What you need to know about Power Automate (Flow) Connectors for Dynamics 365

Recently I have had a lot of conversations about Power Automate (aka Microsoft Flow) connectors for Dynamics 365 and which ones to use. Did you know that there are three different connectors for interacting with Dynamics 365 data?

The type of connector has a big impact on how Power Automate is implemented and the deployment capabilities when moving Power Automate flows between environments.

This article discusses the three different Power Automate connectors for interacting with Dynamics 365 and when to use them.

Dynamics 365 Connector

Search the Power Automate connectors for “Dynamics 365”. It is easy to mistake that the Dynamics 365 connector is right one.  Heck, it’s in the popular connectors section!

However, the April Power Automate product update blog post announced the Dynamics 365 connector as deprecated . It amazes me how many people do not know about this.

“The Dynamics 365 connector provides duplicate functionality to the Common Data Service connector since all Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement data is now stored in CDS. All users should now move to the Common Data Service connector, which can support more data types and broader trigger scenarios.”

Microsoft Power Automate Blog

So here is my first recommendation:

1. Do not use the Dynamics 365 connector for Power Automate, ever.

If the Dynamics 365 connector should not be used, then which one?

The Common Data Service (CDS) is the underlying database for Dynamics 365. Therefore, it makes sense to use the Common Data Service connector.

Common Data Service Connectors

Search the Power Automate connectors for “Common Data Service”.

There are two results for the same thing?!

Not exactly.

Hover over the names of both connectors and discover that there are two distinct connectors:

• Common Data Service (current environment)
• Common Data Service

Let’s look at the differences.

Triggers

The triggers for both connectors are almost the same. They essentially have the same capabilities but are configured differently.

Common Data Service (current environment)

• When a record is created, updated or deleted

Common Data Service

• When a record is created
• When a record is updated
• When a record is deleted

Actions

The actions available for each connector differ significantly and have a huge impact on what you can automate in Dynamics 365 using Power Automate. The Common Data Service (current environment) connector has a lot of advantages over the Common Data Service connector.

Three advantages of the Common Data Service (current environment) connector that I find most significant are:

• List Records action – provides the user the ability to use a Fetch XML query to filter records.
• Predict action – provides the ability to Common Data Service or Dynamics 365 data through AI Builder models.
• Perform an action action – provides the ability to trigger a Common Data Service (Dynamics 365) action. See screenshot below for examples.

More details about the actions for both connectors can be found at the links below:

• Common Data Service (current environment) actions
• Common Data Service actions

Application Lifecycle Management

The two CDS connectors behave differently when it comes to Solutions.

The Common Data Service (current environment) connector is specifically designed for CDS Solutions. In fact, you cannot create a flow that uses the Common Data Service (current environment) connector unless it is within a solution.

The Common Data Service (current environment) connector has an advantage when deploying a solution from one environment to another. e.g. promoting from Dev to Test to Prod through export/import. In this instance, the Common Data Service (current environment) connector automatically connects to the CDS environment that the solution has been imported into. This means that as soon as the solution is deployed the flow can be triggered and will run. More information on this can be found here.

The Common Data Service connector can also be part of a solution. However, when a solution is imported into another environment, it is not able to automatically update the Common Data Service connection to the new environment’s CDS. This means that the flow’s Common Data Service connections have to be manually updated in the environment that the solution is imported into before the flow can be used.

Recommendations

So…. which CDS connector should you use with Power Automate? This brings me to my second and third recommendations.

2. Use the Common Data Service connector for automating personal tasks that interact with CDS or Dynamics 365 data.

3. Use the Common Data Service (current environment) connector for automating business processes involving CDS or Dynamics, were the flow is promoted through different environments (ALM).

Also, keep in mind the differences in the actions available for the two connectors.

One last thing…

Be careful when selecting the connector and action in your flows. There is not a huge difference in the connector names and it is very easy to pick the wrong one!

Spot the difference in the screen shot below?

I hope that you have found this useful. Feedback is always appreciated so please comment below or get in touch via social media if you have any.

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