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Use change tracking to synchronize data with external systems

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The change tracking feature in Microsoft Dataverse provides a way to keep the data synchronized in an efficient manner by detecting what data has changed since the data was initially extracted or last synchronized. This article discusses how to enable and retrieve changes for a table.

Enable change tracking for a table

Before retrieving the changes for a table, make sure that the change tracking is enabled for that table.

You can check whether this feature is enabled or enable it by using Power Apps. Select Data > Tables and the specific table. Under Advanced options you'll find the Track changes property.

You can set this programmatically by setting the EntityMetadata.ChangeTrackingEnabled Property to True.

Note

Once change tracking has been enabled for a table, it is not possible to disable it.

For more information on how to use Power Apps: Create and edit tables using Power Apps

There are two ways to check whether change tracking is enabled for a table using the Dataverse Web API.

  1. You can query EntityDefinitions with the following GET request:

    GET [Organization URI]/api/data/v9.2/EntityDefinitions?$select=SchemaName&$filter=ChangeTrackingEnabled eq true

    There are system tables with change tracking enabled, for example Auditing (Audit). You can use the following query to see the full list:

    GET [Organization URI]/api/data/v9.2/EntityDefinitions?$filter=ChangeTrackingEnabled eq true and IsCustomEntity eq false&$select=LogicalName

    More information: Query table definitions using the Web API

  2. Find this information in the Web API $metadata service document. The annotation Org.OData.Capabilities.V1.ChangeTracking is set for entity sets that have change tracking enabled.

    To see annotations in the Web API CDSL service document, use this Web API query:

    GET [Organization URI]/api/data/v9.2/$metadata?annotations=true

    Those entity sets that represent tables where change tracking is enabled have this annotation:

    <Annotation Term="Org.OData.Capabilities.V1.ChangeTracking">
   <Record>
         <PropertyValue Property="Supported" Bool="true" />
   </Record>
</Annotation>

    More information: Metadata annotations.

Tables not eligible for change tracking

Some tables can't be enabled for change tracking. You can check if a table is eligible for change tracking by checking the EntityMetadata.CanChangeTrackingBeEnabled managed property value. To see which tables can't be enabled for change tracking, use this Web API query:

GET [Organization URI]/api/data/v9.2/EntityDefinitions?$select=SchemaName,ChangeTrackingEnabled&$filter=ChangeTrackingEnabled eq false and CanChangeTrackingBeEnabled/Value eq false

More information:

Retrieve changes for a table using the Web API

Changes made in tables can be tracked using Web API requests by adding the Prefer: odata.track-changes header. This header requests that a delta link is returned which can later be used to retrieve table changes.

Delta links are opaque, service-generated links that the client uses to retrieve subsequent changes to a result. They're based on a defining query that describes the set of results for which changes are being tracked. For example, the request that generated the results containing the delta link. The delta link encodes the collection of tables for which changes are being tracked, along with a starting point from which to track changes. More information: Oasis OData Version 4.0 - Delta Links

Retrieve changes in tables using Web API example

This example shows how to retrieve changes made for the account table using the Web API.

Request:

GET [Organization URI]/api/data/v9.0/accounts?$select=name,accountnumber,telephone1,fax HTTP/1.1
Prefer: odata.track-changes
OData-Version: 4.0
Content-Type: application/json

Response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
OData-Version: 4.0
Preference-Applied: odata.track-changes

{
  "@odata.context":"[Organization URI]/api/data/v9.0/$metadata#accounts(name,accountnumber,telephone1,fax)",
"@odata.deltaLink": "[Organization URI]/api/data/v9.0/accounts?$select=name,accountnumber,telephone1,fax&$deltatoken=919042%2108%2f22%2f2017%2008%3a10%3a44",
"value":[
           {
              "@odata.etag":"W/\"915244\"",
              "name":"Monte Orton",
              "accountnumber":null,
              "telephone1":"555000",
              "fax":"10101",
              "accountid":"60c4e274-0d87-e711-80e5-00155db19e6d"
           }
       ]
}

The @odata.deltaLink Uri returned from the above example can be used to fetch changes in tables. In this example, a new account was created and an existing account deleted. The delta link returned from the previous request fetches these changes, as shown in the example below.

Request:

GET [Organization URI]/api/data/v9.0/accounts?$select=name,accountnumber,telephone1,fax&$deltatoken=919042%2108%2f22%2f2017%2008%3a10%3a44
OData-Version: 4.0
Content-Type: application/json

Response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
OData-Version: 4.0

{
          "@odata.context":"[Organization URI]/data/v9.0/$metadata#accounts(name,telephone1,fax)/$delta",
          "@odata.deltaLink":"[Organization URI]/api/data/v9.0/accounts?$select=name,telephone1,fax&$deltatoken=919058%2108%2f22%2f2017%2008%3a21%3a20",
"value":
    [
        {
            "@odata.etag":"W/\"915244\"",
            "name":"Monte Orton",
            "telephone1":"555000",
            "fax":"10101",
            "accountid":"60c4e274-0d87-e711-80e5-00155db19e6d"
        },
        {
            "@odata.context":"[Organization URI]/api/data/v9.0/$metadata#accounts/$deletedEntity",
            "id":"2e451703-c686-e711-80e5-00155db19e6d",
            "reason":"deleted"
        }
    ]
}

The response for the delta link returned in the initial change tracking request contains another delta link. This delta link helps in retrieving all the subsequent changes in tables. An empty JSON response is returned if no table changes have occurred after the initial change tracking request was called.

Retrieve count of the changes made in tables using Web API

You can add $count to the delta link returned from the initial change tracking request, as shown in the example below, to get the number of changes made.

Request:

GET [Organization URI]/api/data/v9.0/accounts/$count?$deltatoken=919042%2108%2f22%2f2017%2008%3a10%3a44
OData-Version: 4.0
Content-Type: application/json

Query options not supported in Change Tracking Web API request

System query options $filter, $orderby, $expand and $top aren't supported when using the Prefer: odata.track-changes header in a Web API request. An error message: The \"${filter|orderby|expand|top}\" query parameter isn't supported when Change Tracking is enabled. is returned when using these query options in the Web API request.

Retrieve changes for a table using .NET SDK

When change tracking is enabled for a table, you can use the RetrieveEntityChanges message with the RetrieveEntityChangesRequest Class to retrieve the changes for that table.

The first time this message is used it returns all records for the table and that data can be used to populate the external storage. The message also returns a version number that will be sent back with the next use of the RetrieveEntityChanges message so that only data for those changes that occurred since that version will be returned.

You should be aware of the following constraints when retrieving changes for a table:

  • Only one table is tracked in retrieve changes. If RetrieveEntityChanges is executed with no version / or token, the server treats it as the system minimum version, returning all of the records as new. Deleted objects are not returned.
  • Changes are returned if the last token is within a default value of 7 days. This duration is controlled by the value of the Organization table ExpireChangeTrackingInDays column and can be changed. If there are unprocessed changes older than the configured value, the system throws an exception.
  • If a client has a set of changes for a table, say version 1, a record is created and deleted before the next query for changes, they'll get the deleted item even if they didn't have the item to begin with.
  • Records are retrieved in the order determined by server side logic. Usually, the caller will get all new or updated records first (sorted by version number) followed by deleted records. If there are 3,000 records created or updated and 2,000 records deleted, Dataverse returns a collection of 5,000 records, which have the first 3,000 entries comprised of new or updated records and the last 2,000 entries for deleted records.
  • If the new or updated item collection is greater than 5000, the user can page through the collection.
  • The calling user must have organization level read access to the table. If the user has limited read access, the system throws a privilege check error.

.NET SDK Sample code

The following code snippet shows how the RetrieveEntityChanges message is used to retrieve the changes for a table. For the complete sample, see Synchronize data with external systems using change tracking.

string token;

// Initialize page number.
int pageNumber = 1;
List<Entity> initialrecords = new List<Entity>();

// Retrieve records by using Change Tracking feature.
RetrieveEntityChangesRequest request = new RetrieveEntityChangesRequest();
request.EntityName = _customBooksEntityName.ToLower();
request.Columns = new ColumnSet("sample_bookcode", "sample_name", "sample_author");
request.PageInfo = new PagingInfo() { Count = 5000, PageNumber = 1, ReturnTotalRecordCount = false };


// Initial Synchronization. Retrieves all records as well as token value.
Console.WriteLine("Initial synchronization....retrieving all records.");
while (true)
{
    RetrieveEntityChangesResponse response = (RetrieveEntityChangesResponse)_serviceProxy.Execute(request);

    initialrecords.AddRange(response.EntityChanges.Changes.Select(x => (x as NewOrUpdatedItem).NewOrUpdatedEntity).ToArray());
    initialrecords.ForEach(x => Console.WriteLine("initial record id:{0}", x.Id));
    if (!response.EntityChanges.MoreRecords)
    {
        // Store token for later query
        token = response.EntityChanges.DataToken;
        break;

    }
    // Increment the page number to retrieve the next page.
    request.PageInfo.PageNumber++;
    // Set the paging cookie to the paging cookie returned from current results.
    request.PageInfo.PagingCookie = response.EntityChanges.PagingCookie;
}

See also

Define alternate keys for a table
Use an alternate key to reference a record
Update Dynamics 365 with external data using Upsert
Query table definitions using the Web API