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How to Access Live Dynamics 365 Data in Power Automate Desktop via ODBC


The CData ODBC Driver for Dynamics 365 enables you to integrate Dynamics 365 data into workflows built using Microsoft Power Automate Desktop.

The CData ODBC Driver for Dynamics 365 enables you to access live Dynamics 365 data in workflow automation tools like Power Automate. This article shows how to integrate Dynamics 365 data into a simple workflow, moving Dynamics 365 data into a CSV file.

Through optimized data processing, CData ODBC Drivers offer unmatched performance for interacting with live Dynamics 365 data in Microsoft Power Automate. When you issue complex SQL queries from Power Automate to Dynamics 365, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Dynamics 365 and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations client-side (e.g. SQL functions and JOIN operations).

About Dynamics 365 Data Integration

CData simplifies access and integration of live Microsoft Dynamics 365 data. Our customers leverage CData connectivity to:

  • Read and write data in the full Dynamics 365 ecosystem: Sales, Customer Service, Finance & Operations, Marketing, and more.
  • Extend the native features of Dynamics CRM with customizable caching and intelligent query aggregation and separation.
  • Authenticate securely with Dynamics 365 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 their Dynamics 365 entities - listing, creating, and removing associations between entities.

CData customers use our Dynamics 365 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 Dynamics 365 data from their preferred data tools inside the Microsoft ecosystem (Power BI, Excel, etc.) or with external tools (Tableau, Looker, etc.).


Getting Started


Connect to Dynamics 365 as an ODBC Data Source

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

Edition and OrganizationUrl are required connection properties. The Dynamics 365 connector supports connecting to the following editions: CustomerService, FieldService, FinOpsOnline, FinOpsOnPremise, HumanResources, Marketing, ProjectOperations and Sales.

For Dynamics 365 Business Central, use the separate Dynamics 365 Business Central driver.

OrganizationUrl is the URL to your Dynamics 365 organization. For instance, https://orgcb42e1d0.crm.dynamics.com

When you configure the DSN, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing workflows.

Integrate Dynamics 365 Data into Power Automate Workflows

After configuring the DSN for Dynamics 365, you are ready to integrate Dynamics 365 data into your Power Automate workflows. Open Microsoft Power Automate, add a new flow, and name the flow.

In the flow editor, you can add the actions to connect to Dynamics 365, query Dynamics 365 using SQL, and write the query results to a CSV document.

Add an Open SQL Connection Action

Add an "Open SQL connection" action (Actions -> Database) and configure the properties.

  • Connection string: DSN=CData Dynamics 365 Source

After configuring the action, click Save.

Add an Execute SQL Statement Action

Add an "Execute SQL statement" action (Actions -> Database) and configure the properties.

  • Get connection by: SQL connection variable
  • SQL connection: %SQLConnection% (the variable from the "Open SQL connection" action above)
  • SQL statement: SELECT * FROM GoalHeadings

After configuring the action, click Save.

Add a Write to CSV File Action

Add a "Write to CSV file" action (Actions -> File) and configure the properties.

  • Variable to write to: %QueryResult% (the variable from the "Execute SQL statement" action above)
  • File path: set to a file on disk
  • Configure Advanced settings as needed.

After configuring the action, click Save.

Add a Close SQL Connection Action

Add a "Close SQL connection" action (Actions -> Database) and configure the properties.

  • SQL Connection: %SQLConnection% (the variable from the "Open SQL connection" action above)

After configuring the action, click Save.

Save & Run the Flow

Once you have configured all the actions for the flow, click the disk icon to save the flow. Click the play icon to run the flow.

Now you have a workflow to move Dynamics 365 data into a CSV file.

With the CData ODBC Driver for Dynamics 365, you get live connectivity to Dynamics 365 data within your Microsoft Power Automate workflows.

Related Power Automate Articles

This article walks through using the CData ODBC Driver for Dynamics 365 with Power Automate Desktop. Check out our other articles for more ways to work with Power Automate (Desktop & Online):

Ready to get started?

Download a free trial of the Dynamics 365 ODBC Driver to get started:

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Learn more:

Dynamics 365 Icon Dynamics 365 ODBC Driver

The Dynamics 365 ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live data from Dynamics 365, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access Dynamics 365 data like you would a database - read, write, and update Dynamics 365 Leads, Contacts, Opportunities, Accounts, etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.

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