Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central v2 Query activity

Introduction

A Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central v2 Query activity, using its Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central v2 connection, retrieves records from an entity in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and is intended to be used as a source in an operation.

Create a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central v2 Query activity

An instance of a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central v2 Query activity is created from a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central v2 connection using its Query activity type.

To create an instance of an activity, drag the activity type to the design canvas or copy the activity type and paste it on the design canvas. For details, see Create an activity instance in Component reuse.

An existing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central v2 Query activity can be edited from these locations:

• The design canvas (see Component actions menu in Design canvas).
• The project pane's Components tab (see Component actions menu in Project pane Components tab).

Configure a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central v2 Query activity

Follow these steps to configure a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central v2 Query activity:

• Step 1: Enter a name and select a company and object
  Provide a name for the activity and specify the company and object.

• Step 2: Select child objects
  Specify the child objects.

• Step 3: Define a filter string
  The Query Builder is used to set conditions on a query using the object fields and apply pagination to a query.

• Step 4: Review the data schema
  Any response schemas generated from the endpoint are displayed.

Step 1: Enter a name and select a company and object

In this step, provide a name for the activity and specify the company and object. Each user interface element of this step is described below.

• Name: Enter a name to identify the activity. The name must be unique for each Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central v2 Query activity and must not contain forward slashes / or colons :.

• Company: Select a company from the list. Click the refresh icon or the word Refresh to reload the list of companies.

• Select Object: This section displays objects available in the selected company.

  • Selected Object: After an object is selected, it is listed here.

  • Search: Enter any column's value into the search box to filter the list of objects. The search is not case-sensitive. If objects are already displayed within the table, the table results are filtered in real time with each keystroke. To reload objects from the endpoint when searching, enter search criteria and then refresh, as described below.

  • Refresh: Click the refresh icon or the word Refresh to reload objects from the endpoint. This may be useful if objects have been added to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. This action refreshes all metadata used to build the table of objects displayed in the configuration.

  • Selecting an Object: Within the table, click anywhere on a row to select an object. Only one object can be selected. The information available for each object is fetched from the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central v2 endpoint:

    • Name: The object name from the endpoint.

    • Description: The object description from the endpoint.

  Tip

  If the table does not populate with available objects, the connection may not be successful. Ensure you are connected by reopening the connection and retesting the credentials.

  Business Central objects must be published as Web Services in order to be accessed via the connector. To accomplish this, follow the steps outlined in the Microsoft documentation.

• Save & Exit: If enabled, click to save the configuration for this step and close the activity configuration.

• Next: Click to temporarily store the configuration for this step and continue to the next step. The configuration will not be saved until you click the Finished button on the last step.

• Discard Changes: After making changes, click to close the configuration without saving changes made to any step. A message asks you to confirm that you want to discard changes.

Step 2: Select child objects

In this step, specify the child objects. Each user interface element of this step is described below.

• Object Classes: This section is used to select child object classes to query. This section is optional and can be skipped by selecting Next.

  • Available Child Objects: This column displays child object classes to select from.

    • Search: Enter any column's value into the search box to filter the list of child object classes. The search is not case-sensitive. If object classes are already displayed within the table, the table results are filtered in real time with each keystroke. To reload child object classes from the endpoint when searching, enter search criteria and then refresh, as described below.

    • Refresh: Click the refresh icon to reload child object classes from the endpoint. This may be useful if child object classes have been added to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.

    • Adding a Child Object: Within the column, click anywhere on a row to select one or more child object classes. Then click the add icon to add selected classes to the Selected Child Objects column:

      

  • Selected Child Objects: This column displays selected child object classes.

    • Removing a Child Object: Within the column, click anywhere on a row to select one or more child object classes. Then click the remove icon to return selected classes to the Available Child Objects column:

      

• Back: Click to temporarily store the configuration for this step and return to the previous step.

• Next: Click to temporarily store the configuration for this step and continue to the next step. The configuration will not be saved until you click the Finished button on the last step.

• Discard Changes: After making changes, click to close the configuration without saving changes made to any step. A message asks you to confirm that you want to discard changes.

Step 3: Define a filter string

In this step, a query's Filter String is defined for a query using available object fields and query settings. Each user interface element of this step is described below.

The Filter String can be configured in the Basic or Advanced tabs.

• Basic: Allows you to build the Filter String with guided fields:

  

  • Object Fields: Select the fields to be used in the query based on the selected object class.

    • Search: Enter any part of a field name into the search box to filter the list of fields for the selected object. The search is not case-sensitive. The listed results are filtered in real time with each keystroke.

    • Refresh: Click the refresh icon or the word Refresh to reload fields of the object from the OData endpoint.

    • Select All in Object Class: When using the search box to filter, you can use this checkbox to select all visible fields at once.

    • Select Fields: Select the checkboxes of the fields you want included in the query to have them automatically added to the Filter String. You can also select all of the fields at once using the parent checkbox.

  • Page Size: Enter the maximum number of results to retrieve for each page in the query response. If left empty, each page will contain 100 results.

    Note

    If client-side pagination is required, use the Skip and Top fields.

  • Include Count: Select to include the number of results from a query as part of the response. For example, if a query returns 5 results total, the response will also include "_microsoft_dynamics_365_business_central.count": 5.

  • Full Text Search: This field is not supported by the OData V4 Protocol and is ignored at runtime. Instead, use conditional clauses (described below).

  • Skip: Enter the number of results to skip in the query response. Used for client-side pagination.

  • Top: Enter the maximum number of results to receive in the query response. Used for client-side pagination.

  • Conditional Clauses: To add conditionals, use these fields as input to help construct the clauses, which then appear in the Filter String.

    • Object: Use the dropdown to select the object class to use for the conditional.

    • Field: Use the dropdown to select the field from the object class to use for the conditional.

    • Operator: Use the dropdown to select an appropriate operator:

      Comparison
      Equals
      Greater Than
      Greater Than or Equals
      Less Than
      Less Than or Equals

    • Value: Enter the desired value to compare against the previous dropdown selections.

    • Remove: Click to remove the conditional.

    • Add: Click to add a new conditional to the Conditional Clauses table and Filter String.

    • Remove All: Click to remove all conditionals from the Conditional Clauses table and Filter String.

  • Filter String: As you fill out the other fields in the Basic tab, the filter string statement in this text box is automatically populated with the selected fields, conditions, and query options.

• Advanced: Hides the guided fields and allows you to modify Filter String directly:

  

  • Page Size: Enter the maximum number of results to retrieve for each page in the query response. If left empty, each page will contain 100 results.

    Note

    If client-side pagination is required, use the $skip and $top query options in the Filter String field.

  • Filter String: Edit the filter string statement directly.

• Test Query: Click to validate the query. If you edit the filter string while in Advanced mode, the query must be valid and validated through this button in order to enable the Next button.

  Note

  An error may occur if the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central instance has more than one company and does not have an assigned default company. To resolve this, you must assign a default company for the instance associated with the Tenant ID specified in the connection.

• Back: Click to temporarily store the configuration for this step and return to the previous step.

• Next: Click to temporarily store the configuration for this step and continue to the next step. The configuration will not be saved until you click the Finished button on the last step.

• Discard Changes: After making changes, click to close the configuration without saving changes made to any step. A message asks you to confirm that you want to discard changes.

Step 4: Review the data schema

The response schema generated from the endpoint is displayed. Each user interface element of this step is described below.

• Data Schema: This data schema is inherited by adjacent transformations and is displayed again during transformation mapping.

  The Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central v2 connector uses the OData V4 Protocol. Refer to the API documentation for information on the schema nodes and fields.

• Refresh: Click the refresh icon or the word Refresh to regenerate schemas from the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central endpoint. This action also regenerates a schema in other locations throughout the project where the same schema is referenced, such as in an adjacent transformation.

• Back: Click to temporarily store the configuration for this step and return to the previous step.

• Finished: Click to save the configuration for all steps and close the activity configuration.

• Discard Changes: After making changes, click to close the configuration without saving changes made to any step. A message asks you to confirm that you want to discard changes.

Next steps

After configuring a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central v2 Query activity, complete the configuration of the operation by adding and configuring other activities, transformations, or scripts as operation steps. You can also configure the operation settings, which include the ability to chain operations together that are in the same or different workflows.

Menu actions for an activity are accessible from the project pane and the design canvas. For details, see Activity actions menu in Connector basics.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central v2 Query activities can be used as a source with these operation patterns:

• Transformation pattern
• Two-target archive pattern (as the first source only)
• Two-target HTTP archive pattern (as the first source only)
• Two-transformation pattern (as the first source only)

To use the activity with scripting functions, write the data to a temporary location and then use that temporary location in the scripting function.

When ready, deploy and run the operation and validate behavior by checking the operation logs.