FAQ
Common ForgeLab questions.
A lightweight orientation page for the ForgeLab ecosystem, product boundaries, free utilities, Smart Patch nuance, and the DV Quick Run relationship.
What is DV ForgeLab?
DV ForgeLab is the product family behind DV Quick Run and focused Dataverse utilities for investigation, verification, and controlled reconstruction.
Is DV Quick Run the flagship product?
Yes. DV Quick Run remains the flagship operational investigation workbench. The ForgeLab website provides the ecosystem overview; deep DV Quick Run details stay on dvquickrun.com.
Why separate DV Quick Run and the DV Utilities?
DV Quick Run and the DV Utilities have different responsibilities. DV Quick Run focuses on investigation, verification, comparison, evidence continuity, and operational understanding. The utilities focus on bounded reconstruction workflows such as importing, staging, validating, previewing, and applying explicit metadata, configuration, and identity participation changes.
Why not build everything into DV Quick Run?
Keeping investigation and reconstruction separate helps preserve clear product boundaries. DV Quick Run remains focused on understanding operational behaviour, preserving evidence, and supporting verification. The utilities remain focused on specific reconstruction workflows without turning DV Quick Run into a general administration platform.
Will the DV utilities remain free?
The current direction is for DV Choice Editor, DV Environment Variable Manager, DV Attribute Factory, DV Identity Manager, and DV Bulk Upsert Runner to remain focused free utilities. DV Quick Run may offer optional Pro acceleration for advanced investigation workflows.
Can the DV Utilities be used without DV Quick Run?
Yes. Each utility is a standalone VS Code extension and can be installed independently. Teams may use individual utilities without adopting the wider ForgeLab ecosystem.
Will DV Quick Run become a deployment or ALM platform?
No. DV Quick Run is designed as an operational investigation and verification workbench. It helps teams understand operational drift, runtime behaviour, identity participation, and environment differences. It is not intended to replace deployment pipelines, solution lifecycle management, or release orchestration.
Does DV Quick Run change Dataverse data or metadata?
DV Quick Run is primarily an operational investigation workbench. Some workflows, such as preview-first user-directed execution and Smart Patch style capabilities, may help users perform deliberate actions. DVQR does not automatically remediate drift, certify root cause, or replace human operational authority.
Do the utilities support Smart Patch workflows?
Yes. Several ForgeLab utilities support staged definition changes, validation, preview workflows, and portable definition artifacts that can participate in Smart Patch style workflows. The utilities focus on bounded reconstruction tasks rather than full deployment orchestration.
Why does DV ForgeLab emphasise preview-first workflows?
Metadata and configuration changes can have operational consequences. ForgeLab tools are designed to keep validation, preview, evidence, and human review visible before execution. The goal is deliberate change rather than hidden automation.
Does DV ForgeLab replace human operational judgement?
No. ForgeLab tools support investigation, verification, preview-first administration, and bounded execution workflows. Humans remain responsible for validating findings, reviewing proposed changes, and exercising operational authority.
What is DV Identity Manager?
DV Identity Manager is a preview-first Dataverse identity participation utility. It helps teams search users, teams, and application users, review current role and team participation, stage assignment or membership changes, validate, preview, and explicitly apply.
Does DV Identity Manager calculate effective access?
No. DV Identity Manager manages participation in existing roles and teams. It does not edit privileges, display privilege matrices, simulate RBAC, calculate effective permissions, or determine security authority.
Can DV Identity Manager manage application users?
Yes. DVIM supports participation workflows for users, teams, and application users, including role assignments and supported team memberships where Dataverse allows them.
What is DV Bulk Upsert Runner?
DV Bulk Upsert Runner is a preview-first Dataverse bulk data application utility for CSV, JSON, and DVBUR packages. It imports records, validates locally, classifies creates and updates against Dataverse, applies upserts, and surfaces execution results.
Is DV Bulk Upsert Runner a migration or ETL platform?
No. DVBUR is a runner, not a migration platform. It applies staged single-entity data rows through preview-first workflows. It does not perform ETL, scheduled sync, relationship graph migration, attachment migration, or automatic data cleansing.
Can DV Bulk Upsert Runner classify creates and updates before applying?
Yes. DVBUR can check Dataverse before execution to classify rows as creates or updates where the selected key allows classification. The result is shown before users choose to apply upserts.
What happens when bulk upserts fail?
DVBUR groups and summarizes failures, surfaces failure category, column, value, expected type, and suggested action where possible, and supports failure review workflows such as exporting failures and requeueing them.
Where are the utility docs?
Each utility has a dedicated ForgeLab docs page covering what it does, why it exists, its typical workflow, boundaries, and relationship to DV Quick Run.
Where should bugs and feature requests go?
Use the relevant GitHub repository or GitHub Discussions area for each product. The Docs page links to the product repositories and utility guides.
Is DV ForgeLab affiliated with Microsoft?
No. DV ForgeLab is an independent software vendor. Microsoft, Dataverse, Power Platform, Dynamics 365, and Visual Studio Code are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. DV ForgeLab is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft.