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Power Pages Manifest Explained related to Collaborative Development and ALM

In the Microsoft Power Pages, understanding the nuances of configuration files like the `manifest.yml` and environment-specific manifests (e.g., `dev.crm4.dynamics.com-manifest.yml`) is crucial. These files play a significant role in managing and deploying Power Pages sites, particularly in collaborative and ALM contexts. Understanding the Manifest.yml File First of all, always refer to the official documentation on how the power platform cli tool is supported. Creation and Usage Creation : The manifest.yml is generated through the pac powerpages download command. It serves as a snapshot of the Power Pages site's configuration, capturing details like page templates, form settings, and access permissions. Example: When you run this command, it creates a manifest.yml file that includes details of all the components such as web forms, entity lists, and site settings configured in the Power Pages site. Usage : The pac powerpages upload command utilizes the manifest.yml file to updat

Filtering Dropdown choices in a Power Pages form using Dataverse Relations

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Filter dropdowns Dropdown filters are a useful feature in form design, allowing users to filter options in one dropdown based on other selections in the form. In Power pages, leveraging the capabilities of Dataverse relations makes it possible to create these powerful filtering mechanisms. This is how it works. What you need to know first. Before we dive into the implementation details, ensure that you have a basic understanding of Power Pages forms and Dataverse relations.  How is´t made Create two tables in your Dataverse environment: "Type" and "Category." These tables will hold the relevant data for the dropdowns. Establish a Lookup Relationship between the "Category" and "Type" tables. Create a lookup column in the "Category" table that references the "Type" table. This lookup column will allow us to filter the categories based on the selected type. Now, create a third table called "Request." This table will ser

Exploring the Power of Variables in Liquid and Power Pages

Covering the basics - Variables As a templating language, Liquid offers a rich collection of possibilities for web developers and designers, bringing Dynamics business data to the web. Variables in Liquid enable us to display dynamic content and enable us to implement a certain level of custom logic as well. We'll have a look at some examples on how to work with variables. Variable Assignment In Liquid, variables can be assigned values using the {% assign %} tag. For example, let's assign the value "Hello, Nerd!" to the variable greeting: {% assign greeting = 'Hello, Nerd!' %} Variable Output Once a variable is assigned a value, it can be outputted using the {{ }} syntax. To display the value of greeting, we can use: {{ greeting }} Assigning Site Settings Liquid is powerfull enough to allow you to assign values from site settings to variables. For example, if you need the site setting for inactivity for

Enabled Dataverse search in the Microsoft Dataverse environment

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Search is a very powerfull feature when properly configured. Here is a quick step through on how to implement search in Power Pages. Enable Search in the environment Go to the Power Platform Admin Center.  Open the administration settings for the Microsoft Dataverse environment and navigate to the search or options settings.  Enable "Dataverse Search." This needs to be done once for each environment. Enabled Dataverse search in Power Pages  Go to Portal Management for the Power Pages site and click on Site Settings.  Filter the settings for search.  Make sure that EnableAdditionalEntities, Enabled, and EnableDataverseSearch are set to "true."  Ensure that the table to be included in the search is included in the filters.  Note that tables are listed with the category first, followed by the column and table name. If multiple tables fall under the same category, they should be separated by a comma. Categories with tables are separated by a semicolon. This setting need

Revitalizing My Developer Blog: Power Pages for Modern Web Development

Welcome back! It has been quite a while since my last blog post on MyCodeStories, but I'm thrilled to announce that I'm finally reviving this blog. As the technology landscape has evolved over the years, so have my interests and areas of expertise. In the next posts, I want to share with you my renewed focus on Power Pages, as well as the exciting opportunities they present for modern web development. Embracing Power Pages Power Pages, powered by the robust capabilities of Power Platform and Microsoft 365, have gained significant traction in recent years. These pages allow developers to create dynamic, data-driven web experiences without diving into complex code. With a rich set of features and easy integration with various data sources, Power Pages enable developers to rapidly build and deploy websites that cater to specific business needs. Power Pages allow external users to access data, perform actions, and collaborate seamlessly. Whether it's customer portals, partner p

Design an awesome experience! Part four.

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Let's get physical Involved in a service of any kind there will be work that not necessarily is very visible. Visualizing progress or work behind the scenes or even giving the user some sort of price or token for using the service creates a more personal relationship or even feeling of ownership to the service. This boosts loyalty and the user is most likely to return time and again. Getting physical would be far easier in a physical world. Now, in this context, the closest we get to getting physical would be by sending the user a price of sorts, but that would be expensive and not least – it would be very slow and taken out of context. What we need is something that would pamper the user and tie the price to the context, so the user experience some sort of reward for being loyal. This is where we can draw advantage from social gaming, rewarding the user with points or badges for their activity. By ranking the users by their activities, or even by their contributions,

Design an awesome experience! Part three.

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Chunk it up! Designing complex services requires that you fill in all the blanks in the service journey. Dividing the your design into a preface, main face and post face helps you focus on what happens before, during and after the user have interacted with the service. The preface is where the user encounters your service for the first time. You need to ask questions like; how will the user become aware of the service? What parts of the service does the user interface with and how are they presented? Does the service solve the right problems? What is the impression the user is left with after leaving the service and how likely is it that the user will return? Let us assume that we have interviewed our stakeholders. Sally from accounting have a need for registering correct hours before billing the company’s clients. Her need is to get the system implemented as soon as possible and getting the users to hand in their hours using the new system instead of handing it i