I'm trying to populate a Dynamics 365 instance with test data. As Dynamics 365 storage is expensive, and about to get very expensive, I'm going to generate the data to SQL and setup a Dynamics instance and import the data as needed. I've generated an SQL model based on the Dynamics schema and am now trying to populate it.
I've encountered several problems:
- Table 'site' has several FKs, all of which are nullable and none of which are selected for generation, yet I get a circular dependency warning against the table. Generation worked fine so I think this is a bug.
- There is no ability to load a table from an external source such as CSV (transactioncurrency for example). Granted I could do this manually outside the tool.
- Can't filter the list of tables. Filtering by selected would be useful, there are 170 tables so scrolling up and down is a bit of a chore.
- Can't filter columns either, would be nice to see only not null columns for a quick and dirty generation.
- Can't select multiple tables to edit number of rows to generate.
- Table 'systemuser' has a not null FK to 'businessunit', which I have previously generated and have therefore not ticked. The generated SQL does not include the 'businessunitid' column even though it is ticked and using the auto FK generator. I should be able to generate a table and not be forced to generate other tables without losing the FK columns! Using the manual FK generator gave the same result.
- When picking a table such as the manual FK generator there is no search or type and filter, again, 170 tables, bit of a chore scrolling.
- The tool is unable to handle circular dependencies. For example, 'systemuser' has a not null FK on 'team', which has a not null FK on 'systemuser'. One of these tables needs to be populated with FKs disabled and then the FK column(s) back-filled.
- The tool does not have any means to do steps, i.e. solve the above problem using manual steps. It appears to assume a DB can be populated in a single step, which imho is madness, or several projects, which imho is unwieldy. I absolutely do not want to go down the route of inserting my own scripts or tweaking the generated script.
Mark