Unanswered

User vs Contact Entity

(1) Share

Report

Posted on by SharonP

Hi,

I have created a model driven application using Powerapps. This application is for internal employees of the organization which will be authenticated using Azure AD.

I have various custom entities like surveys.

My question is since this application is for internal employees they will have a record in the "User" entity. I also need to create a contact record for all the users.

Is it a best practice to have a "user" and a "contact" record for the same person?

Can I create a relationship between User and contact entity?

Thanks.

Categories:

Microsoft Dataverse with Power Apps

I have the same question (0)

All responses (7)

Answers (1)

v-jefferni on at

Like (0)

Report

Hi @Sharon091 ,

Contact is a standard table in Dataverse, which already has a many-to-one relationship with User table, so why would you like to create a new one?

Best regards,
Community Support Team _ Jeffer Ni
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Verified answer

EricRegnier 8,720 Most Valuable Professional on at

Like (2)

Report

Hi @Sharon091,

Good question! Users in Dataverse are automatically created when a Power Apps (or Dynamics 365) license is assigned to them in O365. So a Dataverse user record maps to an O365/AAD user. Contacts are typically used for external users (e.g. customers) versus employees. I would only use User table/entity and not Contact to simplify the overall solution and not have duplicate type of information (employee data in both Users and Contacts).

In order to create the user records, simply assign a license to them (they will need one anyways if they will be using the app/system) and they will get created in Dataverse.

More info: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/add-users-to-environment#add-users-to-an-environment-that-has-a-dataverse-database

Hope this helps!

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Ostritch 20 on at

Like (0)

Report

Hi, a little late but question is relevant to this topic I think.

We have a custom "Resources" table in Dataverse which has a lookup to System Users (as the parent user record linked with AAD). Many other custom tables in the system have relationships with Resources table e.g. an Assignment has a lookup to a Resource.

How would we have an internal Portal/Power Pages site where employees would only be able to see Assignments associated with their own Resource record (which is in turn associated with their System User record and AAD). The table permissions in Power Pages only seem to have options for Global, Contact, Account or Self access. Is my scenario possible? Do I need custom code somewhere?

Thanks!

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
KPete 2 on at

Like (0)

Report

Hi!
Checking in to see if you happened to receive a solution to your inquiry. I have similar circumstances and we are about to dive into researching any possible solutions.

Thank you!

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Jen567885 20 on at

Like (0)

Report

I am having the same problem and am going round in circles trying to find the answer! In the ideal world I would simply turn on timeline mode for the user table so I can track my stakeholders (internal to the organisation) there, but that doesnt work and i dont need all users. Only 1200 of 220,000.

Can anyone help?!

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
EricRegnier 8,720 Most Valuable Professional on at

Like (0)

Report

Hi @Jen567885, did you happen to resolve this. If not I would suggest opening a new thread for better support. Thanks

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Jen567885 20 on at

Like (0)

Report

Hi Eric, Sadly this was never resolved! If you look at my post history I think i've made several direct posts about it - all were viewed and ignored. I even tried the PowerPlatform reddit thread and was never able to get support on how to overcome this issue.

Stakeholder management in an organisation is not a new thing so its a shame that this causes problems when trying to use Dynamics for Outlook (my contact appears in both user and contact table),as it would have been so useful!

Was this reply helpful? Yes No