[Tip] Issue with using Entity as the input type in Custom Actions in Dynamics 365

I was assisting a follow member in Dynamics Community to resolve the following issue which occurred after upgrading from Dynamics CRM 2016 (Version 8.1) to Dynamics 365 (Version 8.2).

Action Arguments not selectable in send e-mail window

Problem

In a custom action, we can configure input arguments.  When configuring arguments, we can set the type of the argument.  This can be Boolean, DateTime, Decimal, Entity, EntityCollection, EntityReference, Float, Integer, Money, Picklist, or String.  Often we configure arguments as Entity.  This is useful to pass in complete records to the custom action.

The issue here is that, Entity type arguments are not visible inside a workflow step.

Configuration in 8.1

Inside the Send Email step, we can see both input arguments available.

Configuration in 8.2

Inside the Send Email step, we can only see EntityReference type argument.  Entity type argument is missing.

Resolution

Entity type is still available as an argument type, hence this seems like a bug in Dynamics 365 (Version 8.1).  As a workaround, you can change the Entity type input arguments to EntityReference type.

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