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URL: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/dynamics365-cloud-power-automate-desktop.rst

⇱ Integrate Dynamics 365 Data into Power Automate Desktop using CData Connect

Integrate Dynamics 365 Data into Power Automate Desktop using CData Connect

👁 Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
CData Connect for Dynamics 365 Data enables you to integrate Dynamics 365 data into workflows built using Microsoft Power Automate Desktop.

CData Connect enables you to access live Dynamics 365 data in workflow automation tools like Power Automate. This article shows how to integrate Dynamics 365 data into a simple workflow, saving Dynamics 365 data into a CSV file.

CData Connect provides a live interface for Dynamics 365, allowing you to integrate with live Dynamics 365 data in Power Automate — without replicating the data. Connect uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Dynamics 365, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Dynamics 365 data.

About Dynamics 365 Data Integration

CData simplifies access and integration of live Microsoft Dynamics 365 data. Our customers leverage CData connectivity to:

  • Read and write data in the full Dynamics 365 ecosystem: Sales, Customer Service, Finance & Operations, Marketing, and more.
  • Extend the native features of Dynamics CRM with customizable caching and intelligent query aggregation and separation.
  • Authenticate securely with Dynamics 365 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 their Dynamics 365 entities - listing, creating, and removing associations between entities.

CData customers use our Dynamics 365 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 Dynamics 365 data from their preferred data tools inside the Microsoft ecosystem (Power BI, Excel, etc.) or with external tools (Tableau, Looker, etc.).


Getting Started


Configure Dynamics 365 Connectivity for Power Automate

Connectivity to Dynamics 365 from Power Automate is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Dynamics 365 data from Power Automate, we start by creating and configuring a Dynamics 365 connection.

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
    2. 👁 Adding a Connection
  2. Select "Dynamics 365" from the Add Connection panel
    3. 👁 Selecting a data source
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Dynamics 365.

    Edition and OrganizationUrl are required connection properties. The Dynamics 365 connector supports connecting to the following editions: CustomerService, FieldService, FinOpsOnline, FinOpsOnPremise, HumanResources, Marketing, ProjectOperations and Sales.

    For Dynamics 365 Business Central, use the separate Dynamics 365 Business Central driver.

    OrganizationUrl is the URL to your Dynamics 365 organization. For instance, https://orgcb42e1d0.crm.dynamics.com

    👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
  4. Click Save & Test
  5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Dynamics 365 Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 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.

  1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
  2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
  3. Give the PAT a name and click Create. 👁 Creating a new PAT
  4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to Dynamics 365 data from Power Automate Desktop.

Integrate Dynamics 365 Data into Power Automate Workflows

After configuring CData Connect with Dynamics 365, you are ready to integrate Dynamics 365 data into your Power Automate workflows. Open Microsoft Power Automate, add a new flow, and name the flow.

👁 A new flow in Power Automate

In the flow editor, you can add the options to connect to Dynamics 365, query Dynamics 365 using SQL, and write the query results to a CSV document.

Add an Open SQL Connection Action

Add an "Open SQL connection" action (Action -> Database) and click the option to build the Connection string. In the Data Link Properties wizard:

  1. On the Provider tab: select Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server
  2. On the Connection tab:
    1. Select or enter a server name: set to tds.cdata.com,14333
    2. Enter information to lag onto the server: select "Use a specific username and password"
      • Set User name to your CData Connect AI user name (e.g. [email protected])
      • Set Password to your PAT
      • Select the database: use the database configured above (e.g. Dynamics3651)
  3. Click "Test Connection" to ensure the connection is configured properly
  4. Click "OK" 👁 A configured connection to CData Connect

After building the connection string in the Data Link Properties wizard, save the action.

👁 A configured 'Open SQL connection' action

Add an Execute SQL Statement Action

Add an "Execute SQL statement" action (Action -> Database) and configure the properties.

  • Get connection by: SQL connection variable
  • SQL connection: %SQLConnection% (the variable from the "Open SQL connection" action above)
  • SQL statement: SELECT * FROM GoalHeadings

After configuring the properties, save the action.

👁 A configured 'Execute SQL statement' action

Add a Write to CSV File Action

Add a "Write to CSV file" action (Action -> File) and configure the properties.

  • Variable to write to: %QueryResult% (the variable from the "Execute SQL statement" action above)
  • File path: set to a file on disk
  • Configure Advanced settings as needed.

After configuring the properties, save the action.

👁 A configured 'Write to CSV file' action

Add a Close SQL Connection Action

Add a "Close SQL connection" action (Action -> Database) and configure the properties.

  • SQL Connection: %SQLConnection% (the variable from the "Open SQL connection" action above)

After configuring the properties, save the action.

👁 A configured 'Close SQL connection' action

Save & Run the Flow

Once you have configured all the options for the flow, click the disk icon to save the flow. Click the play icon to run the flow.

👁 A fully configured workflow

Now you have a workflow to save Dynamics 365 data into a CSV file.

👁 Application data in a CSV file (Salesforce is shown)

With CData Connect AI, you get live connectivity to Dynamics 365 data within your Microsoft Power Automate workflows.

SQL Access to Dynamics 365 Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct connection to live Dynamics 365 data from Power Automate tasks. You can create more connections and workflows to drive business — all without replicating Dynamics 365 data.

To get SQL data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, sign up for a free trial of CData Connect AI.

Related Power Automate Articles

This article explains how to use CData Connect AI with Power Automate Desktop. Check out our other articles for more ways to work with Power Automate (Desktop & Online):