Deprecations happen very frequently within the technology industry and especially within Microsoft platforms because they are always improving the features. If you are unsure of this term, deprecated means the intention to remove the feature or capability from a future, major release. The feature or capability will continue to work and is supported until it is removed. A deprecation notification can span a few years, but after the removal the feature will no longer work. A deprecation notice gives you a sufficient amount of time to plan and update your code before the feature or capability is eliminated. So, what exactly is being deprecated in the Power Platform? I’ll explain.
AI Builder
Beginning March 5, 2020, form processing and object detection models that were created using AI Builder before today will be deprecated. These models will continue to function until June 8, 2020. Microsoft will continue to provide support, but some functionality may be disabled. After June 8, these models will NO longer work.
As of today, customers will need to recreate their existing form processing and object detection models with the new model versions. If you create any models after this date, it will automatically use the new model version and will require no further action. After today, customers should transition to the new model versions as soon as possible.
Here are a few helpful links to help with the transition
- Form processing transition
- Object detection transition
Old Common Data Service
Accessing your Common Data Service environment for the first time or every time after you signed out from a previous session, you are directed to Azure AD for signing in. Upon a successful login from the sign-in page URL, the URL redirector service directs you to your Common Data Service environment. For example, in September 2019 the old URL redirector service, cloudredirector.crm.dynamics.com, was replaced with the new one, bn1—namcrlivesg614.crm.dynamics.com. On March 31, 2020, the old redirector service will be deprecated.
If you have created a bookmark of the sign-in page before September 2019 that contained the link to the old URL redirector service, this change will impact you. Users impacted by the change should have started seeing a notification on February 17, 2020, with instructions on how to resolve the issue. See more about how to resolve it here.
Office 365
As of February 4, 2020, the WS-Trust authentication type that is used by customer clients to connect to Common Data Service has been deprecated. This change has affected applications that utilize Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Client.OrganizationServiceProxy and Microsoft.Xrm.Tooling.Connector.CrmServiceClient classes for the authentication type of “Office365.” The change has happened because it is removing a security protocol (WS-Trust) that is inherently insecure by the current encryption standards. The WS-Trust protocol does not support modern forms of Multi-Factor Authentication and conditional access controls to customer data. The intent of this change is to guide developers away from the authentication flow and help application developers to utilize the capabilities of Azure Active Directory to secure and protect access to their applications and customers within the Common Data Service.
To allow for the transition of customers and partner applications, in April 2021, Microsoft intends to retire the authentication protocol for all new environments. Also, in April 2022, the authentication protocol will be retired for all new and existing environments. Check out more about the Use of Office365 authentication with the WS-Trust protocol.
Regional Discovery
As of March 2, 2020, the regional Discovery Service has been deprecated. Microsoft will continue support, security and other critical updates for the regional Discovery Service until March 1, 2021, but will not release additional functionality beyond what has been announced. Customers must transition to using the global OData V4 Discovery Service before March 1, 2021. More information on Discovery Service here.
Canvas Apps
Since October 14, 2019, the rules feature in canvas apps in Power Apps was deprecated. From the feedback collected through research and discussion with makers of Power Apps, the rules feature was confusing, and the expressions were easier to learn, use and debug. Check out this Canvas Rules feature deprecation blog to learn more.
Legacy Web Client
As of September 2019, the legacy web client was deprecated. Before October 1, 2020 customers must transition to the Unified Interface. Microsoft will continue providing support, security and other critical updates to the legacy web client until then, but they will not release any additional functionality beyond what has been announced already.
For more information regarding a smooth transition, view our helpful resources and community site, reference the links below.
- Unified Interface Community Group including a Blog and Forum
- Getting Started Unified Interface Playbook
- User Experience and Unified Interface transition whitepaper
- Quick Start Guide – add Unified Interface App to the existing environment
- Quick Start Guide – set an environment to Unified Interface as default
Process Dialog
Process dialogs will be deprecated and removed by October 1, 2020. You can create an interactive step-by-step data entry form by using process dialog. It will require user input to start and run to completion. Suggest replacement options include Business Process Flows or Canvas Apps. For more information check out, Replace dialogs with business process flows and canvas apps.
Legacy process-related
The legacy process-related attributes (Such as Stageld, and TraversedPath) on entities enabled for business process flows will now be deprecated. The SetProcess action for business process flows is also deprecated. Manipulating these legacy process-related attributes for target entity records does not guarantee consistency of the business process flow state. Using the attributes of the business process flow entities is the recommended way.
Client API’s
To reorganize the Xrm client API object model to better align the need of using the same client scripts without having to change them based on context or client, the following client APIs are deprecated. Users should plan to use the new client APIs mentioned in the Replacement Client API column instead of using the deprecated one. The deprecated client APIs will still be available and supported until they are officially removed. Check out more about the Client APIs and how to apply business logic using client scripting in model-driven apps using JavaScript.
Voice of the Customer
The Voice of the Customer solution is used to build and send surveys for collecting feedback. As of July 1, 2019, the solution is now deprecated. However, users can create and distribute a new survey and collect the responses from live surveys until July 1, 2020. Microsoft Forms Pro is a new solution that is generally available to capture customer feedback using surveys. Learn more about Microsoft Forms Pro.
Dynamics 365 Customer Service
- Standard SLAs
- Standard service level agreements (SLA Type field is set to Standard) are deprecated and will be removed in a future major release. Standard SLAs are replaced by enhanced SLAs. Learn more information about enhanced service level agreements.
- Service scheduling
- The current service scheduling functionality is deprecated. It will no longer be available on October 1, 2020. The new scheduling experience, built atop Universal Resource Scheduling (URS), is now available in the Unified Interface. Current users will be provided advance notice for a timebound migration to the new scheduling capabilities. The Service Scheduling Guide will be beneficial in learning more.
Usage of Parature knowledgebase
The use of Parature knowledgebase as the knowledge management solution is deprecated. This feature is now replaced by Knowledge Management features in Dynamics 365 Customer Service. The Knowledge Solution setting in the Knowledge Base Management Settings dialog box, which currently provides a connection to Parature will be removed in a future release.
Project Service Finder app
Available for use with Dynamics 365 Project Service Automaton, the Project Service Finder App is deprecated. In accordance with Microsoft’s Modern Lifecycle Policy, the legacy application will be supported for associated legacy Project Service Automation releases. This functionality is available through the app is available in a future release of Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation application.
Contracts, Contract Line Items, and Contract Templates
These three contract entities are deprecated and will be removed in a future major release. The functionality has been replaced by entitlements in Dynamics 365 Customer Service.
Relationship Roles
(Settings > Business Management > Relationship Roles) will be deprecated and be removed in a future major release. The feature will be replaced by Connection Roles. To learn how to create connections to view the relationship between records, check it out here.
Mail merge
Microsoft introduced server-side document generation using Word and Excel templates in Dynamics CRM 2016 (version 8.0). These templates can be used to provide standardized documents or customized data analysis for your organization. Mail merge from previous versions is deprecated and it includes mail-merge Word add-in, as well as mail-merge templates (Settings > Templates > Mail Merge Templates). For more information about creating word and excel templates, check it out here.
Announcements
Announcements (Settings > Administration > Announcements) are deprecated and will be officially removed in a future major release.
Ready-to-use business processes
You can find ready-to-use business processes on Microsoft App Source. The ready-to-use processes available through the Add Ready-to-Use Business Processes setting (Settings > Data Management > Add Ready-to-Use Business Processes) are now deprecated and will be removed in a future major release, so stay tuned.
Silverlight (XAP)
The Silverlight (XAP) web resource is deprecated on the web client and is no longer supported on the Unified Interface. Instead of Silverlight web resources, you must use custom controls that are created using HTML web resources with HTML5 to build UI components to visualize and interact with data.
If you want to look more into these deprecations, check out the important changes coming document. If you need assistance with the transition or better understanding of the changes, contact our team of consultants or developers to walk you through it. As all deprecations can be a challenge with the changes, they are meant to better assist users in the platform. The Power Platform is one of the major platforms Microsoft offers and we want you to be aware of the changes that have happened and will continue to happen within the next year. Get ahead by planning now!
Silverlight (XAP)
The Silverlight (XAP) web resource is deprecated on the web client and is no longer supported on the Unified Interface. Instead of Silverlight web resources, you must use custom controls that are created using HTML web resources with HTML5 to build UI components to visualize and interact with data.
If you want to look more into these deprecations, check out the important changes coming document. If you need assistance with the transition or better understanding of the changes, contact our team of consultants or developers to walk you through it. As all deprecations can be a challenge with the changes, they are meant to better assist users in the platform. The Power Platform is one of the major platforms Microsoft offers and we want you to be aware of the changes that have happened and will continue to happen within the next year. Get ahead by planning now!
