DataversePolicyEnforcement

A solution for enforcing policies against Microsoft Dataverse data and operations. This repository provides core validation and enforcement logic with a client surface and a planned Custom API bridge to integrate with host applications.

Status: WIP — Core functionality is available; the CustomApi project is planned as the bridge between the client and core but hasn't been implemented yet.

Contents

• src/DataversePolicyEnforcement.Core — Core libraries implementing validation, policy rules, and enforcement logic.
• src/DataversePolicyEnforcement.Client — Client(s) that call into the core libraries to apply policies from a UI or automated process.
• src/DataversePolicyEnforcement.CustomApi — (Planned) A Dataverse Custom API project that will act as the bridge between Dataverse clients and the Core logic.
• tests/ — Unit and integration tests for the core and client projects.

Key concepts

• Policy: A rule or set of rules describing allowed or disallowed operations on Dataverse entities (create/update/delete) or attribute values.
• Enforcement: The runtime logic that evaluates operations against policies and returns accept/deny responses or corrective actions.
• Custom API bridge: A Dataverse-hosted endpoint that receives requests from the Dataverse runtime (or external clients) and routes them to the Core for evaluation.

Prerequisites

• Git
• .NET SDK 6.0 or newer (adjust to your target framework if different)
• (Optional) Visual Studio 2022 / VS Code for development

Getting started

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/blakeZTL/DataversePolicyEnforcement.git

2. Open the solution

   • From Visual Studio: open the solution file in src/ (if present).
   • From the command line: dotnet restore in the solution root.

3. Build

   dotnet build

4. Run tests

   dotnet test

Project guidance

• Core

  • Location: src/DataversePolicyEnforcement.Core
  • Responsibilities: define policy models, evaluation engine, utilities for loading and applying policies.
  • Should be framework-agnostic so it can be reused by different hosts (Custom API, background services, CLI, etc.).

• Client

  • Location: src/DataversePolicyEnforcement.Client
  • Responsibilities: provide a consuming surface (console, service, or UI) that calls into Core to validate operations.

• Custom API (planned)

  • Location: src/DataversePolicyEnforcement.CustomApi (planned)
  • Responsibilities: host a Dataverse Custom API that receives requests from Dataverse workflows/plugins or direct clients, forwards them to Core for evaluation, and returns results.
  • Note: This project has not been built yet. Recommended approach: implement a lightweight Web API using the same .NET target as Core, keep request/response models minimal, and perform authorization and validation before delegating to Core.

Development notes

• Keep Core free of Dataverse-hosting dependencies so it remains reusable.
• Add comprehensive unit tests for each policy and enforcement path.
• Use dependency injection for pluggable components (policy stores, logging, telemetry).

Roadmap / TODO

• Implement CustomApi project to act as the bridge between Dataverse and Core.
• Create sample Dataverse plugin or Power Automate connector that calls the Custom API.
• Add more policy examples and test coverage.

Contributing

• Fork the repo and open a pull request against main.
• Follow existing code style and add tests for new behavior.

Contact

• Repo: https://github.com/blakeZTL/DataversePolicyEnforcement