Enable change tracking for entities

Change tracking enables incremental export of data from finance and operations apps by using Data management. In an incremental export, only records that have changed are exported. To enable incremental export, you must enable change tracking on entities. If you don't enable change tracking on an entity, you can only enable a full export each time.

Change tracking can be enabled for both bring your own database (BYOD) and non-BYOD scenarios. This includes retrieving record changes through Dataverse virtual entities.

Note

Change tracking will track record deletion only for bring your own database (BYOD) and Dataverse virtual entity use cases, if the entity supports it. Other non-BYOD scenarios will not include tracking record deletion. Deletion is tracked only for the root data source in the entity.

Enable change tracking for BYOD

You can enable change tracking when you publish one or more entities to a data store (BYOD).

1. In the Data management workspace, select Configure entity export to database.

2. Select the database to export data to, and then select Publish.

   You can publish one or more entities to your database. Select Show published only to see a list of entities that have previously been published.

3. Select an entity that is published, and then select Change tracking.

4. Select the appropriate option for change tracking for your environment.

   An entity can be modeled by using more than one table. The options let you specify the granularity at which changes can be tracked in an entity.

   Option	How changes are tracked
   Enable primary table	Changes that are made to any fields in the primary table trigger a change in entity. Changes that are made to fields in secondary tables don't trigger a change in entity.
   Enable entire entity	Changes that are made to any fields in any table in the entity trigger a change in entity.
   Enable custom query	Uses a custom query that identifies the tables on which changes must be tracked. The custom query is defined in the entity.

   Note

   If a change is triggered, the change is tracked on the entire record and not at the field level. The entire entity record is exported to the destination. Regardless of the option that you select, the number of fields in the entity is the number that is exported to the destination.

Enable change tracking for non-BYOD scenarios

Change tracking can be enabled for non-BYOD scenarios. This includes retrieving record changes through Dataverse virtual entities for finance and operations apps. When change tracking is enabled for an entity, changes can be retrieved through the entity's OData endpoint by adding odata.track-changes as a preference header.

For more information on using change tracking for an entity, see Use change tracking to synchronize data with external systems.

To enable change tracking for non-BYOD scenarios:

1. From the Data management workspace, select the Data entities list page.
2. Select the entity for which you want to enable change tracking.
3. Select the Change tracking action on the action ribbon, and select the desired option for how changes should be tracked for the entity. See the table in the Enable change tracking for BYOD section above for detail on the available options.

Custom query for change tracking

The following example shows how to add a static method to an entity. You must make sure that the method returns a query, and that the root node is the same as the entity. For example, for the Customer entity, the root node is custTable, and the change tracking query for it is also custtable.

• You must enable change tracking on the tables that are part of the query.
• Create a join between the entity and the change tracking query (on the root table) to determine which records have changed in the entity.

public static Query defaultCTQuery()
{
	Query q = new Query();    
    
	QueryBuildDataSource custDs = q.addDataSource(tableNum(CustTable));

	QueryBuildDataSource partyDs = custDs.addDataSource(tableNum(DirPartyTable));
	partyDs.relations(true);

	QueryBuildDataSource locationDs = partyDs.addDataSource(tableNum(DirPartyLocation));
	locationDs.addRange(fieldNum(DirPartyLocation, IsPrimary)).value(queryValue(NoYes::Yes));        
	locationDs.addLink(fieldNum(DirPartyTable, RecId), fieldNum(DirPartyLocation, Party));

	QueryBuildDataSource addressDs = locationDs.addDataSource(tableStr(LogisticsPostalAddress));        
	addressDs.addLink(fieldNum(DirPartyLocation, Location), fieldNum(LogisticsPostalAddress, Location));

	return q;
}