PSA to Power Automate Implementors using the CDS

If you are using flows in your solution (as we should really be considering them at least), I ask you to check which connector you are using.

Firstly, DO NOT USE the Dynamics 365 Connector. MSFT will be, if not already, deprecating [stated here] this along with a few others for the Common Data Service Connector.

Secondly, if you are using the Common Data Service Connector (well done!), I hope you are using the Current environment option so that your flow are compatible through deployments.

CDS trigger using Environment of (Current).

Thirdly, if you are hesitant to use Flow due to there lack of internal capability (CWAs/(workflow) actions/synchronous execution) then my discovery today might surprise you. It won’t solve all your concerns but if you are only requiring access to the current environment, I strongly recommend using the Common Data Service (current environment). There are some subtle changes with the actions you are currently familiar with, but there are a couple really nice additions.

• A single trigger: There is only the one trigger available but it has all the options you have with the ‘original’ set but the flexibility of them merged. You can now have a single trigger that run on Create, Update, Delete, or any combination of the three! [docs]

CDS (current environment) trigger showing the various trigger conditions.

• Relationships actions: There are two action allowing you to relate [docs] or unrelate [docs] two records. (I believe this must include many to many)

Example usage of the Relate/Unrelate CDS (current environment) actions.

• Perform an Action: This, for me, is the biggest wow factor. You can call any out-of-the-box or custom action defined within the environment be it bounded [docs] to a record or not [docs].

Example usage of the Perform Action CDS (current environment) actions.

Something I noticed when testing this out was you can only use this Connector when creating a Flow within a solution. Although it can be selected through the other means of creating a flow, it shows the below page. This makes sense as it’s required a CDS environment mush solutions ensure.

Error page when trying the use the ‘When a record is created, updated or deleted’ trigger outside of a solutions.

I hope you have found this interesting, and consider using Flows more on the Power Automate platform.

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