PowerApps Common Data Service (CDS) 2.0 connector doesn't work for a Dynamics 365 CE instance

Question

Hopefully, someone can straight up my PowerApps connectors understanding. Apparently, I have 3 connection options.

• Common data service - this connection type only allows me to connect to CDS 1.0 databases, but I want to connect to an existing D365 v9 instance.
• Common data service (experimental) - this connection type asked me for a D365 v9 instance ID, but everything is grey out after the step, i.e. it didn't show me any entity after connecting successfully.
• D365 data source - this one works but I was told MS has stopped working on this connector. Also, I will have to update the connection after deployment to a different environment manually.

What is the best practice if I want to use a CDS connector? Or I will be stuck with the old D365 connector for now?

Thanks.

==11/1/2018 update== I have a better understanding of my situation now. Every Dynamics 365 CE instance should have a PowerApp environment automatically, but one of my D365CE instances doesn't. I am suspecting it is because the D365CE instance is still version 8.2.

My question above is because I created an empty PowerApp environment and tried to connect it to the D365CE instance (v8.2). I will give you guys another update after I upgrade the instance to v9.

==11/30/2018 update== Confirmed. By upgrading a D365CE instance from v8.2 to v9.0, the Power Platform generates an environment automatically and linked it to the D365CE/CDS.

Answer 1

Here's a breakdown of the three connectors you're looking at :

Common Data Service - this connector actually supports both versions of CDS, but it will be dependent based on the environment that you're in. So if you're in an environment that has a CDS1.0 database, it will connect by default to that environment. If you have a CDS2.0 database, it will connect by default to that environment.

Experimental Connector - this is similar to the previous connector, but it includes experimental features in development by our team, and isn't recommended for production use. Generally you should only be using this connector if there is a specific feature we announce in the experimental connector you wish you use.

Dynamics 365 Connector - this is similar to the base CDS connector, however it can only connect to CDS2.0 environments. It also has the ability to connect across environments. So you can be in Env1, but connect to a database in Env2. The normal CDS connector will only connect to the database within the environment you are building your app in.

Which one should you use? The Common Data Service connector is going to be your best option, it's where the most improvements are being released at the moment, and is designed to work best with PowerApps and Flow.

To connect to your Dynamics 365 environment, you'll want to make sure you start from web.powerapps.com and select that environment from the drop down in the top right, if you can't find your Dynamics 365 V9 environment - make sure you have system customizer permissions - if you do and you still can't see it, it may be an issue on our end. You can send me a message with your Dynamics org URL and we can check it for you.

Once you can select it from the environment drop down, you can then create a new app and use the Common Data Service connector, and it will connect directly to your Dynamics 365 data.

Hope this helps, Clay.

Answer 2

I don't have much experience with CDS 1.0 in the Power Platform. I can share some insights on my experience with Microsoft Flow / Logic Apps, CDS 2.0, and Data Integration. So I hopes this helps add another perspective to this question too.

What is your goal in using Common Data Service? Just to pull Dynamics 365 CE data into it? This recent Product Team Blog could be useful here if so.

Some initial feedback, if the main goal is to connect to a Dynamics 365 CE instance, consider using the Dynamics 365 Connector through Microsoft Flow. You can create a small Flow at https://flow.microsoft.com/ with a 2 step process like mine below. An event takes place in Dynamics, like creating an account. The event and it's data is captured and in used in a response process, like sending an email alert. In this case the alert is sent to the signed in users email.

From a developer standpoint you can also use the Xrm SDK and Web API to collect data and do some data processing as well in C# or JavaScript respectively too. This is more involved, but provides a greater amount of control around the data you're working with. There's a great intro to

Lastly you can spin up a PowerApp to surface your data as well with some pre build templates https://create.powerapps.com/.

Start with your Data and create a Dynamics 365 app in a phone layout.

Choose your organization and table.

After the app creates, hit play to run it.

Search for an account

Answer 3

It turned out the problem is not with the connectors but with PowerApp environments. By upgrading a D365CE instance from v8.2 to v9.0, the Power Platform generates an environment automatically and linked it to the D365CE/CDS. So, it should just work for all v9+ instances.