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Get the Report →Build MVC Applications with Connectivity to Microsoft Dataverse Data
This article shows how to use only the Entity Framework and the CData ADO.NET provider to access Microsoft Dataverse from an ASP.NET MVC application.
In this article, we will guide you through the process of utilizing wizards within Visual Studio to seamlessly integrate the CData ADO.NET Provider for Microsoft Dataverse into a basic MVC (Model, View, Controller) project.
About Microsoft Dataverse Data Integration
CData provides the easiest way to access and integrate live data from Microsoft Dataverse (formerly the Common Data Service). Customers use CData connectivity to:
- Access both Dataverse Entities and Dataverse system tables to work with exactly the data they need.
- Authenticate securely with Microsoft Dataverse in a variety of ways, including Azure Active Directory, Azure Managed Service Identity credentials, and Azure Service Principal using either a client secret or a certificate.
- Use SQL stored procedures to manage Microsoft Dataverse entities - listing, creating, and removing associations between entities.
CData customers use our Dataverse connectivity solutions for a variety of reasons, whether they're looking to replicate their data into a data warehouse (alongside other data sources)or analyze live Dataverse data from their preferred data tools inside the Microsoft ecosystem (Power BI, Excel, etc.) or with external tools (Tableau, Looker, etc.).
Getting Started
Create the Entity Framework Model
Follow the steps below to save connection properties and map tables to entities in the data model.
- Create a new MVC project in Visual Studio. In this example, the project name is MvcCDSApp.
If you are using Entity Framework 6, you will need to take the preliminary step of registering the Microsoft Dataverse Entity Framework provider for your project. See the "LINQ and Entity Framework" chapter in the help documentation for a guide.
Note that MVC 3 scaffolding and MVC 4 scaffolding do not support Entity Framework 6. You can use your scaffolding with Entity Framework 6 by upgrading to the latest version of MVC.- To add the .edmx file from the designer, right-click your Models folder and click Add New Item. Select ADO.NET Entity Data Model, name the model, and click Add. In this example, the name of the model is CDSModel.
- In the Entity Data Model wizard, select the option 'EF Designer from database'. The Entity Data Model wizard is displayed.
- Click New Connection. Select CData Microsoft Dataverse Data Source in the dialog that is displayed.
Specify the required connection string properties.
You can connect without setting any connection properties for your user credentials. Below are the minimum connection properties required to connect.
- InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
- OrganizationUrl: Set this to the organization URL you are connecting to, such as https://myorganization.crm.dynamics.com.
- Tenant (optional): Set this if you wish to authenticate to a different tenant than your default. This is required to work with an organization not on your default Tenant.
When you connect the Common Data Service OAuth endpoint opens in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions. The OAuth process completes automatically.
A typical connection string is below:
OrganizationUrl=https://myaccount.crm.dynamics.com/InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH
Name the connection and select whether to include sensitive information, such as connection credentials, in the connection string. For simplicity, this example saves sensitive information in Web.config. The connection settings are saved as CDSEntities.
- Select the tables and views you need. In this example, Accounts is imported. Also, the option to pluralize object names is deselected in this example. Click Finish to create the .edmx file.
- Build your project to complete this step.
Scaffold the Controller and Views
Once you've established the model and completed the project build, you can employ ASP.NET Scaffolding wizards to generate both the controller and the views.
- In Solution Explorer, right-click the controllers folder and click Add -> Controller. Select MVC 5 Controller with views, using Entity Framework.
- In the Add Controller dialog that is then displayed, select the following options:
- Model class: Select a table you imported; for example, Accounts.
- Data context class: Select your context class.
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Leave the default values for the other fields.
