Using the Dataverse REST Builder to Build REST Requests

One question that has come up a few times has been are there alternatives to the CRM REST Builder, an awesome tool that was built some time back by Jason Lattimer and appears to be no longer being maintained. Guido Preite has built a worthy alternative, the Dataverse REST Builder that runs in XrmToolbox, as a managed solution, and in Dataverse DevTools (VS Code). Let’s take a look at it.

First, let’s install it in XrmToolbox:

Connect to an org and open the tool. We see the File menu. Here we can create, load, and save collections, as well as export to Postman collections, export REST Client Environment, and export Thunder Client environment:

Let’s create a new collection, and create a New Request. We see there are many request types available:

Let’s try a simple Retrieve Multiple. We land on the Configure tab, where we can select the Web API version, async vs sync request, lots of other filters:

Let’s add a table. In typing the table name, the view is filtered:

Let’s select some columns:

And we get the option to filter by and order by:

Once our query is complete, click on one of the tabs to see the query. If we select Xrm.WebApi, we see our code:

Note the option to Move Code to Editor, which allows us to execute the code. I missed this previously, but this functionality won’t run inside of XrmToolbox (as per the message below) – it will run in the app, as we will see shortly:

Copying the generated code to a browser console, we see it works perfectly:

You also get other code formats, as well as the Power Automate list rows connector format:

Let’s try the Postman export. I renamed by collection and query, then exported:

In Postman, I import:

The collection imports, and after authenticating you can run the query:

To run it as a managed solution, download the file from here:

And install it through the Power Apps Maker portal:

Publish, and you will see it in your list of apps:

We can see the interface is the same as when running this through XrmToolbox, and we can execute successfully the query we built earlier:

The tool looks like a great way to build queries, and you can see Guido has thought through many of its features to make it very user friendly.

ABOUT CARL DE SOUZA

Carl de Souza is a developer and architect focusing on Microsoft Dynamics 365, Power BI, Azure, and AI.

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