Dynamics Community Forum Thread Details

Hello AP-11040823-0,

You're on the right track following the Microsoft documentation for creating custom channels in Customer Insights - Journeys (Real-time Marketing). The fact that you've created the required entities and relationships but aren't seeing your custom SMS provider option suggests a potential issue with how your custom entity is being recognized as an extended configuration of the Channel Instance entity.

Let's break down the requirements and how you can proceed to ensure your custom entity is correctly identified as an extended configuration for your SINCH SMS channel.

Understanding Extended Channel Instance Configuration:

The core idea is that when you create a specific instance of your custom channel (e.g., a SINCH configuration with API keys), you need a way to store the provider-specific settings. This is achieved by extending the Channel Instance entity with your custom configuration entity. The platform needs to understand that your custom entity is linked to your SINCH channel and should be used to store its configuration details.

Steps to Represent Your Custom Entity as Extended Configuration:

Verify Required Entities and Relationships: Double-check that you have created the following entities and relationships as outlined in the documentation:
- Your Custom Channel Entity (e.g., SinchSMSChannelConfig): This entity will hold the specific configuration settings for your SINCH integration (e.g., API Key, Secret, Sender ID).
- Relationship: One-to-Many from Channel Instance to Your Custom Channel Entity: There should be a lookup field on your custom channel entity that points back to the Channel Instance entity. This is crucial for linking the configuration to a specific channel instance. The documentation likely specifies the exact schema name for this lookup field (often something like msdynmkt_ChannelInstanceId).

Ensure Correct Schema Names: Pay very close attention to the schema names of your custom entity, fields, and the relationship. These names are case-sensitive and must match what the platform expects. Refer back to the documentation to confirm the exact schema names.

Mark Your Custom Entity as a Channel Configuration Entity: This is the crucial step that tells the platform your entity is meant to hold extended configuration for a custom channel. You need to configure the metadata of your custom entity to indicate this. This is typically done through the Entity Metadata settings.
- Navigate to Power Apps (https://www.google.com/search?q=make.powerapps.com).
- Select your environment.
- Go to Dataverse > Tables.
- Find and select your custom channel configuration entity (e.g., SinchSMSChannelConfig).
- Click on "Edit" to modify the table properties.
- Look for a setting related to "Is a channel configuration entity" or similar. The exact wording might vary slightly depending on your Dynamics 365 version. Set this option to "Yes" (True).
- You might also need to specify the logical name of the Channel Instance entity in a related setting. The platform needs to know which entity your custom entity extends.

Associate Your Custom Entity with Your Custom Channel Definition: When you define your custom channel (the record in the msdynmkt_CustomChannel entity), you need to link it to your custom configuration entity. There should be a field on the msdynmkt_CustomChannel entity where you specify which entity holds the extended configuration.
- Go to Dataverse > Tables.
- Find and select the Channel (msdynmkt_CustomChannel) entity.
- Go to the "Data" tab.
- Find the record for your SINCH custom channel.
- Look for a field related to "Extended Configuration Entity" or similar. The schema name might be something like msdynmkt_ExtendedConfigurationEntity.
- In this field, enter the logical name (schema name) of your custom channel configuration entity (e.g., new_sinchsmschannelconfig).

Create a Channel Type for SMS: Ensure you have created a Channel Type record in the msdynmkt_ChannelType entity with the value set to SMS. This helps the platform categorize your channel correctly.

Create a Channel Definition for SINCH: Create a record in the msdynmkt_CustomChannel entity:
- Channel Type: Set it to the SMS Channel Type you created.
- Name: "SINCH SMS" (or your desired name).
- Extended Configuration Entity: Crucially, set this to the logical name of your SinchSMSChannelConfig entity.
- Other required fields: Populate any other required fields as per the documentation.

Create Channel Actions: Define the necessary channel actions (e.g., Send SMS) in the msdynmkt_ChannelAction entity, linking them to your SINCH custom channel.

Troubleshooting Steps:

Double-check Entity Metadata: Ensure the "Is a channel configuration entity" setting is correctly set to "Yes" for your custom configuration entity.
Verify Relationship Mapping: Confirm the lookup field on your custom configuration entity correctly points to the Channel Instance entity.
Inspect Channel Definition: Make absolutely sure the "Extended Configuration Entity" field in your msdynmkt_CustomChannel record contains the correct logical name of your custom configuration entity.
Review Documentation Carefully: Go back through the Microsoft documentation and meticulously verify each step, paying close attention to entity and field schema names.
Check Solution Layers: If you've made these changes in a solution, review the solution layers for the msdynmkt_CustomChannel entity and your custom entity to ensure your configurations are being applied correctly and there are no conflicting customizations.
Try Creating a New Solution: As a test, try creating a new solution and implementing the custom channel setup from scratch within that solution to see if you encounter the same issue. This can help isolate if the problem lies within your existing solution.

By carefully reviewing these steps and focusing on the correct metadata settings and associations, you should be able to represent your custom SINCH SMS configuration entity as an extended configuration of the Channel Instance entity and see your custom SMS provider option within Customer Insights - Journeys. Remember to publish your customizations after making these changes.

If my answer was helpful, please click Like, and if it solved your problem, please mark it as verified to help other community members find more. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me.

My response was crafted with AI assistance and tailored to provide detailed and actionable guidance for your Microsoft Dynamics 365 query.

Regards,

Daivat Vartak

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