Dataverse Column Usage Tracker

About

🔍 What is the Dataverse Column Usage Tracker?

A read-only Chrome extension that finds every reference to a chosen column in your Microsoft Dataverse / Dynamics 365 environment — instantly. Type a column logical name (e.g. emailaddress1) and the Tracker scans across forms, views, automation, plugins, web resources, and live data so you know exactly what will break if you rename or delete that column.

Built for Dataverse / Power Platform developers, makers, and functional consultants who need to assess change-impact in seconds instead of clicking through every form and workflow manually.


🎯 What it searches

📋 Forms — main, quick-create, and quick-view forms whose form-XML mentions the column (controls, libraries, OnChange events)
📊 Views — system views (savedquery) and personal views (userquery) that select or filter on the column
⚡ Automation — classic workflows, business rules, business process flows (BPF), modern Power Automate flows, custom actions, dialogs
🧩 Plugin Steps — sdkmessageprocessingstep records, with badges showing Stage (PreValidation / PreOperation / PostOperation), Mode (Synchronous / Asynchronous), Rank, linked SDK Message, plus Pre-Image / Post-Image attribute lists
📦 Web Resources — JavaScript, HTML, XML, XSL, RESX. Instant name-match + opt-in deep content scan that decodes the base64 body and regex-searches for the column inside the code
🔢 Live Data References — when both Entity + Column are set, counts and lists actual records where the column is non-null


🩺 Reference Health Score

After every search you get a 0–100 risk score weighted by runtime impact (active plugins × 4.5, active modern flows × 4, active BPF × 4, classic workflows × 3.5, forms × 2.5, system views × 1.5). Green / Yellow / Red tier tells you at a glance whether the column is safe to rename — and the score description explains why.


📑 Audit Report

One click generates a styled, printable HTML report:
• Cover page with score, summary, instance, timestamp
• Section-by-section tables (Forms / Views / Automation / Plugins / Web Resources / Data)
• Coloured Plugin badges preserved in the report
• Ready to share, save as PDF, or attach to a change request


⌨️ Quality-of-life

• Live autocomplete on entity name and column name (with display name + attribute type hints)
• Light / dark mode (Ctrl + Shift + D)
• Command palette (Ctrl + P) — quick-jump entities, fields, recent searches
• Search history kept locally (chrome.storage.local) — Ctrl + H to recall
• Right-click anywhere on a Dataverse page → "Find column references in Dataverse" — instantly pre-fills the Tracker with the selected text
• Animated scan progress for long content scans
• Field metadata preview (📑 Metadata button) — type, length, choices, lookup targets, audited flag, calc/rollup formula


🔒 Privacy-first — nothing leaves your browser

• Runs entirely inside your current Dataverse tab as an isolated content script
• Reads metadata using your already-authenticated session via the standard Web API
• Zero third-party network calls. No analytics, no trackers, no remote code
• Locally stored preferences only (theme, history, annotations, stars) — all in chrome.storage.local on your machine
• Host permission is restricted to https://*.dynamics.com/*
• Open source — every line is readable JavaScript; no obfuscation

Full privacy policy: <PASTE YOUR PRIVACY POLICY URL HERE AFTER YOU PUBLISH IT>


⚠ Use responsibly

The Tracker is a read-only insights tool. It never writes, modifies, or deletes any record, metadata, or solution component. Always test renames / deletes in a non-production environment before deploying. Provided as-is, without warranty.


👨‍💻 Built by Mohammed Shafiuddin — Joyful Learning 365.

▶ YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/@joyfullearning3659
in LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/shafiuddin-mohammed-928b31203/
🌐 Blog — https://shafiuddinmicrosoftdynamics365crm.wordpress.com/