Dynamics 365

Entities, operations, and actions

All the Integration Connectors provide a layer of abstraction for the objects of the connected application. You can access an application's objects only through this abstraction. The abstraction is exposed to you as entities, operations, and actions.

• Entity: An entity can be thought of as an object, or a collection of properties, in the connected application or service. The definition of an entity differs from a connector to a connector. For example, in a database connector, tables are the entities, in a file server connector, folders are the entities, and in a messaging system connector, queues are the entities.

  However, it is possible that a connector doesn't support or have any entities, in which case the Entities list will be empty.

• Operation: An operation is the activity that you can perform on an entity. You can perform any of the following operations on an entity:
  • List
  • Get
  • Create
  • Update
  • Delete

  Selecting an entity from the available list, generates a list of operations available for the entity. For a detailed description of the operations, see the Connectors task's entity operations. However, if a connector doesn't support any of the entity operations, such unsupported operations aren't listed in the Operations list.

• Action: An action is a first class function that is made available to the integration through the connector interface. An action lets you make changes to an entity or entities, and vary from connector to connector. Normally, an action will have some input parameters, and an output parameter. However, it is possible that a connector doesn't support any action, in which case the Actions list will be empty.

Entity operation examples

This section shows how to perform some of the entity operations in this connector.

Example - List all the products

This example lists all the products in the Products entity.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select Products from the Entity list.
3. Select the List operation, and then click Done.
4. Optionally, in Task Input section of the Connectors task, you can filter your result set by specifying a filter clause. Specify the filter clause value always within the single quotes (').

Example - Get a lead

This example gets a lead with the specified ID from the Leads entity.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select Leads from the Entity list.
3. Select the Get operation, and then click Done.
4. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click EntityId and then enter c5233ad8-a1a4-ee11-a568-000d3ac9f67f in the Default Value field.

   Here, c5233ad8-a1a4-ee11-a568-000d3ac9f67f is a unique record ID in the Leads entity.

Example - Create a lead

This example creates a lead in the Leads entity.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select Leads from the Entity list.
3. Select the Create operation, and then click Done.
4. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
   "fullname": "nameadded1703832358758",   
   "subject": "test subject",   
   "firstname": "firstname1703832358766",   
   "lastname": "lastname1703832358767"
   }

   If the integration is successful, your connector task's connectorOutputPayload field will have a value similar to the following:

   [{
   "leadid": "220166e8-15a6-ee11-a569-002248d5dd6b"
   }]

Example - Update an order

This example updates a record in the SalesOrder entity.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select SalesOrder from the Entity list.
3. Select the Update operation, and then click Done.
4. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
   "name": "Nameupdated1704863189087"
    }

5. Click entityId, and then enter 580775a4-17aa-ee11-a568-000d3ac9f67f in the Default Value field.

   If the integration is successful, your connector task's connectorOutputPayload field will have a value similar to the following:

   [{
   "salesorderid": "580775a4-17aa-ee11-a568-000d3ac9f67f"
   }]

Example - Delete a contact

This example deletes the contact with the specified ID in the Contacts entity.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select Contacts from the Entity list.
3. Select the Delete operation, and then click Done.
4. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click entityId and then enter 524f543b-3ea5-ee11-a568-000d3ac9f67f in the Default Value field.