Flows from the field: Comparing connectors and plans; HTTP requests to Microsoft Dynamics 365; Imports; Citizen developer challenges

 In our latest Microsoft Flow roundup:

• Flow limitations—comparing Dynamics 365 and CDS connectors and plans
• HTTP requests to Dynamics 365 with Flow
• The challenges of Flow for citizen developers
• Publishing data to Dynamics 365 with Flow from Excel
• Getting admin status from Intune

Want to see your flow featured in a future edition of this series? Contact me with your example.

Limitations of Flow with Dynamics 365

The Common Data Service connector and Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement (D365CE) connector for Flow both give users the chance to connect D365 instances. Thanura Wijessiriwardena, writing in Evolved365, offered a side-by-side comparison of how the two connector options interact with Flow.

Both work with Flow triggers on create, update or delete, but the D365CE connector has limitations – it isn't available for trigger on specific attribute updates, it can't define the level of scope for a Flow trigger, and it isn't available to manually trigger when a flow is selected.

Thanura explains additional differences between the two options and how the various Flow plans may impact your approach to using the service with D365CE. He also compares how flows differ from the native D365CE workflow capabilities – and how Flow differs from its more powerful cousin, Azure Logic Apps.

Generating HTTP requests to D365 with Flow

D365CE users may need to process data in Azure Cognitive Services, and they can use Flow to initiate HTTP requests based on CRM triggers and access the Cognitive Services API.