Generate a template
You can generate a template from an existing Dynamics environment using odata based queries and the Powershell module.
Instead of hand crafting a template, just use the New-DrmTemplate command to generate it for you.
Prerequisites
- A Dynamics environment with system administrator access, this is the environment you will use to generate a template from.
- Powershell 5+ to generate the template.
Install the Powershell module
You can install the PowerShell module from the PowerShell gallery.
Currently we only support PowerShell Desktop v5 upwards.
Install-Module -Name Drm.Templates.Powershell -AllowClobber
Connect to your Dynamics environment
Before generating templates you need to connect to the Dynamics environment.
Run the command below
Connect-Crmonline -Username "<useraccount>" -ServerUrl <dynamics url>
An object is returned containing information on the connection you have to Dynamics.
Generate a template
Now we have a connection to Dynamics you can generate templates.
Note
By default templates are saved at the working directory location. To change the location of the
saved template use the -OutputToFile parameter.
Commonly the New-DrmTemplate cmdlet takes two parameters
- entityName (Required) - The name of the entity you want to query
- filter - The odata based query to run against the entity
Click here for more information on the New-DrmTemplate cmdlet.
Filtering data
You can filter the data returned in your template by using the $filter option in your query.
Filters are simply odata based queries, for more examples on how your queries might look please take a look at the Microsoft documentation here
For example the query below will return all teams that have a name equal to 'Basic Drm Team'.
New-DrmTemplate -entityName teams -filter '$select=name&$filter=name eq ''Basic Drm Team'''
Note
If you need to filter by a string and need to quote it. Please prefix the single quote with another. As per the example above.
Another example below would return all document templates that equal 'Drm Document'.
New-DrmTemplate -entityName documenttemplates -filter '$filter=name eq ''Drm Document'''
Generate templates for automation
To include predefined parameters and a pre-configured target environment block in
the template generated, you just need to add the switch -SetupTemplateForAutomation when running the cmdlet.
This is an example for generating a template for queues
New-DrmTemplate -entityName queues -filter '$select=name&$top=1' -SetupTemplateForAutomation
{
"$schema": "https://schemas.drmtemplates.io/2021-03-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
"contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
"parameters": {
"drmclientId": {
"type": "string",
"defaultValue": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"
},
"drmclientSecret": {
"type": "string",
"defaultValue": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"
},
"dynamicsTenantId": {
"type": "string",
"defaultValue": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"
}
},
"resources": [
{
"targetenvironment": {
"applicationCredentials": {
"clientId": "[parameters('drmclientid')]",
"clientSecret": "[parameters('drmclientSecret')]",
"tenantId": "[parameters('dynamicsTenantId')]"
},
"url": "<your dynamics url>"
},
"type": "drm.crmbaseentity/queues",
"apiVersion": "2023-01-09",
"name": "GeneratedTemplateFor_queues",
"properties": {
"data": [
{
"queueid": "33186e2b-9442-4d3b-8c50-cc777c1eeb9f",
"name": "Queue Demo"
}
]
}
}
]
}
Examples
Teams
To generate a template that returns all the teams in your dynamics environment.
New-DrmTemplate -entityName teams
The template returned could look something like this.
{
"$schema": "https://schemas.drmtemplates.io/2021-03-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
"contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
"parameters": {
},
"resources": [
{
"targetenvironment": {
"bearerToken": "<Enter token here>",
"url": "<Dynamics environment url>"
},
"type": "drm.principal/teams",
"apiVersion": "2023-01-09",
"name": "GeneratedTemplateFor_teams",
"properties": {
"data": [
{
"teamid": "702254fd-01a7-ec11-9840-000d3a2fa64c",
"name": "orgafd36c6e",
"description": "Default team for the parent business unit. The name and membership for default team are inherited from their parent business unit.",
"teamtype": 0,
"membershiptype": 0,
"ownerid": "702254fd-01a7-ec11-9840-000d3a2fa64c",
"queueid": "712254fd-01a7-ec11-9840-000d3a2fa64c",
"businessunitid": "6f2254fd-01a7-ec11-9840-000d3a2fa64c",
"administratorid": "612954fd-01a7-ec11-9840-000d3a2fa64c"
}
]
}
}
]
}
To return only the team property 'name' in your template run the filter below using the $select property and
setting it to 'name'
New-DrmTemplate -entityName teams -filter '$select=name'
The resulting template would look something like.
Note
The owner id property is returned in this case as its the team entities primary key. See https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-apps/developer/data-platform/webapi/reference/team?view=dataverse-latest
{
"$schema": "https://schemas.drmtemplates.io/2021-03-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
"contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
"parameters": {
},
"resources": [
{
"targetenvironment": {
"bearerToken": "<Enter token here>",
"url": "<Dynamics environment url>"
},
"type": "drm.principal/teams",
"apiVersion": "2023-01-09",
"name": "GeneratedTemplateFor_teams",
"properties": {
"data": [
{
"teamid": "702254fd-01a7-ec11-9840-000d3a2fa64c",
"name": "orgafd36c6e",
"ownerid": "702254fd-01a7-ec11-9840-000d3a2fa64c"
}
]
}
}
]
}
If you wanted to expand team members for every team you can run this
New-DrmTemplate -entityName teams -filter '$select=name&$expand=teammembership_association($select=fullname,systemuserid)'
This will output a template like this
{
"$schema": "https://schemas.drmtemplates.io/2021-03-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
"contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
"parameters": {
},
"resources": [
{
"targetenvironment": {
"bearerToken": "<Enter token here>",
"url": "https://orgafd36c6e.crm4.dynamics.com/"
},
"type": "drm.principal/teams",
"apiVersion": "2023-01-09",
"name": "GeneratedTemplateFor_teams",
"properties": {
"data": [
{
"teamid": "702254fd-01a7-ec11-9840-000d3a2fa64c",
"name": "orgsfd36c6e",
"ownerid": "702254fd-01a7-ec11-9840-000d3a2fa64c",
"teammembership_association": [
{
"fullname": "Drm Dave",
"systemuserid": "d30c9e0a-1ada-ec11-a7b5-000d3a2efdfa",
"ownerid": "d30c9e0a-1ada-ec11-a7b5-000d3a2efdfa"
},
{
"fullname": "Stuart Elcocks",
"systemuserid": "612954fd-01a7-ec11-9840-000d3a2fa64c",
"ownerid": "612954fd-01a7-ec11-9840-000d3a2fa64c"
}
]
}
]
}
}
]
}
Environment variables
To return all environment variable values from a Dynamics environment but only including the schemaname and value properties.
New-DrmTemplate -entityName environmentvariablevalues -filter '$select=schemaname,value'
Business units
Or to return every business unit.
New-DrmTemplate -entityName businessunits
Note
The command New-DrmTemplate will not return 'null' values.
How can this be used in an automated setup?
Being able to generate templates makes the process of setting up your automation pipelines easier.
With Dynamics ALM in mind, you might have a master development environment in place that is the current 'source of truth' for the dynamics applications being developed. This could include configuration of
- Organisation settings
- Connection references
- Workflows (Cloud flows)
- Environment variables
- Business units
- Roles
- Teams
- Queues
This list is just an example but by extracting basic configuration of the entities above means you have an immediate starting point for building up templates for test and production environments.