Configuring Wave 1 2021 Relevance Search Quick Actions
A hot area of investment from the Dataverse product team in Wave 1 2021 has been the Relevance search experience. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/user/relevance-search Quick Actions Part of this new search experience brings the command bar to the inline search results as well as the search results screen. What’s really cool is that you can customize these command bar buttons… Continue Reading Develop1’s...
Connection References with ALM – Mind the Gap!
If you are creating Cloud Flows in Solutions today, you are using Connection References. Although they are listed as ‘Preview’ – there really is not an alternative as when you create a new Cloud Flow – a connection reference is automatically created for you. Connection References are essentially a ‘pointer’ to an actual connection. You include the Connection Reference in your solution so that…...
Everything as Code – ALM with Canvas Apps
With the recent experimental announcement of the PowerApps Solution Packager, we now have a much better way of managing Canvas Apps in your source code repository. This moves us much closer to a better ALM story for the whole of the Power Platform so that my top 3 principles can be followed: Everything as code – The single point of truth for all artifacts (solution metadata, apps, code,… Continue Reading Develop1’s...
Dataverse for Teams vs Canvas Apps – Part 1 – Checked vs Default Control Properties
If you were thinking that Power Apps Canvas Apps and Dataverse for Teams Canvas Apps are just the same – but with a different license and container – well whilst it is mostly true, there is a very big difference:Dataverse for Teams uses a completely different set of Out of the Box controls. They are based on the Fluent UI library.This post will hopefully save someone the time that I’ve spent… Continue Reading...
Canvas Apps As Code??! Power Platform Unpacked #10 – YouTube
NEW this week! Manage Canvas Apps as Code and support a healthy ALM! Join me for a first look at the new pasopa.exe experimental release from the Power Apps team! Check out Greg’s blog post – https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/source-code-files-for-canvas-apps/ Take a look at the github repo – https://github.com/microsoft/PowerApps-Language-Tooling/blob/master/docs/YAMLFileFormat.md What do you think? Love or...
Think like an App Maker! Drag and Drop in Canvas Apps – Power Platform Unpacked #9 – YouTube
Fresh out of Maple Power 2020 – join me as I talk about the ethos of creating PCF controls for Canvas Apps! Links below 👇 Links: Drag and Drop PCF Code – https://github.com/scottdurow/powerapps-pcf-samples/tree/master/CanvasDnD Power Lemmings Code – https://github.com/scottdurow/Canvas-App-Samples/tree/master/Games Microsoft Learn PCF course – https://bit.ly/FREE-MICROSOFT-LEARN-PCF My Model-Driven PCF Course...
New Smart Button – Custom Dialogs in Model Driven Apps using Canvas Apps
One of the most requested features of Model-Driven Apps ‘back in the day’ was to edit the popup dialog boxes that do actions such as Closing Opportunities or Cases. These were ‘special’ dialogs that had a fixed user interface. There were a few workarounds that involved either using dialogs (now deprecated) or a custom HTML web resource. More recently, the ability to customize the Opportunity… Continue...
Public Preview of GitHub Actions for Power Platform ALM
There is a new kid in town! Not long after the Power Apps Build Tools for Azure Dev Ops were released out of beta under the new name of Power Apps Build Tools (https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=microsoft-IsvExpTools.PowerPlatform-BuildTools) the new set of GitHub actions for Power Platform ALM have been released in public preview (
Environment Variables in Smart Buttons
A very common request I’ve had for the Ribbon WorkbenchSmart Button solution is to be able to configure the WebHook/FlowUrl using an Environment Variable. Environment Variables are small pieces of information that can vary between environments without there needing to be customizations update. This way you can have different endpoints for each environment without making customization… Continue Reading Develop1’s...
Pets vs. Cattle – How to manage your Power App Environments
A situation I see very frequently is where there is a ‘special’ PowerApps environment that holds the master unmanaged customizations. This environment is looked after for fear of losing the ability to deploy updates to production since with managed solutions you can’t re-create your unmanaged environment. Sometimes, a new partner starts working with a customer only to find that they have… Continue Reading...
Do you really need a PCF Control? Power Platform Unpacked #8 – YouTube
I love new tech – I love PCF controls – but let’s step back and talk about when we should use PCF and when we should think twice! source
Building Professional PCF Controls for Model Driven Apps – YouTube
Announcing my new course! Check it out at: learn.develop1.net/courses/pcf-for-model-driven-apps Use discount code PCFJUNE for a 15% discount! source
Always be linting your TypeScript!
Linters have been around for ages – it all started back in 1978 apparently – but has now become a mainstay of modern JavaScript and TypeScript programming. Writing code without a linter is like writing an essay without using spell checker! Sure there may be some super humans who can write their code perfectly without linting – but I’m not one of those! Much has been written about… Continue...
Let's chat about the new Power Platform ALM Guidance – YouTube
Join Trica, Jonas, Reece and I for this epic hour and a quarter discussion about the new PowerPlatform ALM Guidance: Guidance – https://docs.microsoft.com/power-platform/alm/ Power Apps Build Tools – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/developer/common-data-service/build-tools-tutorial-faq Admin in a Day – https://github.com/microsoft/powerapps-tools/tree/master/Administration/AdminInADay...
PCF DetailsList Layout with Fluent UI and Sticky
One of the challenges with PCF controls is getting them to reflow to the available space that they are stretched to fill the available space. Doing this using standard HTML involves using the flexbox. The really nice aspect of the Fluent UI react library is that it comes with an abstraction of the flexbox called the ‘Stack’. The aim of this post is to layout a dataset PCF as follows: <div… Continue Reading...
PCF DateTimes – the saga continues!
It’s been over a year since I last blogged about DateTimes and nearly a decade since I blogged the first time on the subject! CRM DateTimes – so it’s well overdue that I update you on how DateTimes work with PCF. My last post on the subject was when the ‘Timezone independent’ and ‘Date Only’ behaviours were introduced -DateTimes – It’s never the last word. This made the...
PCF Dataset Paging in Model vs Canvas Apps
One of the recent additions to PCF for Canvas Apps is the ability to bind dataset PCF controls to datasets in a Canvas App. A challenge that faces all PCF developers is if their control should support both Model AND Canvas – so with this in mind you need to be aware of the differences in the way that data is paged. This post demonstrates how the paging API works in Model and Canvas and… Continue Reading Develop1’s...
Hack4Good MBAS EMEA Results – YouTube
🥇The results are in for #Hack4GoodMBAS EMEA!🥇 Big shout out to all EMEA teams and fellow judges Ana Demeny Ben Vollmer. Special thanks to the EMEA organisers Chris Huntingford William Dorrington 🤘🤘🤘 Lee Baker Lucy Bourne Alison Mulligan Mike Hartley 😘 Not forgetting the rest of the awesome #Hack4GoodMBAS global team – Mark Smith Elaiza Benitez Dona Sarkar Keith Whatling Andrew Welch Sarah Critchley Nijo Joseph Narayan Solanki...
Debugging Canvas App PCF components with fiddler
Those of you who know me will also know that I am a massive Fiddler fan for removing the need to deploy each time you change your JavaScript source. Here are some of my previous blog posts on Fiddler – http://develop1.net/public/search?q=fiddler The PowerApps docs now even include instructions on it
NetworkView re-written using TypeScript and PCF
Back at the end of 2015, Power Apps wasn’t even a thing. My world revolved around Dynamics 365 and the release cadence that was bringing us updates to the platform that were either keeping up with SalesForce or providing greater customizability. Much has changed since then, not least the way that we write rich UI extensions. With this in mind, I have completely re-written my Network View… Continue Reading...
Failed solution upgrade applying 2020 release wave 1
When applying the 2020 release wave 1 you may see a component such as the Dynamics 365 Core Service fail to complete.First, you may want to check that you have correctly followed the steps on how to opt-in for 2020 wave 1. To determine the issue – navigate to the solution manager in PowerApps and click ‘See History’ This should then show you the failed upgrade component: Clicking on… Continue Reading...
#ProCodeNoCodeUnite
Technology typically leads to polarized opinions. Always has…Vinyl/CD…Betamax/VHS…HD-DVD/Blu-ray… Of course, our minds know that it depends on the detail, but our hearts have preferences based on our experience. This product over that one. This technique over this new one. You like this tool better than theirs because you know and trust it. You do this, don’t you?! Imagine you are… Continue...
Adding the PowerApps Solution Checker to your Azure DevOps Pipeline
Continuous Integration and Delivery is somewhat passé these days, but what is often missed is the need for good tests and analysis in your build pipeline. The PowerApps team has been working hard on the Solution Checker over the last year, and it’s become an essential part of every PowerApps solution development process. If you have a solution that is going to be put into App Source, you’ll… Continue...
Day 21 – MVP Advent Calendar – YouTube
Who’s behind door 21 in the MVP Advent Calendar? source
MVP Advent Calendar – Smart Buttons for the Unified Interface
Happy 21st December! The chestnuts are roasting, and the snow is falling (somewhere I’m sure). It’s that festive time of year again, and with it, a new year is beckoning. We all know that the biggest event of 2020 will be the retiring of the ‘classic’ user interface in Power Apps and Dynamics 365. To make sure you are ready for this, my gift is an updated version of Smart Buttons that is… Continue Reading...
SalesSpark and the Power Apps Component Framework!
Yesterday we announced our new product, SalesSpark, the Sales Engagement platform built natively upon the PowerPlatform 🚀 I’ve been working on this product for the last few months and have been really impressed with what the Power Apps Component Framework (PCF) can do for Model Driven Power Apps. In the past, the only way to extend Apps was to include custom HTML Web-resources. My… Continue Reading Develop1’s Article...
It's time to add some finishing touches to your PCF controls!
It is wonderful to see so many PCF controls being built by the community. This post is a call-to-action for all PCF builders – it’s time to make sure your PCF component handles read-only and field-level security! The good news is that it’s really easy to do. There isn’t much in the documentation about this subject, so I hope this will be of help. Read-only or Masked? In your index.ts, you…...
Flows now support CDS transactions. Introducing the Changeset Request!
Flows now support CDS transactions. Introducing the Changeset Request! Continue Reading Develop1’s Article on their blog https://develop1.net/public/post/2019/11/16/flows-now-support-cds-transactions Blog Syndicated with Develop1’s Permission
🤯Using JavaScript inside PowerApps CanvasApps?! What?! – YouTube
This video caused quite the discussion on LinkedIn! Scott Durow on LinkedIn: “So it had to happen sooner or later…but now I feel dirty! What do you think? 👇 #javascript #powerapps #lowcode #msdyn365” September 22, 2019: Scott Durow posted on LinkedIn Code is here – https://github.com/scottdurow/Canvas-App-Samples/tree/master/PCF/pcfjs What do you think? If you can’t do it in low-code in a CanvasApp...
How do the PowerPlatform API Limits affect Model Driven Apps?
You might have seen the important announcement from the PowerPlatform team about how there are new API limits to be in effect from the 1st October 2019. We have been somewhat spoilt in past years with very little throttling on how much we can use the API, but now in order to encourage fair usage there will be a limit on how many times you can call the PowerPlatform API in a 24hr period,… Continue Reading Develop1’s Article...
5 Things That Changed How We Think About D365 Implementations – D365UG | Bristol – Summer 2019
I was very privileged to be asked to speak at the first D365UG meeting in Bristol. If you didn’t manage to make it, Joel did a fantastic job of recording it so you can watch now! Continue Reading Develop1’s Article on their blog 5 Things That Changed How We Think About D365 Implementations – D365UG | Bristol – Summer 2019 Develop 1 Limited Blog – Microsoft Dynamics 365 Solutions – I was very...
Error after upgrading to .NET Framework 4.8
If you are coming to the PowerPlatform World Tour in London on the 28th August I’ll see you there. Come and see my session on how CDS changes the way we think about building Apps! Today I’m really busy on an exciting new PowerPlatform project, so just a quick post!. If you’ve recently updated Windows 10 to .NET Framework 4.8, you might find when running tools like spkl that you’ll get the… Continue...
Develop 1 Limited Blog | Webhooks for logging
There are times where you’d just like to quickly know what’s going on in your CDS instance in ‘real time’ without filling up your Plugin Trace Log. Here is a neat way of enabling logging using webhooks: Goto Webhooks.site (or alternative) and copy your webhooks URL: Open the Plugin Registration Tool and select Register -> Register New WebHook Enter a name (it doesn’t matter… Continue...
Polymorphic Relationships – Power Platform Unpacked #7 – YouTube
What is a Polymorphic relationship? What are the limitations in Canvas Apps? How do Armadillos speak? These questions and more answered in this episode. Canvas Apps Support – https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/owner-customer-and-regarding-for-canvas-apps/ Docs – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/canvas-apps/working-with-references source
Where did Flow come from? Power Platform Upacked #6 – YouTube
Does Flow replace BizTalk. What is the relationship between Flow and Logic Apps. What has Steve Ballmer got to do with anything? All these questions and more answered in this latest episode of Power Platform Upacked! source
Microsoft Portals – Power Platform Unpacked #5 – YouTube
In this episode, I chat to the lovely Magan Walker about her latest Hollywood movie, the future of Microsoft Portals and Forms Pro. She also gives us some tips on training and how to get your family to subscribe to your youtube channel! Megan’s Channel: https://www.youtube.com/meganvwalker Megan’s Blog: https://meganvwalker.com/ Megan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MeganVWalker Learn about Microsoft Portals and Liquid: Configure a...
CDS & This Person Does Not Exist – Power Platform Unpacked #4 – YouTube
I’ve been asked about how the Common Data Service is connected to Model and Canvas Apps. In this episode, I run through how the connectors work with CDS and also finish off the Embedded Canvas App Contact Editor. source
Why do we have 2 types of App? Power Platform UnPacked #3 – YouTube
So we have Canvas Apps AND Model-Driven Apps? Why do we have two types of Apps? Join me in this 3rd episode of Power Platform UnPacked where I’ll discuss what the future might hold and show you how to combine the two. source
Low-Code No-Code – Power Platform UnPacked #2 – YouTube
In this episode, I talk to Sara Lagerquist about low code – no code! https://www.linkedin.com/in/saralagerquist/ https://twitter.com/lagerquistsara She works for CRM-Konsulterna – https://www.crmkonsulterna.se/ Check out her blog at https://saralagerquist.com/ source
Story of Three Realms – Power Platform Unpacked Episode 1 – YouTube
Sit back and let me tell you a little story in this first episode of Power Platform Unpacked! source
Develop 1 Limited Blog | PowerPlatform.com is for sale*!
*Well ok it’s not for sale – but I’ve got your attention! 😂 Here’s my point – it wasn’t much over a year ago that it was for sale! Using the waybackmachine and whois history you can see the development of the domain which eventually was bought by Microsoft seemly only in the last year or so. PowerPlatformUG.com was only registered in July 2018. Before Microsoft started using this name, the…...
Are you coming to the D365 UG European Summit?
This year I’m presenting on two topics at the D365 UG European Summit. It’s going to be a busy couple of weeks! Next week I’ll be hanging out with my MVP friends in Seattle whilst learning about the future of the PowerPlatform and Dynamics 365 from the product team. The following week (27-29 March 2019) I’ll be in Amsterdam for the summit. Here are the details of my sessions: Learn to… Continue Reading...
Develop 1 Limited Blog | DateTimes – it’s never the last word!
Way back in 2011 I blogged about the behaviour of DateTimes in Dynamics CRM (as it was then!). I titled the post ‘the last word?’ but of course, it’s never the last word when it comes to a technology that is always moving forward. This post aims to explain where we are today with Date & Times fields inside the Common Data Service for Applications (CDS) and PowerApps. User Local vs. Time Zone… Continue...
Develop 1 Limited Blog | Reasons to use Xrm.WebApi #1
The Xrm.WebApi client-side SDK has been around for a while now, but you may still be using a hand-built HTTP request to call the WebApi from JavaScript/TypeScript. ETag magic Normally when you query the WebApi for a specific record you’ll always get a JSON response back that contains the entity field values at the time of the query. If your code queries the same record using the WebApi… Continue Reading Develop1’s...
Develop 1 Limited Blog | If you’re using ILMerge with your plugins
Ever since Microsoft CRM moved online and Plugin sandboxing became mandatory, you’ll have likely come up against the challenge of using third party assemblies. Sand-boxed Plugins cannot access any third-party assemblies and so if you use a NuGet package such as the Microsoft.SharePoint.Client libraries or Newtonsoft’s Json.Net then you may have considered or even used ILMerge to embed a… Continue Reading...
Develop 1 Limited Blog | PowerFlappy
As promised, I’m posting the code up for PowerFlappy! This post aims to give c# and JavaScript developers some tips on creating Canvas Apps. To install, simply open web.powerapps.com, select Create an App, then select Open. It works really well on your mobile. I hope to see someone playing it on the tube on Monday! Canvas Apps are function driven. Very much like Excel, they operate on… Continue Reading Develop1’s...
Develop 1 Limited Blog | Delegable or not Delegable, that is the query!
Silly title I know – couldn’t help myself! The significance of this topic is certainly not silly – it could give your app trouble free scalability or … well not. Delegable queries in Canvas Apps A delegable query is simply a query that offloads the heavy lifting to the connector source rather than downloading all the data and doing the processing locally in your Canvas App. A good… Continue Reading Develop1’s...
Develop 1 Limited Blog | Let’s start TypeScript
In part 2 of this series, we looked at debugging our TypeScript after it has been converted from JavaScript. When deploying JavaScript to Dynamics in production, you’ll want to ensure that the file is as small as possible. We can do this by ‘uglyfying’ or ‘minifying’ our script using gulp. It’s also desirable to be able to use multiple TypeScript source files, but compile into a single…...
Develop 1 Limited Blog | My favourite PowerApps/Dynamics CE features in the October 2018 Release
Yes it’s that time of the year again when we get to see the new features planned in the next major release of Dynamics 365 CE/PowerApps. I’ve already said how excited I about the changes to the release strategy announced earlier this month and now we can see what’s on the roadmap. There are over 250 pages of content spanning all the Dynamics 365 products, but here are my top 5 features that… Continue Reading...