The Problem:

One of my favorite customers is using Dynamics 365 On Premise and is transitioning from the classic web interface to the new user interface. It’s very exciting and we are pumped to deliver some seriously awesome upgrades using the new UI! The users at this company often use data import and it’s essential for them to view the import status.

As we transitioned to a model-driven app, during user testing, we discovered that the new UI no longer shows users data import status. A quick search on the community forms showed me that this is a common issue without a clear solution. Basically, it sounded like the options were:

• Use classic to view Settings menu and access Data Management, then Data Imports; or
• Access the Power Platform Admin Center to manage import status.

Neither of these are good options when your end users need to access it. They’re fine options if your system admin is the only one uploading.

The Solution:

The best place to start for me was the default Site Map in Dynamics 365. The area I was looking for exists on there, and I thought I could just duplicate what it said.

This seemed too easy! I duplicated this, saved, published and checked out my App. Only to find that neither the Group (which I named “Data”) nor the Subgroup (which I named “Data Import”) showed up on the App. At all!

What the heck?!

Next: try a type of URL under my Group (“Data”), save, publish and check it out. This worked!

So… what’s the difference here? Why did http://crmheidi.com work and the Data Management did not? The only difference was that I used a full URL.

Attempt 3: Add the full URL prefix of the CRM system.

This worked! It showed up on the Site Map. When I clicked it, it opened up Data Management in a separate tab. Now that I got this working, I wanted to isolate the link to show ONLY the Data Import area, since it’s all the users need to view.

I clicked on Data Import from the Data Management area, and the URL added this suffix:

?pid=06&web=true

So, I updated the URL on my Subarea to the full URL:

https://uniquecrmsystemname.com/tools/DataManagement/datamanagement.aspx?pid=06

And voila! When my users click the Data Import area on the Site Map, it take them directly to the Data Import screen (in the classic web interface).

Friendly Tip if You Build This

If you make this in Sandbox (like I did) – remember that this URL is hard-coded. You’ll need to update the URL listed in your App when you move it to Production!