Business Rules in Microsoft Dataverse

Business Rules allow you to define logic, validations, and UI behavior on Dataverse table forms without writing code. They work mainly inside model-driven app forms and partially in server-side operations depending on the scope.

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1. Scope of Business Rules

• Entity – Applies to all forms of the table and also runs server-side when the record is created or updated by API/flows.

• All Forms – Applies to every model-driven form associated with the table.

• Specific Form – Applies only to the selected form.

Note: Canvas apps require the rule to be set at table (Entity) scope, but Canvas apps support only limited actions.

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2. Components of a Business Rule

• Condition – Evaluates field values or expressions.

• Set Field Value – Automatically fills or changes a field value.

• Clear Field Value – Removes existing values.

• Set Business Required – Makes a field Required, Optional, or Recommended.

• Set Visibility – Shows or hides fields or sections.

• Lock / Unlock – Enables or disables editing of a field.

• Show Error Message – Displays validation messages on the form.

• Recommendation – Shows a suggestion panel with a title, description, and optional action button.

• Business Rule Text View – A read-only textual summary of the logic.

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3. Canvas App vs Model-Driven App Support

Model-Driven Apps support all Business Rule actions.

Canvas Apps do not support:

• Show or hide columns (Set Visibility)

• Enable or disable fields (Lock / Unlock)

• Recommendations

Only simple field value updates work in Canvas apps; UI actions do not.

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4. Business Rule Example

Business Rule logic on the User Owned table:

IF
  Display Name contains "test"
THEN
  Lock BusRules
  Set BusRules = "Test"

ELSE
  Show Recommendation: "New Recommendation"
     Title: "Testing"
     Details: "Write value as test"
  Set BusRules = "no test"
  Lock BusRules

Explanation:

• If Display Name contains "test", the BusRules field becomes locked and is set to "Test".

• If not, a recommendation appears, BusRules is set to "no test", and the field is locked.

• Lock/Unlock and Recommendations run only in model-driven forms.

• To activate the business unit you need to click activate button present at the top of the designer.

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5. Limitations

• Too many Business Rules on a table can slow form load.

• Rules only execute for fields present on the form.

• UI actions do not execute server-side.

• Certain column types (multi-select choice, file, image) have limited support.

• Conflicts may happen when multiple rules modify the same field.