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Dataverse & Entity Framework

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Posted on by otilane

Hi!

I'm relatively new to PowerApps and Dataverse, however, in 2.5 months of working with it, as a "pro-developer", I've found it increasingly frustrating to manage Dataverse on any level, even with the XrmToolBox tools available (SQL 4 CDS, Attribute Factory). We are provided with an out of the box solution for generating essentially entities, similar to ones I'd set up with Entity Framework, and yet, I can't find any Microsoft solutions for integrating Entity Framework with Dataverse.

Database definition through code and scaffolding would be huge in increasing productivity and reducing the amount of frustrations from just "click click click" to get one table up and running, let alone a few hundred. For me and my team's specific needs, keeping integration for "citizen developers" for data modelling is really not necessary, as most of it is done by developers anyways.

The only mention of Entity Framework integration I could find is a high-level plan for EF Core 6.0, which disappeared from EF Core 7.0 onwards - Plan for Entity Framework Core 6.0 | Microsoft Learn. I'd love for any insight from either the community or Microsoft themselves into this.

Are there any plans to integrate EF Core for Dataverse?
Was this high-level plan cancelled or is it still in the works?
Is the alternative to write my own wrapper and solution using the new .NET Core API?

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Microsoft Dataverse with Power Apps

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Guido Preite 1,488 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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I am not aware of an Entity Framework provider supporting Dataverse, if you plan to create one keep in mind that normalization in Dataverse is different from normalization inside a standard DB (N:N relationship is the classic example of this).

You mentioned "Database definition through code" as you know to create tables and columns you need to use the make portal, however there is a project called Greg.Xrm.Command (aka PACX) that is a command line tool to create tables and columns. GitHub link: https://github.com/neronotte/Greg.Xrm.Command
check the wiki as it contains examples of the commands: https://github.com/neronotte/Greg.Xrm.Command/wiki

Regarding scaffolding, you probably know there is the concept of Early Bound classes (documentation link https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-apps/developer/data-platform/org-service/generate-early-bound-classes also the docs mentions the "Early Bound Generator" Tool inside XrmToolBox) but I personally prefer late bound with the use of the tool "Latebound Constants Generator" https://www.xrmtoolbox.com/plugins/Rappen.XrmToolBox.LateboundConstantsGenerator/ if the project is big.
hope it helps

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otilane 2 on at

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Hey!

Thanks, any and all resources / tools are incredibly useful. I've noticed that Dataverse is indeed quirky when it comes to normalization and practices. I've already realized that creating my own tooling is both a lot of work and incredibly subject to creating issues which I'd rather not have in prod for clients to deal with.

Honestly, for both Dataverse and in general anything that reduces the use and reliance of Make is incredibly useful as I've found that it only slows me down to a ridiculous degree as it takes me longer to create tables than it does to design at times 😄

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sudipm Microsoft Employee on at

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Hello @otilane
I understand your frustration, and dataverse/dynamics always has a steep learning curve for new developers.

Having said that, you should not see dataverse/dymamics with the same lens as a asp.net or custom application. Its a business application platform and is tailored built for rapid business application development and deployment. It is not a platform built to replace custom asp.net or database applications. It is certainly not a replacement for entity framework or has anything to do with it, hence there is no known integration with such.

So the short answer to your questions will be as follows, please note I am not from the Dataverse product group, so my answers may not be exactly correctly. Only someone from the product group can say for sure.

Are there any plans to integrate EF Core for Dataverse?
Ans : No, Dataverse has nothing to do with this, it has its own web api, management api etc. There is a SDK provided by the product group, we need to always try to use this for development whether its front end or backend.
Was this high-level plan cancelled or is it still in the works?
Ans : AFAIK no such plan ever existed
Is the alternative to write my own wrapper and solution using the new .NET Core API?
Ans : There are several ways of customizing dataverse solutions, excluding front end customisation on model driven apps, canvas apps or portals, on the server side the following options exist
Custom Plugins/Workflow Steps (C#) - Using the SDK interfaces, a custom dll can be built and deployed on dynamcis server via Plugin registration tool. It needs to be built using .NET Framework 4.7.1 as of now, no idea if the product group is planning to bump this up to a higher .NET framework or .NET core.
Azure Function - You can use the nuget packages provided by the Product group to built azure functions which connect to dataverse and do updates, these can be built using .NET 6/.NET 7 (.NET core). The azure functions can be called via webhooks or power automate etc.
Power Fx - you can use this on canvas apps, custom pages. This is not C# but a language used by other MS tools like power bi etc.

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