Power Automate: Retrieve over 5000 records from dataverse or dynamics 365 CE/CRM and Create CSV file

In this post, I will explain retrieving more than 5000 records or large sets from Dataverse and creating a CSV file Using FetchXml, Paging Cookie.

Background

When using Dataverse or Dynamics 365 CE/CRM, the user can retrieve only 5000 records in a single fetch or query. This is Dataverse Limitation.

Approach

To overcome this limitation, we can use “Paging Cookie” and have a flag called “More Records” to retrieve all records in a loop until the last page using the flag. Here is the Microsoft article to retrieve all records using c#. We will use the Array variable to collect the outputs after each iteration to create a CSV file.

Overall Flow/Power Automate

Create/Initialize Variables

1. Final Output Array – To store the records on each iteration
2. Total Record Count – To know the total record count (For Analysis purposes only)
   • Type: Integer
3. Page Number – To send the following (Next) page number on the request
   • Type: Integer
4. FetchXml Paging Cookie – Dataverse returns the paging cookie as part of the response. This is Raw data and will be used to send a subsequent request.
   • Type: String
5. Paging Cookie – Modified version of the original paging cookie, which will be sent as a request
   • Type: String
6. More Records – Dataverse returns this flag as part of the response. This is used to determine whether to break the loop.
   • Type: Boolean
7. JSON For XML Parsing – This is just a template that used to transform the paging cookie to XML
   • Type: Object

Main Operation

We are using Do until control. This loop continues by default until the More Records flags are false.

List Accounts

Using Fetchxml query with page number and Paging Cookie. For Page 1, the Paging cookie will be empty.

The fetch statement has a paging cookie. Below is the Power Fx statement

if(equals(variables(‘Page Number’),1),”,concat(‘paging-cookie=”’, substring(first(skip(split(string(xml( setProperty(variables(‘JSON For Xml Parsing’),’a’,variables(‘Paging Cookie’)))),'<‘),1)),2),””))

Set Variables

Join current output with existing output/records.

union(variables(‘Final Output’),outputs(‘List_Accounts’)?[‘body/value’])

Set the array variable with the above-combined output. 

@outputs(‘Compose_Existing_with_Current’)

Incrementing the total count for each iteration. Finally, this variable has a total record count. This is used for Analysis purposes only. And other variables, the Page Number increments for each iteration. This page number is used to send the request.

length(outputs(‘List_Accounts’)?[‘body/value’])

Dataverse has an attribute called PagingCookie as part of the response. Below is a variable to extract the Raw data from the response.

if(empty(outputs(‘List_Accounts’)?[‘body’]?[‘@Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.fetchxmlpagingcookie’]),”,decodeUriComponent( decodeUriComponent(outputs(‘List_Accounts’)?[‘body’]?[‘@Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.fetchxmlpagingcookie’])))

The paging Cookie variable extracts only the information needed to send the request.

if(empty(variables(‘FetchXml Paging Cookie’)),”,replace(substring( variables(‘FetchXml Paging Cookie’),add(indexOf(variables(‘FetchXml Paging Cookie’),’pagingcookie=”‘),14)),'” istracking=”False” />’,”))

More Record – Flag to determine whether the Do until loop breaks or continue

if(empty(string(outputs(‘List_Accounts’)?[‘body’]?[‘@Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.morerecords’])), false, outputs(‘List_Accounts’)?[‘body’]?[‘@Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.morerecords’])

Create CSV File

1. Add an action called “Create CSV table” and set the From field to the “Final Output” variable like below.
2. Add another action, “Create file,” from Sharepoint and set the Site Address, Folder Path, File Name, and File content.

• File Name : concat(‘Accounts_’,utcNow(),’.csv’)
• File Content: The body of Create CSV table

Output CSV File

The CSV file has been created successfully.

Conclusion

Using Power Automate, We can retrieve over 5000 records using Paging Cookie and create a CSV file. This flow runs three times in this example, and the total count is 10142 records.

Power Automate Zip file

Find the power automate flow as a Zip file from the GIT repository

https://github.com/AntonyStalin/GetOver5000RecordsAndCreateCSVFile