D365 v9: Limitations of Virtual Entity

Let’s first discuss the definition and architecture of the Virtual Entities. Following excerpt from Technet.

A virtual entity is an entity in the Dynamics 365 platform metadata without the associated physical tables for entity instances created in the Dynamics 365 database. Instead, during runtime when an entity instance is required, its state is dynamically retrieved from the associated external system. Each virtual entity type is associated with a virtual entity data provider and (optionally) some configuration information from an associated virtual entity data source.

Because of this, there are a couple of limitations associated with Virtual Entities.

Limitations of Virtual Entities

Hight Impact:

1. GUID (primary key) in the source system.
2. Auditing is not supported means no track of what got changed?
3. Dynamics Security model can’t be implemented.

Low Impact:

1. They are read-only (which seems reasonable because its only one way pull).
2. You can’t create an Activity type custom entity.
3. Workflows are not triggering, even Business Process Flows are not available.
4. Duplicate Detection is not available, so when you’re pulling data you need to implement that logic.
5. Roll Up and Calculated Field calculation not supported.

Next time, when you are considering to use Virtual Entities try to do Pros/Cons according to the requirements you are planning to achieve. With current design and limitation of Virtual Entities, it cannot be considered for all the scenarios. In the meantime, if you found any other limitations, then feel free to write down in comments and I’ll incorporate them in the article.

Ciao!!