Catalog in Power Platform

August 20, 2024 priyeshwagh777 Microsoft PowerApps, Power Automate, Power Platform, Power Platform Admin Center catalog templates, catalogs in power apps, catalogs in power platform

Catalogs in Power Platform are a way to distribute managed/unmanaged customization which ready install and extend on other environments. At the time of writing this post, the feature is in Preview.

Get Catalog Manager

Here’s how you can install Catalog Manager from App Source and onto your target environment –

Go to the URL – https://appsource.microsoft.com/en-us/product/dynamics-365/powerappssvc.catalogmanager-preview?flightCodes=dde212e5c66047c59bf2b346c419cef6
It’ll open in App Source as it’s not directly available from Install Apps in Power Platform Dataverse environments.
You’ll see this App Source page –
Once you click on Get it now, you’ll need to sign in using the Dynamics 365 Administrator privileges.
Once you sign in successfully, you’ll need to click on Get it now again as shown below.
Then, you’ll be taken to the page shown below where you’ll need to select the environment you want to install the Catalog Manager on. This will be the environment from where you’ll create your Catalog to be available to other environments.
Once you confirm as shown below, Installation process will start like any other Dynamics 365 App.

And then let it install for a few moments –

And it’ll complete its installation in about 10 minutes.
Now, once this is installed, check for the security roles available for users to be assigned with.

Assign these roles to the Users who need to be either of them – below are the details on what the roles do.

Working with Catalog Manager

Now that Catalog Manager is installed, here’s how you can work through it –

In your Apps, you should be able to see the Catalog Manager as well.
Play the App, and in the App, you’ll see the Catalog Publishers table. This is where you have to create a Publisher and add Users from the Publisher for different roles.
Here’s the sample Publisher I created and added the Admin User as a Publisher user as well.
Once this is done, you are all set. Let’s move to the next section.

Create Catalog

Now, let’s look at the process of creating Catalogs which other environments in your Org can browse through and use –

Let’s say you have a Solution which is supposedly a Catalog candidate which others can borrow and install.
It has a mix of components which are categorized as usable in a Catalog.
Here, you can select the Solution itself and click on Publish to Catalog (Preview) using the button as shown –
Once you click on the Catalog, a dialog will open which you can select as Default
Once you select the Default Catalog Name, you’ll be able to select if the components should be Managed components or unmanaged (as Templates).
Then, I can choose to not select anything as a Primary Component to keep it simple.
Now, I’ll enter the details as shown below which are self-explanatory.
Published/Active Publisher will appear from the list and I can fill in the rest of the details which are applicable.
Now, when I click Next, I can enter what the picture/icon should be –
Finally, this is the summary and I can click Submit once done.
Once everything looks good, this will be completed and show success.
Now, since the Catalog is already set to auto-approval, it’ll appear in Catalogs –

Installing from Catalog

Now, as the Catalog is ready to be published, other environments can go in Catalogs and Get it from there in their current environments –

For example, in this environment – I can see it in Catalogs and choose to Get it.
Click Get to start installing.
It’ll start installing.
Once done, you’ll see that it has finished installing.
And when you see the Solutions, since this was a Managed catalog – it’ll get installed as a Managed Solution in the selected environment.
And the Components inside it will be managed too as expected.

Install History

As other Admins/Makers install from Catalog, you’ll see the Install History of the Catalogs in the Catalog Manager App –

Under Install History, you’ll see the details as below –

Here’s Microsoft Documentation on the same – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-apps/maker/data-platform/catalog-overview?WT.mc_id=DX-MVP-5003911

Hope this was useful!

Here are some Power Automate posts you want to check out –

Thank you!

Create a Custom Connector For Power Automate & Power Apps

July 15, 2024 priyeshwagh777 Azure Functions, Customizations, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft PowerApps, Power Automate, Power Platform azure, custom connector, Dynamics 365, Microsoft Azure, power apps, Power Automate, Power Platform

One of the most important qualities of extending capabilities of any platform is being able to add Custom code and make it available to wider use cases.

In this case, it’s a custom code that is encompassed in a Custom Connector in Power Platform and made available to Power Automate or Power Platform.

Use Case

The purpose of my custom connector is to call my hosted custom code in Power Automate or Power Apps.

For this example, I’ve created a simple Azure Function that just returns a value – just to test the working of the Custom Connector. Of course, your use case is to be able to connect to the hosted app, expect it to process the business logic which you intend to do and return back the results.
So, in my case – my Azure Function will simply greet the name passed to it.

See the Postman test below –

Now, let’s make a Custom Connector that will execute this Azure Function in your Power Automate.

Create Custom Connector in Power Apps / Power Automate

You can either make the Custom Connector from the Power Automate portal or the Power Apps Maker portal, both are the same things. Let’s see this example from Power Apps portal –

In this use case, I’m in a Solution in Power Apps / Power Automate. Open the one in your case since you can’t create a Custom Connector from outside a Solution any longer.
Now you can drop down from New and see in Automation menu that you can create a Custom Connector
Now, you’ll be required to enter the name of the Connector itself and other details like a PNG icon for it, Description etc.
Now, below is the info that I filled in. I’m calling it Data Transporter and have selected an Icon which should make me easy to recognize my connector in Power Automate and Power Apps and enter enter the details of my hosted Azure Function which is authenticated using an API Key.
So, here’s what my info looks like –
Now, when I click on Security after filling all the info, the type of Authentication I used in this case if API Key, yours could be different depending on what your custom application is configured to work with –
It’ll ask you to fill in the information so that it appears as parameters to fill in for the Custom Connector when the end user will work on their Flows/Apps.
The info I’m choosing to fill is this – I’m giving a name to the parameter to indicate what info is required. The actual parameter name required by the Azure Function, in this case – it’s ‘code’ and since I need to pass the API key in Query string, I’ve selected Query instead of Header.
When you go to the next part, i.e. Definition, make sure you also give a Name to the Custom Connector already. Before your lose the info you’ve already entered. Make sure you also click on Create Connector

Once you click on Create connector, it’ll create it in a few moments.
Now, since you are aware of Triggers and Actions from using Power Automate – in this use case, my Custom Connector is designed to be an Action i.e. when called/used in Power Automate, it’ll simply perform the operation it’s designed to do.
Hence, I’m selecting an Action here.
When I select New Action from the left hand pane, it’ll open up information for me to fill out to describe the Action.
Now, since this will appear as a listed item in Actions in my Power Automate connector, I’m filling in this info (and we can check later how it appears).

Next, I’ll click on + Import from sample as it’ll give me a place to enter a sample for the request to call my hosted Azure Function.
Next, I’ll pass these values as I did in Postman to create the sample. Once done, I can click on Import.
When I import, I’ll the request parameters set in the Custom Connector based on the sample I entered.
Next, I’ll scroll down to ensure that all validations are perfect and I needn’t fix anything.
Next, I’ll skip AI Plugins step and also the Code step since I want to keep this example concise and to the scope of the hosted Azure Function only.

And this is skipped too –
Now, the final step is to Test the Custom Connector. The Editor will ask you to Update connector before you can Test. Then, in order to begin testing – you’ll need to first create a Connection using New Connection button as shown below.
When you click on New Connection, you’ll be taken to a new tab to enter the API key which you created as parameter in the initial setup of this Connector. See #7 above. Enter the API key you have which works for this hosted app and then click Create connection.
Next, in case the Connection doesn’t appear, click Refresh button once.
Once you refresh, you should see your Connection come up and selected.
Now, next step is to test the Custom Connector itself. Enter the values that you wish to test for and click Test operation.
You’ll see the test results based on what the hosted code is supposed to perform.
In my case, it was easy as it just greets the name entered.

And your Custom Connector is now ready to be used!

Consuming Custom Connector

Now, let’s see how you can use the Customer Connector in Power Automate in order to perform the operation in your Flows –

Once in Power Automate, look for the Custom tab in the Action selector.
Then, you can see the Action you defined in your Connector Definition steps above.
Since you need to authenticate using the API key you have, the create Connection step will ask you this info and you can give the name of the Connection.
Pass the value you want to pass as data.
Finally, you can just save and test the Flow itself and look for your Outputs.

And that’s how you can have a Custom Connector for your custom app/service your have created. I’ll soon write about other aspects of Custom Connector which I wasn’t able to cover in this blog.

Hope this was useful!

Here are some Power Automate posts you want to check out –

Thank you!

Use Monitor to debug Model-driven apps remotely | Power Platform

March 18, 2024 priyeshwagh777 Microsoft PowerApps, Power Platform Admin Center Dataverse, debug monitor, debug monitor model driven power apps, debug monitor power apps, Dynamics 365, monitor in model driven apps, monitor in power platform, power apps, Power Automate, Power Platform

Monitor is one feature that comes in super handy when end-users complain about an issue which is difficult to ask end users to send across logs from the browser.

And here’s where Monitor comes in handy!
Let’s see how this works through this simple blog post!!

Capture events from Monitor in Model Driven Apps

Here’s how you can Monitor in Model-driven apps’ Monitor to capture issues on an End User

You can go to Power Apps Maker Portal (https://make.powerapps.com/) and make sure you are switched to the intended environment.
Then, select Apps on the left hand pane and expose all the Apps. Select the Model-Driven app you want to enable Monitor for. Once you select, you can then drop down from Details flyout menu and click on Monitor.
Once you click on Monitor, it opens the Monitor application itself where all the logs you work on will be captured. And you can also notice that there’s a Play model-driven app button as well to enter in Debug mode.
It opens the Model-driven app in a new tab and asks you to confirm if you want to join the debug session.
Once you click on Join, it’ll run the app in debug mode and you can see the Monitor tab and notice that it has started capturing the logs based on your operations in the Model-driven app session you are running in parallel.
And when you go about working in the model-driven app, it’ll keep capturing the traffic just like on a browser’s Network in Dev Tools
Now I deliberately added an erroneous code in my custom JS so that I could capture an exception in the monitor.
And if you look at the monitor, you’ll see that this has been captured.
And this is the wrong script I entered so that my code wouldn’t find the incorrect field name and throw an error when I try to retrieve value from an attribute that doesn’t exist (without null checking if the attribute exists or not)
However, best use case is when you ask end-users to join your session. Let’s see in the next session on how you can achieve this.

Invite Users to your Debug session

In the Model-driven apps monitor, here’s how you can invite other users to join your session –

In the Monitor, you’ll see Invite or Connect to a User. For this example, I’ll choose Connect user option.
Then, I can simply search for the User whom I want to generate a join link for.
Now, once this user is added, you’ll see a copy link option to copy the link and pass it on to the user who needs to join.
Once the end user has this link, then can join the session and they’ll see this message on their Dynamics model-driven app
And similarly, once they start reproducing the issue, you can start capturing the traffic on your end.

Hope this was useful! In order to fully understand the capabilities of Monitor for model-driven apps, here’s Microsoft’s official documentation – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-apps/maker/monitor-collaborative-debugging?WT.mc_id=DX-MVP-5003911

Hope this was useful!

Here are some Power Automate posts you want to check out –

Thank you!

Enable Modern Controls for Canvas Apps in Power Platform

July 31, 2023 priyeshwagh777 Microsoft PowerApps canvas apps, modern controls in canvas apps, power apps, Power Platform, preview features in canvas apps

Now, Modern Controls have been recently announced, here’s how you can check them out.

Enable Modern Controls in Canvas Studio

By default, they are turned off, you need to explicitly enable them for your Canvas App.

Modern Controls are not enabled by default as they are still in Preview as of the time of writing this post.
Hence, you can see the Classic Insert menu as below.
Open Settings in your Canvas App Studio editor
Now, look for Experimental Features and look in the Preview section (You can also search ‘modern controls’ using the Search in this window to find the option quickly)
Now, you can Save the app and do a full-page refresh if required. You’ll now see Modern Controls alongside the Classic ones in your Power Apps Editor.

Now, you can play along with these and test them out!

Microsoft Documentation on Modern Controls: Overview of modern controls in canvas apps (preview)

Here are some Power Automate posts you want to check out –

Thank you!

Power Apps Developer Plan environments | Power Platform

February 22, 2023 priyeshwagh777 Microsoft PowerApps, Power Platform Admin Center developer environment for power apps, developer type environment in dataverse, power apps developer plan

Developers can now have Environments of their own to test and review Power Apps / Power Automate etc. Here’s how you can get yours!

Learn More about Power Apps Developer: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-apps/maker/developer-plan?WT.mc_id=DX-MVP-5003911

If you are looking to Sign Up for the Developer Plan, you can use this Link: https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/developerplan/?WT.mc_id=DX-MVP-5003911

Create Developer Environment

Given that you are Power Platform Admin Center, you can create a new Environment like so –

Go to Power Platform Admin Center and then Environments (https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com/environments). Click on + New to create a new Environment.

And then you can select the Type
Now, can you check what URL you want to provide and then click on Finish
Then, your environment will be initiated for creation like any other Environment. Notice the type is Developer.
Once created, if you go in the Environment, you can click the Edit to review the Settings for this Environment.
And you can see that the Security Group cannot be added to this Environment.

User’s Environment

If a User wants to create their own environment under the Power App Developer Plan (https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/developerplan/?WT.mc_id=DX-MVP-5003911), they can go to the Homepage of the Power Apps Developer plan and click on Existing User? Add a dev environment >
Then, you can enter your credentials and you’ll see this page.
Once this is provisioned, you’ll be taken to your Environment and I’ll look like below –
And in the Power Platform Admin Center, the Admins can see that the Environment has been created of Type Developer by SYSTEM.

Hope this helps!

Here are some Power Automate posts you want to check out –

Thank you!

Custom Pages in Power Platform and adding them in Model-Driven Apps | Power Apps

January 16, 2023 priyeshwagh777 Microsoft PowerApps, Power Platform custom pages, custom pages model driven apps, custom pages power apps, custom pages power platform, model driven apps

You Can create Custom Pages in as a Canvas App and add it to Model Driven App! Here’s a quick tutorial on how you can do this!

Creating Custom Pages

Here’s how you can create Custom Pages. Make sure you are in Power Apps and in the correct intended environment (https://make.powerapps.com/) –

Make sure you are inside a Solution.
Now, you can drop down from the + New menu and expand App. Then, you’ll find Page as an option which is different from Canvas App.
When you click on Page, you’ll get the Canvas App Studio with the capabilities of Canvas App to be added to your Page.
Now, let’s say you have designed the Page to serve your desired purpose. Make sure you Save and Publish the App, it’ll ask you to Enter the Name for the App (or rather, Page)

Enter a suitable name and click on Save.
Once Saved, make sure to Publish again and confirm the Publish just like you would do for a Canvas App.

And confirm the Publish action.
Now once this is done, you can go back to the Solution and check that the Page will appear.

and that’s how you have created a Page. Now, let’s consume this in your Model-Driven App!

Adding Custom Pages to Model-Driven Apps

Now, in the same solution, I’ll add the Model-Driven App so that I can configure the new Page I created in this Model-Driven App –

When I go into App section in the solution I’m working in.
And in that, I can click on Add existing button and expand App and then select Model-Driven App
Now, from all the Apps, I want to add this Custom Page to the Sales Hub App. It could be anything else in your case.
Once added, open the App.
Once opened, you’ll see the + Add Page button. Click it.
Now, the Dialog will ask what type of Page should be added. Custom Page is to be selected here.
Now, you will be given option to either Create New (which we could have done directly but I wanted to demonstrate how to create within the Solution itself first), or add Existing.
We’ll choose to add Existing Custom Page. And then, we select the Custom Page we just created i.e. Account Review Page.
For the Page to show in the Site Map, make sure Show in navigation is ticked.
Once you Add, you’ll see how the Page appears in the Model-Driven App. Publish your changes to this Model-Driven app is you are satisfactory.
Once this is done, your Custom Page is added to the Model-Driven App and here’s how it looks!

Here’s complete document on Custom Pages on Microsoft Learn – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-apps/maker/model-driven-apps/model-app-page-overview?WT.mc_id=DX-MVP-5003911

Hope this helps!

Here are some Power Automate posts you want to check out –

Thank you!

Adding Editable Grid using the New Power Apps Grid Control in Model-Driven Apps | [Preview]

December 11, 2022 priyeshwagh777 Microsoft PowerApps Dataverse, editable grid, model driven apps, power apps, power apps grid, powerapps

If you are designing your forms in the Model-Driven Apps designer from the Power Apps Maker i.e. https://make.powerapps.com/, here’s how you can add the New Power Apps Grid (which is in Preview at the time of writing this post)

Scenario

For example, you are in Model Driven Apps designer and you are see the existing Grids, they have only 2 areas in Properties –

Select the Grid and you’ll only see 2 areas –
And if you expand them, you won’t find a way to change the control to, for example, Editable Grid.
That’s where the new Power Apps Grid Control comes hand. This is currently in Preview at the time of writing this post.

New Power Apps Grid Control [Preview]

Now, click on the Components section to reveal all the Components that you could add to the Model-Driven Apps form –

You’ll see the More Components section under which you’ll find the new Power Apps Grid Control.
Now, once you drag is on the form where you want it to be, you’ll be asked to select the records it should hold. It’ll ask you to select the Table which you want to display in the sub-grid.
Once you click on Done, make sure the Show Related Records is selected as well and ensure the Table and View selected is correct.
Now, look for Components section and expand the same. Expanding the Components, you’ll be able to select the Editable Grid.
Expand the Components section and you’ll find another button to add more components that are made available.
Now, you’ll be able to select the Editable Grid here.
Now that you have added Editable Grid, click Done.
And once you add, you’ll notice that the Mobile, Web etc will be shown under the new grid. Means this is now set as default and not the other 2 views.
Finally, you can save your changes and publish.
And that’s how you are able to add Editable Grid on the modern Power Apps Model Apps designer using the new Power Apps Grid Component.
And here’s how you’ll be able to add an Editable Grid on the Form using new Power Apps maker.

Here’s the Microsoft Learn link for the same – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-apps/maker/model-driven-apps/the-power-apps-grid-control?WT.mc_id=DX-MVP-5003911

Hope this helps!

Here are some Power Automate posts you want to check out –

Thank you!

Filter, Search and Lookup functions in Power Fx | Canvas Apps

November 20, 2022 priyeshwagh777 Microsoft PowerApps canvas apps formula, filter, filter in power fx, lookup, lookup in power fx, search, search in power fx

Here’s how you can use and understand the difference between Filter, Search and Lookup functions if you are new to making Canvas Apps. I’ve tried to explain the usage of these in simple examples!

These functions are part of the Power Fx and are used in Canvas Apps.

Lookup Function – Lookup function in Canvas Power Apps | Power Fx Formula Example
Search Function – Search function in Canvas Power Apps | Power Fx Formula Example
Filter Function – Filter function in Canvas Power Apps | Power Fx Formula Example

Differences between Filter, Search and Lookup

	Filter	Lookup	Search
Results in	Multiple Records	Single Record	Multiple Records
Search Type	Criteria Based	Criteria Based	Text Based

Here’s Microsoft Learn link for detailed criteria & documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/power-fx/reference/function-filter-lookup#syntax?WT.mc_id=DX-MVP-5003911

Hope this helps!

Here are some Power Automate posts you want to check out –

Thank you!

Filter function in Canvas Power Apps | Power Fx Formula Example

November 20, 2022 priyeshwagh777 Microsoft PowerApps canvas apps, filter function, filter in canvas apps, power fx

In case you are looking for how you use Search function as opposed to using Lookup() function in Power Fx in Canvas App, check this post!

Lookup Function – Lookup function in Canvas Power Apps | Power Fx Formula Example

Search Function – Search function in Canvas Power Apps | Power Fx Formula Example

Scenario

I have a Gallery control which is populated with Accounts data from Dataverse.

Then, I have another Gallery control to demonstrate how we can filter and pick records that satisfy one or more criteria in the Filter formula.

Filter() in Canvas Apps

Let’s see how we can use Filter in Canvas App based on the above scenario –

Start by typing Filter while the target Gallery is selected under Items property and you’ll see that it’s a valid function in the list. And the first thing in the parameter after opening the bracket is the source.
Now, Accounts is the table which I’m looking to filter on. I selected this from the Auto-complete when I types Accounts and then press comma (,) for the next parameter.
Next, I’ll be asked the criteria to check for in order to Filter from the source data.
Here, I want to select all the Account whose Annual Revenue is under 750,000.

So, when I start typing the field name, the list will show the correct name which I can select.
Then, I complete the formula.
Optionally, I can have multiple criteria to be Filtered for.
In this example, I’ll still keep only 1.
Now, based on the completed formula, you can see below that the matching records have been filtered in the new Gallery control we added.

.And that’s how you can use Filter() function in Canvas App to select the records which match the provided criteria.

Here’s Microsoft Learn link for detailed criteria & documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/power-fx/reference/function-filter-lookup#syntax?WT.mc_id=DX-MVP-5003911

Hope this helps!

Here are some Power Automate posts you want to check out –

Thank you!

Search function in Canvas Power Apps | Power Fx Formula Example

November 20, 2022November 20, 2022 priyeshwagh777 Microsoft PowerApps canvas apps, search, search function in power apps

In case you are looking for how you use Search function as opposed to using Lookup() function in Power Fx in Canvas App, check this post!

Lookup function – Lookup function in Canvas Power Apps | Power Fx Formula Example

Filter function – Filter function in Canvas Power Apps | Power Fx Formula Example

Scenario

I have a Gallery control which is populated with Accounts data from Dataverse.

Then, I have another Gallery control to demonstrate how we can search and pick records that satisfy the criteria in the Seach formula.

Search() in Canvas App

Let’s see how we can use Search in a Canvas App based on the above scenario –

Start by typing Seach while the Gallery is selected and you’ll see that it’s a valid function in the list. And the first thing in the parameter after opening the backet is the source.
Now, Accounts is the table which I’m searching into. I selected this from the Auto-complete when I typed in Accounts and then, press comma (,) for the next parameter
Next, I’ll be asked the text value of what I have to search for. It works like a “contains”. Anything that matches the pattern will be returned instead of the exact match.
Finally, the last parameter is the Column on which the Search should be performed on. Since, I’m looking for Name of the Account in which I expect to find XYZ, I’ll select “Name” from the list.
Now, the Formula is completed. I’ll get the below Formula on the new Gallery control’s Items property which has multiple records.
And below is the result. All the rows that have XYZ in the Name of the Accounts will be populated in the new Gallery control I selected.

And that’s how Search() function can be used to select records that have the phrase entered in the forumula.