Often Consultants for Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations have to design new Solutions. On this way too much it is neccessry to research in which tables specific data are stored and how are the table relations are designed. So if we have access to single box environments some consultants can use local SQL-Server Management Studio to find these information. Much less consultants should be able to have a Visual Studio license and access to the develepment environment to search for dependencies and structural information.
Even if these tools are accessable for Consultants it is time comsuming to find the required information in thousands of tables.
First Aid – Dynamics 365 FO table browser
So for D365 people not having these tools available the access to the Dynamics table browser is a more or less comfortbale way to read and find Information direct from Dynamics tables.
One of the available URL Parameters is to call the Menuitem SysTableBrowser.
https://yourdynamicsaxurl.cloudax.dynamics.com/?mi=SysTableBrowser&prt=initial&cmp=GBSI&tablename=Custtable&limitednav=true
Knowing the tablename is essential to use this syntax, otherwise no success. Finding the right table allows editing in free text fields or choosing from underlying master table values. Sometimes it could be very hard to remember the detailled tablename as well as it is not possible to search for any table.
To access to table data you need the appropriate user rigths inside your environment. Once you reach the table browser you can personalize the form as used for each table you call. So adjust and hide columns as you need it for your task. It may be also usefull to save some filter settings (STRG-SHIFT-F3) for faster access.
Second Aid – Chrome Table Browser Caller
Fortunately i found this cool tool helping me and my colleagues in the future to take a fast view inside the Dynamics 365 FO tables to check, validate or search for data without any large lools as SSMS or VS.
As it is currently available for the Chrome browser only it’s a major reason to use Chrome instead of Microsoft Edge.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/table-browser-caller-for/nahbldacmaibopfiiaoboloegpobpccn
One time the table browser is installed in Chrome it needs a little configuration to access your environment. Just add as much URLs as you need or remove them from the list of Environments using the “-” and “+” Icons.
Quering table content
Once you have added some Dynamics URL’s you can surf inside the table list, access the data entity list or Access individual tables.
“Limited Nav.” switches on or off the Dynamics main navigation menu on the left side of the browser. Table browser works fine with local VM URL too.
Just type in table name oder part of that and an easy full text search will show you the tables according to your input. If you have found the table you like to query use the magnifyer to jump to the Dynamics table browser opening the desired table as seen above.
The table list will not be queried live from your environment, this information is delieverd by the extension and is currently from Version 1611PU3. If you need you can import your own table list as a plain csv file containing e.g. your enhancemnt tables added to the Standard tables. The description is shown at the “Load you own list” function on the Config tab.
Quering table list
Searching for tables and additional information is as easy. Just click the green table list button on the Table Browser Caller Tab to serach inside the indluded table list of the extension (V1611PU3). You can search free text also, as well as filter some columns.
You can then click the table name to jump to the table browser opening this table as well as the “form reference” to jump to the corresponding Dynamics form. In the buttom of the table list form you can set addition filters to decrease the list of found tables.
For my suprise i found some form references to forms which i only could open in Dynamics from individual Business documents with prefiltered data correponding to the regarding Business document. This allows to access these forms e.g. Inventrans with unfiltered data.
Quering data entities
As against the “table list” the data entites are queried from your Dynamics environment on runtime.
For searching data entites as well as look into the content of a entity it is a faster way than inside Dynamics to do this. Clicking on the “public Collection name” shows the odata content which can be utilized for data migration, data import and export scenarios as well as for business intelligence purposes.