FetchXML Studio for Power Platform ToolBox

A powerful, modern FetchXML query builder and data explorer for Power Platform ToolBox. Inspired by the XrmToolBox FetchXML Builder, reimagined with React 18, Fluent UI v9, and seamless Dataverse integration.

✨ Features

🔧 Visual Query Builder

• Tree-based hierarchy — Build FetchXML queries visually with entities, attributes, filters, orders, and link-entities
• Smart property editors — Context-aware panels for each node type (fetch options, conditions, relationships)
• Full FetchXML support — Aggregate queries, grouping, distinct, top/count, paging, and advanced hints
• Nested filters — Create complex AND/OR filter groups with unlimited nesting
• Link-entity relationships — Browse and add 1:N, N:1, and N:N relationships with inner/outer joins

📊 Results Grid

• Virtualized DataGrid — Handle large result sets with smooth scrolling (powered by react-window)
• Rich cell rendering — Power Apps-style display for lookups, option sets, dates, currency, and more
• Multi-column sorting — Click headers to sort; Shift+click for multi-column sort
• Row selection — Select single or multiple records for bulk operations
• Resizable & reorderable columns — Customize your view with drag-and-drop columns
• Formatted values — Display OData formatted values or raw values (configurable)

📝 FetchXML Editor

• Monaco editor — Full-featured XML editor with XML syntax highlighting and line numbers
• Bi-directional editing — Edit XML directly and parse back to the visual builder
• Copy to clipboard — One-click copy of generated FetchXML, available in both read-only and editor modes
• Alias validation — Invalid alias characters are sanitized in real time in the property editors; the parser auto-corrects aliases on Parse to Tree with a clear description of each correction
• LayoutXML preview — See the column layout configuration

📥 Load & Save Views

• Load system/personal views — Browse and load existing Dataverse views
• Optimized view execution — Uses SavedQuery/UserQuery APIs for better performance
• Save to Dataverse — Save your queries as new personal views or update existing ones
• Solution-aware — Add views to solutions during save

📤 Export & Data Operations

• Local Excel export — Native .xlsx generation via ExcelJS with proper data types (numbers, dates, currencies, booleans)
• Dataverse Excel export — Server-side export via the ExportToExcel action (requires a saved view)
• Native save dialog — When running inside PPTB, both export paths use fileSystem.saveFile for a native OS save-file dialog; falls back to browser blob download in standalone/dev mode
• Formatted value options — Export formatted values, raw values, or both side-by-side columns
• Record deletion — Delete selected records with confirmation dialog
• Bulk delete jobs — Submit async BulkDelete jobs to Dataverse with job-tracking URL
• Batch delete — Parallel per-record delete for small sets (up to 100 records) with progress and ETA
• Run workflows — Execute on-demand workflows on selected records with batch execution and progress tracking

📋 Bulk Attribute Selection

• Select Attributes dialog — Multi-select attributes from a searchable DataGrid; accessible from entity and link-entity context menus
• Smart updates — Adds new selections and removes deselected attributes while preserving existing order and properties
• Search & filter — Real-time filtering across logical name, display name, and data type columns

🔀 Code Generation

• Code tab — New tab in the right pane that generates ready-to-use code from the current query in seven formats
• C# QueryExpression — Full SDK object graph (QueryExpression, ColumnSet, FilterExpression, ConditionExpression, LinkEntity, OrderExpression) via the Dataverse FetchXmlToQueryExpression API; supports aggregate queries with XrmAggregateType and XrmDateTimeGrouping
• C# FetchExpression — Simple new FetchExpression(@"...") wrapper using a verbatim string literal
• JavaScript — Xrm.WebApi.retrieveMultipleRecords call for model-driven apps and PCF components
• pac CLI — pac org fetch --xml "..." command for the Power Platform CLI
• Power Automate — Field-by-field form mirroring the Dataverse "List rows" connector UI; table name resolved from EntityDefinitions metadata (not a heuristic), each field individually copyable
• Web API — Full OData URL with request headers, cURL snippet, and PowerShell Invoke-RestMethod example; entity set name resolved from metadata
• SQL — Dataverse-generated T-SQL via FetchXMLToSQL (undocumented API, labelled Preview)

🎨 User Experience

• Dark/Light themes — Follows Power Platform ToolBox theme with Fluent UI tokens
• Lazy metadata loading — Loads only what's needed, when it's needed
• Intelligent caching — In-memory cache prevents duplicate API calls per session
• Resizable panes — Adjust split-pane layout to your preference
• Keyboard shortcuts — Ctrl+Enter to execute query, copy XML to clipboard
• Display settings — Toggle logical names vs display names in column headers; choose formatted, raw, or both value modes in the grid and exports
• Query scope settings — Control which entities appear in the entity picker: Publisher + Solution (full filter), Solution Only, or All Entities (no filter). Persisted across sessions.
• Advanced Find Only toggle — When on (default), limits entities and attributes to those marked IsValidForAdvancedFind = true. Disable to access all entities including system and developer tables. Filter is applied locally — toggling is instant with no additional API call.

🔗 Tool-to-Tool (T2T) Integration

• Send to Tool button — Launch another PPTB tool directly from FetchXML Studio, pre-loading it with the current FetchXML query and active Dataverse connection (one-way handoff).
• Automatic tool discovery — Targets are discovered via the PPTB capability registry — installed tools that declare the fetchxml capability. The Send to Tool control always renders as a dropdown listing the discovered tools (even a single match). No configuration needed.
• Active connection forwarding — The active Dataverse connection is forwarded automatically so the target tool opens against the same environment.
• Inbound prefill — FetchXML Studio also accepts incoming T2T invocations from other tools (see Callee Contract below).

🔒 Privilege-Aware

• Export privilege check — Only shows Dataverse export option if user has access
• Delete privilege check — Validates entity-specific delete permissions before enabling delete actions
• Bulk delete privilege check — Validates prvBulkDelete before surfacing bulk delete
• Workflow privilege check — Validates prvReadWorkflow + prvWorkflowExecution before showing workflow picker
• View save privilege check — Validates prvWriteQuery / prvWriteCustomization / prvPublishCustomization / prvWriteUserQuery before save operations

🖼️ Interface Overview

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  [Entity Selector ▼]  [Load View ▼]  [Save View] [Send to Tool ▼]  [⚙] │
├──────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                      │  [FetchXML]  [LayoutXML]  [Results]  [Code]  [▶ Execute]│
│   Query Tree         ├──────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                      │                                                   │
│   📁 fetch           │   Results Grid / Monaco Editor                   │
│   └─📁 entity        │                                                   │
│      ├─📋 attribute  │   ┌────────────┬────────────┬──────────────┐     │
│      ├─📋 attribute  │   │ Column 1   │ Column 2   │ Column 3     │     │
│      ├─🔽 order      │   ├────────────┼────────────┼──────────────┤     │
│      ├─🔍 filter     │   │ Value      │ Value      │ Value        │     │
│      │  └─ condition │   │ Value      │ Value      │ Value        │     │
│      └─🔗 link-entity│   └────────────┴────────────┴──────────────┘     │
│                      │                                                   │
├──────────────────────┤   [◀ Prev] Page 1 of 10 [Next ▶]  100 records    │
│                      │                                                   │
│   Properties Panel   │   [+ Add Columns] [✎ Edit Columns] [⬇ Export]   │
│   (context-aware)    │   [🗑 Delete] [Bulk Delete] [⚡ Run Workflow]    │
│                      │                                                   │
└──────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Power Platform ToolBox desktop application
• Connection to a Dataverse environment

Installation

FetchXML Studio is available as a tool in Power Platform ToolBox. Install it from the tool gallery or load as a custom tool.

🛠️ Development

Setup

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/mohsinonxrm/pptb-fetchxml-studio.git
cd pptb-fetchxml-studio

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Start development server
npm run dev

Building

# Production build
npm run build

# Preview production build
npm run preview

# Validate package manifest against PPTB registry rules
npm run validate

# Finalize for publishing (build + shrinkwrap)
npm run finalize-package

Debug Logging

Enable debug logging in the browser console:

// Enable specific category
enableDebug("metadataAPI");       // API calls and responses
enableDebug("treeExpansion");     // Tree node operations
enableDebug("relationshipPicker"); // Relationship loading
enableDebug("linkEntityEditor");  // Link-entity configuration
enableDebug("propertiesPanel");   // Property editor routing

// Enable all
enableAllDebug();

// Disable
disableDebug("metadataAPI");
disableAllDebug();

📦 Tech Stack

| Technology | Version | Purpose | |------------|---------|--------| | React | 18.3 | UI framework | | TypeScript | 5.9 | Type-safe development | | Vite | 7 | Build tooling and HMR | | Fluent UI v9 | 9.72 | Microsoft design system (Tree, DataGrid, Tabs, Drawer, etc.) | | Monaco Editor | 0.54 | VS Code XML editor for FetchXML authoring | | react-window | 2 | Virtualized list rendering for large datasets | | ExcelJS | 4.4 | Native .xlsx generation with typed cells | | @pptb/types | 1.2.3 | Power Platform ToolBox host API types (window.dataverseAPI, window.toolboxAPI) |

📁 Project Structure

src/
├── app/
│   └── AppShell.tsx              # Main layout with resizable split panes
├── features/fetchxml/
│   ├── api/
│   │   ├── pptbClient.ts         # window.dataverseAPI wrapper (all Dataverse ops)
│   │   ├── dataverseMetadata.ts  # Lazy metadata loading with cache + dedup
│   │   ├── excelExport.ts        # Local ExcelJS export with native types
│   │   ├── formattedValues.ts    # OData @FormattedValue annotation helpers
│   │   └── invocation.ts         # T2T caller API (isT2TSupported, sendFetchXmlToTool)
│   ├── model/
│   │   ├── nodes.ts              # FetchXML node TypeScript definitions
│   │   ├── fetchxml.ts           # FetchXML XML generation
│   │   ├── fetchxmlParser.ts     # FetchXML XML → node tree parser
│   │   ├── fetchxmlIntellisense.ts # Intellisense / autocomplete helpers
│   │   ├── layoutxml.ts          # LayoutXML generation
│   │   ├── operators.ts          # Operator definitions by attribute type
│   │   ├── displaySettings.ts    # Display settings types and defaults
│   │   └── treeUtils.ts          # Tree traversal utilities
│   ├── engine/
│   │   ├── queryExpressionTypes.ts   # QE JSON schema interfaces (number | string enums)
│   │   ├── queryExpressionCodegen.ts # C# SDK code emitter (resolveEnum, unwrapODataValue)
│   │   └── fetchxmlCodeGenerators.ts # Sync generators: FetchExpr, JS, pac, PA, WebAPI
│   ├── state/
│   │   ├── builderStore.tsx      # React context + reducer state management
│   │   └── cache.ts              # Per-session in-memory metadata cache
│   └── ui/
│       ├── LeftPane/             # Tree view + context-aware properties panel
│       │   └── PropertiesPanel/
│       │       └── editors/      # Node-specific property editors
│       ├── RightPane/            # Monaco editor, LayoutXML viewer, results grid,
│       │                         # code generation panel, Power Automate pane
│       ├── Toolbar/              # Entity selector, load view picker, save button,
│       │                         # send-to-tool button

│       ├── Dialogs/              # Save view, select attributes, delete, bulk
│       │                         # delete, workflow picker, solution picker
│       └── Settings/             # Settings drawer (display preferences)
└── shared/
    ├── components/               # Reusable value pickers (option set, boolean,
    │                             # date, numeric, multi-value, relationship, etc.)
    ├── contexts/                 # ThemeContext
    ├── hooks/                    # usePptbContext, useLazyMetadata, useAccessMode,
    │                             # usePublisherFilter, useSolutionFilter
    └── utils/                    # Debug logging utilities

🔧 FetchXML Features Support

| Feature | Status | |---------|--------| | Basic queries | ✅ | | Attributes (select columns) | ✅ | | All-attributes | ✅ | | Filters (and/or) | ✅ | | Nested filters | ✅ | | All condition operators | ✅ | | Link-entity (joins) | ✅ | | Inner/outer joins | ✅ | | N:N relationships | ✅ | | Orders (sorting) | ✅ | | Multi-column sort | ✅ | | Aggregate queries | ✅ | | Groupby | ✅ | | Distinct | ✅ | | Top/Count | ✅ | | Paging with cookies | ✅ | | Value-of conditions | ✅ | | Entity name on conditions | ✅ | | Filter link-entity (any/all) | ✅ | | Query hints | ✅ |

🔗 Callee Contract (pptb.config.json)

FetchXML Studio declares a PPTB Inter-Tool Invocation callee contract in pptb.config.json at the repository root, and declares the fetchxml capability so callers can discover it. Any other PPTB tool can launch FetchXML Studio and pre-populate it by passing a prefill payload that matches the following schema:

{
  "fetchXml": "<fetch><entity name=\"account\">...</entity></fetch>"
}

| Field | Type | Required | Description | |---|---|---|---| | fetchXml | string | One of these three | Full serialized FetchXML query string. The root entity is parsed from this. | | viewRef | object | One of these three | EntityReference to an existing view. The FetchXML is retrieved from the view record. | | entityLogicalName | string | One of these three | Root entity logical name (e.g. "account"). Starts a fresh query on that entity. Ignored when fetchXml is present — the root entity is then derived from the FetchXML, since a mismatched value would break this metadata-driven tool's lookups. | | viewRef.id | string (uuid) | Required if viewRef | GUID of the view record | | viewRef.entityLogicalName | "savedquery" | "userquery" | Required if viewRef | Dataverse entity logical name — savedquery = system/public view, userquery = personal view |

Resolution priority at runtime: fetchXml → viewRef → entityLogicalName. With no prefill (a standalone launch) the tool opens empty.

Returning a query to the caller

When FetchXML Studio is launched by another tool, a Return FetchXML button appears in the FetchXML toolbar. Clicking it returns the current query to the caller:

{ "fetchXml": "<fetch>...</fetch>" }

The caller receives this as the resolved value of launchTool(...). This is distinct from the host-injected "Return to [Caller]" banner, which simply navigates back and resolves the caller's promise with null (no data).

Sending a query from another PPTB tool

To launch FetchXML Studio from your own PPTB tool with a pre-loaded query:

const result = await window.toolboxAPI.invocation.launchTool(
  "@mohsinonxrm/pptb-fetchxml-studio",
  { fetchXml: "<fetch><entity name=\"account\"><attribute name=\"name\"/></entity></fetch>" },
  { primaryConnectionId: connection?.id ?? null },
);

// If the user clicks "Return FetchXML", result is { fetchXml }.
// If they close the window or click the host's back banner, result is null.
const editedFetchXml = (result as { fetchXml?: string } | null)?.fetchXml;

Sending a query to another tool (Send to Tool)

FetchXML Studio discovers send targets automatically — no configuration needed. It calls the host capability registry (toolboxAPI.invocation.findToolsByCapability("fetchxml")) to find installed tools that declare the fetchxml capability in their own pptb.config.json, and lists them in a Send to Tool button (a single button for one match, a dropdown picker for several). The button is hidden when no other fetchxml-capable tools are installed, or on hosts that don't support capability discovery.

The launch is one-way (noReturn: true) — FetchXML Studio hands the current query off and does not wait for data back. Any tool that wants to appear here only needs to declare:

{ "invocation": { "version": "1.0.0", "capabilities": ["fetchxml"], "prefill": { "properties": { "fetchXml": { "type": "string" } } } } }

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'feat: add amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

Commit Convention

This project follows Conventional Commits:

• feat: New feature
• fix: Bug fix
• refactor: Code refactoring
• docs: Documentation
• chore: Maintenance

📋 Roadmap

• [ ] Import/export query definitions (JSON)
• [ ] Quick query templates
• [ ] Query history
• [ ] Web API code generation
• [ ] Query performance insights
• [ ] Syntax validation in Monaco

📄 License

Licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0-only). See LICENSE for details.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• XrmToolBox FetchXML Builder - Original inspiration
• Power Platform ToolBox - Host platform
• Fluent UI - UI component library
• Monaco Editor - Code editor

Built with ❤️ for the Power Platform community