Microsoft Dynamics 365 – Page 13 – Nishant Rana's Weblog

Fixed – EntityState must be set to null, Created (for Create message) or Changed (for Update message) exception in Dataverse / Dynamics 365

We might get this error while trying to update one of the records.

Exception Message: EntityState must be set to null, Created (for Create message) or Changed (for Update message).

EntityState of primaryEntity: Unchanged, RequestName: Update

ErrorCode: -2147220989

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The error occurs when OrganizationServiceContext tries to update an entity that has not been marked as modified. The EntityState remains Unchanged, and Dataverse expects it to be Changed or null for update operations.

OrganizationServiceContext automatically tracks entities’ states. When we retrieve an entity, it is set to Unchanged by default.

If we modify the entity without informing the context (e.g., using UpdateObject()), the context still thinks the entity is Unchanged, leading to this error during the update process.

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This error typically happens within OrganizationServiceContext since it relies on internal state-tracking mechanisms, with IOrganizationService (e.g., Retrieve or RetrieveMultiple), we typically don’t run into this error because entities retrieved via IOrganizationService aren’t tracked in the same way.

There are 2 ways to resolve this error.

Use UpdateObject, it explicitly tells the context that the entity has been changed followed by SaveChanges() to commit the changes.

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2. Create a new Entity object for update.

Sample Code –

 if (myServiceClient.IsReady)
        {
            using (var context = new OrganizationServiceContext(myServiceClient))
            {
                // Retrieve leads where the 'lastname' contains 'Test'
                var leadColl = from lead in context.CreateQuery("lead")
                               where lead.GetAttributeValue<string>("lastname").Contains("Test")
                               select lead;

                // use Update Object
                foreach (var lead in leadColl)
                {
                    lead.Attributes["subject"] = "Updated Subject" + DateTime.Now.ToLongTimeString();
                    context.UpdateObject(lead);
                    context.SaveChanges();
                }

                // or create a new Entity object
                foreach (var lead in leadColl)
                {
                    Entity leadToUpdate = new Entity("lead", lead.Id)
                    {
                        ["subject"] = "Updated Subject" + DateTime.Now.ToLongTimeString()
                    };
                    myServiceClient.Update(leadToUpdate);
                }     
            }
        }

Hope it helps..

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Add line break / new line for description field of Email – Dataverse / Power Automate

In one of our requirements, we wanted to create/send an email on the creation/update of the case with the description of the email same as the description of the case.

In our Case record, for the description, we have the line break (\n) specified.

However, for the email created, we see the line break ignored.

To fix this we might think of applying the below formula by replacing “\n” with “”.

replace(triggerOutputs()?[‘body/description’],’\n’,’
‘)

On triggering our flow after these changes.

We still do not see the line break added in the description of the email.

This is because the ‘/n’ character is ignored by the replace formula.

To fix this we need to first initialize a variable for the new line of type string by hitting/pressing the Enter button for the Value.

Next comes our formula where we will use this variable.

replace(triggerOutputs()?[‘body/description’],variables(‘varNewLine’),’
‘)

Triggering the flow now –

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generates the proper email description with line break.

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The helpful post – https://tomriha.com/how-to-replace-new-line-n-in-a-power-automate-expression/

Hope it helps..

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Free up Storage space – ActivityPointerBase and WorkflowLogBase (Dataverse / Dynamics 365)

Had shared the steps we had followed to reduce the storage space for one of our environments which was a copy of production below a few months back –https://nishantrana.me/2023/09/28/free-up-storage-space-dataverse-dynamics-365/

This time we followed more or less the same steps, the main difference was this time we used our favorite XrmToolBox plugin SQL4CDS to perform the delete operations instead of the bulk deletion job.

However, even after deleting all the Activity type records (except one appointment record which was giving some error on deletion), as shown below, the ActivityPointer was still showing 13 GB of space occupied.

select activitytypecodename,activitytypecode, Count(activitytypecode) as Total
from activitypointer
group by activitytypecode, activitytypecodename
order by Total desc

And the same was true for the WorkflowLogBase, we used a bulk deletion job for deleting the system jobs with status as succeeded which deleted around 1200 records, however running the same query in SQL4CDS showed us around 70K records with status as success.

On trying to run the following query it gave us an “Expected non-empty Guid” error and we could not delete the records.

Eventually, we raised the Support Ticket for it, and the team ran the script in the background to delete/reduce the size of the Activity Pointer and Workflow Log table and eventually we were able to reduce the database usage (we also deleted few other table records)

Before –

After –

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Get more details

Hope it helps..

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Use JavaScript to add onchange event to a field in the Business Process Flow

Let us continue our previous post, here we will update the script to add an onchange event to the Identify Sales Team field in the Business Process Flow. Based on the value selected we will make the Develop Proposal field mandatory.

Below is the code we need to add for it.

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function OnLoad(executionContext)
{
	 var formContext = executionContext.getFormContext();
	 formContext.data.process.addOnStageChange(CheckStageAndToggleFieldBPF);
	 CheckStageAndToggleFieldBPF(executionContext);
}

 function CheckStageAndToggleFieldBPF(executionContext) {

        var formContext = executionContext.getFormContext();     
        var activeStage = formContext.data.process.getActiveStage();
        var activeStageId = activeStage.getId();		
        var stagePropose = "3a275c22-fc45-4e89-97fc-41e5ec578743";
     
        if (activeStageId.toLowerCase() === stagePropose) {          
                formContext.getControl("header_process_identifypursuitteam").setDisabled(false);                 
        }
        else {
            formContext.getControl("header_process_identifypursuitteam").setDisabled(true);
        }    

		formContext.getControl("header_process_identifypursuitteam").getAttribute().addOnChange(function(executionContext) {

                if (formContext.getControl("header_process_identifypursuitteam").getAttribute().getValue()) 
				{
                    formContext.getControl("header_process_developproposal").getAttribute().setRequiredLevel("required");
                }
                else 
				{
                    formContext.getControl("header_process_developproposal").getAttribute().setRequiredLevel("none");
                }
            });
  }

We can add it to the field if it is in the form also, that will also work the same. However, if we do not have the field on the form we need to add it to the field on the BPF.

On selecting the value completed for Identify Sales Team, we can see the Develop Proposal field being set as mandatory.

Later if we add the same field on the form, or into another stage of the BPF, the onchange event will apply and work for them.

For the field on the form –

Same field in another stage –

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Hope it helps..

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Use JavaScript to enable / disable a field only if the Stage is Active in Business Process Flow – Dynamics 365 / Dataverse

Recently we had a requirement to set some of the fields in our business process flow to be enabled only if that stage is active.

E.g. We want to Identify Sales Team field to be Enabled only if the Propose stage is active, else we want to set it as read-only.

We can use the below JScript to achieve the same.

Because the Propose stage is Inactive we have Identify Sales Team as read only.

On moving to the Propose stage, we can see the field being enabled back.

The key steps are –

In the onload of the form associate your function/logic to the OnStage change method of the Process object.

formContext.data.process.addOnStageChange(CheckStageAndToggleFieldBPF);

Next, check for the active stage ID.

Here to get the active stage ID, open the business process flow and get its Guid.

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Then using the awesome SQL4CDS XrmToolBox plugin get the Guid of the particular stage.

function OnLoad(executionContext)
{
	 var formContext = executionContext.getFormContext();
	 formContext.data.process.addOnStageChange(CheckStageAndToggleFieldBPF);
	 CheckStageAndToggleFieldBPF(executionContext);
}

 function CheckStageAndToggleFieldBPF(executionContext) {

        var formContext = executionContext.getFormContext();     
        var activeStage = formContext.data.process.getActiveStage();
        var activeStageId = activeStage.getId();		
        var stagePropose = "3a275c22-fc45-4e89-97fc-41e5ec578743";
     
        if (activeStageId.toLowerCase() === stagePropose) {          
                formContext.getControl("header_process_identifypursuitteam").setDisabled(false);                 
        }
        else {
            formContext.getControl("header_process_identifypursuitteam").setDisabled(true);
        }       
  }

select processidname,stagename, processstageid  from processstage 
where processid = '919E14D1-6489-4852-ABD0-A63A6ECAAC5D'

Also if we have the same fields used in multiple places / stages in the Business Process Flow, we will have the suffix added to the fields, so we need to refer the field appropriately in our script.

header_process_identifypursuitteam
header_process_identifypursuitteam_1
header_process_identifypursuitteam_2

Also check – https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/blogs/options-for-locking-field-on-business-process-flow

Hope it helps..

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How to deal with the Calculated columns having Null values (Dynamics 365 / Dataverse)

Suppose we have the following whole number fields, where Field C is the calculated column and is the sum of Field A and Field B

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Field C calculated column –

However, if any of the fields used for calculation is null, Field C will also show null.

The way we can resolve it is to put a null check in the formula.

We have created a new calculated column with the below definition.

The other option that we can consider is using JavaScript / Business Rules / Additional Calculated Columns to set the default value to 0 in case of null, for the fields being used for calculation.

In the case of 0 also, the calculated columns will work properly.