XrmToolBox Feature Highlight: Record Counter, Attribute Usage Inspector
In part 3 of her video series on the XrmToolBox, UG Expert Kylie Kiser highlights two features, the record counter and attribute usage inspector.
Key Takeaways
- Record counter overview: The record counter tool can be used alongside the metadata document generator to determine the number of records in a specific table within the Dataverse environment. To use it, you need to download it from the tool library in the configuration area, install it, and then load your entities to get the data.
- Check data: Once the tables load, the tool will provide a count of the rows of data in each table. Additionally, there is another tool available to check which fields or columns contain data within the table.
- Export records: You can select all tables and click “Get counts” to count all records in those tables, and then export the data to a CSV file. This is useful for data migration to compare record counts before and after, or for benchmarking your system over time.
- Attribute usage inspector overview: The attribute usage inspector tool loads entities and allows you to select a table to analyze the usage frequency of its fields or columns. It shows the percentage of usage for each field, helping you understand how often they are being used.
- Compare with metadata document generator: Compare the attribute usage inspector results with your metadata document generator to identify fields that are not on a form and have no data, which might be candidates for removal. Note that yes/no fields will always have a value, but it’s crucial to check the usage of string values and other custom fields to decide if they should be kept, hidden, or moved.
