Why create a custom Dynamics 365 Entity?
You would like to capture or track information that your out of the box entities can not capture
Separate sensitive information
You would like to capture data from an external database (later lesson)
Step 1 - Navigate to your system's solutions
Click on Settings, located on your Site Map.
Click on Solutions like the image below.
Select the solution you would like to create a custom entity in, I will be using my Examples Solution from the previous Lesson
If you are unsure, see Lesson #1 Create a publisher and solution, this will get you setup correctly
Step 2 - Create a new Entity
Select entities from the list on the left
Click New in the top left
A new window will open with the General Tab open by default.
See the instructions below the next image, fill out the corresponding fields.
General Tab
Display Name: Properties (The name of the entity, mine is plural by preference)
Plural Name: Properties (Leave it the same as the Display Name)
Name: properties (leave the "Name" (Logical Name) as the lower case version of the Display Name, it is good practice to use Camel Case)
Ownership: Organization (make sure you do this or no one else can use it)
Areas that display this entity: choose one of your areas so that you can access this entity. When you click the drop down in the Site Map, this is where you will see the entity, you can change this later! I will cover this in a later lesson.
Check off Notes and Activities under Communication & Collaboration if you would like to have the same features as the Account and Contact entities.
Check off Allow Quick Create, Duplicate Detection, and Auditing under Data Services. (I will show how to use these in later lessons)
Scroll down and select Enable for Mobile
Leave the other check boxes as they are, you can add others later, I will go over all these in later lessons
Click on the Primary Field Tab when you have completed the steps above. Do not click save yet.
Primary Field Tab
Fill out all the fields on this tab
Choose a Display Name that is short, simple, and sensible, taking into consideration the name of your entity as it was added on the general tab, I am using Property Name.
Copy the Display Name into the Name (Logical Name) if it does not auto populate
Make sure to use camel case, this is where it really starts to make an impact further down the road
Leave the other fields with the values they currently have
Add a description for the display name, like its purpose!
Click Save in the top left corner and let the page refresh
You have created a custom entity!
NOW WHAT DO YOU DO WITH IT?