Preferred Solution in Dataverse | Power Platform Admin Center

By default, everything goes inside a Default Solution if you are aware of the classic way of doing Customization in Dynamics 365 CRM. And this causes components to be lost in Default solution without knowing who created where and what was that.

Hence, to be able to collect all the components created outside of Solutions, Preferred Solution is a great way to automatically add components created outside Solution in a single solution to ensure accountability.

Let’s see how this works with help of this simple post!

Mark a Preferred Solution

Given you have appropriate rights like System Administrator or System Customizer, you can go to the Maker Portal (https://make.powerapps.com/), and follow the steps below –

In the Power Apps Maker Portal, when you navigate to Solutions – you’ll see a message saying ‘Set your preferred solution’ and on the right hand-side show that the Common Data Services Default Solution is already preferred [You’ll know this from Customizations option in classic UI].

And on the top, you’ll see button to Set preferred solution.
Now, when you select to set preferred solution, you’ll see all the unmanaged solutions you have.
Select the one you want to mark as Preferred for anything not directly added to a solution.
Then, you’ll see that Preferred Solution label has been applied for that Solution.
Now, even if you add anything directly from other areas like Tables and add a field (for example), it’ll end up having the Prefix of the Solution itself.
In this example, it’s add Field 2. The Prefix set for the Preferred Solution was “cf301“
And when you open the Preferred Solution itself, the component you created outside the solution will be added to the Preferred Solution automatically.
This way, it’s easy to not lose any customization in Default Solution and makes it easy for all the components which were created outside of the solution to be gathered in place when you want to investigate your environment!

Hope this was useful!

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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 –

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Pre-Export Step Required setting in Deployment Pipeline | Power Platform Pipelines

March 5, 2024 priyeshwagh777 Power Platform, Power Platform Admin Center azure, Dataverse, devops, power apps, Power Automate, Power Platform, Power Platform Admin Center, power platform pipelines

Now that you must’ve already setup your basic Power Platform Pipeline as yet and are looking to explore how to extend the Power Platform Pipeline to do more advanced operations, this post is for you!
In case you are still looking to first setup your Power Platform Pipeline, you can check this Blog Series which this very post too, is a part of – Power Platform Pipelines | Blog Series

What is Pre-Export Step Required Setting?

This is the ability to have a trigger before an Export operation from the Development Environment is initiated in order to run the pipeline – only available for the first stage in the pipeline.

This is provided so that you may want to run some external operations before this is taken through the pipeline for deployment.

Use Case is – that you want to first seek an approval from the Admin before the Solution is deployed to Production (or rather, sent through the pipeline for deployment). Once approved, the pipeline should automatically proceed towards executing the rest of the deployment stages.

Pre-Export Step Required

While setting up your Pipeline, in case you were wondering what Pre-Export Step Required setting was, see below –

Once you mark this field as checked/Required, save the record and it’ll appear like this on the record.
What this does is, it runs the trigger action ‘OnDeploymentRequested’
And once this Flow is trigger based on this Action, you can perform custom logic to be carried out and be successful before the deployment is carried forward.
In this example, I’m setting a simple Approval process to be in place so that the Admin is aware and approves all the Deployment requests.
Now, once an Approval is received, you need to check the status of the request and if it’s Approved, you need to run Perform an unbound action to initiate the Action ‘UpdatePreExportStepStatus‘
You’ll need to pass the StageRunId – You’ll get this in the Dynamics Content Properties of the Flow itself from the trigger.
Then, you need to set the Status of 20 – this means Approved.
For rejection, the status to set is 30.
Now, once this Flow is in place, every time a Pipeline is Run to deploy the solution, it’ll first wait for the Approval process to complete and the pipeline itself will show the below message.
This status can also be seen in the Deployment Stages in the ‘Deployment Pipeline Configuration‘ app as well.
Now, the Admin on the other hand, will receive a Power Automate Approval like this (based on whatever you have configured). This is received on both Approvals in Teams and in Power Automate as well.
Once the Approver approves, I’ll enter some notes while approving.
The pipeline will then proceed to deploy to production.
And this will also proceed on the UI in Pipelines as well.
Once deployed, you’ll see that this is completed Successfully if there are no issues.
You can also see the History. The End Time will represent when it was completed as opposed to Start Time representing when the Deployment Request was initiated.
And also in the ‘Deployment Pipeline Configuration‘ app.

Here’s official Microsoft documentation on how you have Gated Extensions like these to be in place in Power Platform Pipelines – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/alm/extend-pipelines#gated-extensions-available?WT.mc_id=DX-MVP-5003911

Hope this was useful!

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

Thank you!

Run a Power Platform Pipeline

March 5, 2024 priyeshwagh777 Power Platform, Power Platform Admin Center Dataverse, Dynamics 365, power apps, Power Automate, Power Platform, Power Platform Admin Center, power platform pipelines

In case you setup your first Power Platform Pipeline and looking to test it out? This post is for you.

Or if you haven’t yet configured your Power Platform Pipelines first, refer this post – Setup Power Platform Pipelines

Now that you have your basic Power Platform Pipeline set in place, let’s run a created Pipeline!

Run Power Platform Pipeline

Here’s what you need to do in order to Run your pipeline –

Go to the Dev environment on which you have Hosted your pipeline (or which is supposed to be your first environment from where all the customization/configuration should move over).
Go to the Solution which you want to Run through the Pipeline.
For the simplicity of this example, this Solution has just 1 custom column on the Account table.
Now, click on Pipelines and look for the Deployed Pipeline which is ready to be used.
Now, once you get to see the stages which you have set in the blog post – Setup Power Platform Pipelines, those stages will appear here.
Then, verify the environment details mentioned and then click on Deploy here once you are sure.
Now, once you click on Deploy here, you’ll be given option to choose when you want to deploy – whether now or later.
For this example, I’m choosing Now instead of scheduling it for later. Then, I click Next and it’ll go into Validating Stage.
Once it all looks good, you’ll get AI generated notes already if you are in the US Region (at the time of writing this post). Then, click Deploy once everything looks good.
Once this is in progress in the background, you’ll see that the pipeline is deploying your solution.
Once this is completed, you’ll see that this is deployed successfully.
And this will be successfully deployed to the Target environment like so in the Managed Solutions section.

Hope this short tutorial was helpful!

Hope this was useful!

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

Thank you!

Setup Power Platform Pipelines

March 5, 2024 priyeshwagh777 Power Platform, Power Platform Admin Center azure, Dataverse, devops, managed environments, Power Automate, Power Platform, Power Platform Admin Center, power platform pipelines

Given that you need to setup Power Platform Pipelines, here’s a post for you!
This post will walk you through on how you can setup Power Platform Pipelines.

Pre-Requisites

Here’s what you need to setup in order to enable Power Platform Pipelines –

You need to enable Managed Environments for the environments which need to participate in Power Platform Pipelines. Here’s a post on Managed Environment which I’ve written in the past – Enable Managed Environments in Power Platform Admin Center

Given that all participating environments have been enabled with Managed Environments, select an Environment which is supposed to a “Host” environment where all the Pipelines master data will house and then go to it’s Dynamics 365 Apps section from Resources to install Power Platform Pipelines into that environment.
Once you are in, click on Install app and then search for Power Platform Pipelines.
Confirm that you are about to install this Solution.
Once installed, go to Power Apps Maker Portal (https://make.powerapps.com/) and then select the Host environment in which you have installed Power Platform Pipelines on.
Then go to Apps and you’ll see Deployment Pipeline Configuration app. Play that app!

Let’s see how you can set the environments up first!

Setting up Environments

Here’s how you can setup your Environments in the –

Once you are in the Deployment Pipeline Configuration App, go to Environments and create a New record.
Then, enter all the details. Also, mention if the Environment type is Development Environment or Target Environment.
Once you save the record, this the configuration will be validated.
In case you are wondering how to you find the Environment ID, here’s where you’ll find the Environment ID in Power Platform Admin Center (https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com/environments), select the environment and you’ll see the details as below –
Once all the Environments are set in the Deployment Manager, here’s how it should look

Configure Deployment Pipelines

Now that your environments are set, let’s also configure the Deployment Pipelines –

Go to Pipelines and create a New record.
Now, fill in all the relevant information and save the record.
Now, link your Managed Environments in the Linked Deployment Environment grid below. Then click on Add Existing Environments button.
And once you add, they’ll appear like this while selecting them in lookups. Then click Add.
Once added the Development Environments, go ahead and create new Pipeline Stages too.
In the new Deployment Stage, I’ll simply tag the Production Environment and save the record to keep this example simple.

At this point, your Pipeline is all set to Run.

Shortly, I’ll share another post on how you can Run a Pipeline in Power Platform!

Hope this was useful!

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

Thank you!

Hierarchy Settings in Dynamics 365 CE | Power Platform Admin Center

January 15, 2024January 15, 2024 priyeshwagh777 Power Platform Admin Center Dataverse, Dynamics 365, power apps, Power Automate, Power Platform

You must have seen Security Roles, Field Level Security, Access Teams etc. as a way to access records in Dynamics 365 CE (or CRM). Here’s what Hierarchy Security is all about –

There are 2 types of Hierarchy Settings in Dynamics 365 CE and what they mean in a short explanation –

Manager Hierarchy – Access control of records based on the Manager settings for a System User.
Position Hierarchy – Access control of records based on the Position of the System Users based on how they are placed in the Organization.

Configure Hierarchy Settings in Power Platform Admin Center

Given that you have Dynamics 365 Admin privileges, you can configure the Hierarchy Settings as below –

Go to the Environment’s Settings in Power Platform Admin Center
Now, you can expand and click on Hierarchy Settings
By default, these will be Disabled by default. Then, you can turn on the one which you want and configure the same.
In order to Configure the Manager Hierarchy Model, you can refer this post below –
Manager Hierarchy Settings in Dynamics 365 CE
In order to Configure the Position Hierarchy Model, you can refer this post below –
Position Hierarchy Settings in Dynamics 365 CE

Hope this was useful!

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

Thank you!

Position Hierarchy Settings in Dynamics 365 CE

January 15, 2024 priyeshwagh777 Power Platform Admin Center Dataverse, Dynamics 365, hierarchy settings in dynamics crm, position hierarchy, power apps, Power Automate, Power Platform, Power Platform Admin Center

In this post, you’ll learn how to configure Position Hierarchy for Dynamics 365 CE environment –

Let’s first look at the scenario which we want to look at and then how we can configure the Hierarchy to limit and show the Positions of the Users the intended data.

Scenario

Let’s consider the below scenario on who report to whom in the org CFT300 based on the below Positions in the Org –

In the above example,

Salesperson should see then own records.
VP of Sales should say their own records and of Salesperson roles too.
Executive Director should see their own records and only those of VP of Sales, but not Salesperson roles.

Position Hierarchy

Given that you already know how to navigate to Hierarchy Settings in Power Platform Admin Center, refer the below to understand how to configure the same based on the above scenario –

Once you are in the Hierarchy Settings in the Environment’s Settings area in Power Platform Admin Center –
Now, you can select Enable Position hierarchy Model and click on Save to apply the Position Hierarchy Model access to your environment. Once Saved, you’ll see as below.
The Depth defines how many levels of Positions should a User be able to access records of other user in other positions in a top-down approach.
Let’s click on Configure in order to start setting up the Positions in the Org.
Now, based on the diagram above, I’ll create the Position hierarchy on this page
Now, based on the same, I’ve created the below Positions in a hierarchy

And the tree looks like this –
Now, next is to assign these Positions to different Users in Power Platform Admin Center. If you go to Users and select any of the Users, you’ll see Change Position button on the ribbon.
Then, you can find the Position you created which you want to give to the Users. Select it and Save it on the Pane.
Complete the process for all the Users who need to be having one of the Positions you created.

So based on this, Jack Green will be the Executive Director and will be able to access Amit Prajapati’s records and not Vidit Gholam’s or Ethan Rebello’s records.

Also, the selected Tables are the ones to which the Position Hierarchy should apply.

Now, based on the above setup and the Scenario provided, let’s look at how the records will be visible to the Users in the hierarchy.

Dynamics CRM Records access based on the Position Hierarchy Security –

Let’s start reviewing from the bottom of the hierarchy. Vidit and Ethan, both will see their own record in the Active Accounts view and no one else’s based on the Hierarchy Settings.
Also, note that the Read privilege for all the Users in their Security Roles is set to “Users” and not “Organization“.

Ethan Rebello –

Vidit Gholam –
We move 1 level up to Amit Prajapati – he’ll see his own record and also Vidit’s and Ethan’s records in Active Accounts view.
And Jack Green can access his own record and as he’s the Executive Director and can see VP of Sales position records, he’ll see only Amit’s records for Accounts and not Ethan’s and Vidit’s.

This will change if we increase the Depth to 2, 3 and onward based on the hierarchy structure.

Hope this was useful!

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

Thank you!

Manager Hierarchy Settings in Dynamics 365 CE

January 15, 2024 priyeshwagh777 Power Platform Admin Center Dataverse, Dynamics 365, hierarchy settings, manager hierarchy in dynamics crm, power apps, Power Automate, Power Platform, Power Platform Admin Center

In this post, you’ll learn how to configure Manager Hierarchy for Dynamics 365 CE environment –

Let’s first look at the scenario which we want to look at and then how we can configure the Hierarchy to limit and show the Managers the intended data.

Scenario

Let’s consider the below scenario on who reports to whom in the Org CFT300 used in this example –

In the above example,

Manager of Vidit Gholam and Ethan Rebello is set as Amit Prajapati.
Manager of Amit Prajapati is Jack Green.

And this structure looks as below in Dynamics 365 CRM environment –

Note: Please note that in order to set Hierarchy Settings correctly, the Read privileges on the intended entity must be set to “User” level. If it is set to “Organization”, the the User will anyway be able to access everyone’s records despite Hierarchy Security Settings in place.

Manager Hierarchy

Given that you already know how to navigate to Hierarchy settings in Power Platform Admin Center, refer the below to understand how to configure the same based on the above scenario –

Once you are in the Hierarchy Settings in the Environment’s Settings area in Power Platform Admin Center –
Now, you can select Enable Manager hierarchy Model and click on Save to apply the Hierarchy Model access to your environment.
The Depth defines how many levels should a Manager be able to access records of the Users in the top-down approach.
You’ll also need to set the Users’ Manager in Power Platform Admin Center. If you go to the Users and select any 1 of them, you’ll see Change Manager button on the ribbon.
And, search the User who should be the Manager of the User which you are editing.

So based on this, Jack Green will only be able to access Amit Prajapati’s records and not Vidit Gholam’s or Ethan Rebello’s records.

Also, the selected Tables are the one to which the Hierarchy Security should apply.

Now, based on the above setup and the Scenario provided, let’s look at how the records will be visible to the users in the hierarchy.

Dynamics CRM Records access based on Manager Hierarchy Security –

Let’s start reviewing from the bottom of the hierarchy. Vidit and Ethan, both will see their own record in the Active Accounts view and no one else’s based on the Hierarchy Settings.
Also, note that the Read privilege for all the Users in their Security Roles is set to “User” and not “Organization” level.

Ethan Rebello –

Vidit Gholam –
We move 1 level up to Amit Prajapati – he’ll see his own record and also Vidit’s and Ethan’s records in Active Accounts view.
And Jack Green can access his own record and as he’s the Manager of Amit Prajapati, he’ll only see Amit’s records for Account and not Ethan’s and Vidit’s.

This will change is we increase the depth to 2, 3 and onward based on the hierarchy structure.

Hope this was useful!

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

Thank you!

Permanently Delete users from Power Platform

December 31, 2023 priyeshwagh777 Power Platform Admin Center Dataverse, delete user in Entra ID, delete user in power platform, Dynamics 365, permanently delete user, power apps, Power Automate, Power Platform

Often times, as organizations have users enabled and disabled, over the course of time we see a lot of Disabled Users pile up in the system. Power Platform now lets you delete these Users permanently from the system.

Warning: Please note that this process will not get back the User you delete as you are going to permanently delete the User from Entra ID as well as Power Platform.

Enable Delete Users feature from Admin Center

First, you’ll need to enable this in the Power Platform Admin Center

Select the environment you wish to enable this feature in and then click on Settings.
Then, look for Features section.
you’ll find the option for Delete Disabled Users which would be OFF by default. Switch it to ON.

Zooming in a little bit, this is how the turned on feature should look –
Once you turn this ON, be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Save to save the changes you just made.

Now that you have turned this on. You can now Delete the Disabled Users.

Pre-Requisite: Permanently Delete User

Now, let’s see how this process is to be carried out –

Assuming the license of the User is now removed and if you Refresh the User in Power Platform Admin Center, you’ll see that the User will appear in the Disabled Users filtered list.
Even if you delete the User in M365, you can refresh the Power Platform and see the User Name still present
Now, if you open the User which you see with a different username in Power Platform Admin Center and click on it to open it in classic UI and see the Delete button to Delete the User
Here’s the delete button.
When you click on Delete and confirm it’ll throw the error message that this cannot be deleted.

Now, the next step is to permanently delete the User from Entra ID. Here’s a blog post to permanently delete the User from Entra ID: Permanently Delete a User in Entra ID

Delete in Power Platform

Now that the User is permanently deleted in Entra ID, you can re-attempt the delete the user in Power Platform.

Now, retry the step from the User page in classic UI as you’ll see the button there.
Now, you can click on the User in the Power Platform Admin Center and see that the user is showing that it has been deleted in the Environment
And you can see the button to now Delete Permanently in the environment as well.
And it’ll ask you if you want to really delete the User.

Hope this helps!

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

Thank you!

Manually Add Licensed Users in Dataverse Environment in Power Platform Admin Center

December 31, 2023 priyeshwagh777 Power Platform Admin Center Dataverse, dataverse users, Dynamics 365, enabled users in crm, manually add dataverse users, power apps, Power Automate, Power Platform, Power Platform Admin Center

In case you want to reflect a recently licensed user in a Dataverse environment but you don’t see it reflect immediately, here’s how you can manually add users to the Dataverse environment yourself.

Check that the User has an appropriate license

From Microsoft 365 Admin Portal, ensure that the user has been successfully been given a license –

In Users, click on the User and ensure the user has correct License required to be added to the environment.
And even if you refresh the Enabled Users (in classic CRM UI), you don’t see the User.

Here’s how you can quickly add a User instead of trying to sync all users (It’s possible to do that but slightly lengthy process). I’ll cover it in a separate post and link it here.
First, let’s see in the below section on how to quickly add a User –

Add Users from Power Platform Admin Center

Given that you have the correct Dynamics 365 Administrator privileges, here’s how you can add Users manually –

Go to the Environment in Power Platform Admin Center
Go to the Users section once you expand on Users Permissions tab
You’ll see that User is still not part of the environment. Here’s how you can add the User. Click on the + Add User button.
Then, search for the User with their Email Address and you’ll see it populate once the user qualifies the criteria mentioned on the pane under User access requirements.
Then, click on Add.
In the next step, you’ll be asked to provide a Security Role to the User. For example, I’m assigning a Salesperson security role from the default Business Unit. And then clicking Save.
This User will be added with the Security Roles. If you don’t see the name immediately, click on Refresh.
You’ll see the User appear in the environment list.
Also, you’ll see the User in the classic UI if you click on Manage users in Dynamics 365.
Here’s how it’ll appear in the Classic UI.