Uploading large files

Dustin Miner
posted on April 11, 2024April 13, 2024
Comments Off on Uploading large files

Introduction

Referring to Figure 1,

1.) A large file is uploaded to a Dynamics 365 form (assuming the internet browser used can handle the large file)

2.) Within the form’s custom JavaScript, the file is converted into base64, placed in a JSON request and sent to the custom API UploadDocument()

This will work fine for files under 100MB. However the power platform rejects files over 100MB (well, it seems to be around this value) and generates the error message ‘The page was not displayed because the request entity is too large’.

The next section presents a solution for uploading files which are over 100MB

Solution Overview

Referring to Figure 2,

1.) A large file (over 100MB) is uploaded to a Dynamics 365 form

2.) Within the form’s custom JavaScript, a call is made to generate a record in a custom table called ‘Document Upload’. (This table contains a File column to temporarily store the large file)

3.) The record id of the record just created is retrieved

4.) Within the form’s custom JavaScript, a call is made to’UploadFile()’. This function stores the large file in the ‘Document Upload’ record

5.) Rather than the base64 file contents being placed in the JSON request, the id of the newly created ‘Document Upload’ record is placed in the request

6.) Within the custom API ‘UploadDocument()’, a C# function called ‘DownloadFile()’ is called. This retrieves the file from Dataverse

7.) Since the complete file is now available within the custom API, the file is deleted from Dataverse

Solution Detail

1.) Create the table called ‘Document Upload’ in Dataverse with a File column called ‘Temporary File’ to temporarily store the large file

In this example, the size of the File column is 2GB. This can’t be selected within the designer, so the following (unsupported) steps need to be taken

Create an unmanaged solution containing the newly created table and File column
Export it as an unmanaged solution
In Customizations.xml, update the maximum file size to 2097152 Kb (20 x 1024 x 1024)
In Solution.xml, update the solution version
Re-import the unmanaged solution