Early dive into Dataverse Long Term Data Retention
The feature formerly known as “Archival” has a new name – long term data retention and this long awaited feature is now available as a public preview in Sandbox environments so I’ve taken the opportunity to spin up a new environment and dive into this feature to see how it works, the benefits, the cons and all the in betweens. The feature and all it’s documentation can be found here: Continue Reading...
Power Automate Custom Connector Series #5 – RegExReplace
It’s been a while… I’ve released a number of custom connectors in the past and whilst I’ve still been playing with custom connectors, it’s been a while since I’ve actually released one but it’s time again. This custom connector has a funny back story that starts in October 2021 during a conversation with Keith Whatling. He had some Power Automate ideas and we both criticized how…...
Implementing OnKeyPress in Power Apps
I was recently in contact with Damien Bird – check out his website for great content and some fascinating stories – via Data8 and we were talking about a requirement for addressing software in Power Apps with a focus around OnKeyPress for the best possible user experience. Data8 own a core API called “PredictiveAddress” which allows exactly that – addressing results based on any input…. Continue...
Introducing Dataverse Format Changer in XrmToolBox
A very recent blog post and update came out from Microsoft which revealed you can now do something I know some people have wanted to do for the longest time – change the format of a field. Historically if you make a field a “Phone Number” or an “Email” then you’ve always been stuck with it in that same format which I’ve seen cause problems for people when they realise they were wrong....
Saving Dataverse capacity by deleting useless emails
Recently I had an issue with Dataverse capacity and at the same time, I knew of at least 2 of my clients who also had a Dataverse capacity problem and the one thing we all had in common – activities where the biggest space taker! At face value it seems people track emails for all sort of reasons and often without thinking and if you’ve got auto tracking turned on, this becomes even more of a… Continue Reading...
Extending Power Automate Custom Connectors with C#
A new feature has recently got into public preview by Microsoft, which is the ability to manipulate your requests and or responses from a custom connector within the Power Automate platform. This, as far as I can remember, is the first time that a fully supported way of writing and running C# (or a subset of it – more on that later) directly on the low code platform has been given to us and as… Continue Reading...
The learning never stops
On May 1st, I was honoured to be awarded Microsoft MVP in the Business Application category and I was well and truly humbled. Awarded MVP Since then however, it’s truly been non stop with all sorts of changes coming at me. One of the things I saw when I was first awarded was call the MVP Challenge which was a challenge all focussed on learning. One thing I’m proud to admit is I barely… Continue Reading Matt’s...
Simply Power Automate and Canvas Apps
Recently during a session at D365UGUK by Rob Dawson, I had a penny drop moment due to Rob doing something in a way that has simply never occurred to me before so I took some time to go and investigate for myself and it turns out I was doing some things in canvas apps WAY more complicated that I needed to – and if I’m doing it then no doubt someone else somewhere else is also doing it so… Continue Reading Matt’s...
Power Platform and Xbox
I’m proud to be debuting a brand new presentation at Scottish Summit on 27/02/2021 all about how I used the Power Platform capabilities alongside my favourite Xbox game in order to expand my understanding of the Power Platform and improve my gaming performance. If you’re interested in seeing the presentation live you can get a free ticket here – I’ll be talking in room Humbie at 16:45 UK… Continue Reading...
Moving solutions between Dataverse for Teams environments – An update
It’s been a month and a half since I posted a workaround in how you can handle ALM and manage solutions in Dataverse for Teams, despite it not being obvious. The post can be found here if you missed it: Moving solutions between Dataverse for Teams environments Since then, it looks like Dataverse for Teams has evolved slightly and now HALF of what the blog post can be done and is… Continue Reading Matt’s Article on...
Keeping Scottish Summit 2021 in Sync
Recently I’ve made a few blog posts in custom connector series around Sessionize and Event Mobi and how they are used by the Scottish Summit organizers. Whilst I was writing those blog posts, I thought it might be useful to share the end game of those custom connectors and how they are keeping the Scottish Summit app in sync so here are some screenshots and explanations. Top down view of… Continue Reading Matt’s...
Power Automate Custom Connector Series #4 – EventMobi
Welcome back to my fourth post on custom connectors I’m going to open source and this one almost immediately follows on from the previous Sessionize one. As mentioned in the previous post, Sessionize was used to help speakers organize their tracks for Scottish Summit in 2020. 2021 is no different and even though the event is virtual Scottish Summit 2021 is going to be even bigger so… Continue Reading Matt’s Article...
Moving solutions between Dataverse for Teams environments
I was thinking about the wider Power Platform whilst playing with Dataverse for Teams and it struck me that there doesn’t seem an obvious way to move things between different Dataverse for Teams environments – which means once you have made something, it will live within your team and nowhere else – if you wanted to move it or copy it, you have to do it manually. Or do you? I have 2… Continue Reading...
Power Automate Custom Connector Series #3 – Sessionize
Welcome back to my third post on custom connectors I’m going to open source – my previous two being What3Words and OMDb. The subject of this custom connector is probably the most commonly used event management platform, Sessionize. Sessionize is a website designed to handle call for speakers, agendas and pretty much anything around events and since the global pandemic, teams have relied on… Continue Reading...
Using the User Interface to your advantage with addOnChange.
Welcome back to the ongoing series of how we can use and manipulate the user interface to your advantage in model driven apps in fully supported ways. We have discussed a number of options in the past and you can find them all with the search tag user-interface. Like my previous post on addPreSearch *LINK*, this strictly isn’t UI and is more UX but I think addOnChange should become a staple… Continue Reading Matt’s...
Using the User Interface to your advantage with addPreSearch.
Welcome back to the ongoing series of how we can use and manipulate the user interface to your advantage in model driven apps in fully supported ways. We have discussed a number of options in the past and you can find them all with the search tag user-interface. Todays isn’t so obvious on the actual user interface – but if one that is often forgotten. There are a number of posts on this… Continue Reading Matt’s...
Power Automate Custom Connector Series #2 – OMDb/IMDb
Welcome back to my second post on custom connectors I’m going to open source, if you missed the first one around What3Words I’d love you to go and check it out. The connector is available here for you to download: mattybeard/PowerAutomate_CustomConnectors You can’t perform that action at this time. You signed in with another tab or window. You signed out in another tab or window. Reload to refresh your session....
Using the User Interface to your advantage with setFormNotification.
Welcome back to my third in the series of using the user interface to your advantage in model driven apps, if you have missed previous we have spoken about setNotification and addNotification so feel free to go and check them out. All our previous blog posts were field specific and you could perform actions on the fields directly on the form. As the name alludes to, setFormNotification… Continue Reading Matt’s Article on...
Using the User Interface to your advantage with addNotification.
Previously we spoke about using the setNotification feature from the javascript SDK in this blog post but today we are going to talk about something similar but subtly different. Today’s topic of discussion is addNotification. formContext.getControl(arg).addNotification(notification);Add a notification to a control sample code The previous setNotification did one thing – put a big… Continue Reading Matt’s...
Using the User Interface to your advantage with setNotification.
There are some fantastic parts of the model driven app world that are underused and I’m not really sure why? Maybe the fact they require coders to write them but who really knows? Over the course of a few blog posts, I’m going to show you some of my favourite things that people don’t use enough of and they are, in part, a follow on from my previous series about required fields. Today we… Continue Reading...
Just how easy is Project Oakdale?
I have a pretty good idea of what Project Oakdale is and how it’s a good stop gap between D365/CDS and SharePoint lists. I can see the benefit of it for smaller internal things between Teams too so I thought whilst it’s still very new and in preview that I would have a play with it and see if it was as much of a low code, no code platform as it’s being touted as. If you don’t know what… Continue Reading...
Power Automate Custom Connector Series #1 – What3Words
Sometimes I have a requirement for a custom connector and to be honest, sometimes I don’t but I like the API so I build one anyway as you never know when you’re going to need it! Back in 2019, I was fortunate enough to meet Ben Vollmer and we were talking someone, we got into a conversation about What3Words and ultimately, I ended up making a custom connector that we would both come to use…. Continue Reading...
Changing the fields on “Duplicates Detected”
Having spent a long time specialising in the duplicates and merge area of model driven apps, this is probably one of the most asked questions I’m asked that most people respond with something like “I never knew that”, or “I didn’t see that anywhere in the docs” so I figured I’d actually take the time to write the post as my buddy Matt Collins-Jones asked me the same question! Almost…...
Enforcing System Required Plugin
During the wrapping up of my required fields series, I wrote a custom plugin to solve the problem that CDS simply doesn’t solve in a safe way – I’ve open sourced that code if you decide you would also like to use it. The raw code can be found on github here and the solution can be found here. This guide will assume you have installed the solution and will explain how to set up the… Continue Reading Matt’s...
Required fields are over-rated (the final part)
4 parts! A 4 part blog post about required fields. Who knew that was possible?! In case you missed previous, here’s part 1, part 2 and part 3. For 3 posts, I’ve spoken about why required fields can be bad and why the phrase “System Required” can be misleading depending on your users and the path the data takes into your system so let’s change pace and talk about what you can do. In the… Continue...
Required fields are over-rated (part 3)
I’ll be honest when I started writing about required fields, I didn’t expect to still be writing at part 3 but here we are – shows I have a lot of thoughts about them! Part 1 is here and part 2 is here. Previously we have spoken about using required fields from the very start – when a system is first created and decisions are made about fields and which ones should be required. Problem is,… Continue...
Required fields are over-rated (part 2)
Thank you for coming to my follow up for why I think required fields are over-rated! If you missed part 1, you can catch it here. Last time I spoke about the different types of fields and the data they contain so this post will start off a little technical. Ultimately, required fields are only enforced client side. Huh? What does that mean? Your users are the client, using a web client,… Continue Reading Matt’s Article on...
Required fields are over-rated
It’s a bold statement I know but hear me out and I’ll try and help you see why I believe this. I will make a few generalisations throughout and I know the answer to how applicable a lot of this is “…it depends” but I’m positive at least some elements of this will resonate with you. Setting a field as required Required fields will, at some point, detract from the quality of your data in…...
Re Introducing Data Validation Tool for CDS
Data Export Validation Tool for D365 CDS. The new Data Validation Tool A lot has changed in the world of the Power Platform since this blog post and that’s without even mentioned product name changes. Over a year ago, I launched the Data Export Validation Tool as I was playing with Data Export Service and it kept breaking – but now the technology has moved on, the names have changed so… Continue Reading Matt’s...
Fixing Async Merging in CDS
In recent updates, the default behaviour for merging meant it moved to an async action (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/async-cascading). The main UI hasn’t really changed but by moving async, there is some significant changes in the UX and it isn’t near as intuitive as it used to be. What makes it worse is depending on what you’re trying to merge, sometimes it’s just… Continue...
Combining Business & Pleasure – Part II
Thanks for coming back – this is the second part in a series of posts around combining my hobbies and my career. Here I will be tracking and monitoring my Destiny 2 gaming performance using the PowerPlatform! Part 1 can be found here. Where to begin? Firstly, I need somewhere to build. This is just for fun and personal development, so where can I do this work? Introducing the “PowerApps… Continue Reading Matt’s...
Combining Business & Pleasure – Part II
Thanks for coming back – this is the second part in a series of posts around combining my hobbies and my career. Here I will be tracking and monitoring my Destiny 2 gaming performance using the PowerPlatform! Part 1 can be found here. Where to begin? Firstly, I need somewhere to build. This is just for fun and personal development, so where can I do this work? Introducing the “PowerApps… Continue Reading Matt’s...
Combining Business & Pleasure – Part I
In my day job, I’m a full stack C# developer doing a wide range of development. More recently, I’ve had a focus on Dynamics and the PowerPlatform and keeping up to date with the latest and greatest from the folks over at Microsoft. In my home life, I’m a husband, a daddy, a soccer football fan and a gamer playing a wide variety of games on my Xbox. Whilst playing with the PowerPlatform,… Continue Reading...
Combining Business & Pleasure – Part I
In my day job, I’m a full stack C# developer doing a wide range of development. More recently, I’ve had a focus on Dynamics and the PowerPlatform and keeping up to date with the latest and greatest from the folks over at Microsoft. In my home life, I’m a husband, a daddy, a soccer football fan and a gamer playing a wide variety of games on my Xbox. Whilst playing with the PowerPlatform,… Continue Reading...
Introducing Data Export Validation Tool for D365
The Data Export Validation Tool for D365 As a long time developer with an On-Premise development environment, the ability to see the SQL behind a CRM system/CE system [.. or whatever it’s called nowadays, but for habits sake it will hear on be called CRM…] can often be invaluable and was often the hurdle that a lot of people didn’t want to overcome in order to move to an Online environment…. Continue Reading...
Duplicates Detected! But where?!
Duplicates Detected! We’ve read that sentence many times through our careers within CRM but I’ve mostly always just taken for granted that it works well. But what if it doesn’t? I’m sure we all have seen this screen many, many times. Duplicates Detected… Whether we chose to make a duplicate or resolve the existing is a hot topic for a different time, the main point of this blog… Continue Reading...