Answered

Overwriting Created On & Created By?

(1) Share

Report

Posted on by Cooper01

664

I am importing data to an existing entity in CDS using the Get data from Excel button. My data contains information about the initial user who created the record as well as its original create date time. When I import, Created By and Created On are automatically set to myself and now respectively.

I know there is a field called Record Created On but I can't get this to show up when I am mapping from Excel to my entity fields. Do not see anything called Record Created By.

Can anyone recommend a good way to do this? Not sure if I'm missing something or I just need to create my own custom Created By and Created On fields and set the data there.

Thanks

Categories:

Microsoft Dataverse with Power Apps

I have the same question (0)

All responses (10)

Answers (1)

ChrisPiasecki 6,422 Most Valuable Professional on at

Like (1)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hi @Cooper01 ,

In the Data tab of your entity, you can change your view to see an existing view that may have the Created On / Created By fields, or you can create a custom view that includes those columns. Then switch to that view, and Export it so that the template will include those columns. Make sure when you are importing the CSV back in, that you map the Created By lookup fields correctly, as it typically uses the composite FullName, so ensure you put in the full name in the CSV exactly as it matches for the user lookup in CDS.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Cooper01 664 on at

Like (0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Thank you for the response. I was able to export the fields to get the internal names. Created by was referencing an email field. When I added new rows to created on and created by, I was able to map created by only. After completing the import there were no errors, however values I uploaded did not "take" and created by was still myself. Created on was now, which I expected as it's not surfacing in the mappings.
Instead I used the Dynamics Import Tool. That did not allow me to modify created by either so I needed to create a custom field. I was able to overwrite created on

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
David Jennaway 716 on at

Like (3)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

You can override the createdon by mapping to the overriddencreatedon field.
You can't directly override the createdby field in the same way. though this can be done programmatically by impersonating another user (which would also set the modifiedby)

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
ChrisPiasecki 6,422 Most Valuable Professional on at

Like (1)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hi @Cooper01,
Apologies, I was mistaken. The created by is not directly modifiable for auditing reasons. @DavidJennaway is correct in that you would need to use impersonation to set the created by to a user that is different than the connection user.
Here is info on how to do impersonation based on what programmatic method used.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/developer/common-data-service/impersonate-another-user

3rd party data migration tools like Kingswaysoft also support this, as long as the user being impersonated exists and is licensed in the target CDS instance.
---
Please click Accept as Solution if my post answered your question. This will help others find solutions to similar questions. If you like my post and/or find it helpful, please consider giving it a Thumbs Up.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No

Verified answer

EricRegnier

8,720 Most Valuable Professional on at

Like (3)

Report

Copy link

Link copied!

Hi @Cooper01,

Just to supplement on the previous posts and to summarize, the following fields are the ones you can override/act on behalf.

Field	Override/on behalf field	Behavior
Created On (createdon)	Record Created On (overriddencreatedon)	When overriddencreatedon is set, createdon will be updated to the overridden date and overriddencreatedon will be the actual date. So in the UI you will see the custom Created On.
Created By (createdby)	Created On (delegate) (createdonbehalfby)	Created By will always be the actual user, but the act on behalf user will be set in createdonbehalfby
Modified By (modifiedby)	Modified By (delegate) (modifiedonbehalfby)	Same as createdonbehalfby

Created On can be set in imports, however unfortunately Created and Modified By (from what I know) can only be recorded in Plugins, Custom Workflow Activities and API calls (SDK and WebAPI) , not Dataflows or imports files.

Now, to go back to your original questions:

You're right, in "Get Data" from Excel or Dataflows we can't map the "Created On" field field like in classic import function which seems a defect for me. I would submit a Microsoft Support Ticket at: https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com/support
An alternative is to use the classic import wizard. Set directly the Created On field to your custom date and CDS will automatically set the "Record Created On" to the actual date and put your custom date for Created On.
For the Created By, unless scripting/coding, plugins or tools like Kingwaysoft, there is no way (up to now) to set the overwrite the Created By field. An alternative would be to create a custom Created By field and set that in your imports.

Hope this clarifies a little!

Was this reply helpful? Yes No

TheRealPobblebonk 21 on at

Like (0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hi, We need to do the same however a lot of the users are no longer in enabled user in AD so just want to clarify whether the processes described here will work for user stubs? I would also appreciate some guidance on how to create the stubs. We still have the old on prem Dynamics database with the disabled users so we can use this as the source?

Thank you

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

Like (0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hi @ThePobblebonk,

Yup it's possible to import these users as disabled in the system (systemuser table), then you'll be able to import and set the modifiedonbehalfby and createdonbehalfby. Hope this helps!

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Geoff-RSM 11 on at

Like (0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Adding to Eric's comment -- if your ex-users are still in AD, you can get around the disabled user part. But if they've been purged from AD, then you're stuck. If you find yourself in that situation, a simple solution is to create a field like "Original Owner" or "Legacy Owner" as a text field, and save the old user name there.

When I've had this type of "keep a history of the old owner" requirement, the real need was simply to have an historical reference and a text field satisfied the need.

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

Like (1)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hey @Geoff-RSM, cheers for supplementing! Just wanted to mention a trick where you can keep inactive or unlicensed users even if they were deleted. Trick is to import them in the User table (systemuser) as inactive status. This can be done with an Excel import, Power Automate, Dataflows etc. And then you can reference them just like regular users. Hope this helps 🙂

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
DevRai 2 on at

Like (0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hi, I would like to add :
"Created On" field can only be overridden when the record is being created. So If you plan to first populate blank records with correct GUID in the destination environment then please make sure to include this "Overridecreatedon" in column mappings on the first go of migration process otherwise if you create the records without mapping this column, you will not be able to edit/override this column later.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No