Retrieving an Original Document Template from Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement

Posted by Paul Haag
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Document (Word or Excel) templates in Dynamics 365 allow you to merge CRM data into a pre-formatted document. Details on that process can be found here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/customer-engagement/admin/using-word-templates-dynamics-365.
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Unfortunately, once you create the template, there’s no straightforward way to download the original template again from Dynamics 365. So, if you decide you want to make a change and can’t find the original document, you must go through the exercise of remapping all the Dynamics 365 data fields.
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With the web API and a couple of online tools, though, you can get back up and running.
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1. In a browser (not Internet Explorer), run the URL you will need to download the template (replace the highlighted bits with the correct values for your CRM system and template): https://yourtenant.crm.dynamics.com/api/data/v8.1/documenttemplates?$select=name,content&$filter=name eq 'Your Template Name'

2. Take the result and make it a little easier to read by copying and pasting it into a JSON formatter (like JSON Pretty Print).

3. This will result in a very long bit of text, but the part you want is between the quotes for the content (example content value highlighted below): {
  "@odata.context": "https:\/\/yourtenant.crm.dynamics.com\/api\/data\/v9.0\/$metadata#documenttemplates(name,content)",
  "value": [
    {
      "name": "Your Template Name",
      "content": "UEsDBBQABgAIAAAAIQAr[content truncated for brevity]==",
      "documenttemplateid": "31418de7-0c19-e911-a97e-000d3a10877d"
    }
  ]
}

4. The “content” is the Word or Excel file, but encoded in a special web-friendly format called Base 64. This can be transformed back into the original file by using a decoder service like the one available here: https://www.freeformatter.com/base64-encoder.html

1. Paste the content value in the box to decode.
2. Click the DECODE AND DOWNLOAD button.
3. When saving the file, change the extension to .docx or .xlsx (depending on if it is a Word or Excel template)
4. Open the downloaded file.

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