Addining field to table and form

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Posted on by DELDYN

Hi,

I created a new table in dataverse with display name = Service Category and with only one primary column field called Category Name

I went to standard “Leads” table and created also a field called service Category.

And on the new “service category” table i created many-many relationship between it's “category name” and the new field “service category” in the leads table

And i added the field on the Leads form as component. It currently appears as a table in the form instead of drop down, how to make it appear as drop down?

Also now when creating the lead from the UI, the service category component (new field) doesn't appear until i click save. I want it to appear when creating the lead and i want it to appear as mandatory, but again i don't want it to appear as table but rather as drop down.

I don't want it as a choice field, i want it as a table.

Cause this new table will have another child table in the future

So how to leave it as a table, but still make it mandatory and make it appear as a drop down and make it appear while creating the lead and not after saving?

So the table service category could have values like

Microsoft Licenses

Staff Augmentation

And in the future the child table will have more details with 2 fields like:

Staff Augmentation,AI Engineer

Staff Augmentation, front end developer

Microsoft Licenses, D365 CRM

..etc

It's like the main category the lead is interested in and the future table will show more details about that category the lead is interested in. That's why i want the service category as a table for now

And it can be multi select

So one lead can be interested in both staff augmentation and Microsoft Licenses

Categories:

Microsoft Dataverse with Power Apps

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Valantis 7,415 Super User 2026 Season 2 on at

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Hi @DELDYN,

There are two separate issues here:

Many-to-many relationships always appear as subgrids on forms, not dropdowns. That's how Dataverse renders M2M by default and there's no native setting to change it to a dropdown. If you want a dropdown look, you'd need a PCF (custom) control or a different data model.

The subgrid not appearing during record creation is also expected behavior. Subgrids for M2M relationships only load after the parent record is saved because the system needs a record ID to create the junction table entries. You can't make a M2M subgrid appear in the create form before the record is saved.

For mandatory: M2M relationships can't be set as required in the same way a field can. You'd need a Business Rule or plugin to enforce it.

Given your requirement (multi-select, hierarchical, future child table), the cleanest architecture is actually to keep the M2M relationship and subgrid as-is, but improve the user experience by:
1. Creating a Quick Create form on the Service Category table so users can add entries quickly from the subgrid
2. Using a Business Rule to warn the user if no categories are selected before they progress

If you're open to rethinking the model: a Lookup field (1:N) would give you the native dropdown, mandatory field, and shows during creation. You'd lose multi-select, but gain simplicity. For multi-select with dropdown UI, a Choices (multi-select option set) field is actually the closest native option, but you said you don't want that.

Best regards,

Valantis ✅ If this helped solve your issue, please Accept as Solution so others can find it quickly.

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🏷️ For follow-ups @Valantis.

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11manish 4,676 Super User 2026 Season 2 on at

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Do not redesign your Dataverse data model just to solve the UI problem.

Your Lead ↔ Service Category N:N model is correct for the business requirement. Keep Service Category as a proper Dataverse table because it will have its own

child records.

The only thing that needs customization is the user experience: use a PCF-based multi-select lookup/relationship control instead of the standard N:N subgrid.

Then enforce at least one category during Lead creation.

That gives you the best balance of correct Dataverse architecture + the dropdown UX you want + support for multiple categories + future child-table expansion.
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Mohsin Ali 916 on at

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Hello @DELDYN - Off recently I happen to use following PCF control to meet some requirements.

https://pcf.gallery/lookup-dropdown-pcf

To enable multiselect you may use following control too.

https://pcf.gallery/lookupmultiselect-pcf-control

This will convert your lookup column as a dropdown. It is default behavior that a table will only show on a form once parent record is saved. So you cannot modify that.
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BilalDev_01 115 on at

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Hi @DELDYN,

What you are trying to do makes sense, especially since Service Category will have child records later.

The main limitation is that a Dataverse N:N relationship is not presented as a normal dropdown. The standard control on the Lead form is a subgrid/related-records control, because you are actually associating multiple records from the Service Category table.

So I would keep Service Category as a table and keep the N:N relationship if one Lead can have multiple categories.

For example:

Lead → Microsoft Licenses
Lead → Staff Augmentation

The reason it doesn't appear while creating a new Lead is that the Lead record doesn't exist yet. Dataverse needs the Lead record/ID before it can create the N:N associations. That's why the related records control becomes available after the first save.

Also, you can't simply mark an N:N subgrid as "Business Required" like a normal lookup field.

If you specifically need a multi-select dropdown on the create form before the Lead is saved, you would need a custom approach, such as a PCF control or a custom form experience, and then create the N:N associations after the Lead is created.

For your future design, I would probably keep:

Service Category

Microsoft Licenses

Staff Augmentation

Service Offering

Microsoft Licenses → D365 CRM

Staff Augmentation → AI Engineer

Staff Augmentation → Front End Developer

Then Lead ↔ Service Category can remain N:N.

So I wouldn't convert this to a Choice field just to get the dropdown. You would lose the relational structure that you will need for the child table later.
DELDYN 38 on at

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Hi All,

So we all agree that i should keep the N:N relationship

And you all suggested that i need a PCF control to achieve the following:

multi select control

appears as drop down instead of table

Mandatory before creating the lead, so the control should appear while creating the lead and not after saving

I'm new to CRM, what is PCF control? and what steps to do exactly to achieve the above and making sure the control will look normally without affecting anything?
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Mohsin Ali 916 on at

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Hello @DELDYN - PowerApps Component Framework (PCF) is a framework that lets you to create your own custom tool to extend the UI of Dynamics CRM. You can build your own control by following the documentation below.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-apps/developer/component-framework/create-custom-controls-using-pcf

Or you can use existing tools from the PCF gallery. For existing controls, you need to download managed solution from the gallery and then install into your environment and then do the configurations.