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Configuration data projects

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Important

Customers using Human Resources, the functionality noted in this article is currently available in both the stand-alone Dynamics 365 Human Resources and the merged Finance infrastructure. Navigation might be different than noted while we make updates. If you need to find a specific page, you can use Search.

Configuration data projects are used to manage the movement of company configuration data between instances of your application. They are intended to support the following scenarios:

  • Export of configurations – Create configurations of entities, and use the data management framework to export the configurations to a package.
  • Import of configurations – Upload a configuration package, and use the data management framework to import the package.

Configuration data packages are created by using data import and export projects in the Data management workspace. The Data import and Data export pages let you add and remove the entities that you require in order to manage the movement of company and shared data. After you create the list of entities in your configuration, you can export or import the configuration by using the data management framework to create a package. You can export packages locally and then move them to another instance for import.

Configuration data templates are predefined lists of entities for each module area that can be used in a data project. You can create, view, and modify these templates by using the Template page in the Data management workspace.

Important

Default configuration templates were delivered in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, Enterprise edition July 2017 update. The Configuration data project feature is available in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations platform update 7. You can create and use your own templates in the current product release.

Process for working with configuration data projects

We recommend that you follow this process when you start to use configuration data projects.

  1. Set up your system by getting the new data configuration user interface (UI) and setting default file extensions.
  2. Set up configuration templates for both export and import.
  3. Create and run a configuration data project for export.
  4. Create and run a configuration data project for import.

The rest of this article describes the Data management workspace and explains how to set up your system for data configuration projects.

If you're ready to set up a configuration template, see Configuration data templates. If you're ready to create and run a configuration data project, see Copy configuration data between companies or legal entities overview.

Data management workspace overview

The Data management workspace provides access to important tasks for data management. It also provides information about projects and project execution tasks.

After you've created a configuration data project, it appears in the Data projects grid in the Data management workspace. For each project, the type of configuration (import or export) and the project category (Project, Configuration, Integration, or Other) are shown. Use the selections to the left of the grid to filter by the appropriate project.

To open a project, select the project, and then select Load project to open the Import or export page. Use the Delete button to delete the selected projects. You can also download the project definitions by using the Download button.

Use Job history to find more details about the projects that you've run. Use the data range filters to filter by the dates when data projects were run. You can view execution details by selecting a job and then using the Execution details menu.

For export tasks, you can download the data from the workspace by using the Download page button.

Set up your system to manage configuration data projects

Before you begin, make sure that you have access to the new data configuration UI, and that you've set up the default data sources.

Get the new UI

We have updated the Data management workspace, and the Template, Data export, and Data import pages, so that they support configuration management. However, the updated pages are available only in Enhanced view. Standard view hasn't been updated from previous releases.

Change to the new UI for a single user

The system's default view settings can be changed to save settings for each user per each legal entity. To switch the view for a single user, the user must select the Enhanced view button on each page in the Data management workspace.

  1. In the Data management workspace, select the Framework parameters tile.
  2. Change the View default setting from Standard to Enhanced for all users and legal entities.

Set file extensions for default data sources

The Template and Import/export pages let you add entities by selecting a file that was created by using the data management framework. We have added the following default file name extensions for the various types of data sources:

  • .xlsx for Microsoft Excel data sources
  • .zip for package data sources
  • .xml for XML data sources
  • .csv for comma-separated values (CSV) data sources
  • .txt for delimited data sources

If you want to use other file name extensions, you must update your data sources so that they have a default file name extension that will be used as the target data format.

  1. In the Data management workspace, select the Configure data sources tile, and then select Data sources.
  2. Add a default file name extension to the appropriate data source.