Blog - Recent Posts

Dataverse - How to filter Dataverse choice columns

With Dataverse, the syntax to filter a table based on a choice column may not be entirely intuitive. This post describes the methods we can use to filter tables based on choice values.

Code - The new easier way to pack and unpack canvas app source code

If you're building canvas apps from source code, there's now a much easier way to unpack the source from a source MSAPP file, thanks to the "Power Platform VS Code Extension" for Visual Studio Code. This post describes this new feature.

PVA - 6 Power Virtual Agents videos you should watch

If you want to learn about Power Virtual Agents, particularly around the topics of architecture, integration, and best practices, I recommend the following 6 videos from the Power CAT team.

Learn Power Apps and Dataverse with the free, online 'app in a day' training course

The 'app in day' course provides a great introduction to Power Apps, and is up to date (as of May 2021). Read this post to find out more, including where to download the course content.

SQL - How to lookup/display related details with SQL Server Views

In cases where we need to join tables and to display details from related tables, the most efficient way to perform this task is to use a view. This post provides an introduction on how to display related data on a gallery control, and how to configure an app to update a record that a users selects through a gallery control that is connected to a view.

Email - Complete guide to validating email addresses

This post provides a guide on how to validate email address, including how to validate single and multiple email addresses, and how to accept or to reject email addresses based on email domain.

Themeing - How to apply consistant styles and themes to canvas apps with the CoE theming solution

Within organisations, it's usually necessary to build apps that comply with corporate branding styles. A common requirement is to build apps that share the same colours, font styles, and overall look and feel. To help with this requirement, the CoE starter kit provides a theming solution and this post introduces how this works.

Portal Apps - How to edit the source of a Portal App with Visual Studio Code - a quick guide

This post takes a first look at an exciting new feature for Power App Portal developers - the ability to download the source code for a portal app and to edit the HTML content outside of the online editor. This post provides an overview of how to get started with this new feature.

Excel - Vote to add numeric column support to the 'Excel Online Business Connector' connector!

The Excel Online Business connector does not correctly support number / numeric columns. This post describes this behaviour in more detail, and provides a link where you can vote to fix this limitation.

Functions - Here's a use of the @ operator you may have been unaware of

Did you know that you can use the @ operator to validate the schema of a record? If not, this post describes this usage in more detail.

Excel - All you need to know about the 'Excel Online Business' connector

The traditional way of connecting to an Excel data source through the OneDrive connector imposes serious limitations on the number of records we can retrieve. We can overcome several of these with the Excel Online Business connector, but it introduces a different set of problems. This post introduces the 'Excel for Business' connector, and describes what you need to know.

Dataverse - How to switch to the classic designer when the option is not available

If a Power Platform update breaks features in the Dataverse designer (such as the table or view designers), and the option to open the classic designer is missing, it may be possible to carry on working by accessing the classic designer directly by web address.

Top 3 highlights of upcoming enhancements to the Power Apps language (Power FX)

Yesterday's Build conference introduced several exciting new enhancements to the Power Apps language.This post summarises the top 3 highlights.

How Power App builders can more easily connect to code that has been written by pro-developers

Coming soon will be the release of the 'Visual Studio Extensions for Power Platform' - a feature that will allow app builders to more easily integrate features that are built by pro-developers. This post takes a first look at this feature.

Forms - How to convert a display form to an edit form

If you want to convert a display form to an edit form, there's unfortunately no way to do this through the app designer. However, we can accomplish this through code and this post describes how to carry out this task in more detail.