Dynamics Community Forum Thread Details

Hello RK-07031115-0,

You're right, the manual process described in the Inogic blog post highlights the complexity of working with the "Regarding" (or "Related") field of the Email entity, especially when linking to multiple records. Here's how to achieve this using Power Automate:

Understanding the Challenge:

The "Regarding" field is a polymorphic lookup, meaning it can refer to records from multiple entities (like Contacts, Accounts, Opportunities, etc.). Power Automate needs to handle this complexity.

Power Automate Flow Steps:

Trigger:
- Choose a trigger that suits your scenario. For example:
  - "When a record is created" (Dataverse) - if you want to link related records when a new email is created.
  - "When a record is modified" (Dataverse) - if you want to link related records based on changes to an email.
  - "Recurrence" (Schedule) - if you want to run the flow periodically to update existing emails

Get Email Record:
- Use the "Get a row by ID" (Dataverse) action to retrieve the email record you want to update.
- If your trigger is "When a record is created" or "When a record is modified," you can use the dynamic content from the trigger

Identify Related Records (Contacts and Accounts):
- This step depends on how you determine which Contacts and Accounts should be linked to the email.
- Examples:
  - If the email's subject or body contains keywords related to specific Contacts or Accounts, use actions like "List rows" (Dataverse) and "Condition" actions to filter records based on those keywords.
  - If the email is related to a specific Opportunity or Case, get the related Contact and Account from those records.
  - If you have a custom lookup on the email record, use "Get a row by ID" to retrieve the related Contact or Account.

Format the "Regarding" Field Data:
- This is the critical part. The "Regarding" field requires a specific format:
  - An array of objects.
  - Each object contains:
  - - @odata.type: The entity's OData type (e.g., /contacts, /accounts).
    - entityid: The record's GUID
- Create an Array:
  - Use the "Compose" action to create an array.
  - The input of the compose action should be:
- Add Contact Object:
  - Use another "Compose" action to create the Contact object.
  - Input:
  - - Replace <Contact GUID> with the actual GUID from your Contact record.
    - Then use the "Append to array variable" action, to append the output of this compose action to the array compose action.
- Add Account Object:
  - Use another "Compose" action to create the Account object.
  - Input:
  - - Replace <Account GUID> with the actual GUID from your Account record.
    - Then use the "Append to array variable" action, to append the output of this compose action to the array compose action.

Update Email Record:
- Use the "Update a row" (Dataverse) action.
- Select the Email entity and the email record's ID.
- In the "Regarding (Activities)" field, use the output of your array "Compose" action.

Example Flow (Conceptual):

Trigger: When an email is created.
Get Email Record: Retrieve the created email.
Get Related Contact: (e.g., based on a lookup field on the email).
Get Related Account: (e.g., based on a lookup field on the email).
Compose Contact Object:
Compose Account Object:
Compose Array:
Append Contact to Array.
Append Account to Array.
Update Email Record: Set the "Regarding" field to the output of the array compose action.

Important Notes:

GUIDs: Make sure you're using the correct GUIDs for your Contact and Account records.
OData Types: The @odata.type values are case-sensitive and must be accurate.
Error Handling: Implement error handling in your flow to catch potential issues (e.g., missing related records).
Testing: Thoroughly test your flow in a development environment before deploying it to production.
Performance: If you're processing a large number of emails, consider optimizing your flow for performance.

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