Data Entity Publishing

What is Data Entity Publishing?

Data entity publishing is the process by which D365FO creates a database table in the Azure SQL. This database table will contain all the fields coming out of the data entity as individual columns within the table.

When does this publishing process need to be completed?

Typically, data entities need to be published when they are first added to the D365FO environment and when a data entity is modified (e.g. a new field is added, a field is removed, a field is modified, etc.)

This document focuses on the initial data entity publishing process. There is a slightly different process when publishing data entities after modifications. These steps can be found in our Entity Refresh documentation.

*Data Entity Publishing is also known as BYODB or BYOD setup, which stands for Bring Your Own Database and is Microsoft’s solution for allowing access to copies of AxDB (D365FO Master Database) tables for reporting.

Publishing the Data Entities

1. Navigate to the Data Management workspace in D365FO and select the button for “Configure Entity export to database”

2. Click “Publish” at the top of the screen and filter to the data entity(ies) that you need to publish
   1. The “published” column will tell you if the corresponding data entity has been published to the Azure SQL Server.
   2. This screen allows you to multi-select data entities can publish multiple entities at once.

3. Click the check mark next to the entity you wish to publish and then click the “Publish” button at the top of the screen.

4. After clicking “Publish” and refreshing or navigating to another screen, you should see the following confirmation at the top right of your screen that the entity published properly :

5. You should also see the “Published” column switch from “No” to “Yes” next to the entity you published.