Beacon — D365 DevTools

Developer tools for Dynamics 365 / Power Apps. See record history, relationships, events and create test data.

Beacon — Developer Tools for Dynamics 365 Beacon is a browser extension that gives Dynamics 365 / Power Platform developers instant visibility into the record they are currently viewing — customisations, related data, browsing history, and test-data generation — all without leaving the page. Important: Beacon activates only on CRM Main forms (record detail pages). It does not activate on dashboards, views, sub-grids, or non-record pages. Requirements Any Chromium-based browser Access to a Dynamics 365 / Power Platform environment You must be on a CRM Main form — the full record detail page for a specific record Getting Started Open any record in Dynamics 365 (e.g. an Account, Contact, or custom entity). Click the Beacon icon in your Edge toolbar. The popup shows four plugin buttons — click any one to open that panel as a side drawer on the right of the page. Click the same button again (or the ✕ in the panel) to close it. Tip: If a panel appears empty or shows no data on first load, refresh the page and open Beacon again. Plugins ⚡ Events Shows all entity-level customisations registered against the entity type of the current record. Divided into four tabs: JS tab Lists every JavaScript web resource registered as an event handler on this entity Shows: web resource name, event (OnLoad / OnSave / OnChange), function name, enabled / disabled state Plugins tab Lists all Plugin Steps registered against this entity Shows: assembly name, step name, message (Create / Update / Delete / Retrieve…), pipeline stage (Pre-Validation / Pre-Operation / Post-Operation), enabled / disabled state Workflows tab Lists all Classic Workflows (background processes) registered against this entity Shows: workflow name, trigger (Record Created / Field Changes / Record Deleted / On Demand), active / inactive state PA tab (Power Automate) Lists all Power Automate cloud flows bound to this entity via the Dataverse connector Shows: flow name, enabled / disabled state, last run status and duration (e.g. Succeeded (4s) or Failed (12s)) A ⚠ warning icon flags any flow whose most recent run failed Ignore lists Each tab has its own ignore list to permanently hide items you are not interested in (e.g. platform-level plugins or system workflows). Type any part of the item name into the text box and click Add (or press Enter) to hide all matching items Click ✕ on a saved filter tag to remove it Ignore lists persist locally in the browser across sessions Note: Events shows entity-level customisations — everything registered against the table type, not just the specific form you have open. ⚗ Forge Generates realistic test data and populates the open Create form in one click. Forge analyses the last 50 records of the same entity, builds per-field value distributions, then fills every settable field with a plausible generated value. Requirements: Forge only works on new unsaved records. Click + New in D365 to open a blank Create form first, then open Forge. How to use: Press + New in D365 to open a blank Create form. Open Forge from the Beacon popup. Forge analyses recent records and auto-populates all fields — usually takes a few seconds. Review the summary table showing every populated field and its generated value. Click Forge Again to instantly re-randomise all values without any additional API calls. When you are happy with the values, save the record normally. Field generation rules (highlights): OptionSet / multi-select fields — values are always drawn from the entity's schema metadata, not just observed samples Lookup fields pointing to systemuser or team — replaced with freshly fetched enabled users / owner teams for variety GUID-shaped string values are detected and skipped to prevent corrupting reference fields Email fields — only the local part (before @) is randomised; the domain is preserved Phone / formatted-number fields — digits are replaced individually; separators are preserved Status bar shows Sampled X records · Y fields after generation. 🕐 History Tracks every D365 record you open (Update and Read Only forms) across all browser tabs, and gives you a searchable, grouped list to jump back to any record instantly. Records are tracked automatically — you do not need the History panel to be open. What it shows: Records grouped by entity type with a count badge per group Newest-first ordering within each group For each record: name, relative timestamp (e.g. 5m ago, Yesterday, Mar 12), and a Read Only badge where applicable Groups with 2 or more entries start collapsed; single-entry groups are always expanded Controls: Search bar — filters all records in real time (case-insensitive); all groups expand automatically during a search Click any record — opens it in a new browser tab Group clear button — removes all history entries for that entity type ↻ Refresh — re-fetches the latest history list Clear All History (footer button) — wipes the entire history Note: You need to activate the plugin at least once when you start a fresh browser. Then it can be closed and it will track activity on all the tabs in that browser. Retention: entries older than 24 hours are automatically pruned each time the browser starts. The list is capped at 500 entries. Family Shows the relationship tree for the current record — 1:N child entities (two levels deep) and N:N linked entities — with live record counts displayed as proportional log-scale bars. Requirements: Family only works on existing saved records (Update or Read Only forms). It does not work on Create forms (no record ID exists yet). What it shows: 1:N Children section — entities that have a lookup pointing to this record, with a count of how many child records exist N:N Linked section — entities associated via a many-to-many intersect table Each entity row shows: display name, a proportional count bar, and a clickable count button Grandchildren — each 1:N child row expands to show its own child entities (level 2). Counts are loaded on demand via the Show counts button Clicking a count opens a record overlay showing up to 50 related records, each with a direct ↗ link to open the record in D365. Configuring which entities appear: Family filters the tree to a master entity list built from: Always included: account, contact, case — these are always shown regardless of configuration Your solutions — add any D365 solution by its technical name; Family fetches all entities in that solution and adds them to the master list To configure solutions: Click the ⚙ button in the panel header. Type a solution's technical name (e.g. mySolution) and click Add. Family verifies the solution exists before accepting it. The Default solution cannot be added (it contains every entity in the org). Solutions are shown as chips with their friendly name. Click ✕ on a chip to remove one. Click Save — Family rebuilds the entity list and reloads the tree immediately. Count bars use a logarithmic scale so large outliers (e.g. 100K activity records) do not collapse smaller counts into invisible slivers. ↻ Refresh re-reads the current record context and rebuilds the tree from scratch. Themes Beacon supports dark and light themes. Toggle between them using the ☀ / 🌙 buttons at the bottom of the popup. The selected theme applies to all open panels immediately and is saved for future sessions. Known Issues Issue Workaround Panel shows no data on first load Refresh the page and reopen Beacon Beacon icon badge does not appear Confirm you are on a CRM Main form, not a dashboard or view Extension does not activate Confirm the URL contains .dynamics.com and you are on a record detail page Forge shows "not enough records" Create at least 5 records of that entity type manually first Family shows no entities Add a solution in ⚙ Settings, or check that account, contact, or case have relationships to the current entity