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Ditch CrmServiceClient—Embrace ServiceClient for Better Dataverse Performance!!

Siddhesh Chavan

Recently, we faced performance issues in our custom C# application that was using CrmServiceClient to connect to Dataverse.

Upon investigation, we discovered that CrmServiceClient internally uses the Organization Service—i.e., the legacy OData V2 endpoint—for Create and Update operations.

According to Microsoft’s official documentation, use of the old OData V2 endpoints is discouraged. While the documentation mainly references client-side code, the same guidance applies to server-side implementations as well.

Microsoft recommends switching to OData V4 (Web API) even for server-side integrations. Although we initially believed that CrmServiceClient, being part of the Microsoft.Xrm.Tooling.Connector NuGet package, would abstract and handle any underlying changes automatically via DLL updates, we realized this was not the case—even when using the latest version.

We later came across an alternative: the ServiceClient class from the Microsoft.PowerPlatform.Dataverse.Client namespace. This client supports a property called UseWebApi, which defaults to false. We explicitly set it to true, and modified our connection logic to use ServiceClient instead of CrmServiceClient.

Upon testing (verified via Fiddler), we confirmed that Create, Update, and Execute operations were now using the OData V4 (Web API) endpoint. This allowed us to retain most of our existing codebase without rewriting it entirely for Web API usage with HttpClient.

Based on this experience, I strongly recommend using ServiceClient for any new tools or executables that interact with Dataverse. It offers better performance, modern authentication support, and a more future-proof architecture.

Hope this helps if you encounter a similar situation.

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Preview -Split Audience in the Customer Journey by Percentage/Number

Siddhesh Chavan

In the latest update from Microsoft, a highly anticipated feature has been introduced: the ability to split the audience in a journey based on either a percentage or a specific number of customers. This enhancement is a game-changer for many clients, as it allows them to efficiently target specific customer segments within a single journey. For example, businesses can now easily offer “First 1000 Coupons” to the first 1,000 customers without needing to create multiple journeys. Previously, marketers had to rely on branching using attributes, if/then conditions, or trigger activation checks within the journey. These methods, while functional, could sometimes cause delays in processing. This new feature streamlines the process, ensuring faster and more effective campaign execution.

To use this feature in the customer journey you need to select “Audience split(preview)” tile in the journey as below –

Then you will get the below screen to split the audience based on percentage as below-

As you can see, the current option to “Split audience by” only allows for selection by percentage, with no option to split by a specific number. This limitation might be due to the feature being in preview, meaning it’s still in the testing phase and not fully rolled out. It’s possible that the ability to split the audience by a specific number will be included in future updates as Microsoft continues to refine and expand this feature. Keep an eye out for upcoming releases, where this capability may become available.

Let’s dive into the “Split Audience by Percentage” feature. With this capability, you have the flexibility to divide your audience between branches based on the percentage you specify. If you want to split the audience equally, it’s as simple as clicking the “Add branch” button and then selecting the “Equalize” option. This automatically distributes the audience evenly across the branches.

However, if you have a specific plan in mind, you can manually adjust the percentages to match your strategy. Once your audience is divided, you can assign different activities to each branch. For instance, in my example, I’ve chosen to send 50% of the audience an email (Email 1) with one type of content, while the remaining 50% receives a different email (Email 2) with other content. This level of customization allows for more targeted and effective campaigns, tailored to different segments of your audience.

This feature also provides valuable insights into how different segments of your audience respond to specific actions within each branch. By comparing these reactions, organizations can optimize their strategies, ultimately driving better sales performance.

For details around the Split Audience by Number you may go through below blog –

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/release-plan/2024wave1/customer-insights/dynamics365-customer-insights-journeys/provide-varied-experiences-one-journey-using-journey-split-tiles#feature-details

Hope to see many such interesting features in future !!

Dataverse, Plugin, Trace, Uncategorized

Preview – Plugin Monitoring through Dataverse Accelerator App

Siddhesh Chavan

I was exploring the Dataverse Accelerator App, and I came across this preview feature which explains about the plugin monitoring through Dataverse Accelerator App.

Earlier in my environment I only had 2 options as below –

Create Instant Plugins and Create Automated Plugin

So in order to get the Plugin Monitoring option you may need to update the Dataverse Accelerator app through – https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com/.

Select your environment and then Navigate to Dynamics 365 Apps.

You may see the option as Update available besides the “Dataverse Accelerator App”. Click on it and install.

Installation may take few minutes to complete. Once it is complete you see Plugin Monitoring option in the app as below –

So when you click on the Plugin Monitoring above you will see the Plugin Traces screen as below –

Earlier in order to view the Plugin Traces we would either have to navigate through Settings > Plugin Trace Logs in the old UI (Web UI) or use Plugin Trace Viewer in XrmToolbox.

But now from this latest Plugin Monitoring option in Dataverse Accelerator App we get the new modern UI look to monitor the Plugin Traces.

Also from above if we click on the Settings Icon in Plugin Monitoring page we will get the option to enable/disable the trace logs and no need to navigate to System Settings.

Also when we select any particular trace log record we see the information of Message body and Exception details in the right hand side pop-out as below-

In addition to this, we are also able to see the Status column which represents “Success” or Failure of the operation. Also we have the option to Filter the rows as below

It becomes more handy to filter out the plugins using the available filter options.

(Image added from docs.microsoft.com)

Using this inbuilt modern UI for monitoring the plugins it will become more handy option for Administrators to monitor the failure and verify the logs.

As it is a preview feature, we may expect some more enhancements in the feature in coming time.

For details like Privileges required, or any FAQ’s on this preview topic you may also follow below link –

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-apps/maker/data-platform/dataverse-accelerator/plugin-monitoring

Hope this becomes handy feature in coming days !!

Uncategorized

Tip – Setting Default Time Zone for Real-time Journeys in Customer Insights- Journeys

Siddhesh Chavan

Whenever we create a new Real-time journey in Dataverse, we see the Default time zone set to “GMT Coordinate Universal Time” as below. This is the default behavior of journeys. And then when we need to run the journey in specific time zone we change the value of the time zone dropdown to specific time zone and then publish the journey.

Have seen couple of times if we don’t change the journey time as per the selected time zone and publish the journey then we will have to wait for the corresponding GMT time to start the journey.

So in-order to address this thing we have option to select the Default settings for the time zone by following below steps.

Navigate to Settings > Journey Settings as below.

You will get the below page opened, on click of Journey settings where we will get the dropdown for time zone type as below-

So as you can see above we have 2 options here

Option 1 – As specific timezone

When we select this we get the option to select a default time zone which we want to be applicable for all the journey records created after enabling this setting.

So after selecting this option we need to select the Default timezone which we want to apply for new journeys as below-

After enabling this setting the new journey records will populate the same time zone value as selected above.

Option 2- The time zone of the user who creates the journey

When we select this option the default time zone on the journey is set as per the time zone of the user creating the journey. So if you want to apply user’s time zone to the journeys created by them, we can have this setting enabled as below.

When we enable any of the above options as per the business need, we will start seeing the changes in the default time zone set on the new journey records as below-

Note– This setting will work for the new journey records created after enabling the settings.

Hope this setting is useful for people like me who don’t want to manually change the time zone every time they select a new journey record.

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Tip – Secure Input/Output Data in Power Automate Run History

Siddhesh Chavan

Recently one of my colleague asked me about can we hide the sensitive input/output data which we can see in the Power Automate Run History ? This made me search and get the quick response of the available option to achieve it. (which I was really surprised I was not using)

So below is a sample Power Automate which i created to showcase this. I created a Instant flow “Run Test Flow” with Input Parameter ”Get Value” and then we will use this value to create a record in table “Custom Test A”

Usually the flow run history of one of the sample run of above flow will look as below-

As you can see you will be able to see the value entered in the field “Get Value” as “Value entered by sid”.

Now we will enable the Secure Input/Output Settings for both the steps added in the above flow considering it to be sensitive information by selecting the steps and click on Settings from ellipsis as below.

After enabling it, we will again run the flow and then open the latest run of the flow. We will see the below screen –

So now you can see that the entered value and the contents in the steps were hidden.

So using above setting we can hide the sensitive data which we don’t want to show in the Flow Run history.

Note- The data is hidden only for the flow runs after the setting is enabled and not for the past runs where the setting was disabled.

Hope this helps !!