Getting Started

The default CLI program provides multiple types of functionality.

• A swiss-army knife utility that performs a multitude of tasks. You can perform some of these tasks using other available tools or in some case, powershell. The tasks are arranged in command/subcommand type format.
• A library that can be used in browser programs.
• A library that can be used in server based programs including creating your own “derived” CLI program or a standalone tightly focused CLI program, such as a dedicated ETL program or a CLI program that only allows a subset of tasks that the default CLI program can perform.

The CLI program can be used like any other program but it has many commands and subcommands. Overall you run the CLI like:

dynamicscli <command> <subcommand> args optional-args -c dynamics.json

dynamics.json is a file that specifies the connection parameters in json format. By default the CLI looks in the current directory for it. If the file exists, you can just type

# file dynamics.json exist in the current working directory
# no need for -c dynamics.json
dynamicscli command subcommand args optional-args

If the environment variable DYNAMCIS_CRMCONFIG is defined, that value will be used as the name of the connection file. The precedence is the CLI parameter, the environment variable and then the default ./dynamics.json.

Environment variables include:

• DYNAMICS_CRMCONFIG: Connection config file
• DYNAMICS_IMPERSONATE: Impersonate crm systemuserid. You must use the dynamics GUID. You can obtain the guid via dynamicscli users list.
• DYNAMICS_PASSWORD: dynamics org password. You can also include this in the config file.

Throughout the rest of the documentation, we will assume that DYNAMICS_CRMCONFIG is pointing to a config file and leave the argument (–c or –crm-config) off of the examples.