Introduction: In this article, we will walk through steps on how to authenticate Business Central API using Basic Authentication in Postman Pre-Requisite: Business Central account Business Central API Basic authentication in Postman: In Postman, make a GET request to Business Central base API URL. Base URL: https://api.businesscentral.dynamics.com/v1.0/api/beta For using Basic Authentication, we need to add domain as well. Domain URL: https://api.businesscentral.dynamics.com/v1.0/myusersdomain.com/api/beta In Business Central, generate Web Service Access Key for your user. Now in Postman authorization tab, select Basic Auth in Type. Provide Username and Web Service Access Key Click Send

Introduction: In this article, we will walk through steps on how to authenticate Business Central API using AAD Authentication in Postman Pre-Requisite: Business Central account Admin Access in Azure Portal Business Central API AAD authentication in Postman: In Postman, make a GET request to Business Central base API URL. Base URL: https://api.businesscentral.dynamics.com/v1.0/api/beta For using successful authentication, we need to add domain name or tenant ID Domain URL: https://api.businesscentral.dynamics.com/v1.0/myusersdomain.com/api/beta In Azure Active Directory, create a new Web API Type application registration. Sign On URL: https://www.getpostman.com/oauth2/callback Reply URL: https://www.getpostman.com/oauth2/callback Required Permission: Dynamics 365 (Note: If you are not able to find Dynamics 365 under the required permission, type Dynamics in Search bar on required permission section. Also, remember to Grant Permission to Application(requires Admin permission)) Under the Keys section, add new Key and Save. Copy the Generated Key as it will not be visible later. Now in Postman authorization tab, select OAuth 2.0 in Type. Provide following details Give a Token Name Call back URL: https://www.getpostman.com/oauth2/callback Auth URL: https://login.windows.net/myuserdomain.com/oauth2/authorize?resource=996def3d-b36c-4153-8607-a6fd3c01b89f Access Token URL: https://login.windows.net/myuserdomain.com/oauth2/token?resource=996def3d-b36c-4153-8607-a6fd3c01b89f Client ID: (Application ID of Azure Application) Client Secret Key: Paste the Key copied in step 2.d Grant Type: Authorization Code Untick Request Token locally Click Request Token and then Use Token. If the token is successfully generated, then you will see Authorization Code under Header section in Postman Now Click send.

Once you open the SSRS Mobile Report Publisher, you’ll see a blank layout grid and available visualization types as navigators, gauges, charts, maps, and data grids: To start designing your report, simply drag-and-drop the visualizations onto the layout grid: By default, you’re designing the “Master” layout, but you can also design layouts for Tablet and Phone: After switching to the Phone layout, you simply drag-and-drop the visualizations you have already created to optimize the layout for phones: You can also switch to Preview to see how your report looks in Master, Tablet, or Phone layout: Phone Layout: You can also switch to Preview to see how your report looks.

Introduction: While migrating Email Activities from D365 v8.2 to v9, I came across the following error: “Operation failed. Label: Create email, Name: emailCreate2, Message: -2147220969: ActivityPointer With Id = XXXXXXXXXXXX Does Not Exist” This can cause some confusion as activitypointers do not need to be migrated before you begin migrating emails. What are ActivityPointers? The activity pointer (activity) entity represents any activity or task that is performed, or to be performed by a user. An activity is any action for which an entry can be made on a calendar. Whenever you create an activity record in Microsoft Dynamics 365, a corresponding activity pointer record is created. This indicates that the activity record and the corresponding activity pointer record have the same value for the ActivityId attribute. For example, if you create an Email record, the attribute values of Email.ActivityId and the corresponding ActivityPointer.ActivityId will be the same. This should not be confused with ActivityParties which represent a person or group associated with an activity. An activity can have multiple activity parties. Cause: Upon inspection, I discovered that those emails are linked to themselves, having the ‘parentactivityid’ field populated with its own activity GUID. The error was being caused because Scribe could not find the parent activity in the Target environment (since it had not yet been created). Solution: Remove the ‘parentactivityid’ mapping from the ‘Create Email’ block. Add an If-Else Block below the Create block to check if the Email has been created, and if true, use an Update block to update the Email with the ‘parentactivityid’. Now, the Email activity will be created with the correct GUID and once created, will be updated with the required GUID as ‘parentactivityid’. This solution resolved the above issue and email activities  can now be created without this error occurring.

Introduction: PowerBI introduced the feature to format line styles and legends for line charts a while ago. However, these features were not applicable to lines in combination charts like ‘Line and Stacked Column Chart’ and ‘Line and Clustered Column Chart’. With the April update of PowerBI Desktop, we are now able to customise the format for lines in combo charts to different styles, which then reflect in the legend, making the chart easier to read and understand. Steps: While using a combo chart, all line series are in the ‘Solid’ format with just the defined colours differentiating them and the legend only displays their respective colours as shown below. To format the line or line series, go to the ‘Format’ pane and under the ‘Shapes’ card, you will find several options to customise the format of the lines. Shade Area can be switched On to shade the area each line encompasses. ‘Stroke Width’ allows you to adjust the thickness of all the lines. ‘Line Style’ allows you to select whether the line will be displayed as a solid line, dashed or dotted line as shown below. The next option is ‘Show marker’, which when switched On allows you to select the Marker shape, size and colour. To customise each line in a series individually, switch On ‘Customize series’. You will get a dropdown to select from the line values and options to customise the format of each line based on the line value selected from the dropdown. Coming to the customisation of the legend, you can do so by going to the ‘Legend’ card under the ‘Format’ pane. In the Style option, you have three options in the dropdown menu – Markers only: This will display only the respective markers in the legend. Line and markers: This will display both the respective lines and markers in the legend. Line only: This will display only the respective line style in the legend (shown below). Conclusion: As we can see, the new April update allows us to completely customise the lines in a combo chart, which not only add more visual appeal but also enables the user to easily read and understand the chart and the data it represents.

Introduction: In this blog we will explore some of the new features added to Power BI. Power BI has upgraded its Q&A Experience in its latest April release. It has simplified and simultaneously improved the natural language recognition process which is one of Power BI’s most powerful tools for Query Processing! Some of Q&A Explorers cool new Features: You can now add a simple image, shape or button which on being click can launch a Q&A Explorer! You just need to toggle the Q&A option on under Action for the particular image/shape/button. Adding a Q&A button can look something like this. On clicking on this newly created Q&A Explorer a dialog appears where the user can ask questions to generate dynamic visuals. To learn more about this feature you can view my previous blog on Natural Language Processing over here. You can add suggested questions which will show on the left side of the dialog when a user clicks on the Q&A button. When you click on Save and close these newly added Suggested Questions will get saved to this specific Q&A button. The Q&A Explorer can also return whole reports now when you search specific keywords. You can do this by going to a particular report and turning it’s Q&A Feature on in Page Information. Searching these keywords in the Q&A Explorer will return this particular report. Optionally, if you have page level filters then you can set Require single selection On for a particular filter. This filter will then be shown in the Dialog while searching for the queried report. Conclusion: These are some of the latest features added to Power BI’s arsenal. Q&A Explorer is an underused tool but if used correctly it can improve your interactive experience with your reports tremendously.

Introduction: In this article, we will learn how the Filter changes its default values during Parameter selection in SSRS Reports with Examples. Scenario: I have 4 parameters in my report: Start Date: Default is today’s Date End Date: Default is today’s Date + 60 Days Department: No Default value. Project: Dependent Filter on Department. Once the Department is selected, default all projects will be selected. Filter Working: Below listed is various test cases which shows how the Select ALL in Project Filter changes according to other 3 parameters. Default Filter: Start Date: Current Week Start Date End Date: Today’s Date+ 60 days Department: Select all manually Project: Disabled Results: All projects will be automatically displayed and selected based on dates and Department. Selecting wide range of Dates after Initial run (After Step 1): Start Date: less than Current Week Start Date or Current Week Start Date End Date: Greater than Today’s Date+ 60 days Department: Select one manually Project: Not all the Projects will be selectedResults: All projects between the date range will be displayed but the projects after today’s date + 60 will be un-selected. Selecting more Department (After Step 2): Start Date: Any End Date: Any Department: Select two department Project: Not all the Projects will be selected Result: All projects between the date range and department will be displayed but the projects in newly selected department will be un-selected. In this example, projects in Assurance Department will not be selected. Conclusion: Dependent filter (Project Filter) will be disabled initially. Dependent Filter will be displayed and open once all the other filters are selected. Dependent Filter will change based on the other Filters change. After initial run, any change in other filter will control the behavior of Dependent Filter. Selecting Wide Range initially and then reducing the Range will keep the Dependent Filter as Select All. E.g.: Decreasing the Date Range or Selecting less number of department selected initially. Selecting a range initially and then increasing the range will remove Select All in Dependent Filter (Only the initial range Project will be selected). This the default SSRS behavior. E.g. Increasing the Date Range or Selecting more departments selected initially. EXCEPTION: If you increase the Date Range and then Reduce the Department Selected, All Projects will be selected by default.

Introduction: In this blog, we try migrating Email Template records under Email Marketing module in ClickDimensions. ClickDimensions has many modules like Email Marketing, Analytics, Event Management etc. Under Email Marketing Module, we have entities like Email Template, Email Sends, Sent Emails, Unsubscribes and so on. While trying to migrate all the Email Templates from D365 v8.2 to v9 using TIBCO Cloud Integration, we encountered an issue. We could not find any field or entity that stored the HTML code which formed the body of the Email Template. The reason behind this issue is the HTML code is stored on the ClickDimensions side and not on ours. Therefore, in order to migrate Email Templates successfully, we need to use the Import/Export options in ClickDimensions Settings. Steps: 1. In your Source environment, go to Settings and click on ‘ClickDimensions Settings’. 2. Click on ‘Export’. 3. Select the entities you want to export and click on ‘Next’. 4. Click on ‘Export’. A .zip file will be downloaded. 5. Now, go to your Target Environment and click on Settings -> ‘ClickDimensions Settings’-> ‘Import’. 6. Click on the ‘Upload ZIP File’ button and select the file you just downloaded from the Source Environment. Click ‘Import’. Conclusion: The Email Templates will now be present in the Target System. This process did not change the GUID of the record, which is important to note as it may be required further on in the migration process. I hope this blog contributed to clearing things up when it comes to migrating Email Templates in ClickDimensions. I will be adding more blogs about migrating records in other entities of Click Dimensions soon. Stay tuned!

Introduction: Deployment of Power BI to Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations is done by Embedded Power BI in Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations. Configurations of Power BI in operations: Configure your LCS project within Dynamics 365 for Operations Navigate to System Administration –> System Parameters –>Go to Help Tab Here you will be asked to Connect to Life Cycle services. This operation is mandatory, it enables Dynamics 365 for Operations to established a trusted connection to LCS using your user credentials. Click on “Click here to connect to Lifecycle Services” On successful connection, you will be able to choose a set of LCS projects from the drop down menu. Select the LCS project Enable Power BI: Register Dynamics 365 for Operations deployment as an web app. 1. Login to you Power BI account 2. There are some fields we need to fill in: AppName (e.g. “D365PBI”) AppType (Server-side Web app) Redirect URI (this will be your instance URL with “oauth” at the end. E.g https://D3651611aos.cloudax.dynamics.com/oauth) Home Page URL (This will be your instance URL. E.g https://D3651611aos.cloudax.dynamics.com/) 3. Choose APIs to access 4. Then hit “Register App”. This will generate a Client ID and a Client Secret which we are going to input inside D365. 5. Keep this window open, we need to copy paste the keys into D365. Deploy Power BI Files: Navigate to System Administrator –>Deploy Power BI Files .Click on Deploy Power BI Files Here you will be asked to Authorize Power BI, Click on Authorize Power BI. Click on Deploy Power BI Files

Introduction: The feature is finally release, and it is power BI has announced general availability of persistent filters in the Power BI service. All Power BI reports will now automatically retain the filters, slicers, and other data view changes that you have made. You no longer need to spend your valuable time slicing and dicing your report and repeating the same steps each time you return to the service. With this feature, you will be able to pick up right where you left off last time and quickly get to your insights! Also, if you want to reset all the filter to the state when the report was publishing, this feature will allow you to do that. Enabling Persistent Filter: To see persistent filters in action, simply head to any Power BI report that you have view or edit access to. You will notice a new button on the top bar that says, “Reset to default”. By default, this is disabled. It essentially means that you are viewing the author’s published view of the report and have not made any changes. Once you have modified the report to the view that you like, will activate the Result to default button, and will allow you to go back to default state when it was published. Click on reset to default And you are done.  Report will be reset to the default published state. Disabling persistent Filter for report: Persistent filter is turned on by default for all reports. If you want to disable the feature for the report, then you need to use the latest power BI desktop version that is released on Feb 2018. You need to navigate to : Power BI Desktop > Options > Report Settings > Persistent Filter. This is amazing feature that allows users to interact with report as they want. Try it out and let us know if there is any issue in comments below.