D365 FO Config Compare

🚧 Beta — actively developed. Expect rapid iteration; please report issues.

⚠️ Disclaimer — use at your own risk. This is an independent, community-built tool. It is not a standard out-of-the-box Microsoft product, not affiliated with, endorsed by, or supported by Microsoft. The software is provided AS IS under the MIT license, with no warranty of any kind. Not recommended for production environments — validate against UAT or a read-replica first. "Microsoft", "Dynamics 365", and related names are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation, used here only for descriptive purposes.

Extract Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations form configurations from one or more environments and compare them side-by-side in Excel — straight from VS Code.

📘 Read the Master Guide for the complete story: business problem, full architecture, both backends in deep detail, every gotcha we hit, and the original Python pipeline (preserved in archive/).

What it does

You point it at one or more D365 F&O environments.
You pick one or more forms (e.g. smmParameters, VendGroup).
It walks every tab, every FastTab, every grid (with pagination), sweeps for hidden controls, and writes one Excel per environment.
If you picked 2+ environments, it also produces a _DIFF.xlsx with field-level match / mismatch highlighting.

Two backends — pick at run-time

Backend	When to use	Auth
D365 ERP MCP (recommended, headless, fast)	Forms exposed by the F&O MCP server. Deep extraction: all tabs + grids paginated + hidden-control sweep.	Azure CLI bearer token (`az account get-access-token`)
Playwright (Chrome CDP)	Visual verification, or forms MCP can't open. Drives your logged-in Chrome on port 9222.	Your existing Chrome session

Quick start

Install the .vsix.
Command Palette → D365: Getting Started — opens the walkthrough.
Run the walkthrough steps in order:
- Create / open a workspace folder (e.g. C:\D365-Form-Extractor)
- Run Onboarding — installs Python deps, checks az login, registers environments, probes /mcp
- Start Chrome with Remote Debugging (only needed for Playwright backend or path validation)
- Configure Form Paths — paste UI paths like Accounts payable > Setup > Vendor groups; the validator finds the menu item (mi=VendGroup)
- Extract Form — pick one or many forms, pick environments, pick backend, watch the Output panel
Excels land in <workspace>/d365-extracts/.

Commands (Ctrl+Shift+P → "D365") — run in this order

#	Command	What it does
1	`D365 FO Config Compare: Getting Started`	Opens the step-by-step walkthrough
2	`D365 FO Config Compare: Create / Open Workspace Folder`	Scaffolds `.vscode/settings.json`
3	`D365 FO Config Compare: Run Onboarding`	Python deps + `az login` + environment registration + MCP probe
4	`D365 FO Config Compare: Start Chrome with Remote Debugging`	Closes Chrome, relaunches with `--remote-debugging-port=9222`
5	`D365 FO Config Compare: Configure Form Paths`	Paste UI paths; auto-discovers `mi=...`
6	`D365 FO Config Compare: Extract Form`	Multi-select forms + environments, then pick a backend at run-time: D365 ERP MCP (headless, recommended) or Playwright (Chrome CDP)
—	`D365 FO Config Compare: Clear Saved Settings`	Reset everything (use only to start over)

What you get in the output

For each form + environment:

<form>_<env>.xlsx
  Sheet: Form Info        caption, company, form name
  Sheet: Top Fields       name, label, value, type, mandatory, visible
  Sheet: <TabName>        fields scoped to that tab
  Sheet: <GridName>       grid rows with all columns

When 2+ environments are picked, an extra workbook:

<form>_DIFF_<timestamp>.xlsx     OK rows in green, DIFF rows highlighted, missing fields flagged per env

Prerequisites

Windows 10/11
Python 3.10+
Azure CLI (az) signed in with read access to the D365 environment(s)
Google Chrome (only for Playwright backend or path validation)

Onboarding installs the Python deps for you: requests, msal, openpyxl, playwright.

Authentication

az account get-access-token --resource https://<env>.dynamics.com

That's it. The extension never stores tokens or secrets; every run asks az fresh.

Settings reference

Setting	Purpose
`d365FormExtractor.pythonPath`	Python executable (default: `python` on PATH)
`d365FormExtractor.chromePath`	`chrome.exe` path (auto-detected)
`d365FormExtractor.environments`	`[{label, baseUrl, tenantId?, mcpUrl?, mcpAvailable?}]`
`d365FormExtractor.formPaths`	`[{path, menuItem, validated, error?}]` — populated by the validator
`d365FormExtractor.outputFolder`	Where Excels are written (default `<workspace>/d365-extracts`)
`d365FormExtractor.defaultBackend`	`mcp` \| `playwright` \| `ask`

Tips

First time? Run D365: Getting Started — the walkthrough wires everything in order.
MCP "0 fields on some tabs"? 0.7.0+ opens every tab, paginates every grid, and sweeps for hidden controls. Watch the Output panel for per-tab counts and the Sweep added N field(s) summary.
Path validation fails? Make sure Chrome on :9222 is signed in to D365 and on the dashboard. Re-run Configure Form Paths.
Want to compare envs? Pick 2+ in the environment quick-pick during Extract — the DIFF workbook is generated automatically.

License

MIT

D365 FO Config Compare (Beta)

Prashant Verma