Finding Indexed Columns in Dataverse Search

In recent times, you must be seeing Indexed Search in Dataverse. Here’s how to make sure you can configure those.

Indexed Search

Given the right permissions, you can go to Power Platform Admin Center (https://make.powerapps.com/) –

Open Solutions, you then be able to scroll down to Default solutions –
Once you open Default Solution, or any other Solution which has tables whose tables you want to index. Click on Overview and then you’ll see Dataverse search on the right hand side.
And when you view to the right, you’ll see a button called ‘Manage search index‘
And when you click on Manage search index, you’ll see list of tables enabled for Search.
And when it says the no. of columns added, they can be seen from the Quick Find View.
And you’ll see the columns selected to be found.

This will then result in the Search being reflected based on the Find columns shown here.

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Allocate Storage Capacity for Dataverse environments | Power Platform Admin Center

January 5, 2025January 5, 2025 priyeshwagh777 Power Platform Admin Center database storage space in dynamics 365, Power Platform Admin Center, resources in power platform admin center, storage space

As Dynamics 365 storage capacity is expensive and need to meticulously manage the same is of prime importance, Microsoft is providing a way to allocate the storage capacity amongst the Dataverse environments.

So, here’s a way to allocate capacity between Database, File and Log types for each Dataverse environment and get take corrective actions when the capacity is reached.

Manage Capacity

Given you have correct rights in the Power Platform Admin Center, you’ll be able to see the Capacity under Resources –

On the left hand menu in Power Platform Admin Center, look for Resources as shown below –
When you see the list of all the environments, select any one to see the option to go to the Storage Allocation page as shown below.
Once you are in this page, you’ll see the total consumption of Database, Log and File types across all environments – and you’ll see the button to manage this capacity amongst the environments.
Now, when I click the Manage Capacity button, I’ll see a list of the environments and whether they are already within capacity or not. I can then select the environment which want to allocate/review the allocated capacity for –
When I select the environment here, I’ll see that by default nothing has been allocated under this new model – but I can then enter thresholds for each type within the available space and not less than what is already consumed.

By default, the values are blank.
Now, since I have some numbers and made sure to draw from the available capacity if the thresholds are exceeded, I’ll click save for the consumption meters to show up indicating that the allocation is now saved.

This way, you can keep the environment consumption in check and make other environments take up the unallocated space and take corrective actions.

Best is to keep less used sandbox environments consume lesser space.

Hope this was useful!

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Environment Routing in Power Platform Admin Center

August 18, 2024 priyeshwagh777 Power Platform, Power Platform Admin Center environment routing, managed environments, Power Platform Admin Center

In case you already have created Environment Groups, you can set some rules to divert how environments are created to Environment Groups.

If not, you might want to first take a look at a post on Environment Groups in Power Platform Admin Center!

Environment Routing is feature to redirect existing/new Makers to their own Developer environment when logging into the Maker Portal (https://make.powerapps.com/)

Routing in Environment Groups

Here’s how you can set Routing rules in Environment Groups in Power Platform Admin Center –

Given that you have the correct Dynamics 365 Administrator privileges, you should be able to see the Environment Groups section and also see button to set the Environment Routing.
In Environment Routing, you can choose to enable to Create personal developer environments for makers option.
When you turn it on, you can choose to enable it either for All makers or for new makers only. I’ll enable it for All makers for this example.
Now, I’ll select the Environment Group where the routing should happen to – for this, I’ve created a CFT Developers Environment Group.

And Save.

Routing to Developer Environments

Let’s consider this example to demonstrate how Routing will work –

When a developer logs into the Maker Portal (https://make.powerapps.com/), a setup will load for a few moments the user, let’s say, Amit Prajapati in this example, will be redirected to his own Portal –
And if you look at the list of the Environments in the Group you selected for Routing, you’ll see that Amit’s Environment is now created.
Now, another User Ethan Rebello also logs into the Maker Portal. He too will be redirected to his own environment.
And the same will be added to the Group as well.

Every developer will have access to only their own Developer environments and other’s won’t be able to access them.

Hope this was useful!

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Environment Groups in Power Platform Admin Center

August 18, 2024 priyeshwagh777 Power Platform Admin Center environment groups, managed environments, Power Platform Admin Center

Environment Groups is a feature to let you club the environments of your choice together in order to govern them commonly and easily with Rules for the environments.

The Rules as of now which you can govern commonly for the grouped Environments are –

Sharing controls for Canvas Apps
Usage Insights
Maker welcome content
Solution checker enforcement
Backup retention
Enable AI-generated descriptions (preview)

Let’s see how you can do this!

Environment Groups

Here’s how you can use Environment Groups in Power Platform Admin Center given that you have the correct Dynamics 365 Admin privileges –

You’ll see in the Power Platform Admin Center that Environment Groups is its own section.
Here, can you can click on Create a group as the button suggests and It’ll let you create a Group.
Next obvious step is to simply give it a Name and Description.
Once done, you’ll be able to select Environments to be added to the Group you just created.
Then, select the ones which are relevant to be added to this group. Once done selecting, click on Add environments.
Next, you’ll need to turn on the Managed Environment Modes for the selected environments. If all selected already have Managed Environments feature turned on, then they’ll simply be added further. In order to understand Managed Environments feature, you can refer to this post – Enable Managed Environments in Power Platform Admin Center
It takes a few moments to turn on Managed Environments, then you can finally click on Add Environments to add them to the Group.
As you see in the notification area, it takes a few moments to add the environments.
Once the processing has been completed on the backend, the environments will be added.

Rules for Environment Groups

Now, let’s see how you can commonly set Rules for the environments in the Environment Group –

You’ll see the tab called as Rules. Once your environments are added, you can go to this tab to look at the Rules you can change and apply.
You’ll see that by default, the rules remain as is and are not commonly applied. Let’s modify Backup Retention rule at first.
Once you select a Rule, you’ll get to Edit it.
Once you Edit, for example, Backup Retention – you’ll see the default values which you can change in order to commonly apply to the environments in the Environment Group.
Now, I’ll change it to 21 Days, as an example. Then, click Save.
Let me change another rule.
Now, you’ll see that the changed Rules will have star mark on it and are marked as bold.
Now, when you click Publish, it takes a few moments for the Rules to be published and you’ll see the last published rules once applied.

And here’s the latest status once changed.

In order to fully understand the capabilities and limitations of the Environment Groups, follow this Microsoft article on the same – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/environment-groups?WT.mc_id=DX-MVP-5003911

Hope this was useful!

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Recycle Bin in Dynamics 365 CRM | [Preview]

August 11, 2024 priyeshwagh777 D365 Admin Center, Power Platform Admin Center Dataverse, Dynamics 365, power apps, Power Automate, Power Platform, power platform ad, Power Platform Admin Center, recycle bin for dataverse, restore in dynamics crm, restore records

Now, you can retrieve deleted records up to 30 days in Dynamics 365 CRM /. CE apps.
Here’s how you turn this feature on!

Enable Recycle Bin

Here’s how you can enable this given you have the correct Dynamics 365 System Administrator privileges –

Go to the Environment’s Settings in Power Platform Admin Center (https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com/)
Now, expand Product section and go to the Features option.
When you scroll to the bottom, you’ll see Recycle Bin option as a feature. At the time of this blog post, the feature is in Preview – Hence, this is not recommended for production purposes yet.
By default, it’s turned Off.
Once you flick the switch, you’ll be asked for number of days the data has to be retained for. I’ll enter 30 here and then scroll to the bottom and save the setting.
Once saved, you can go to your environment and test this on a sample record. See the section next.

Deleted Records

Now, since this is enabled and post that when you delete records, here’s how you can find them for the number of days you’ve configured Recycle Bin for –

For example, this is the Account record you want to delete.
Go to the View Deleted Records section in the in your environment’s Settings area.
You’ll see the Deleted records which you can select and choose to Restore.
Confirm.
Upon Restoring, they’ll appear where they were originally supposed to exist.

Because this feature is still in Preview, here’s Microsoft’s Documentation on the same with listing of some known issues as well – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/power-platform/admin/restore-deleted-table-records?WT.mc_id=DX-MVP-5003911

Hope this was useful!

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Update SVG Icon to Custom Entity in Sitemap | Model Driven Apps

April 2, 2024 priyeshwagh777 Power Platform Admin Center crm entity icon, custom entity in crm, Dataverse, Dynamics 365, power apps, Power Automate, Power Platform, Power Platform Admin Center, svg icon

So, if you are used to updating Icons to entities in the classic UI, here’s what you need to do in order to update the SVG image of a Custom Entity you just created using new Power Apps Maker portal.

Let’s see below is you custom entity and it comes with its default icon which you want to set to a custom SVG icon.

Adding SVG Icon to Custom Entity

Given that you have appropriate access to the be able to Customize the system, follow the below steps –

In your solution, you have the table as well as the SVG Icon you just created the Web Resource for and uploaded an image which you want to set as Icon.
Now, select the Table you want to set the SVG icon to, and click on Properties.
On the right hand pane, expand the Advanced area and look for the Choose table image field.
Then, start typing the Display Name of the SVG icon which you wish to set to this Entity.

Click Save if no other changes are to be done.
Once Saved, click on Publish.
Now, when you refresh the App where the custom entity is listed in the Sitemap, you’ll see the icon updated.

Hope this was useful!

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Preferred Solution in Dataverse | Power Platform Admin Center

April 1, 2024 priyeshwagh777 Dataverse, Power Platform Admin Center Dataverse, default solution, Dynamics 365, power apps, Power Automate, Power Platform, Power Platform Admin Center, preferred solution, solution components in power platform, unmanaged solutions

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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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!

D365 Demystified

A closer look at Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Power Platform Admin Center

Finding Indexed Columns in Dataverse Search

Indexed Search

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Allocate Storage Capacity for Dataverse environments | Power Platform Admin Center

Manage Capacity

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Environment Routing in Power Platform Admin Center

Routing in Environment Groups

Routing to Developer Environments

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Environment Groups in Power Platform Admin Center

Environment Groups

Rules for Environment Groups

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Recycle Bin in Dynamics 365 CRM | [Preview]

Enable Recycle Bin

Deleted Records

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Update SVG Icon to Custom Entity in Sitemap | Model Driven Apps

Adding SVG Icon to Custom Entity

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Preferred Solution in Dataverse | Power Platform Admin Center

Mark a Preferred Solution

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

What is Pre-Export Step Required Setting?

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

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Run a Power Platform Pipeline

Run Power Platform Pipeline

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Setup Power Platform Pipelines

Pre-Requisites

Setting up Environments

Configure Deployment Pipelines

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Indexed Search

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Manage Capacity

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Routing in Environment Groups

Routing to Developer Environments

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Environment Groups

Rules for Environment Groups

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Enable Recycle Bin

Deleted Records

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Adding SVG Icon to Custom Entity

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Mark a Preferred Solution

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What is Pre-Export Step Required Setting?

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

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Run Power Platform Pipeline

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Pre-Requisites

Setting up Environments

Configure Deployment Pipelines

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