Scheduled Call to External API for Create/UPdate Records in D365

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Posted on by Bhagyashree Shahade

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Hi,

My Requirement is to call External API..[Scheduled one] (say 3 times a day). Based upon the response, I`ll loop through the D365 Records to Create/ Update Accounts or Contacts . Can anyone please suggest me the steps to achieve this without using Microsoft Flow(Power Automate).

Using Flow would work, but no. of API Calls will be more I guess, Also data coming from API would be huge.

Thanks in advance!

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Wahaj Rashid 11,321 on at

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Hi,

Thank you for your query.

There is no out-of-the-box scheduling functionality available in Dynamics 365.

As a workaround, I would suggest following:

Create a custom action, call external API and create CRM records in a loop.

Then, call this custom action using a scheduled Flow. Please note, it will be one call per schedule (3 flow calls in your scenario), because actual API call and record creation is done within custom action (not flow). Here is a blogpost to give you an idea on custom actions and calling it through WebAPI (or Flow):

https://carldesouza.com/creating-a-custom-action-and-calling-it-from-web-api-in-dynamics-365-power-apps/

If you do not want to use flow at all, you can write a console app which calls this action using WebAPI, then schedule this app in Window Task Scheduler (not an elegant solution but works).

Last, which I do not prefer, but there are ways to schedule workflows, look at the following post:

https://community.dynamics.com/crm/f/microsoft-dynamics-crm-forum/225758/how-to-schedule-job-or-workflow

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Bhagyashree Shahade 170 on at

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Thanks Wahaj for the solutions listed,

As per Solution 1 - can you please brief me where to call External API?

In custom Action or Plugin?

Calling API n Create/Update logic will that all go into Custom Actions?

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Wahaj Rashid 11,321 on at

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Yes that's correct.

You need to call the API and do your CRUD logic within Action.

You can call External APIs within custom code activity or a plugin (same way):

https://msdynamicscrmblog.wordpress.com/2017/11/06/call-external-cross-domain-rest-apisoap-service-from-crm-pluginscustom-workflows/

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Bhagyashree Shahade 170 on at

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Thanks Wahaj,

I'll try this out

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Wahaj Rashid 11,321 on at

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You are welcome.

Feel free to discuss if you face any issue.

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Pete QD 10 on at

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Hi Wahaj, I have not understanded how to create the scheduled Flow for option 1. The provide link only use JS code to call custom action, not scheduled.

Many Thanks.

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