Dynamics 365 metadata

Dynamics 365 is accessed via the OData v4 REST API, which requires a single XML file containing all metadata for an instance to be retrieved prior to any other actions. Dynamics 365 has many objects making the metadata file large so S4D caches a copy locally to improve performance.

Because of this caching mechanism, S4D will not recognize schema changes in your Dynamics 365 instance immediately, and it may be necessary to manually refresh the cached copy.

The Status page offers an immediate means of refreshing cached metadata files, and S4D offers a scheduled task to do this at regular intervals.

Metadata files are automatically downloaded and cached in the directory defined in the \App_Config\Modules\S4D\S4D.config file:

<sitecore>
  <settings>
    <!-- The location where Metadata files for Dynamics connections can be stored, must have write access. -->
    <setting name="FuseIT.S4D.MetadataDirectory" value="/App_Config/Modules/S4D" />
  </settings>
</sitecore>

Files are named based on the Dynamics 365 domain. It is generally safe to delete any file not in use. A fresh copy will be automatically downloaded when it is next required.

If the webserver process does not have write access to this location then the metadata file will need to be downloaded for every Dynamics API request which may have an impact on performance