Power Platform Community

We’re pleased to announce that the long-anticipated public preview of our low-code web authoring experience for exportable formatted data tables is now available.  For the first time, you will be able to author a simple formatted table in the...

It is that time of the month again, where we come out with our monthly refresh of the Power Platform Command line. We are really excited about the features that we have packed into this update. Solution command updates In this release pac solution unpack and pack will also unpack Canvas apps using the parameter –processCanvasApps. This is still a preview capability, but from this point on, users will not have to first unpack the solution and then issue a separate command for unpack Canvas Apps. The canvas library to unpack the canvas app has been upgraded to 0.45-preview version. Publish customizations asynchronously. Before when users published their changes, in cases where solutions were too big, users had to wait, now we have changed this functionality to asynchronous, which improves the overall performance of this capability This capability I am really excited about, solution upgrades until recently, there was no way to verify that the solution in the target environment was upgradeable. Now pac solution upgrade does a check in the target environment before proceeding with the upgrade. No more the situation where you realize you can’t upgrade the solution in the target environment only after the upgrade fails. Packaging updates The packaging construct within Power Platform allows a user to bundle multiple solutions into a package and can be deployed all together as one unit. This is particularly useful when you are making your application available via AppSource. Now we have updated the command to support applications that you develop for Teams and One Dynamics and One Platform. The pac package init capability now defaults package project as an SDK style project that can be used from within Visual Studio or Visual Studio Code You can also add pre-built solution.zip files to the package, instead of having to build from source. For plugin development, we have added command tools to allow users to support dependent assemblies into a nuget package. Administration improvements For the administration commands, you can now create, update, and delete Microsoft Teams environments. The pac admin backup command –notes parameter has been deprecated in both the command line and the service endpoint. You can still use your old automation scripts but, please start working on migrating to this capability. If you do provide the –notes the command will emit a warning and it will be ignored. As always we are excited to bring these capabilities to you. If you have additional feedback please reach out to us via the following forums ISVFeedback@Microsoft.com or The PowerUsers community. Raise the issue and bugs at the following location in GitHub https://aka.ms/powerplatform-vscode

Jessica Lo, Program Manager II, Thursday, May 19, 2022 We are excited to announce the general availability of the modern app designer, enabling a seamless, intuitive way to build robust model-driven apps with Dataverse grids, forms, and custom pages with just a few clicks. The modern app designer is now the default designer for model-driven apps and is at full feature parity with the classic designer. The modern app designer has a live preview where you can directly interact with content of the app, resize to see the app on different screen sizes, add custom pages, and many more! The preview of the modern app designer was announced around June of 2021. Since then, we’ve added many new features, as well as improved the current experience based on feedback received from the community. We’ve made lots of improvements and will continue to do so after general availability to make the designer the best that it can be. New features added in the modern app designer include the ability to add custom pages, business process flows, Power BI dashboards, interactive dashboards, new areas, URLs/web resources as a subarea, customize sitemap icons, locales, app tile icon, and manage chart views. The modern app designer is the foundation for many more exciting features in the app authoring space. Therefore, we want your feedback! Let us know your thoughts and suggestions in the community, and please visit our documentation for more information. Happy building!

Join us for Power BI Dev Camp! on Thursday 26 May, 2022 at 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM (noon) PDT.  Ted Pattison and Alex Powers from the Microsoft Power BI team presents this month’s topic:  Deep Dive into Power Query...

As part of the Gartner Data and Analytics Summit EMEA in London, UK, Gartner invited Microsoft to participate in their bake-off event. This year’s topic was the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and we dug into data around access to...

Bringing data to where teams collaborate empowers individuals to quickly find and use data to make an impact. The Power BI tab in Microsoft Teams enables users to bring interactive Power BI reports and scorecards into Teams channels, chats,...

Welcome to the May 2022 update. We are thrilled to announce the general availability of Canvas zoom and Data point rectangle select features, Field parameters and Error bars for columns and line combination charts new preview features, new Format...

Beginning today, Microsoft Access users can migrate their data into Power Apps and Dataverse.  Customers who have the current or monthly channel for Microsoft 365 and Office can update their Microsoft Access to make use of the Dataverse Connector and migration tool. The Access migration tool and connector provided within MS Access streamlines the process of migrating tables, relationships, and data with setup taking just a few minutes, and migration handled for you. Figure 1. Access, Dataverse, and Power Apps With the GA of this feature, Access customers are now one-click away from unlocking the following capabilities for the data currently managed in an Access DB: New security and compliance capabilities through Dataverse cloud storage using Azure Active Directory and role-based security while managing it from Access The ability to have real-time sharing and editing of Access data using cloud-based data stores, with front-end apps created in Access, Power Apps Mobile and Microsoft Teams  New front end app scenarios on mobile devices or with Microsoft Teams Extending the ability for users to incorporate their existing data into Power Apps and Dataverse is an important feature. Almost every user who starts working with the Power Platform begins with existing data. By offering easier ways to migrate Access data to Power Apps, customers can implement apps, workflows, virtual agents, and perform analytics on data that was previously not available to them. The Access data will behave like any other Dataverse data once migrated. In addition, user’s Access forms and queries will continue to work uninterrupted, allowing a migration without business disruption. Figure 4: The workflow of migrating data from Access to Dataverse, with synchronous usage by Access forms and Power Apps. Today’s announcement expands and enriches the cloud story for Access and continues Power Apps and Dataverse’s commitment to helping users incorporate their existing content to enrich their business. Take the next step to migrate Access data to Dataverse and the Power Platform To test out this new capability you will need to have an existing Power Apps trial environment, Power Apps license, or Power Apps installed as part of your Microsoft Teams license. Talk to your administrator to confirm if your organization is on the current channel as of May 2022 for Microsoft 365 and try the new Dataverse Connector. Once you have updated your Access application, you will be able to start migration from within Access by right clicking a table and selecting Export and Dataverse. Figure 2: The Export menu in Access with the Dataverse option You can also open a table, select the External Data tab on the ribbon, and select Dataverse. Figure 3: MS Access Ribbon with Dataverse Export button Dataverse Options Users will have the option to migrate their Access data into Dataverse or Dataverse for Teams, allowing them to choose the capabilities that best suit their needs. Dataverse provides the full featured extensibility of the Power Platform providing citizen developers and development professionals alike the power to explore the possibilities of their data and share it across their entire organization, or externally using Portals. Dataverse for Teams provides the ability to create apps, flows, virtual agents and more within a team structure using Microsoft Teams, the collaboration tool of choice for the modern enterprise. If you are interested to take the next step and evaluate this powerful combination yourself, visit https://aka.ms/AccessAndPowerPlatform. For support documentation on how to migrate go here To learn more about these capabilities register for Microsoft BUILD and see two different on demand sessions that educate and demonstrate these capabilities. BUILD Session # OD122 – Title: Access Connector for Dataverse and Power Platform GA Launch BUILD Session # OD123 – Title: Pro developer capabilities of Power Apps and Dataverse for Access Developers

SandDance is a data visualization tool developed by the VIDA (Visualization and Interactive Data Analysis) team at Microsoft Research and is available as a custom visual for Power BI. SandDance uses unit visualizations, which apply a one-to-one mapping between...

Recently, a customer asked a question that we felt would be applicable to many of you responsible for administration of the Microsoft Power Platform: How does removal of an app owner’s profile from Azure Active Directory (AAD) impact access to the app? Before we answer that, you need to know that in Microsoft Power Apps, there are two different application types: Model-driven apps Canvas apps Model-driven apps and canvas apps manage their ownership differently. In this blog post, we’ll explain how to update ownership of each type of app. Note: If you need more background information about the two types of apps, watch The difference between Canvas Apps and Model Apps – YouTube or review Start building apps – Power Apps | Microsoft Docs and Power Apps architectural design – Where to place logic – Power Apps | Microsoft Docs Model-driven and Canvas apps manage their ownership differently. Model-driven app ownership In a model-driven app there is no concept of a co-owner. If the original owner/creator leaves the organization, what happens to the application? Users who already have the app shared with them can continue to use it. What if an update or maintenance is required? Well, our admins can help us here. Users with the role of System Customizer, System Administrator, or Environment Maker in the environment can manage the application but they don’t technically “own” the app. What happens when the owner leaves? Ideally, the owner would work with the organization during their outgoing knowledge transfer sessions: explain what it does, what are the use cases, who is the user-base, and hand over any documentation to a new owner. To change the ownership though you will need to export the application and re-import it under another user. If they leave without being able to do this, then admins noted above can do this. Deleting or removing the owner won’t have any impact on the performance of the app itself. For more information, see Model-driven app FAQ – Power Apps | Microsoft Docs. Below are some common questions relating to ownership and changes: Q: How do you change the owner? A: Export the app and re-import it as under another user. You will need to re-share the app to the users. Q: What happens if the original owner leaves? A: Users who already have access to the app can continue to use it. A: Ideally, the owner would work with the organization to export the application, explain how it operates and hand over any documentation. Q: What happens if we need to update the app? A: Admins can help here. Users with the role(s) of System Customizer, System Administrator or Environment Maker can manage changes to the application. Q: What happens if the owner’s account is deleted? A: Deleting or removing the owner won’t have any impact on the performance of the app itself. Canvas apps ownership Canvas apps, unlike Model-driven apps, can be co-owned or have the owner replaced. If an owner is leaving, they can share the app through the Maker portal. Note that this ownership change does not affect the users with whom it is shared. For more information please see: Manage Power Apps – Power Platform | Microsoft Docs On the other hand, if the owner of the app left without adding a co-owner an admin can change the owner through PowerShell. First, you will need Tenant Admin access. You will also need the Environment Id (envId) and App Id (appId). You will also need to specify the user Id; in this example we will change the ownership to your Id. Second be sure you have the Power App cmdlets installed. You can do this with the following commands. Run PowerShell in admin mode and enter: Install-Module -Name Microsoft.PowerApps.Administration.PowerShell Install-Module -Name Microsoft.PowerApps.PowerShell – AllowClobber If you already have the cmdlets installed, nothing will occur and you are good to go; otherwise, you will see the cmdlets installed. Next, run the Add-PowerAppsAccount cmtlet allowing you to add your account for Power Apps: Add-PowerAppsAccount Next, update the owner, using the appId and envId you found earlier: Set-AdminPowerAppOwner -AppName "" -EnvironmentName "" -AppOwner $Global:currentSession.userId When this command succeeds, the response is minimal, showing only a reference to app Id. The app is now “owned” by the new user. Reference documentation for the PowerShell commands: Add-PowerAppsAccount (Microsoft.PowerApps.Administration.PowerShell) | Microsoft Docs Set-AdminPowerAppOwner (Microsoft.PowerApps.Administration.PowerShell) | Microsoft Docs