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Fake4Dataverse: Test Automation Framework for Microsoft Dataverse and Power Platform

About This Project

Fake4Dataverse is an open-source testing framework for Microsoft Dynamics 365 / Dataverse and the Power Platform. Originally forked from FakeXrmEasy by Jordi Montaña, this project has evolved with a different vision and direction focused on comprehensive testing capabilities including network-accessible services, REST/OData endpoints, and modern integration testing patterns.

Note

A New Direction: While Fake4Dataverse started as a fork of FakeXrmEasy, it has grown beyond a compatibility layer. This project focuses on providing comprehensive testing infrastructure including CLI services, REST/OData endpoints, and web interfaces - capabilities designed for modern integration and end-to-end testing scenarios that extend beyond the original framework's scope.

Author: Rob Wood
Original Author: Jordi Montaña (@jordimontana)
License: MIT (see LICENSE.txt files in each project folder)

🌐 Fake4DataverseService - Network-Accessible Testing

Fake4Dataverse includes a CLI service that exposes both SOAP/WCF and REST/OData endpoints for integration testing across services and applications.

SOAP/WCF Endpoints

  • SOAP/WCF Protocol: Uses standard /XRMServices/2011/Organization.svc endpoint
  • SDK Compatible: Works with standard WCF channels and IOrganizationService interface
  • Type Compatible: Uses Microsoft's official Dataverse SDK types

REST/OData v4.0 Endpoints

  • OData v4.0 Protocol: Uses /api/data/v9.2 endpoint
  • Advanced Queries: Full $filter, $select, $orderby, $top, $skip, $expand support
  • Microsoft.AspNetCore.OData: Leverages official Microsoft OData library
  • JSON Format: Standard Dataverse Web API JSON format with @odata annotations

Common Features

  • Integration Testing: Test across multiple services or applications
  • No Authentication Required: Bypass OAuth for testing - just connect and go

Roadmap: Expanding Integration Testing Capabilities

We're actively working to enhance Fake4DataverseService with additional testing capabilities:

Planned Features

  • 📄 Web Resources Support: Serve custom JavaScript, CSS, HTML, and image files for testing client-side code
  • 🔌 Plugin Registration via SDK: Register plugins programmatically using the SDK plugin registration messages
  • 🌐 Enhanced REST API Support: Additional OData endpoints and query capabilities
  • 📊 Custom API Execution: Full support for Custom API invocation via REST endpoints
  • 🔐 OAuth Simulation: Optional authentication simulation for testing security flows
  • 📱 Power Apps Component Framework (PCF): Support for testing PCF controls with mock Dataverse context

Future Integrations

  • Power Automate Cloud Flow Testing: Enhanced flow testing with HTTP trigger endpoints
  • Canvas App Testing: Serve connectors and data sources for Canvas App testing
  • Model-Driven App Extensions: Full web resource and form script testing support

Learn more about Fake4DataverseService → | REST API Documentation →

# Start the service
cd Fake4DataverseService/Fake4Dataverse.Service
dotnet run -- start --port 5000

# Connect from any application using standard WCF
var binding = new BasicHttpBinding();
var endpoint = new EndpointAddress("http://localhost:5000/XRMServices/2011/Organization.svc");
var factory = new ChannelFactory<IOrganizationService>(binding, endpoint);
var service = factory.CreateChannel();

Fork Basis

This fork is based on an early development version of FakeXrmEasy v2, which was released under the MIT License. The original FakeXrmEasy project subsequently changed its licensing model. This fork preserves the last MIT-licensed version to ensure continued open-source availability for the community.

Important: Fake4Dataverse has evolved significantly beyond the original fork with its own architecture decisions, feature set, and direction. While it maintains the core testing principles, it is not designed to be a drop-in replacement or maintain API compatibility with FakeXrmEasy v2+.

Original Repositories:

The original repositories were licensed under MIT at the time this fork was created, as evidenced by the LICENSE files in those repositories in the commit we forked from (the history is preserved in this repo).

Why This Fork?

The original FakeXrmEasy project was an invaluable tool for the Dynamics 365 / Dataverse community, providing a comprehensive testing framework that enabled developers to write unit tests without requiring a live CRM instance. However, the original project moved to a commercial licensing model after version 2.x.

This fork serves several purposes:

  1. Preserve Open Source Access: By forking from the last MIT-licensed version, we ensure that the community continues to have access to a free, open-source testing framework for Dataverse development.

  2. Community-Driven Development: This fork is maintained by the community, for the community. We welcome contributions and aim to keep the project aligned with community needs.

  3. Different Direction and Vision: Fake4Dataverse has evolved beyond a simple fork to include:

    • Network-accessible services for integration testing
    • REST/OData v4.0 endpoints
    • Web interface for visual testing
    • Focus on modern integration and end-to-end testing patterns
    • Extended capabilities for testing web resources, client-side code, and custom APIs

  4. Modern Platform Support: We aim to support modern versions of Dataverse, Power Platform, and .NET while maintaining the testing-focused approach.

  5. Legal Clarity: This fork is completely legal and in accordance with the MIT License under which the original FakeXrmEasy was released. The MIT License explicitly permits forking, modification, and redistribution of the code.

Note: Fake4Dataverse is not intended to be compatible with or a replacement for FakeXrmEasy v2+. It has its own architecture, API design, and feature set tailored to modern testing scenarios.

Is Forking from the Last MIT Version Legal?

Absolutely yes. The MIT License is one of the most permissive open-source licenses and explicitly grants the rights to:

  • Use the software for any purpose
  • Make copies and distribute them
  • Modify the source code
  • Distribute modified versions

The original FakeXrmEasy was released under the MIT License, which means that version and all prior versions remain available under that license permanently. The license cannot be retroactively revoked. When Jordi Montaña chose to change the licensing model for future versions, previous MIT-licensed versions remained under the MIT License.

This fork:

  • Is based on an early version 2.x, which was released under the MIT License
  • Properly acknowledges the original author (Jordi Montaña) in all LICENSE files
  • Maintains all original copyright notices as required by the MIT License
  • Continues to use the MIT License for all derivatives

Acknowledgments

We are deeply grateful to Jordi Montaña for creating FakeXrmEasy and releasing it under the MIT License. His work has been instrumental to thousands of developers in the Dynamics 365 and Power Platform community. Please consider supporting his commercial and original version.

📖 Documentation

Complete documentation is available at docs/README.md

Quick Start

🔒 Security Model

Fake4Dataverse includes a complete Dataverse security model implementation for realistic security testing:

  • ✅ Privilege-Based Access Control - Users need specific privileges granted through roles
  • ✅ Privilege Depth Enforcement - Basic, Local, Deep, and Global access levels
  • ✅ Role Shadow Copies - Automatic role copying across business units
  • ✅ Business Unit Hierarchy - Traditional and modern BU security modes
  • ✅ System Administrator Role - Auto-initialized with implicit privileges
  • ✅ Organization-Owned Entities - Proper handling of system tables
  • ✅ System Tables Readable by Everyone - Matches Dataverse behavior

Learn more about Security Testing →

// Enable security with middleware
var builder = MiddlewareBuilder.New()
    .AddRoleLifecycle()  // Role lifecycle management
    .AddSecurity()       // Security enforcement
    .AddCrud();
    
var context = builder.Build();
context.SecurityConfiguration.SecurityEnabled = true;

// Set the calling user
context.CallerProperties.CallerId = new EntityReference("systemuser", userId);

// Operations are now checked against user's privileges
var service = context.GetOrganizationService();
  • Basic Concepts - Understand the framework
  • FAQ - Common questions and troubleshooting

Core Guides

Advanced Topics

Migration

Project Structure

This is a monorepo containing multiple projects:

1. Fake4DataverseAbstractions

  • Location: /Fake4DataverseAbstractions/
  • Purpose: Contains abstractions, interfaces, POCOs, enums, and base types used across the framework
  • Former Name: FakeXrmEasy.Abstractions

2. Fake4DataverseCore

  • Location: /Fake4DataverseCore/
  • Purpose: Core implementation including middleware, CRUD operations, query translation, and message executors
  • Former Name: FakeXrmEasy.Core
  • Note: Plugins and workflows are tested within Core (no separate plugin project)

3. Fake4DataverseCloudFlows

  • Location: /Fake4DataverseCloudFlows/
  • Purpose: Cloud Flow (Power Automate) simulation for testing automated flows
  • Target: .NET 8.0 only (for advanced OData support via Microsoft.OData.Core)
  • Features: Flow execution, expression evaluation, OData query support

4. Fake4DataverseService

  • Location: /Fake4DataverseService/
  • Purpose: Network-accessible service exposing SOAP/WCF and REST/OData endpoints
  • Features:
    • SOAP endpoint at /XRMServices/2011/Organization.svc
    • REST/OData v4.0 endpoints at /api/data/v9.2
    • Integration testing across services and applications

5. Fake4Dataverse (Legacy Package)

  • Location: /Fake4Dataverse/
  • Purpose: Legacy/compatibility package
  • Former Name: FakeXrmEasy

For project-specific information, see:

Building and Testing

Quick Start

Build the entire solution and run unit tests:

# Restore dependencies
dotnet restore Fake4Dataverse.sln

# Build all projects
dotnet build Fake4Dataverse.sln --configuration Debug --no-restore

# Run unit tests (excluding integration tests which require the service to be running)
dotnet test Fake4Dataverse.sln --configuration Debug --framework net8.0 --no-build --filter "FullyQualifiedName!~IntegrationTests"

Build the MDA App

cd Fake4DataverseService/mda-app
npm ci                  # Install dependencies
npm test                # Run unit tests
npm run build           # Build Next.js app

More Information

  • Testing Guide - Comprehensive guide to running all tests
  • Each project has its own build script. See individual project READMEs for details.

Feature Comparison: FakeXrmEasy v1 vs Fake4Dataverse vs FakeXrmEasy v2

The following table compares the features available across different versions of the testing framework. Note: Fake4Dataverse has evolved with its own architecture and is not designed to be compatible with or a replacement for FakeXrmEasy v2+. This comparison highlights the capabilities and differences between versions.

Architecture & Core Framework

Feature FakeXrmEasy v1 (MIT) Fake4Dataverse (This Fork) FakeXrmEasy v2+ (Commercial)
License MIT MIT Commercial/Subscription or reciprocal open source
Middleware Architecture ❌ No - Single executor per request ✅ Yes - ASP.NET Core inspired ✅ Yes - Enhanced middleware
Extensibility Model ⚠️ Limited ✅ GetProperty/SetProperty pattern ✅ Full extensibility
Pipeline Configuration ❌ Fixed pipeline ✅ Configurable middleware pipeline ✅ Advanced pipeline control
.NET Core 3.1 Support ❌ No ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
.NET 6/7/8 Support ❌ No ⚠️ .NET 8.0 only ✅ Full support
.NET Framework Support ✅ Yes ✅ Yes (Multi-targeting) ✅ Yes
Active Development ❌ Discontinued ✅ Community-driven ✅ Commercial support

CRUD & Basic Operations

Feature FakeXrmEasy v1 (MIT) Fake4Dataverse (This Fork) FakeXrmEasy v2+ (Commercial)
Create ✅ Yes ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
Retrieve ✅ Yes ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
Update ✅ Yes ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
Delete ✅ Yes ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
Upsert ⚠️ Limited ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
Associate/Disassociate ✅ Yes ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
ExecuteMultiple ⚠️ Basic ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
ExecuteTransaction ❌ No ✅ Yes ✅ Yes

Query Support

Feature FakeXrmEasy v1 (MIT) Fake4Dataverse (This Fork) FakeXrmEasy v2+ (Commercial)
QueryExpression ✅ Yes ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
FetchXML ⚠️ Basic ✅ Yes with aggregation ✅ Full support
LINQ Queries ⚠️ Limited ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
Condition Operators ~40 operators ✅ 60+ operators ✅ 70+ operators
Hierarchical Queries (Above/Under) ❌ No ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
Fiscal Period Operators ⚠️ Basic (InFiscalYear) ✅ Full support ✅ Full support
Aggregation (Sum, Count, etc.) ⚠️ Limited ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
Joins (LinkEntity) ✅ Yes ✅ Yes ✅ Yes

Message Executors

Feature FakeXrmEasy v1 (MIT) Fake4Dataverse (This Fork) FakeXrmEasy v2+ (Commercial)
Total Message Executors ~30-40 ✅ 47+ ✅ 100+
Assign ✅ Yes ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
SetState ✅ Yes ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
Merge ⚠️ Limited ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
GrantAccess/RevokeAccess ⚠️ Basic ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
WhoAmI ✅ Yes ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
RetrieveVersion ❌ No ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
RetrieveMetadata ⚠️ Limited ⚠️ Partial ✅ Full support
InitializeFrom ❌ No ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
QualifyLead ❌ No ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
WinOpportunity/LoseOpportunity ❌ No ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
CloseIncident/CloseQuote ❌ No ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
SendEmail ⚠️ Limited ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
BulkDelete ❌ No ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
AddToQueue/RemoveFromQueue ❌ No ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
Team Operations ⚠️ Limited ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
Custom API ❌ No ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
Custom Actions ⚠️ Limited ❌ No ✅ Yes

Plugin & Workflow Support

Feature FakeXrmEasy v1 (MIT) Fake4Dataverse (This Fork) FakeXrmEasy v2+ (Commercial)
Plugin Execution ✅ Yes ✅ Yes (Basic) ✅ Full support
Plugin Context Simulation ✅ Yes ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
Multiple Plugins per Message ❌ No ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
Plugin Auto-Discovery (SPKL) ❌ No ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
Plugin Auto-Discovery (XrmTools.Meta) ❌ No ✅ Yes ⚠️ Unknown
Pre/Post Images ⚠️ Basic ⚠️ Basic ✅ Full support
Pipeline Stages ⚠️ Basic ✅ Full support ✅ Full support
Workflow Activities ✅ Yes ❌ Removed (SDK limitation) ✅ Yes
Custom Workflow Activities ✅ Yes ❌ Removed (SDK limitation) ✅ Yes
Async Plugins ✅ Yes ⚠️ Limited ✅ Yes

Metadata Support

Feature FakeXrmEasy v1 (MIT) Fake4Dataverse (This Fork) FakeXrmEasy v2+ (Commercial)
Entity Metadata ⚠️ Basic ⚠️ Basic ✅ Full support
Attribute Metadata ⚠️ Basic ✅ Yes ✅ Full support
Relationship Metadata ⚠️ Basic ✅ Yes ✅ Full support
OptionSet Metadata ⚠️ Limited ✅ Yes (Repository) ✅ Full support
Status/State Metadata ⚠️ Limited ✅ Yes (Repository) ✅ Full support
Global OptionSets ❌ No ⚠️ Partial ✅ Yes
IsValidForCreate/Update/Read Validation ❌ No ✅ Yes ⚠️ Unknown¹
Publisher Metadata ❌ No ❌ No ✅ Yes
Solution Metadata ❌ No ❌ No ✅ Yes
System Entity Metadata ❌ No ✅ Yes (Embedded in Core) ⚠️ Unknown¹
CDM Import ❌ No ✅ Yes ⚠️ Unknown¹

Early-Bound Support

Feature FakeXrmEasy v1 (MIT) Fake4Dataverse (This Fork) FakeXrmEasy v2+ (Commercial)
Early-Bound Entities ✅ Yes (Single assembly) ✅ Yes (Multiple assemblies) ✅ Yes (Multiple assemblies)
ProxyTypesAssembly ✅ Yes ⚠️ Deprecated (use EnableProxyTypes) ⚠️ Deprecated
EnableProxyTypes() ❌ No ✅ Yes ✅ Yes

Advanced Features

Feature FakeXrmEasy v1 (MIT) Fake4Dataverse (This Fork) FakeXrmEasy v2+ (Commercial)
Security Roles Simulation ⚠️ Basic ⚠️ Basic ✅ Full support
Business Units ⚠️ Limited ⚠️ Limited ✅ Full support
Calculated Fields ❌ No ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
Business Rules ❌ No ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
Rollup Fields ❌ No ✅ Yes ⚠️ Unknown¹
Duplicate Detection ❌ No ❌ No ✅ Yes
Audit Log ❌ No ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
Virtual Entities ❌ No ❌ No ✅ Yes
Elastic Tables ❌ No ❌ No ✅ Yes
Connection References ❌ No ❌ No ✅ Yes
Cloud Flows ❌ No ✅ Yes (with JSON import & expressions) ✅ Yes
Power Automate Integration ❌ No ❌ No ✅ Yes

¹ FakeXrmEasy v2+ is a commercial product with documentation not publicly accessible. Feature availability cannot be independently verified.

Testing & Quality Features

Feature FakeXrmEasy v1 (MIT) Fake4Dataverse (This Fork) FakeXrmEasy v2+ (Commercial)
In-Memory Context ✅ Yes ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
Integration Testing (XrmRealContext) ✅ Yes ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
Concurrent Execution Testing ❌ No ❌ No ✅ Yes
Performance Profiling ❌ No ❌ No ✅ Yes
Transaction Rollback ⚠️ Limited ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
Async/Await Support ❌ No ⚠️ Limited ✅ Yes

Documentation & Support

Feature FakeXrmEasy v1 (MIT) Fake4Dataverse (This Fork) FakeXrmEasy v2+ (Commercial)
Documentation ✅ Community docs ✅ README + code comments ✅ Premium documentation
Code Examples ✅ Community samples ✅ Tests as examples ✅ Extensive examples
Support ❌ No official support ✅ Community support ✅ Commercial support
Updates ❌ Discontinued ✅ Community-driven ✅ Regular updates
Bug Fixes ❌ No ✅ Community fixes ✅ Priority fixes

Legend

  • ✅ Yes - Feature fully implemented and supported
  • ⚠️ Partial/Limited - Feature partially implemented or has limitations
  • ❌ No - Feature not available

Sources & References

This comparison is based on:

  1. FakeXrmEasy v1 Documentation: Original GitHub repository (archived/historical versions)

  2. Fake4Dataverse Source Code: Direct analysis of this repository

    • Actual message executor count: 47 executors in /Fake4DataverseCore/Fake4Dataverse.Core/FakeMessageExecutors/
    • Condition operator count: 60+ operators in /Fake4DataverseCore/Fake4Dataverse.Core/Query/
    • Architecture analysis from MiddlewareBuilder.cs and related files

  3. FakeXrmEasy v2+ Commercial: Based on commercial product website and documentation

  4. Microsoft Dynamics 365 SDK Documentation:

  5. Code Analysis: Direct examination of source code in this repository

    • Message executors: find . -name "*Executor.cs" | wc -l = 47
    • Middleware architecture: Middleware/MiddlewareBuilder.cs
    • Query operators: Query/ConditionExpressionExtensions.*.cs

Differences and Limitations in Fake4Dataverse

Fake4Dataverse has taken a different architectural direction focused on integration testing and network-accessible services. While it provides solid core testing capabilities, it differs significantly from FakeXrmEasy v2+ in scope and feature set:

Architectural Differences:

  • Focus on Integration Testing: Network-accessible services, REST/OData endpoints, and web interfaces
  • Different API Design: Not designed for API compatibility with FakeXrmEasy v2+
  • Extended Service Model: CLI service, web UI, and REST API capabilities beyond traditional unit testing

Features Not Available (compared to FakeXrmEasy v2+):

  1. Workflow/Custom Workflow Activities - Removed due to SDK limitations
  2. Custom Actions - Limited support for custom actions
  3. Duplicate Detection - Not yet implemented
  4. Virtual Entities - Not supported
  5. Elastic Tables - Not supported
  6. Connection References - Not supported
  7. Advanced Security Model - More limited than commercial version
  8. Complete Pre/Post Image Support - Basic implementation only
  9. Global OptionSets - Partial support only
  10. Publisher/Solution Metadata - Not supported
  11. Many Advanced Message Executors - ~47 executors vs 100+ in commercial version

Unique Capabilities in Fake4Dataverse:

  • Network-Accessible Service: SOAP/WCF and REST/OData endpoints for integration testing
  • Web Interface: Visual testing and user impersonation
  • Roadmap for Web Resources: Planned support for client-side testing
  • Community-Driven: Open-source with community contributions

This reflects Fake4Dataverse's focus as an integration testing framework rather than a complete Dataverse simulator. We do not claim 100% Dataverse compatibility or feature parity with the commercial FakeXrmEasy v2+.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit pull requests or open issues.

Support

This is a community-maintained project. While we strive to provide a quality framework, this software is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, as specified in the MIT License.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE.txt files in each project directory for details.

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A highly experimental fork of FakeXrmEasy just before licence was changed from MIT.

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