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Business Central virtual table for Microsoft Dataverse admin reference

This article provides step-by-step instructions on how to set up and configure virtual tables for Business Central in Dataverse.

Get the Business Central Virtual Table solution

  1. Go to Business Central Virtual Table on AppSource, select Get it now and follow the instructions.
  2. If prompted, sign in to the Power Platform admin center.
  3. Select the Power Platform environment that includes Dataverse, and then select Install.

The following solutions are installed in Dataverse once the Business Central virtual tables are installed from AppSource.

  • Dynamics365Company - Add the cdm_company table, which is referenced by all Business Central virtual tables. All communication to Business Central requires the company ID in the request.
  • MicrosoftBusinessCentralVESupport - Provides the core support for the Business Central virtual table feature.
  • MicrosoftBusinessCentralERPCatalog - Provides provides a list of available tables, including ones based on custom APIs, in a Business Central instance.
  • MicrosoftBusinessCentralVEAnchor - Serves as a container, holding information needed for AppSource.
  • MicrosoftBusinessCentralERPVE - Contains virtual tables generated for Business Central in this solution. Tables are added automatically at runtime once they're made visible in the MicrosoftBusinessCentralERPCatalog.

Set up authentication and authorization

After the solutions are installed in the Dataverse environment, a connection can be set up to a Business Central environment. Both environments have to be in the same tenant.

The next step in the process is to provide Dataverse with the Business Central environment and company to connect to. The following steps walk through this part of the process.

  1. In Business Central, open the Microsoft Entra applications and set the Dynamics 365 Business Central for Virtual tables to Enabled. This action allows Dataverse to communicate with Business Central.

  2. In Dataverse, go to the table Business Central Virtual Data Source Configuration.

    1. Sign in to Power Apps.
    2. Select Tables on the left navigation pane to open the Tables page.
    3. Select the All tab to display all visible tables, then search for Business Central Virtual Data Source Configuration and select it to open for editing.

    Tip

    Power Apps is the primary tool for creating and modifying tables in Dataverse.

  3. In the Business Central Virtual Data Source Configuration columns and data section, use the + more button to show the environment and Default Company columns in the Business Central row if the they are hidden.

  4. Enter the name of the Business Central environment to connect to in the environment column.

    By default, Business Central tenants have an environment called production.

  5. Set the Default Company value to the Business Central company in the enviroment that you want to connect to by default.

Making virtual tables visible

Due to the large number of OData enabled tables available in Business Central, by default, the tables aren't available as virtual tables in Dataverse. Follow the steps to make tables visible, using either the Business Central Configuration app or Available Business Central Tables table. Both methods have the same result.

  1. In Power Apps, select Apps > Business Central Configuration.
  2. Select Available Tables in the left navigation pane.
  3. Select the table to open it for editing.
  4. Select the Visible checkbox.
  5. Select Save or Save and Close.

A table appears in all of the appropriate menus, including Data -> Tables, and in the advanced find dialog box.

Refreshing virtual table metadata

You can force-refresh the virtual table metadata when you expect the table metadata in Business Central to change. Set Refresh to Checked, and then save. This action syncs the latest table definition from Business Central to Dataverse and updates the virtual table.

Referencing virtual tables

The virtual tables are all generated in the MicrosoftBusinessCentralERPVE solution. Items in the solution change as you make tables visible or hidden, but it's still a managed solution you can depend on. In a standard ALM flow, you take a reference to a virtual table from this solution by selecting the Add existing option in the ISV solution. The solution then shows a missing dependency, which is checked at import time. If a specified virtual table doesn't exist during import, the system automatically makes it visible without extra steps.

To consume virtual tables:

  1. Create a separate solution as usual in Dataverse, which will contain the consuming logic.
  2. Select tables > Add Existing. Select the virtual table that you want to reference from the list.
  3. When prompted to select assets to add, select any forms, views, or other elements that you want to customize, then select Finish.

From the development tooling, existing elements such as forms can be modified for the virtual table. Additionally, new forms, views, and other elements can also be added.

When the solution is exported, it contains hard dependencies on the virtual table generated in the MicrosoftBusinessCentralVE solution.

Overview - Integrating Business Central with Microsoft Dataverse
Microsoft Power Platform Integration with Business Central
Table Modeling
Application Lifecycle Management for Solutions that use Virtual tables
FAQ

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