There are times where you want to create alerts or notifications triggered off the data within Dynamics 365 for Operations. There are a number of different ways that you can do this, but one of the simplest ways to do this is through Flow which allows you to create simple integration points that trigger other events that you may want to chain off the data. All of this can be done without even having to resort to a single line of code, and also without touching the base Dynamics 365 for Operations functionality.

In this walkthrough we will show an example of how you can take advantage of Flow to create a simple email alert that is triggered off the creation of a new customer within the system.

Topics Covered

• Create a new Entity within the Common Data Service
• Creating a Flow to Add Operations Customers to the Customer Accounts Entity
• Submitting the Flow to the Template Gallery
• Viewing the Customer Accounts Entity Data
• Creating an Email Notification Flow triggered on New Customers Being Added
• Seeing it in Action

Read More

Recently I came across a problem where I realized that all of the e-mail addresses within my system were incorrect. The default email addresses that come with the demo environment are @contoso.com, and my demo tenant has the domain name of @contosoeastfoxtrot.onmicrosoft.com.

I wanted to change them all so that when I try to skype any of the other employees in the demo system, that all of them would work. I could have been minimalistic and just change one of the users, but if you are going to do a job, then you should do it right.

But editing each of the 500+ user accounts seemed a little bit daunting,

Luckily Dynamics 365 for Operations allows me to update the database through Excel, and if there isn’t a default template that I can get my hands on right away, that’s not a problem because we can make a new one on the fly.

In this article we will show how you can do this and make updating mass amounts of data a breeze.

How to do it…

So here is the problem – I don’t want to open up each and every worker record in order to make a quick change to their email account.

So we will want to create an Excel template that allows us to perform a mass update.

To do this open up the Organization administration menu and click on the Excel workbook designer menu item within the Office Integration menu group.

This will open up the Excel workbook designer utility and we will be able to see all of the different entities that we can create templates for.

To find the right entity we can just filter them out by typing in a search term into the filter box. The contact information is associated with the Party entities so we just type in party and we will be able to find the PartyContact entity which stores all of the phone numbers and email addresses for the contacts.

We will just select all of the fields from the Available fields list and put them in the Selected fields column.

Then all we need to do is click on the Create workbook link within the menu bar. This will allow us to choose where we want to save the file. For this example we will just create a local copy and select the Download option.

Within a couple of seconds Excel will open and we will see all of the fields that we selected from the entity. To make this live we just need to click on the Enable Editing button.

Next thing you know we will have access to all of the contact information that is stored within Dynamics. Since this is Excel we can just do a global search and replace for the domain name that we want to change and after updating the records within Excel we can click on the Publish link in the Microsoft Dynamics Excel Connector panel and all of the changed records will be pushed back to the Dynamics system.

Review

This is a super useful tool to have in your back pocket. There are always times that you want to make mass updates to data within Dynamics and being able to have a direct link through Excel is a great way to do this. You can save a lot of time, and also reduce your chances of getting an RSI through repetitive updates to records.

How cool is that!

As we have started to upgrade all of the Bare Cones Configuration Guide series to Dynamics 365 for Operations, we forgot that you all might want to know how to deploy out a new training environment through Lifecycle Service so that you can start this new journey of learning as well.

So as a result we sat down and created that guide just for you all. If you want to check it out here are all of the details.

BBCG.01.01.D365.1.D: Configuring a new Dynamics 365 for Operations Training Environment
Module 1: Creating a new Environment through Lifecycle Services

Creating a new demonstration or training environment for Dynamics 365 for Operations depends on you having an Office 365 tenant for authentication, and also for managing users etc.

Once you have your new Office 365 tenant you can then access Lifecycle Services, create a Dynamics 365 project and then deploy out a new Dynamics 365 for Operations environment that is linked to your Azure account.

In this walkthrough we will show you how to do this so that you can start your demonstration and training environments out the right way.

Topics Covered

• Creating a new Lifecycle Services project
  
• Link your Azure Subscription
  
• Deploying a Dynamics 365 Environment
  
• Logging into Dynamics 365 for Operations
  

If you are interesting in checking this guide out then here is the link to the digital version of the guide: http://bit.ly/2gMcZmU

If you are a premium subscriber then remember, you can download this guide for free.

Additionally, we have made this guide available as a PowerPoint which the industrious ones of this group can use as the basis for your own training and education programs. The PowerPoint version contains the same content as the guide except you can edit any of the content and also update any of the formatting to private brand it to your own organization.

To check out the PowerPoint version of the training guide, then click on this link: http://bit.ly/2gbEGoa

If you want to see all of the guides that show you how to set up a training environment for Dynamics 365 for Operations, and also Dynamics AX 2012 then just click here and you will be taken to the resource page with all of the different content including sample data to help you with the project: http://bit.ly/2gK4nzC

If you are really up for a challenge then you may want to take on the Bare Bones Configuration Challenge. You can start with this guide and as we start releasing out the other 15 guides in the series then you can work through them as well. These guides will teach you how to configure a bare bones installation of Microsoft Dynamics 365 from scratch. If you complete all sixteen modules then you will become a Bare Bones Configuration Privateer and we will send you a badge to prove it.

If you want all of the content on the site and all of the new content that we are delivering then you may want to think about signing up for a Premium Membership. Once you have that you can plunder the entire site and download any of the books at any time. Here is the link: http://bit.ly/2fYMgTW

Watch out for use to release more modules as we get them finished over the next weeks.