Model Driven App Contact form - Timeline logic

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Posted on by ghdunn

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Building a Model Driven App with Contact/Activity entities.

The Timeline sub-form on the Contact form seems to have a different logic to my Related Activities views - typically there will be activities which don't appear on the Timeline.

If I try to expose the Timeline sub-form to see how the filter works, it tells me I can edit in Classic view, but I can't then see anything to expose the logic of the filter.

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Microsoft Dataverse with Power Apps

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SeanHenderson 1,104 on at

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Hi @ghdunn
Double click on the Timeline pane, then click the Activities tab. From here you can adjust what you want to see in the feed.

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ghdunn 409 on at

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Thanks ...@SeanHenderson

I didn't know that....I do now!

However I am still struggling to decode what it tells me.

Why should this Timeline view show nothing for this particular contact, when I know there are activities related to them in the database. Which one of these tabs/views etc contains the filter logic I need to examine?

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SeanHenderson 1,104 on at

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On the general tab is Filter By set to Show all?

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ghdunn 409 on at

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Thanks @SeanHenderson
Yes...it is..(screenprint 1)....but it does not show anything(screenprint 2), even though there are 'related' activities(screenprint 3)

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SeanHenderson 1,104 on at

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I think changes must have been made to your Rules and Configurations. Go to the advanced settings and check your Activity feed config to see if some things have been disabled.

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ghdunn 409 on at

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Thanks @SeanHenderson

I dont see quite the same options...nothing showing for Activity Feeds Config

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Hamish Sheild 3,005 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hi @ghdunn ,

The reason that your activities do not appear in the Timeline is because they are not Regarding the Contact. i.e. the Regarding field on your activities is not set to the Contact. See red box in screenshot below.

Check out this article. It says "If the Regarding field of an activity is set, the activity appears in the record it is associated with."

The reason that you see the activities in the Open Activity Associated View is because you have the Include Related field toggled to On. If you turn that toggle off then it will show the same activities in your timeline (none).

Now my question is, is it possible to get the related Activities showing in the Timeline (as they do in the Associated view) without setting the Regarding?

@SeanHenderson is your CDS environment a Dynamics 365 environment? I think the Activity Feeds is specific to Dynamics 365. I have it in my Dynamics 365 environment but not CDS environments. Activity Feeds Config only controls the Posts entity and has nothing to do with Activities (unless I am mistaken).

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SeanHenderson 1,104 on at

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@HSheild
The app I was testing was Dynamics, but I went into a CDS environment with no Dynamics apps installed and checked the main form on the Contacts entity and it still has a Timeline with Activities. I don't know if it has 1:1 functionality with the Dynamics app though.

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ghdunn 409 on at

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thanks @HSheild and @SeanHenderson for the really thoughtful answers...i appreciate it.

Firstly, to confirm, I am using a CDS core schema environment....not Dynamics.

Can I just sum up where I am with my thinking and pose some questions:

1. I am somewhat confused about 'Regarding' (and I have raised a question on this previously and not really got to the bottom of it). If I generate an email, or an appointment, I would really expect the event to show on the Timelines of all addressees or invitees, driven by the 'To' field, or even the 'cc' or 'bcc' field. After all, the event does involve those people to them. But 'Regarding' allows only one item to be selected. What are your thoughts?
2. If I wanted to extend the filter of Timeline to include not just Regarding, but all those above, how would i do that?
3. There just seem to be too many different terms being used here for it to be clear. 'Timeline' suggests timeline of 'events' but it doesn't really clearly suggest what those events are. 'Regarding' is a clear field..though sadly allows only one entry. You then have 'Associated' and 'Related'. What do those two terms actually mean. Is associated that broader definition of To/cc/bcc etc
4. Finally comes 'Include Related=On' What does related mean...does it broaden it to not just the regarding and to/cc/bcc but also every item that was sent by the user, even if it doesn't relate to the Contact in question? That just seems counter intutitive that setting that to 'on' tightens the filter not loosens it. It perhaps would better say say 'includes related only', perhaps?
5. As for your point about Posts entity etc. My MDA has brought in Account, Contact and Activity entities, but I assume makes use of any necessary dependencies in the broader CDS core schema. Are we suggesting that this full activity functionality has dependencies outside of that schema that are therefore missing?

Thoughts?

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Hamish Sheild 3,005 Most Valuable Professional on at

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@SeanHenderson the difference between CDS and Dynamics for the Timeline control seems to be that that CDS doesn't have the Posts entity available in the Timeline. Both environments have Activities and Notes in the timeline.

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