CDS Entity Import/Export

[Ali_Nawaz]

Hi PowerUsers,  

I am looking to export entities with their definition/metdata. 
Haven't found any useful guide over the internet except this but it doesn't serve the purpose. 

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/General-Discussion/Export-Import-CDS-Entities-across-environment...

I'm interested in exporting/importing the entites over different environments. 

Looking forward to a swift response.

Regards, 
Ali Nawaz

[v-yutliu-msft]

Hi @Ali_Nawaz ,

Do you want to export/import data of CDS?

I think you could consider data integration in CDS.

For now, data integration support these:

You could create data integration in admin center:

https://admin.powerapps.com/environments

Here's a doc about this step by step for your reference:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/data-integrator

What's more, you could also import data to CDS here:  (support some data sources that are not supported above)

You could export entities here:

Best regards,

[caburk]

You can create a new solution, then click add existing/entity. You'll see an option to only include the entity metadata. 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/developer/common-data-service/entities

[Ali_Nawaz]

@caburkwill this solution work if i want to move the entities across different environments ? 

Will the meta data be available if i'm exporting entity from one environment and importing it in different environment ? 

[caburk · Accepted solution]

@Ali_Nawaz yes, "solutions" are for that purpose - they transport your customizations from one environment to another. If it's the first time you're migrating your custom entity to a new environment, you'll need to include all assets for the entity (which includes the entity metadata). Then if you change only the entity metadata, you could patch the solution and ship a metada only update to the target environment. 

Note: If you're planning to move customizations across environements, it's better to start with a solution, then create everything in that solution.

Info about solutions:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/common-data-service/solutions-overview

Info about entity metadata:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/common-data-service/create-edit-metadata