits of Seed Value

Custom

With custom, you can define the Format. Refer Microsoft’s Documentation for the same – AutoNumberFormat options

Save and Publish as you usually would and place your field on the form you want.

Working

I used String method to design my AutoNumber field. Let’s see how it looks –
Once I save the record, the Auto-number will be filled in.

If you happen to delete any records already created in the sequence, the auto-number functionality will continue counting upward and not fill out previous backlogs/last deleted auto-number records.

Hope this helps!

Solution Checker

Solution Export Versioning

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Setting Retry Policy

How it works

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Scenario

Enable Command Checker

Command Checker

Form Command Checker

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Example

Flow Inside a solution vs. Outside a Solution

Inside a Solution

Outside a Solution

Use Parse JSON from Data Operation

Checking Result

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Approve Email

Disable Approve Email for Mailboxes & Queues

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Scenario

Making HTTP Request

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Opening Web Resource

Reading from Session Storage

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Retrieve Users with Filter Condition

Result

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It’s Hidden!

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Create an AutoNumber field in CDS

Custom

Working

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