Microsoft have finally renamed the Common Data Service (CDS) to Microsoft Dataverse which is the data platform element for Power Platform and Dynamics 365 that securely stores and manages data stored by business applications. Apart from the name change some of the terminology that was previously used has been updated to fit in line with “standard” terminology used for decades by the computer science fraternity. This is a welcome relief when trying to explain this to clients and especially DBAs. The updates are listed in the table below with the Microsoft documentation being updated soon;
| Old CDS terms | New Dataverse terms |
|---|---|
| Entity, entities | Tables, tables |
| Field, fields Attribute, attributes | Column, columns |
| Record, records | Rows, rows |
| Option set, multiple select option sets Picklists, picklists | Choice, choices |
| Two Options | Yes/No |
So the Microsoft Dataverse has brought us back into our Universe in regards to naming conventions for this data platform making the conversations with clients a little less confusing and more productive without having to explain the basic concepts and terminology mappings.
