Using virtual tables in DocumentsCorePack

101 views 0 Updated on March 21, 2023

A virtual table (also called a virtual entity) is a special kind of table that takes data from an external source and represents that data in the form of a table in Microsoft Dataverse.  This data can be manipulated like a normal table.  As such, this means that the data from a dynamic table can be displayed in documents using DocumentsCorePack.

Note: This article assumes general knowledge of virtual tables.  If you are unfamiliar with virtual tables, please visit this link: Get started with virtual tables (entities).

Using data from a virtual table in a template works similarly to normal tables.  Once the table is created and included in your environment, it can be accessed from the Template Designer. 

Prerequisites:

For every template that requires values from virtual tables, the “Use Query Expression” setting must be activated. This setting will convert the relevant FetchXML to Query-Expression, which is what allows for virtual table support:

Use Query-Expression setting for a DocumentsCorePack template
Figure 1: Selecting the “Use Query Expression” setting in the General tab
Figure 2: Selecting the “Use Query Expression” setting in the relationship editor

Note: If this setting is not enabled, an “Sql error: Generic SQL error” will occur during the merge process.

Figure 3: An error message that could occur

Limitations of working with Virtual Tables

  • When using the “Use Query Expression” setting for virtual tables, aggregation and all features that use aggregation (such as Charts) do not work. Hence, we recommend limiting the “Use Query Expression” setting when as possible (e.g. When defined on the relationship level, these limitations would only apply to the specific relationships instead of the entire template).
  • After some internal tests, we cannot verify that creating a 1:N relationship with a virtual table when using SharePoint as an external data source is currently possible. While external articles suggest it is possible (here and here), users should be aware of this potential issue when creating virtual tables for their environments.

Example:

Using a custom virtual table called “Customers” as an example, we can access the base entity from the drop-down like normal.

Selecting a dynamic table via the DocumentsCorePack taskbar
Figure 4: Accessing the dynamic table from the type drop-down in the Template Designer

The fields from this entity can then be included in the template like usual.

Additionally, a relationship to your virtual table can be established in the Relationship Designer. Using “Account” as a base entity, we can form a relationship to “Customers” related to the account.

Establishing a relationship to a virtual talbe
Figure 5: Establishing a relationship to our virtual table

From there, you can select the fields you require from the customer table.

Result

After saving the template to your environment, you can test it out to see if the data is shown in the resulting document.

Example of a template showing fields of a virtual table
Figure 6: Template with fields from our custom virtual table

Generated document showing values from a virtual table
Figure 7: The resulting document created from our template

That’s it!  If you would like to give us any feedback, please contact us by sending an email to support@mscrm-addons.com.

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