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Introduction to Common Terms

Microsoft Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform

In the previous step, we explored the Solutions Framework. Now, let’s learn about Common Terms within Dynamics 365 as per the below table.

Term	Definition
Application	A defined collection of features and data on the Dynamics Power platform. Microsoft has several first-party applications like Sales and Customer Service. Makers can design and build entirely custom solutions on the Power platform, and they can also customise the first-party applications offered.
COLAC	In Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement, these are the primary entities to support the Sales and Customer Service applications and well as custom applications built on the Power platform. These entities are Contact, Opportunity, Lead, Account, and Case.
Business Unit	Business Units provide structure for grouping users and are often used to mimic an organisation’s department structure.
Data model	A data model is the definition of the data and its relationships within the Dynamics 365 Power platform.
Entity	An entity is a container for data, similar to a table in a traditional database. Each entity contains a set of attributes.
Environment	Environments are containers that you can use to manage data, apps, flows, connections, and other assets, along with permissions to allow organisation users to use the resources.
Field	A single piece of data for an entity. Several types are available, including text, currency, and numeric values. Sometimes called an attribute.
Form	A form is an element of the user experience in Dynamics. A form can contain many elements designed to allow a user to see and interact with data in Dynamics.
Metadata	The definitions for the entities, attributes, and the relationships between the entities within Common Data Service are collectively described as metadata. Metadata contains all the information necessary for Power platform to use underlying entities and data.
Records	A record is how a user sees data in Dynamics, via a form or a view. Each record represents a single instance of an entity (for example, each contact in your system is represented by a contact record).
Region	As a cloud service Dynamics is deployed globally in various locations, or regions. Feature rollout and products updates are often staged for deployment based on regions.
Security Role	This is the definition of a user’s access and privileges in Dynamics. A user’s experience in an application is the result of the combined privileges of their collection of security roles.
Sitemap	The user’s navigational experience is defined by the Site Map.
Solution	A solution is a collection of customisations that can be moved from one instance to another. For example, you can create a solution in your test environment and move it to production.
Tenant	For Dynamics 365 (online), a tenant is the account you create in the Microsoft Online Services environment when you sign up for a Dynamics 365 (online) subscription. A tenant contains uniquely identified domains, users, security groups, and subscriptions and can contain multiple Dynamics 365 (online) instances.
UCI	Unified Client Interface (UCI) is a common (unofficial) term for describing the Unified Client, the newest experience for users in Dynamics.
Unified interface	The unified client is the newest user experience in Dynamics, it was designed from the ground up with accessibility in mind. The responsive design allows makers to design once and deploy once to all users regardless of the way they consume Dynamics.
User	A user is a licensed individual that can interact with data in Dynamics.
View	A view is sometimes also referred to as a grid or a list. It is the collection of records of a single type in Dynamics. Views can be read-only or editable. Views respect the user’s security roles and only display the data the user has privileges to interact with.
Web resource	Web resources are building blocks often used in the building of forms. These web resources can be a single image file, or also a custom HTML page or component.
XRM	XRM is the concept of building ‘anything’ relationship management. If for example, CRM is the concept of building Customer Relationship Management, with XRM it is possible that CRM could also mean cow or car, or any relational data model your business might need.