Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Create and edit custom entity (Classic UI)

Create and edit new custom entity- Microsoft Dynamics 365

Entities define the types of records people can use in a Microsoft Dynamics 365 organization. In the Dynamics 365 application, you can edit customizable system entities and create, edit, and delete custom entities. You can create new entities for your implementation to address specific business requirements. After you create a custom entity, additional tasks are required to ensure that the entity is accessible to your users.

By default, when an entity is created, only the System Administrator and System Customizer security roles have any privileges to read or change data in the custom entity. You must add privileges explicitly to all security roles that need to use the new entity.

Types of entities:

Before creating or editing entities you should understand that there are different types of entities. Once a custom entity is created, these types cannot be changed. The two major divisions are based on entity ownership and whether the entities are activity entities.

Entity ownership: There are four different types of entity ownership. When you create a custom entity the only options are user or team owned or organization-owned, but you should be aware that other entities have different ownership types.

The custom entities that you create, and most customizable system entities, are either organization-owned or user or team owned. After an entity is created, you can’t change the ownership. Before you create an entity, make sure that you choose the correct type of ownership. If you later determine that your custom entity must be of a different type, you have to delete it and create a new one.

Activity entities: An activity can be thought of as any action for which an entry can be made on a calendar. Like Appointment, email, fax, phone call, task.

Creating entity:

Step 1: Navigate to Dynamics 365 > Settings > Solution. Open your work solution Click Entities, and then on the command bar, click New.

Step 2: In the window that follows, specify the below information and click on Save/ Save and Close.

The minimum required fields to create a custom entity are:

Ø  Display Name: This is the singular name for the entity that will be used in Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Ø  Plural Name: This is the plural name for the entity that will be used in Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Ø  Name: This field is pre-populated based on the display name you enter. It includes the solution publisher customization prefix. You can also modify the value in the Name field independently of the display name.

Ø  Ownership: You can choose either user or team-owned or organization owned.

Ø  Areas that display this entity: select the areas where this entity will be displayed in the Microsoft Dynamics 365 user interface.

Ø  Under Options for Entity, select the appropriate options for your scenario.

† - After you enable this option it cannot be disabled.

Ø  On the Primary Field tab, enter a descriptive Display Name, and then verify that Requirement Level set to Business Required. The primary field is displayed when relationships to this entity are created or displayed, such as in the LookUp Records dialog box.

Note

The default Display Name for the primary field is Name. The Name* will be “prefix_name”. If you want to use different name, you must set the value when you create the entity. You cannot edit/change the name one entity is created, display name can be editable.

Step 3: Publish your customizations for use.

Publish can be used for to publish customizations for only the component that you’re currently working.

Publish All Customizations to publish customizations for all unpublished components at one time.

 

Editing entity: You can edit any custom entities that you create. System entities or managed custom entities may have limitations about changes you can make.

Step 1: To edit any entity open the entity by navigating to Dynamics 365 > Settings > Solution. Open your work solution Click Entities, and then double click on the entity or select the entity from tree.

Step 2: Change as per your business need and Save and then publish your changes to reflect in Dynamics 365.

Delete custom entities:  

You can delete custom entities that aren’t part of a managed solution which in no longer required for your business.

When you delete a custom entity, the database tables that store data for that entity are deleted and all data they contain is lost.

Before you can delete a custom entity, you must remove any dependencies that exist in other solution components.

If you try to delete the entity and any dependencies are available, the deletion won’t be allowed. Click or tap Show Dependencies on the menu bar to help identify any dependencies that you have to remove before the entity can be deleted.

 

Next part will cover creating different types of attributes, relationship.