3 Little Known (But Useful!) Features for Dynamics CRM SSIS Integrations with Kingswaysoft

Microsoft Dynamics 365

4 September, 2018

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Introduction

Kingswaysoft is a popular tool used with Microsoft Dynamics CRM SSIS integrations. Kingswaysoft has quite a few convenient features that can speed up development time. Some of these features are buried and not widely used, so I thought it might be useful to highlight some of the best features I have come across that have been beneficial to me in the recent past.

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1. Fallback Lookup Option

One great feature that is not well documented is using a NULL value as a backup when a lookup is not found. It allows the record to get updated without failing on a lookup. It is useful when a lookup value is only used for a subset of data.

Example: In one of our recent projects, records were not updating because of one lookup, failing as a particular user was not present in the system. We still wanted to update the rest of the fields on an entity, and the fallback lookup option allowed us to achieve it. The below screenshots will help you understand how to use the fallback lookup option.

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2. Manually Specifying Lookup Options

If you want lookups not to collide in CRM (where the same value exists in different defined lookup fields), you can quickly specify that you should only look up one field on an entity. This allows targeted lookups without worrying about looking at an incorrect field (like the primary lookup).

Example: Sales Rep codes being used in multiple fields. This option allows you to focus on only one of those fields to get the expected results. Below is the demonstration.

3. Ignore Unchanged Fields Option

If it is hard to get exact data for records being updated/upgraded into CRM, this feature works wonders to only update records that have changed and not flip the modified-on flag for those changed values. CRM will truly show those modified-on fields that have been changed. This feature can come in handy and is more informative than showing a modified-on for every record touched, even though no data was updated. It also will speed up the integration process run time by skipping unnecessary updates.

Example: All Products are synced with the CRM daily (~80k), but only a few (~1k) are shown as modified. This shows that only ~1k had any data changes while the rest had nothing to update even though they were considered for update.

Read more: Azure Data Factory VS SSIS

BONUS TIP: Looking up values without knowing the integer value of an OptionSet in Kingswaysoft

If the string matches exactly to an optionset value in CRM, then you do not need to know the associated integer value for that record. There is no need to look up and associate strings to optionset values in this process!

Example: Whenever I need to work with optionset values, I try to keep them the same as the source system, so I do not have to know the associated optionset integer value or change anything if I add new optionset values. This saves a ton of time, and it makes integrations simple!

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Conclusion

The Kingswaysoft extension for Dynamics CRM SSIS Integrations seems simple and limited at first use. Still, when utilizing the often-overlooked features, you can see that this tool is very powerful in terms of what it can accomplish without a lot of work from the developer. This great tool can speed up development and integration work to create a Minimum Viable Product that the business and users can appreciate quickly! Please use this tool in your next project if these features are useful to your unique scenario. Also, feel free to give your input below or share these tips. If you have any questions or queries, please contact us!