Akorbi Digital RunMyProcess makes it easy to create applications for complex business applications, such as budget application and contract management. CData Connect AI creates a live connection to Microsoft Dataverse and can be used to generate an OData API (natively supported in RunMyProcess) for Microsoft Dataverse. By pairing RunMyProcess with CData Connect AI, you get true cloud-to-cloud connectivity to all your SaaS and cloud-based Big Data and NoSQL sources - no need to migrate your data or write your own integrations. Simply connect to Connect AI from RunMyProcess as you would any other REST service and get instant, live access to your Microsoft Dataverse data.
In this article, we walk through connecting to Microsoft Dataverse from CData Connect AI and accessing Microsoft Dataverse data through an OData feed in RunMyProcess.
About Microsoft Dataverse Data Integration
CData provides the easiest way to access and integrate live data from Microsoft Dataverse (formerly the Common Data Service). Customers use CData connectivity to:
- Access both Dataverse Entities and Dataverse system tables to work with exactly the data they need.
- Authenticate securely with Microsoft Dataverse in a variety of ways, including Azure Active Directory, Azure Managed Service Identity credentials, and Azure Service Principal using either a client secret or a certificate.
- Use SQL stored procedures to manage Microsoft Dataverse entities - listing, creating, and removing associations between entities.
CData customers use our Dataverse connectivity solutions for a variety of reasons, whether they're looking to replicate their data into a data warehouse (alongside other data sources)or analyze live Dataverse data from their preferred data tools inside the Microsoft ecosystem (Power BI, Excel, etc.) or with external tools (Tableau, Looker, etc.).
Getting Started
Connect to Microsoft Dataverse from RunMyProcess
To work with live Microsoft Dataverse data in RunMyProcess, we need to connect to Microsoft Dataverse from Connect AI, provide user access to
the connection, and create a Workspace for the Microsoft Dataverse data.
Connect to Microsoft Dataverse from Connect AI
CData Connect AI uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.
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Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
π Adding a Connection
- Select "Microsoft Dataverse" from the Add Connection panel
π Selecting a data source
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Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Microsoft Dataverse.
You can connect without setting any connection properties for your user credentials. Below are the minimum connection properties required to connect.
- InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
- OrganizationUrl: Set this to the organization URL you are connecting to, such as https://myorganization.crm.dynamics.com.
- Tenant (optional): Set this if you wish to authenticate to a different tenant than your default. This is required to work with an organization not on your default Tenant.
When you connect the Common Data Service OAuth endpoint opens in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions. The OAuth process completes automatically.
π Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
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Click Save & Test
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Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Microsoft Dataverse Connection page and update the User-based permissions.
π Updating permissions
Add a Personal Access Token
When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.
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Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
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On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
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Give the PAT a name and click Create.
π Creating a new PAT
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The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.
Configure Microsoft Dataverse Endpoints for RunMyProcess
After connecting to Microsoft Dataverse, create a workspace for your desired table(s).
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Navigate to the Workspaces page and click Add to create a new Workspace (or select an existing workspace).
π The Workspaces page.
π Adding a new Workspace.
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Click Add to add new assets to the Workspace.
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Select the Microsoft Dataverse connection (e.g. CDS1) and click Next.
π Selecting an Asset (Salesforce is shown).
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Select the table(s) you wish to work with and click Confirm.
π Selecting Tables (Salesforce is shown).
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Make note of the OData Service URL for your workspace, e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}
With the connection, PAT, and Workspace configured, you are ready to connect to Microsoft Dataverse data from RunMyProcess.
Retrieve Microsoft Dataverse Data from RunMyProcess DigitalSuite Studio
With the connection to Microsoft Dataverse and OData endpoints created, we are ready to add Microsoft Dataverse data to RunMyProcess for Retrieval.
Create a Provider
- Log into RunMyProcess and open DigitalSuite Studio.
- Click Resources to bring up the Resources page, then select then the CONNECTORS tab.
π Connectors page
- Click the + (New Provider) button to create a new provider, choose the account to use, then click Confirm.
π Create a new provider
- In the provider settings page, configure the following properties.
- URL: Set the OData endpoint in the Connect AI OData page: https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}.
- Authentication Schema: Select Login/Password.
- Login: Specify a CData Connect AI username (e.g. [email protected]).
- Password: Specify the PAT of the Connect AI user.
π Selecting a connector
- Fill in the same properties in the ACCEPTANCE and TEST tabs. Note: You can copy the configured settings by clicking 'Copy this configuration button,' then pasting the content in the new tab by clicking 'Paste previously copied configuration.'
- Click Save to save the properties.
Retrieve Microsoft Dataverse Data by Creating a Connector
- In the CONNECTORS tab, click the button with three dots to create the provider, then select Add connector from the menu.
- In the following page, set Connector URL to the OData endpoint configured in Connect AI (e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name})
π Connector settings page
- Click Save then Launch to test the connector execution. Click Launch test to execute. The process is successful if you get the JSON response of your configured table information.
π Execution test page
More Information & Free Trial
Now, you have created a provider and connector to retrieve Microsoft Dataverse data. For more information on creating OData feeds from Microsoft Dataverse (and more than 100 other data sources), visit the Connect AI page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live Microsoft Dataverse data in RunMyProcess.