Creating a Global Option Set with >200 values

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Posted on by DH-01101811-0

We are using SaaS Dynamics 365 online and I need to standardize our usage of country (region) names, for reporting and automation-purposes (e.g., auto-acknowledge customers from Japan in Japanese and customers from Korea in Korean, reporting roll-up based on country, etc.) I want to create a list of Countries/Regions, based on ISO 3166 standard, which contains ~249 values. I need to make this list available within Customer Insights Journeys-based webforms, so a new Entity with a Lookup field appears to be ruled out. I also want to leverage this list within Leads, Accounts, Opportunities, maybe even Cases, so a Global Option Set seems like the right way to go - though I am open to ideas!

Assuming I want to go the Global Option Set route, surely, after all this time, there must be a way to use a .csv or similar to upload my 249 entries vs manually typing them out one at a time. I am not a programmer, but I am not opposed to learning some new skills if that is the best option, but a simple 'import a .csv' capability or some tool (e.g., XrmToolBox) or similar would be ideal.

Thank you for any useful suggestions or tips.

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Tom_Gioielli 3,084 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Having to do all of that in an option set just feels gross, but it sounds like that's your best choice.

I know you can use something like Attribute Editor · XrmToolBox to create fields, and I wonder if this might help. I'm not aware if there is a limit to the number of option set values that can be defined using the tool, but worth checking out.

It looks like you can use the API to create and define option set values, so that might be a good option (Create and update choices (option sets) using the Web API - Power Apps | Microsoft Learn)

Finally, and this is just a harebrained idea because it's late at night for me, you could probably use the Out of Box Import process to do this for you. When importing records, if you have a value in the option set column that is not already in the list you can have it create the new option. You could create a small table with just this Global Option set, import 249 records to it, each with a different country code, and then clear things out after the import creates your options.

All told, I think the API option is the safest and best bet for you to use. Hope this helps, and good luck!

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DH-01101811-0 19 on at

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@Tom_Gioielli Thank you for your prompt response!

The Attribute Editor plug-in doesn't appear to support directly editing Global Option Sets, only Entities. 🙁

I had found the Web API option and see it does look like it supports creating Global Option Sets; my hesitation is that I am not a developer and don't actually really understand what all it is saying to do. But if that is the best (only) option, I am certainly open to learning new skills. 🙂

I cannot find any reference to a current OOTB import option for Global Option Sets. If you (anyone) has a link to instructions, I would be over the moon.

The problem specifically with creating a table rather than a Global Option Set is that my webforms, built on Customer Insights Journeys, do not support Lookups, and that is what I would need in order to surface the list of Countries from which the customer would select.

Again, I do appreciate the effort and welcome any other ideas which might get me closer to my goal. (I also wonder why in the world Microsoft doesn't offer an OOTB Global Option Set for "Country". I totally get it is a fraught topic, what with the politics of what is and isn't a "country" - hello Taiwan and Palestine, etc., but just provide the ISO 3166 list and let the users remove as necessary!)

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Tom_Gioielli 3,084 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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I spaced out on the Global vs Local option sets, good call on that. The import option is more of a 'hacky' way to create choices but it only works on local option sets as well.

I think the API method is probably your best bet other than creating and maintaining manually. I'm not a developer either, so unfortunately I can't help too much more. I'm pretty sure you would use a tool like Postman | Postman API Network to authenticate to CRM and make the POST call to create your choices. I guess I would ask myself a few questions when deciding how I would move forward.

1) Is it worth spending 4 hours learning how to do the API method so that creating the options only takes 3 minutes vs adding them manually?

OR

2) Is there anyone in my company or team who I'm not very fond of with too much time on their hands, or someone newer without as much work? Maybe they can take the time to manually input items so I don't need to

I tend to use situations like this as a way to try and learn something new, but depending on workload and day to day life that isn't always the easiest. Sorry I don't have a ton more info, maybe someone else will come along with some other ideas. Just be wary of the AI Generated responses. Some of them contain some decent information, but almost every one that has responded to the same questions I have include some hallucinated answer that is not true.

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Dharanidharan 638 User Group Leader on at

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You're on the right track by using a Global Option Set in Dynamics 365 for standardized country/region names, as it allows for consistency across Leads, Accounts, Opportunities, and Cases. Since manually entering ISO 3166 country/region names (~249 values) is tedious, here are the best ways to import them efficiently.

Best Approach: Using XrmToolBox (Easiest Method, No Coding)

You can bulk import the country list into a Global Option Set using XrmToolBox, a community-developed tool for Dynamics 365 CE.

Use the "Option Set Manager" Plugin in XrmToolBox

Alternative: Using Configuration Migration Tool

Microsoft provides the Configuration Migration Tool (CMT) for bulk data imports.

Steps:

Download Configuration Migration Tool from the Power Platform Tools.

Create a schema including your Global Option Set.

Prepare the import file in .xml format.

Run the tool to import all values at once.

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