Hello everyone,
Hoping for some community insight on a perplexing Dataflow issue that has recently appeared in our production environment.
The Scenario:
In our Dataflow, we use the Power Query 'Merge' operation to enrich our source data. We perform a Left Outer join against a Dataverse table, cre89_tracktmjjobnumbers, to find the correct parent record to link to. The join condition correctly uses our text-based alternate key field, cre89_id. This merge step validates and works perfectly within the Power Query editor.
The Problem:
The issue occurs when the Dataflow attempts to load the data into our target table, track_tracksuffix. This process was completely stable and worked for months, but it suddenly began to fail about 2 weeks ago.
For every new row, the lookup to the parent table fails on load. The row-level diagnostics show that the Dataflow is attempting to create the lookup binding correctly, like this:
"track_JobNumber@odata.bind": "/cre89_tracktmjjobnumberses(cre89_id='some_value')"
This action results in the following detailed error for every single row:
{
"message": "Invalid type for entity id value",
"cdsErrorCode": "0x80040203",
"HelpLink": "http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=398563&error=Microsoft.Crm.CrmException%3a80040203&client=platform",
"InnerErrorMessage": "Invalid type for entity id value",
"cdsRequestId": "[a different guid for each failed row]"
}
Key Details:
What We Have Already Ruled Out:
-
Custom Code: We've confirmed there are no synchronous plugins or real-time workflows on the target track_tracksuffix table.
-
Business Rules: There are no active Business Rules with 'Entity' scope on the table.
-
Configuration: The alternate key on cre89_id is correctly defined and has been recreated as a test. We have also cleared the Dataverse connector cache.
Our Question for the Community:
Our focus is on why a successful Power Query merge is failing on load.
-
Has anyone else seen this specific failure with a Dataflow 'Merge' that populates a lookup via an alternate key?
-
Is it possible for a platform update to change how the Dataflow engine translates a successful merge into a Dataverse lookup binding, causing it to fail in this manner?
We have a ticket open with Microsoft Support, but any theories or shared experiences from the community would be hugely appreciated.
Many thanks.
