Dataverse on It Must Be Code!

PCF Controls Tips and Tricks : How to skip Linting at Build-Time

Tue, 08 Jul 2025 01:09:42 +0000

Have you ever been unable to properly build a PCF control because of linting errors? Well, lately I have, and it can get really frustrating. Especially when the errors have nothing to do with your code, but are caused by an unexpected failure in the way the PCF framework handles the linting process.

Turns out I’m not alone as other members of the PCF community like Charles Channon have recently flagged linting issues with recent pcf-scripts releases.

PCF Controls Tips & Tricks : How to detect Authoring Mode

Mon, 02 Jun 2025 02:57:10 +0000

When you configure a PCF control on a Dataverse model-driven app, the form designer will try to render the control even though it’s not running in the actual app context.

This usually isn’t a problem, but for complex controls that depend on runtime data, it can cause errors—and even break the form designer.

Moreover, as a PCF developer, you might want to show a simplified or placeholder version of your control in the form designer to help makers understand how it will look when the app actually runs.

How to Create Deep Links to D365 F&O Records with Dataverse Virtual Tables

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 02:30:01 +0000

It is a common requirement for SaaS platform that exposes form over data to be able to share a secure link (a.k.a. Deep Link) to access a given record. That way, links can be shared publicly— via email or Teams message for example—but clicking them still requires the user to authenticate and have the right permissions to access the record.

For instance, Power Platform model-driven apps have this functionality built in. You can simply copy and share the URL exposed in the browser while looking at a specific record. If the recipient has the right credentials, they can click the link and go straight to the record. This predictable URL format also makes it super handy to build automations.

Model-Driven App Trick : How to Hide a Ribbon Button when the Form is Dirty

Sun, 09 Mar 2025 19:56:52 +0000

I recently encountered a requirement on a model-driven app project to display a custom ribbon button only when the form had no unsaved changes—in other words, the button needed to be hidden whenever the form was dirty.

While the solution is quite simple, I thought it would be a good idea to write about it and put all the pieces of the puzzle together. I also explore and provide a solution for the 2 current button extension models—the Classic Ribbon and the Modern commanding .

Finance and Operations Virtual Entity Manager for XrmToolBox

Sun, 25 Feb 2024 14:52:19 +0000

As Microsoft pursues its One Dynamics, One Platform initiative, substantial investments are made to integrate the D365 Finance and Operations suite with the Power Platform and Dataverse.

These includes the ability to surface most F&O tables as virtual entities in Dataverse. Bringing full CRUD capabilities, but also opening up the whole Power Platform ecosystem to consume and act on F&O data. Think Power Automate, Model-driven and Canvas Apps, PCF Controls, Power Pages, etc.

How to Generate Dataverse Early-Bound Classes with PAC CLI ModelBuilder

Wed, 12 Apr 2023 03:37:47 +0000

As a Power Platform developer, I have always been a strong advocate for the use of early-bound classes in customization projects that targets Dataverse tables and actions. Early-bound classes not only increase code readability and maintainability, they also significantly reduce the risk of errors. I think that being proficient and fast in generating early-bound classes is a must-have skill for any developers who works with the platform.

Recently, the Microsoft Power Platform CLI ( PAC CLI) introduced the new modelbuilder command group that enables early bound classes generation directly from the CLI. Traditionally the generation of early-bound classes was primarily accomplished through a specialized tool called CrmSvcUtil. Yet, integrating these capabilities into a more versatile and widespread tool like PAC CLI is a logical step forward that will undoubtedly improve user adoption in the long run.

Dataverse Plugins : Unlock the latest C# features with PolySharp

Fri, 20 Jan 2023 03:30:30 +0000

Whenever a new version of C# is released I’m always eager to explore the new features of the language. However, as a Power Platform developer, it can be frustrating knowing that they can’t be used to develop Dataverse plugins, which constitutes a significant part of my daily work.

As a matter of fact, due to a dependency on the Microsoft CRM SDK, Dataverse plugins are confined to use an older version of the .NET framework (4.6.2) which natively supports C#7.3, while the latest version is C# 11.

PCF Control compile error : Cannot find module 'ajv/dist/compile/codegen'

Tue, 03 Jan 2023 18:09:56 +0000

I was working on a new PCF control project and I encountered an unexpected error when attempting to build the project, even though no custom code had been added yet. (Cannot find module ajv/dist/compile/codegen)

For reference, I’m using the latest version ( at the time of writing) of the Microsoft Power Platform CLI ( 1.21.4+g4869036) and here are the steps to reproduce :

Execute the init method of the pac cli. This will scaffold a new PCF control projects with all the basic dependencies.
Execute npm install to download the dependencies
Try to build the project : npm run build
❌Fails with error : Cannot find module “ajv/dist/compile/codegen”

pac pcf init -ns <Namespace> -n <ProjectName> -t field
npm install
npm run build

The error message is quite straitforward and points toward a node module that cannot be found : ajv/dist/compile/codegen . Upon checking the node_modules directory, even if the ajv module seems present, the compile/codegen part is nowhere to be found.

How to Call a Dataverse Custom API from a Canvas App

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 04:01:32 +0000

Dataverse Custom APIs are a powerful extension model of the PowerPlatform. However, at the time of writing, there are no direct method to execute a Custom API inside the PowerApps Canvas App model.

In this post I will show how to call any Custom API from a Canvas App with the use of a generic Power Automate Flow and the new ParseJSON functionality.

UPDATE 17-FEB-2023

Dataverse Custom APIs can now be called directly from PowerFx in Canvas Apps and Custom Pages. ( still in experimental phase)

Storybook for PCF Controls - Part 2 : Publish to GitHub Pages

Thu, 29 Sep 2022 00:16:42 +0000

This is the second part of a series on Storybook for PowerApps Component Framework ( PCF) controls, where I take one of my community PCF control hosted on Github (CountryPicker.PCF) and implement a Storybook from scratch.

While the first post, revolved around the setup and authoring process of the Storybook, this one focuses on the publishing steps required to make Storybook static site publicly available from GitHub Pages.

Storybook for PCF Controls - Part 1 : Set the Story Straight

Mon, 12 Sep 2022 01:43:09 +0000

In the frontend development world, Storybook as emerged as the industry standard to showcase and test UI components.

In this series of posts I will show how easy (and rewarding) it is to implement and publish a Storybook for a PowerApps Component Framework (PCF) project. That way users can have a direct and interactive access to the control without having to install anything on their side.

Part 1, will focus on setting up Storybook and write the stories in the context of a PCF control project.
Part 2, will demontrate how to publish the Storybook to Github Pages on every commit using GitHub Actions.

What is Storybook

In essence, Storybook is a framework that helps web developers express and test frontend workflows. It can be used for building, documenting, and testing UI components in isolation.

Develop PCF Controls with FluentUI React v9

Fri, 26 Aug 2022 04:50:52 +0000

Microsoft recently unveiled the first stable version of FluentUI React v9( @fluentui/react-components). This new edition of FluentUI is the result of joint efforts from the Office and Teams product teams to streamline their respective React front-end libraries into one component framework.

To celebrate this 🎉, I have released 2 community PowerApps Control Framework ( PCF) Controls that targets this new library.

In this post I will reflect on my experience authoring PCF controls with this new set of components and highlight the main differences with prior versions.

PCF Controls - Tree-Shaking For Better Bundle Size

Mon, 25 Jul 2022 02:29:08 +0000

Building modern front-end controls and application requires great care to keep the size of the assets as low as possible. The development of PowerApps Control Framework (PCF) controls doesn’t fall short from this rule.

In this post I will show how to optimize the tree-shaking process and reduce thebundle size of PCF controls with simple adjustments to module resolution of the Typescript configuration file.

How I got there

After seeing this tweet from Scott Durow that announced the release of FluentUI React v9 , I felt the urge and I immediately started a new PCF control project that targets this new library.

Visual Studio Talk Show

Fri, 08 Apr 2022 03:47:38 +0000

In this episode of the Visual Studio Talk Show, I had the great pleasure to talk (In French) with Microsoft MVP’s Mario Cardinal and Guy Barette.

We talked about the PowerPlatform in general and mostly about my open source PCF control projects.

Visual Studio Talk Show: 0266 – David Rivard – PowerApps Control Framework (PCF) Nous discutons avec David Rivard de PowerApps Control Framework (PCF), un cadre de programmation logiciel permettant de créer des composantes UI pour l’outil Power Apps. Power Apps permet l’écriture d’applications commerciales sans être un programmeur professionnel car il nécessite très peu de code… visualstudiotalkshow.libsyn.com

PCF control - Generate Shields.IO Badges in the PowerPlatform

Thu, 07 Apr 2022 02:49:10 +0000

One of the thing I like the most about PCF controls for the PowerPlatform is the ability to change the normal behavior and rendering of forms attributes to add a new twist to the user experience.

With that in mind, for my latest communityPCF control, ShieldsIO.Badge.PCF, I wanted to bring the ability to render custom (and awesome ) Shields.IO badges to the PowerPlatform.

Using badges in Model-driven or Canvas Apps forms is a great way to provide concise, actionable and visually appealing controls to end users.

Related Record Filtering with the Lookup Dropdown PCF

Wed, 09 Feb 2022 02:37:48 +0000

In the latest release of the LookupDropdown PCF control for Dataverse, I have added a new feature that adds support for related record filtering, hence the ability to filter the values of a dropdown in real-time based on the value of another lookup field. When rendered, this can produce nice cascading effect as seen below.

In this post I will show how to configure the PCF control for this scenario and dissert on what’s happening under the hood to make the magic happen.

Azure Key Vault Secrets in Dataverse

Tue, 25 Jan 2022 05:21:28 +0000

Environment variables in Dataverse are a powerful vehicule to develop portable customizations between different environment. Recently, a new Secret Data Type was introduced that enables the use of secrets stored in Azure Key Vaults 🔐 .

The integration between Dataverse and Azure Key Vault was long-awaited and I am really happy to see it materialize. It brings new kind of use cases and an additional security layer to protect sensitive information needed in platform customizations.

Better UX with a Lookup Dropdown PCF Control

Thu, 06 Jan 2022 02:35:50 +0000

One of the most anticipated feature of the PowerApps Control Framework (PCF) last year was the Lookup datatype support. Hence the ability to bind a PCF control to a Lookup field in a Dataverse Model-Driven form to customize it’s behavior.

The feature was released last summer (see official post) and the first idea that came to my mind was to create a PCF control that renders a lookup field as a dropdown list instead of the of the out-of-the-box lookup selector.

PCF Controls - Useful Webpack Plugins

Tue, 16 Nov 2021 04:58:31 +0000

In my last post I explained how to enable custom webpack configurations in a PowerApps Control Framework project. I also showed how to generate the source-map file of the generated PCF bundle.

PCF controls – Custom Webpack configurations

To continue on this track and push things a little further, I want to explore how to enhance the PCF development experience with the use of webpack plugins that can be referenced in the custom configuration file.

PCF controls - Custom Webpack configurations

Wed, 20 Oct 2021 02:06:29 +0000

When developing Power Platform PCF controls, at build-time, Webpack is invoked to bundle the code and dependencies into deployable assets.

While the out-of-the-box configurations are suitable for most of the basic PCF control needs, sometimes, you need to throw your own custom instructions in the game. This is what we are going to cover in this post.

Webpack and PCF

I will not spend too much time on the fundamentals of Webpack, there are tons of great blog post that deep-dives on the matter. But I think its important to understand what Webpack is and how it works in PCF control development.

Embed Images in Model-Driven In-App Notifications

Thu, 23 Sep 2021 03:38:29 +0000

In-App notifications for Model-Driven apps ( still in preview at the time of writing) exposes a central notification hub in Power Platform model-driven apps and the notifications model provides a fantastic vehicle to deliver contextual and user-specific information.

In this blog post, I will continue my exploration of In-App notifications and show how we can spice things up a little bit and create visually rich and appealing 💎 notifications by embedding images inside the content.

Send Model-Driven In-App Notifications with Power Automate

Fri, 03 Sep 2021 17:15:43 +0000

I n-App notifications for PowerPlatform Model-Driven apps are now available in preview. The feature provides a central notification hub in the app and the notifications provides a fantastic vehicle to deliver contextual and user-specific information to end users.

While my last post showed how to enable notifications in model-driven apps, let’s see what the real deal is and start creating simple notifications.

As a use case, we will create a Power Automate flow that will notify users whenever a new article is posted on the official PowerApps blog (https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog). Something like this.

Enable Model-Driven In-App Notifications with Power Automate

Sun, 29 Aug 2021 20:45:22 +0000

In-App notifications for PowerPlatform model-driven apps has been released in public preview ( see official Microsoft blog post below). I am particularly excited about this new feature as it opens up very interesting scenarios that can have a significant impact on the user experience.

App notification with single action

Announcing public preview for in-app notifications in model-driven apps With this public preview, notifications can be send to users within the model-driven app and are displayed using a notification center and notification toasts. powerapps.microsoft.com

Catalog Manager for XrmToolBox

Wed, 23 Jun 2021 14:52:36 +0000

Business Events ( still in preview at the time of writing) are opening up new paradigms for event-driven patterns in the Dataverse. (👉see Microsoft press release).

Essentially, They rely on 2 new tables Catalog and Catalog Assignment that are surfaced in the Solution explorer.

However, the authoring capabilities are limited for the moment and it’s hard to have a high level view of the Catalogs in your environment. Hence the idea behind the Catalog Manager tool for XrmToolBox.

Dataverse Custom API: Keep It Private

Mon, 25 Jan 2021 02:40:22 +0000

Pursuing my series of blog posts on Dataverse Custom API features, this one will be ‘short and sweet’ and explores the usage of the IsPrivate attribute that can be found on the Custom API Table.

The ability to set an API as a Private message is a unique feature of the Custom API model and does not exist for classic Workflow Custom Actions.

🚨The IsPrivate Attribute is (currently) not available/editable using the out-of-the-box Custom API authoring experience (Model-Driven form). That’s a very good reason to try my Custom API manager tool for XrmToolBox where the attribute can be set easily. 😏

XrmToolCast - Podcast

Tue, 19 Jan 2021 04:29:00 +0000

I had the great pleasure to geek out with Jonas Rapp and Daryl Labar on this episode of XrmToolCast

XrmToolCast: The Dataverse Custom API Collection with David Rivard Dataverse has had custom actions for some time now, and now, a similar new tool is available to Dataverse developer, Custom APIs. We’ve brought David Rivard on to not only help define what they are, but to talk about his new . Other topics covered: What’s the difference between Custom A… xrmtoolcast.libsyn.com

Custom API Manager for XrmToolBox

Mon, 04 Jan 2021 02:46:01 +0000

Like most Power Platform developers, I am a heavy user of the XrmToolBox a community project led by Tanguy Touzard. The myriad of tools it surfaces just makes my day to day job a lot less painful. I also secretly been wanting to write a tool of my own to contribute to this amazing project for a long time.

The wait is over 🎉

Today, I’m proud to release my first tool called Custom API Manager, and I really think that it will fill a gap in the current Custom API authoring experience.

XTB.CustomApiManager for XrmToolBox

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 21:33:54 +0000

drivardxrm/XTB.CustomApiManager Dataverse Custom Api Manager for XrmToolBox. Contribute to drivardxrm/XTB.CustomApiManager development by creating an account on GitHub. github.com

Management tool that provides 360° View of Dataverse Custom APIs. Provides CRUD operations on Custom API, Request Parameters (Inputs) and Response Properties (Outputs).

Integrates with Custom API Tester Tool

Please submit any ideas 💡 or questions ❓ here.

Dataverse Custom API Manager · XrmToolBox Management tool that provides 360° View of Dataverse Custom APIs. Provides CRUD operations on Custom API, Request Parameters (Inputs) and Response Properties (Outputs). www.xrmtoolbox.com XTB.CustomApiManager 1.2020.12.27 Management tool that provides 360° View of Dataverse Custom APIs. Provides CRUD operations on Custom API, Request Parameters (Inputs) and Response Properties (Outputs). www.nuget.org

Dataverse Custom API collection

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 21:20:57 +0000

drivardxrm/Dataverse-CustomApis Collection of Dataverse Custom Apis. Contribute to drivardxrm/Dataverse-CustomApis development by creating an account on GitHub. github.com

This project contains a set of generic Dataverse Custom APIs that can be installed and consumed in any Dataverse environment.

The goal of the project is to enhance the capability of PowerPlatform developers and makers by providing robust and easy to use API that can be consumed agnostically by any calling mechanism. (Ex. Power Automate, PCF, Model-Driven Form javascript, …)