A custom action in desktop flow is a feature designed to automate repetitive tasks seamlessly.
This blog provides a comprehensive guide on designing and leveraging custom actions in the desktop version of Power Automate flows. The journey starts with a step-by-step procedure to create these custom actions, offering a detailed walkthrough of the process to upload them within the desktop Power Automate flows environment.

Certainly! In this scenario, a custom action in the desktop flow is employed to automatically download files linked to various activities. Whether these files are attachments or stored in notes, the custom action streamlines the process, offering users the flexibility to choose a personalized destination path for efficient file organization. This automation enhances efficiency, saves time, and empowers users with control over their file management preferences.

Pre-requisite: To create custom action in Power Automate for desktop flows you need the following things:

1. NET Framework 4.7.2 SDK or above.

2. Visual Studio 2022 or above

3. Power Automate desktop v2.32 or above.

4. The Action SDK

Step 1: Create a custom action

Open Visual Studio 2022 -> Create sample project -> Go to Tools -> Nugget Package Manager -> Package Manager Console.

Run the below commands inside the NuGet Package Console.

Action SDK:
NuGet\Install-Package Microsoft.PowerPlatform.PowerAutomate.Desktop.Actions.SDK -Version 1.4.232.23122-rc

Power Automate desktop – Visual Studio templates:

dotnet new install Microsoft.PowerPlatform.PowerAutomate.Desktop.Actions.Templates::1.0.0-rci

Create a new power automate project as mentioned below.

Once a project is created successfully, you can proceed with the code. In this illustration we have written /used the below code however it may vary depending upon the use case or the actual scenario.

using System; using System.IO; using Microsoft.PowerPlatform.PowerAutomate.Desktop.Actions.SDK; using Microsoft.PowerPlatform.PowerAutomate.Desktop.Actions.SDK.Attributes; namespace Modules.CustomActions {     [Action(Id = "Action1", Order = 1, FriendlyName = "Custom Action", Description = "The action is used to download notes/attachments")]     [Throws("ActionError")] // TODO: change error name (or delete if not needed)     public class Action1 : ActionBase     {         #region Properties         // File path where the downloaded file will be stored         [InputArgument(FriendlyName = "File Path", Description = "File Path")]         public string filepath { get; set; }           // File path where the downloaded file will be stored         [InputArgument(FriendlyName = "Document Body", Description = "document Body")]         public string documentBody { get; set; }         // The name of the file to be created         [InputArgument(FriendlyName = "File Name", Description = "File Name")]         public string fileName { get; set; }         #endregion         #region Methods Overrides         // Override of the Execute method in the base class         public override void Execute(ActionContext context)         {             try             {                 // Concatenate the file path and file name                 filepath = filepath + "\\" +fileName;                 // Create a file stream to write the file data                 using (FileStream data = File.Create(filepath))                 {                     // Convert Base64 document body to byte array                     byte[] fileBytes = Convert.FromBase64String(documentBody);                     // Write the byte array to the file stream                     data.Write(fileBytes, 0, fileBytes.Length);                 }             }             catch (Exception e)             {                 // Handle exceptions and throw an ActionException                 if (e is ActionException) throw;                 throw new ActionException("ActionError", e.Message, e.InnerException);             }         }         #endregion     } }

Build the project.

Step 2: Creating and importing a self-signed certificate

Open Windows PowerShell.

Copy and paste the following commands, replacing the underlined names as appropriate.

$certname = "CustomActionCertificate" $cert = New-SelfSignedCertificate -CertStoreLocation Cert:\CurrentUser\My -Type CodeSigningCert -Subject "CN=$certname" -KeyExportPolicy Exportable -KeySpec Signature -KeyLength 2048 -KeyAlgorithm RSA -HashAlgorithm SHA256 $mypwd = ConvertTo-SecureString -String "pass@word1" -Force -AsPlainText Export-PfxCertificate -Cert $cert -FilePath "D:\Task\Blog\CustomActionCertificate.pfx" -Password $mypwd

After generating and exporting the certificate, incorporate it into your trust root. Then, double-click on the exported certificate. Kindly complete all the steps in import vizard.

Click Next

Write down the password that was used in the certificate creation command.

In the certificate store, select ‘Trusted Root Certification Authorities.’ Then click on ‘Next,’ and after that, simply click on ‘Finish.’ You will receive a message indicating that the import was successful.

Step 3: – Sign the .dll file using a trusted certificate by running the following command in a Developer Command Prompt for Visual Studio, replacing names as appropriate.

Signtool sign /f “D:\Task\Blog\CustomActionCertificate.pfx” /p pass@word1 /fd SHA256 “D:\Task\Blog\Modules.CustomActions\Modules.CustomActions\bin\Debug\net472\Modules.CustomActions.dll”

Step 4: – Packaging everything in a cabinet file

The .dll containing the custom actions and all its dependencies (.dll files) must be packaged in a cabinet file (.cab).

Create a Windows PowerShell Script (.ps1) containing the following lines & save it as Script[makeCabFile.ps1].

param( [ValidateScript({Test-Path $_ -PathType Container})] [string] $sourceDir,         [ValidateScript({Test-Path $_ -PathType Container})] [string] $cabOutputDir, [string] $cabFilename ) $ddf = ".OPTION EXPLICIT .Set CabinetName1=$cabFilename .Set DiskDirectory1=$cabOutputDir .Set CompressionType=LZX .Set Cabinet=on .Set Compress=on .Set CabinetFileCountThreshold=0 .Set FolderFileCountThreshold=0 .Set FolderSizeThreshold=0 .Set MaxCabinetSize=0 .Set MaxDiskFileCount=0 .Set MaxDiskSize=0 " $ddfpath = ($env:TEMP + "\customModule.ddf") $sourceDirLength = $sourceDir.Length; $ddf += (Get-ChildItem $sourceDir -Filter "*.dll" | Where-Object { (!$_.PSIsContainer) -and ($_.Name -ne "Microsoft.PowerPlatform.PowerAutomate.Desktop.Actions.SDK.dll") } | Select-Object -ExpandProperty FullName | ForEach-Object { '"' + $_ + '" "' + ($_.Substring($sourceDirLength)) + '"' }) -join "`r`n" $ddf | Out-File -Encoding UTF8 $ddfpath makecab.exe /F $ddfpath Remove-Item $ddfpath

Step 5: – Use the following command to create a .cab file in PowerShell.

.\makeCabFile.ps1 “D:\Task\Blog\Modules.CustomActions\Modules.CustomActions\bin\Debug\net472” “D:\Task\Blog” CustomActions.cab

Step 6: – The .cab file must also be signed. Use the following command to sign the .cab file in a Developer Command Prompt for Visual Studio, replacing names as appropriate.

Signtool sign /f “D:\Task\Blog\CustomActionCertificate.pfx” /p pass@word1 /fd SHA256 “D:\Task\Blog\CustomActions.cab”

Step 7: Upload custom actions

Go to Power Automate -> More -> Discover all -> Data -> Custom Action.

Select ‘Upload custom action’ and upload the .cab file. However, note that we can upload .cab files up to 30MB.

Step 8: Use custom actions

You can include custom actions in the desktop flow through the ‘Assets library’ using Power Automate Desktop Designer.

To use the ‘Assets library,’ select it in the designer. Alternatively, use the Tools bar.

In the Assets library, we can see all the custom actions we have uploaded. We can add a custom action, and we can also remove previously added custom actions.

Now, we can use our custom action.

Double-click on the custom action to add it.

Here, documentBody and FileName are variables taking input from the cloud flow. Choose the file path where you want to store the downloaded attachment or notes.

We created an automated cloud flow that triggers when a file is added to notes. Then, we check if the document is present or not in a condition. If the document is present, we call a desktop flow, select the run mode, and pass documentBody and fileName.

Here, I am adding a docx file to the note.

Finally, the file is downloaded or stored in my selected path automatically

Conclusion

Thus, we learned how to utilize the custom actions with the Power Automate Desktop Flows

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This year we experienced a surge in new ways to work day to day all thanks to new Advancements in AI. With various brands and tech giants put up their version of AI for public use cases, back in June Microsoft unveiled their take on AI enabled system, the infamous – Copilot, a collaborative tool designed to reduce digital debt and enhance productivity, freeing up people to focus on tasks that require a uniquely human touch.

With the new announcements at Microsoft Ignite 2023, the flagship event for IT Devs and Business Folks, everyone got to know about the new products, features and updates and way forward with Copilot and other AI enabled in Microsoft Ecosystem (Power Platform, Dynamic 365, Microsoft Suite, Azure, Dataverse, etc.)

Attendees also learned about the latest advancements in cloud computing, artificial intelligence, productivity, and collaboration. Moreover, they had the chance to network with other Microsoft professionals and get hands-on experience with the latest Microsoft products and services.

If you want to keep up with the latest news and updates from the event, check out the Microsoft Ignite 2023 Book of News

With all the new buzz that accompanies Copilot, comes a lot of questions like

Copilot’s impressive capabilities continue to grow with each update, and this speaks volumes about its potential. But enough with the fanboying – let’s dive into the exciting new Power Platform and other major announcements from Microsoft Ignite.

Microsoft Ignite 2023 has brought some exciting updates to the Power Platform. One of the most significant updates are for Power Apps.

Exciting Power Apps Updates Revealed at Microsoft Ignite 2023

The Power Apps has seen significant updates and improvements, particularly. One of the most noteworthy changes is the rendering of mobile apps natively on devices. This update enhances the user experience with smoother animations, better performance, and increased reliability. This truly native mobile UI/UX feature also offers the latest mobile interaction patterns to users. Additionally, users can now use apps offline, along with the recently introduced modern controls.

Another exciting feature focuses on Copilot, which is available to every user of Microsoft Dataverse-backed canvas apps. Now, Copilot allows users to ask questions about their data with a single click, without any action needed from makers. This Copilot feature is entering a limited preview in December 2023 and ends by March 2024. All Dataverse-backed canvas apps will now include this feature by default, but you’re still in charge. As a maker, you can turn off this functionality for your apps whenever you want.

Microsoft has announced a new feature for Dataverse-backed canvas apps with Copilot. With this feature, users can easily ask data-related questions to Copilot with a single click, without needing any assistance from app makers. This feature will be in limited preview mode starting in December 2023 and will end by March 2024. However, it will be automatically available to all Dataverse-backed canvas apps. Makers can rest assured, as they will maintain full control over the feature and can disable it at any time.

Microsoft Unveils Copilot Studio: An Innovative Low-Code Tool for Developers

Microsoft recently unveiled Copilot Studio at the Ignite event. This innovative low-code tool provides developers with the ability to customize Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365, as well as develop standalone copilots. Copilot Studio offers a range of powerful conversational capabilities, including GPT customization, generative AI plugins, and manual topics. This allows users to seamlessly personalize Copilot for Microsoft 365 with their own enterprise scenarios. With Copilot Studio, users can quickly build, test, and publish standalone copilots and custom GPTs.

Additionally, the tool provides essential features such as access management, data security, user controls, and analytics. The limited preview of the feature is expected to begin in December 2023, with the full preview available to all by the end of March 2024.

Microsoft Fabric: A Revolutionary End-to-End Analytics Product

Microsoft Fabric is an innovative analytics product that consolidates an organization’s data and analytics into a single platform. This inclusive software allows users to create generative AI experiences via services like Azure AI Studio and Copilot. Currently, the product is widely used, with 25,000 businesses worldwide implementing it.

Power BI and Microsoft Fabric Integration

Integrate Power BI with Microsoft Fabric to generate reports and summaries from the data within the Fabric platform. With Copilot, users can quickly generate insights and narratives in seconds. Additionally, data from Dynamics 365 or Power Platform can be linked to Fabric without the need to export data or build pipelines.

Copilot: The Revolutionary Feature of Microsoft Fabric

Copilot is a new feature in Microsoft Fabric that provides users with access to large language models such as GPT. With natural language or prompts, users can instruct Copilot to perform specific tasks. This feature is now in public preview and is available for Power BI, Data Factory, Data Engineering, and Data Science experiences.

Discover New Capabilities with Power Automate: Enhanced Process Mining, RPA, and Orchestration Features

Power Automate has recently introduced new features to its existing Copilot capabilities, offering users a range of new experiences. Copilot is now equipped to aid users with desktop flows (RPA) by answering their questions and providing step-by-step instructions and relevant information from documentation. Additionally, users can generate scripts by simply describing the task they wish to perform, and the Copilot feature will automatically generate the corresponding code.

Introducing Copilot: The Ultimate Solution for Analyzing Automation Activity

Orchestration is essential for building and operating automation at scale. Copilot’s new experience enables CoE teams to unlock new use cases for their monitoring and governance strategies. It democratizes access to insights, helping automation stakeholders to easily analyze the health and performance of their automation by using natural language queries.

Admins and business users with access to flow histories can query past runs across their environments, which helps in monitoring tasks and detecting potential issues in flows. Copilot is a game-changer for makers, small teams, or part of a Center of Excellence (CoE), as it provides the necessary insights for greater success. If you haven’t established a CoE yet, our automation kit can help you get started.

New Possibilities with Copilot’s Integration into Power Pages

Copilot has already been integrated into Power Pages, enabling creators to develop websites, web pages and forms with natural language. Now, creators can take it a step further and design websites that allow payments, opening up new opportunities for applications.

Microsoft Introduces Copilot as Bing Chat’s Rebranded and Expanded AI Chat Interface

Microsoft’s Bing Chat is now Copilot, universalizing the AI chat interface for Windows 11, Bing, and Edge. Moreover, Microsoft has added new AI features to Copilot, including Copilot for Azure, Copilot for Service, Copilot Studio, and Copilot in Dynamics 365 Guides.

Microsoft Unveils Two New Custom Chips for Cloud Infrastructure

Microsoft is continuing to push the boundaries of AI with the introduction of two new, custom-designed chips for its cloud infrastructure. The Azure Maia 100 is solely optimized for artificial intelligence (AI) tasks and generative AI, while the Azure Cobalt 100 is a CPU chip that uses the Arm Neoverse CSS design to enhance both performance and energy efficiency in general cloud services on Azure. These chips will be implemented in Azure data centers early in 2024, demonstrating Microsoft’s commitment to providing innovative AI solutions that cater to customer needs and enhance its supply chain.

Microsoft Introduces Loop, Its Rival to Notion

Microsoft has unveiled its latest collaboration hub, Microsoft Loop, which aims to rival Notion and other similar platforms. Loop is specifically engineered to sync across all Microsoft 365 apps and services, providing users with workspaces and pages to organize their tasks, projects, and documents. What sets Loop apart from its competitors is the seamless integration with the Microsoft 365 suite. Loop is now accessible to users in public preview mode.

Microsoft’s Copilot: Now Revolutionizing Security Management

Microsoft is leading the way in creating a unified security operations platform by combining its Sentinel and Defender XDR platforms. The addition of Security Copilot chatbot to this framework brings cutting-edge conversational AI capabilities to IT and security teams, resulting in simplified and streamlined security management. These advancements are a crucial step forward in improving security measures.

Conclusion

Microsoft’s Power Platform can be significantly enhanced with the use of Copilot – natural language and generative AI capabilities, Copilot can help you automate, analyze data, develop apps, and even create content. Copilot can increase your productivity, efficiency, and creativity, making it easier for you to reach your objectives.

If you haven’t tried Copilot yet, you’re missing out on an amazing opportunity to take your business to the next level. Inogic is here to help you develop Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, or Power Pages using Copilot. As your trusted advisor, we understand your unique business needs and can help you achieve your goals.

Visit Inogic’s website or contact us at crm@inogic.com to learn more about our Power Platform Professional Services and how you can leverage the power of Copilot.

The post Copilot and Power Platform: Highlights from Microsoft Ignite 2023 and What They Mean for You! first appeared on Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Tips and Tricks.

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As a Developer working on a project, I always create an unmanaged solution and then create a unique Publisher so that a unique prefix can be used for the tables. But sometimes, by chance when I create a table outside the context of the solution it resides inside the default solution with the prefix new which is quite a frustrating and hectic task.

Also, when I work with my team and everyone works on different projects that need different solutions with different prefixes like, my solution should contain the prefix ‘jack’ and for the other user, the prefix should be like ‘temp’. But sometimes those solutions end up with having the default prefix i.e., ‘’new’.

As a solution to it, Microsoft has introduced a game-changing feature recently – ‘Set the Preferred Solution.’ With this feature, you can designate your unmanaged solution as the preferred one, ensuring that any new elements you create or modifications you make will reside in your chosen solution.

Here’s how to enable this feature:

Access the Power Platform Admin Center:

Start by navigating to admin.powerplatform.com. Select your environment and go to the ‘Features’ tab in the settings.

Enable the Preferred Solution Feature:

Once in the ‘Features’ tab, enable the ‘Preferred Solution‘ feature. This is the foundation of the entire setup.

With the ‘Preferred Solution’ feature enabled, you’re now ready to set your chosen solution as the preferred one in Power Apps. Here’s how to do it:

Access Power Apps Studio:

Head to make.powerapps.com and go to the ‘Solutions’ tab.

Select Your Preferred Solution:

By default, the ‘Default Solution’ is set as the preferred one. Click on the ‘Manage’ button, and you’ll be able to choose your unmanaged solution as the preferred option. For example, you can create an unmanaged solution named ‘Customizations’ and select it as your preferred solution.

With these settings in place, you’re ready to benefit from the preferred solution feature. Now, when you create a table or work on other components, they will automatically be housed in your chosen solution, complete with your unique prefix.

Now, after setting the Preferred Solution as Customizations which contains the prefix ‘jack’, I created one table with some columns, and automatically instead of using the Default one’s prefix i.e., new it took ‘jack’ as the prefix and that’s how my issue was solved. The same was reflected for the other developers in my team as well and they were able to seamlessly manage their own preferred solution with their Publisher and prefix for different projects which made our task very easy and efficient.

Similarly, when you create different assets such as forms, views, components, etc., the unique prefix from the Preferred Solution will be applied automatically.

That’s how the feature works for the assets mentioned above. Also, if you want to add the Power Automate flows and the Canvas Apps in the preferred solution, you can enable the options provided in the below screenshot.

Conclusion

This game-changing feature not only streamlines your development process but also ensures that your work reflects your unique branding and organization’s needs. Say goodbye to the ‘new’ prefix and make Power Apps your own with the preferred solution feature.

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By default, you can pin/unpin the Note table records only as you can see below,

For any other activities if you want to enable the Pin/Unpin feature then,

• Navigate to https://make.powerapps.com/.
• Open the form of a table on which you want to enable the pin/unpin feature in the timeline. For example, the Account table as shown below,

• In the timeline properties, under ‘Activity types,’ select the desired activity, and then enable or disable the ‘Pin / Unpin’ feature for the same as shown below,

Once you pin the records, they will be displayed under the Pinned section in the timeline as follows,

Note: You can pin a maximum of 15 records, and they will stay at the top for a year unless you unpin them.

Conclusion:

Thus, summarizes the process of pinning and unpinning records to the timeline with PowerApps

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In a digital age where mobility and agility are paramount, mobile apps have transitioned from being a luxury to a necessity, revolutionizing modern business operations. Among these transformative tools, the Dynamics 365 CRM Mobile App and Power Apps have emerged as game-changers, redefining mobile productivity for businesses of all sizes. The Dynamics 365 CRM Mobile App empowers users with real-time access to customer data, fostering enhanced collaboration and leveraging AI insights for informed decision-making, all while on the move. On the other hand, Power Apps takes customization to the next level, enabling businesses to create tailor-made apps without coding, seamlessly integrating with other Microsoft tools, and delivering personalized experiences that perfectly align with unique workflows and needs. These tools are reshaping the way we work, enhancing mobility, efficiency, and innovation across the business landscape.

In this case study-based blog, we will explore how a fictional company, UnicornWeave Ltd., leveraged the Dynamics 365 CRM Mobile App and Power Apps to transform their customer relationships.

Unleashing the Power of Dynamics 365 CRM Mobile App and Power Apps

Case Study: UnicornWeave Ltd.’s Journey to Mobile Excellence

The Challenge – UnicornWeave Ltd., a leading player in the manufacturing industry, was facing challenges in effectively managing its customer relationships. Their sales and customer support teams were often on the road, making it difficult to access real-time customer data and update records promptly. This led to delayed response times, missed opportunities, and a disjointed customer experience.  The company realized the need for a robust mobile solution that would empower their teams to stay connected, update records on the go, and collaborate seamlessly. They aimed to enhance their mobile productivity while maintaining data accuracy and consistency.

The Solution – Enter Dynamics 365 CRM and Power Apps, a formidable combination that promised to revolutionize UnicornWeave’s customer relationship management. The implementation plan unfolded in two crucial steps:

Step 1: Dynamics 365 CRM Mobile App Implementation: The first phase involved deploying the Dynamics 365 CRM Mobile App to sales and customer support teams. This move unlocked several key benefits:

• Real-time Data Access: With the app’s real-time data access, teams were no longer confined to their desks. They gained the ability to access and collaborate with the most current customer information, fostering informed decision-making across the organization.
• Offline Capabilities: Sales and support personnel could remain productive even without a network connection. The app’s offline capabilities ensured uninterrupted access, enabling them to make updates and notes wherever they were, and sync their work once reconnected.
• Task Management: Sales reps seamlessly managed tasks, appointments, and follow-ups directly from their smartphones. This streamlined approach led to improved customer engagement and satisfaction.

Step 2: Power Apps Customization: UnicornWeave further customized their mobile experience using Power Apps:

• Mobile Approval Workflows: Power Apps enabled the creation of mobile-friendly approval workflows, accelerating decision-making. Managers could swiftly review and approve critical requests from their smartphones, enhancing business responsiveness.
• Lead Capture Forms: Custom lead capture forms simplified data entry during events and meetings, allowing sales teams to focus on nurturing leads and driving growth.

The Results – By using Dynamics 365 CRM Mobile App and Power Apps, UnicornWeave Ltd. achieved remarkable outcomes:

• Increased Productivity: Sales and support teams reported a significant boost in productivity. They could update records, schedule follow-ups, and collaborate seamlessly while on the move.
• Enhanced Data Accuracy: Real-time updates ensured that customer data remained accurate and consistent across the organization, reducing errors and duplicate entries.
• Faster Decision-Making: Mobile approval workflows streamlined decision-making processes, enabling faster responses to customer requests and internal queries.
• Improved Customer Experience: With up-to-date information at their fingertips, teams could provide timely and relevant assistance to customers, improving overall customer experience.

The case study of UnicornWeave Ltd. highlights the transformative impact of using the Dynamics 365 CRM Mobile App and Power Apps. By embracing mobile technology and empowering their teams with real-time data access and customizable mobile solutions, UnicornWeave Ltd. successfully enhanced their mobile productivity, streamlined customer relationship management processes, and ultimately improved their business outcomes.

Charting the Path Forward: The Future of Mobile Productivity

As businesses continue to navigate an increasingly mobile and dynamic landscape, the Dynamics 365 CRM Mobile App and Power Apps will play pivotal roles in shaping the future of mobile productivity. The Dynamics 365 CRM Mobile App will continue to evolve, leveraging AI and data analytics to provide deeper customer insights and predictive capabilities. This means businesses can proactively address customer needs, personalize experiences, and stay ahead of market trends – all from the palm of their hand. Power Apps, on the other hand, will drive a culture of innovation by enabling businesses to rapidly develop and deploy custom apps. This democratization of app development will foster creativity, accelerate digital transformation, and unlock new avenues for growth.

Embrace the Transformation: Redefine Your Mobile Productivity

The Dynamics 365 CRM Mobile App and Power Apps represent a dynamic duo that empowers businesses to thrive in the mobile-first era. With the ability to access critical information, collaborate seamlessly, and create custom solutions, these tools are revolutionizing the way we work, enabling us to be productive anytime, anywhere. So, whether you’re a small business owner, a sales executive, or an IT professional, embracing these tools will undoubtedly enhance your mobile productivity game. Join the movement, redefine your business mobility, and unlock new realms of productivity and growth

Discover Excellence with Inogic: Elevating Your Dynamics 365 CRM Experience

To fully realize the potential of Dynamics 365 CRM and Power Platform offshore development services, partner with Inogic, a Microsoft Gold ISV Partner. With a portfolio of 15 apps designed to boost productivity and functionality within Dynamics 365 CRM, Inogic with its Dynamics 365 and Power Platform outsourcing services seamlessly integrates new technologies to deliver tailored excellence that evolves with your needs. Explore our expertise in cutting-edge solutions that bridge gaps, enhance user adoption, and drive growth. Unleash the value of Dynamics 365 CRM and Power Platform with Inogic’s cost-effective offshore development services.

To embark on an innovative journey with Inogic, a Power Platform and Dynamics 365 outsourcing company, visit our website or contact us at crm@inogic.com.

In the mobile-first era, success is defined by the ability to adapt, innovate, and excel. Embrace the power of mobility with the Dynamics 365 CRM Mobile App and Power Apps and rewrite the rules of productivity in your favor.

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By default, when creating a Power Pages site, the primary navigation is positioned at the top of the header. However, there might be at times when custom navigation designs are needed for the Power Pages Portal.

We will consider a scenario, where we choose to customize the site map in Power Pages. Our goal is to alter how the navigation bar looks and move it from the top to the left side of our portal pages.

Let’s do a walkthrough with the steps we need to perform and achieve these requirements.

The first step is to create a Web Template, wherein we will input CSS for the navbar and incorporate a few lines of JavaScript code.

Follow below action list to do these changes:

1. Navigate to the Web Template in Portal Management.
2. Create a new Web Template. Here, you’ll design your Site Map.
3. For our Site Map, we’ve used the following CSS (always ensure CSS codes are encapsulated within a style tag):

/* Styling the Nav Bar */ nav { cursor: pointer; position: fixed; top: 0; bottom: 0; left: -16em; box-shadow:10px 10px 40px white; border-right: 30px solid #2E456B; background-color: #2E456B; } nav ul { width: 16em; list-style-type: none; padding: 1em; margin: 0; } /* Adding Animations to nav and all its child elements */ nav, nav * { transition: all 600ms ease-in-out; } /* On hover expanding the Site Bar */ nav:hover { left: 0; } nav ul li a{ font-size: 15px !important; } nav ul li{ width:100% !important; } .navbar-nav{ overflow: auto !important; height: 100vh; } /* Hiding the Vertical Divider */ .divider-vertical{ display:none !important; } .dropdown-menu{ position:relative !important; } /* Right arrow Style for Users to identify the SiteMap */ #rightArrow{ position: absolute; color: white; top: 50%; left: 110%; z-index: 2; border: 50% solid white; width: 20px; height: 28px; border-top: 20px solid transparent; border-bottom: 20px solid transparent; border-left: 20px solid #2E456B;; }

Refer the screenshot below:

Next, to help users identify the site map, we will introduce a right arrow with the help of the below actions:

1. Incorporate jQuery and add the source in the Web template.
2. Use the following logic for displaying the right arrow on the pages:

https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.6.4/jquery.min.js <script> $(document).ready(()=>{ let nav; let rightArrow = "<span id='rightArrow'></span>" nav = $(".nav"); $(nav).append(rightArrow) }) </script>

As shown in the screenshot below:

Lastly, implement this Web Template into our Power Pages Site’s header with the below set of actions:

1. Navigate to the website section.

2. Select the desired website and locate the header.

3. Click on the header, we can use the Created Custom Sitemap Web Template for all the website-associated web pages,

As shown in the screenshot below:

Save and Sync the Website,

Conclusion

Customizing navigation in Microsoft Power Pages is both flexible and user-friendly. By following the above listed steps, users can enhance site navigation and ensure a more tailored and intuitive user experience.

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In this blog, we are going to use Power Automate Flow through Power Pages to achieve business requirements. Using Power Automate saves lots of time and is easy to use.

Let’s Jump into the scenario where we are going to create a record of a custom entity named “Policy” which is related to contact through an N:1 relationship. Policy entity consists of Start Date, End Date, Name, and Contact fields. In Start Date, today’s date will be set, and based on how many years the user has taken the policy the End Date will get set.

To create a site using Power Page with the template of your choice, kindly access the following link. For this demonstration, we have configured a public portal that will be accessible to all. You can customize the site according to your business needs, also, you can set the privacy settings as desired. We designed our site as shown in the below image where the First Name, Last Name of the contacts are displayed. There is an input field where users can specify the purpose for taking the policy in the read-only grid and there also are two buttons that allow users to proceed with the policy according to their preferences.

Step 1 – Create a solution from Power Pages -> New -> Automation -> Instant Power Automate flow -> Skip -> Power Pages Connector -> Select When Power Pages call a flow trigger.

Then enter some input variables as shown in the below screenshot

Step 2 – Add a new step -> Choose Microsoft Dataverse Connector -> Add a new row -> Select Policies entity.

And then add the below formulas for the respective fields and save it.

End Date: addToTime(utcNow(),int(triggerBody()[‘text_2′]),’Year’)

Start Date: utcNow()

Step 3 – Navigate to Home from Power Pages and then edit the respective Site from the list of Active Sites using the Edit button. Then click on Set Up and Cloud Flows. Then using the Add button add the respective Cloud flows to your respective site.  Select and edit the respective flow, from where you can Add respective Roles and the flow shall run only for the user with the selected role.

Note: Copy and store the URL as it will be used later in the code.

Step 6 – Navigate to the pages -> Added new Page -> Start from blank -> Edit with visual studio code.

Replace the HTML code with the below code. In the below code, we are fetching the contact record. On click of those buttons, we called a function named “CreateRecord()” which is taking parameters contactid and year respectively. When a user clicks on the desired button which is “1 Year” or “3 Year we have passed the number of years respectively i.e., “1” for a one-year policy and “3” for a three-year policy.

Inside the function, we created a data JSON and passed it in the post request for Power Automate Flow which will create the policy record. In the code, we have added the URL which we got in Step 4.

div class="sectionBlockLayout text-left"> {% fetchxml contact %} <fetch version="1.0" output-format="xml-platform" mapping="logical" distinct="true" returntotalrecordcount="true"> <entity name="contact"> <attribute name="firstname" /> <attribute name="lastname" /> <attribute name="contactid" /> <order attribute='firstname' descending='false' /> <filter type="and"> <condition attribute="firstname" operator="not-null" /> </filter> </entity> </fetch> {% endfetchxml %} {% if contact.results.total_record_count > 0 %} <div style="width:100%"> <table class="styled-table"> <th>First Name</th> <th>Last Name</th> <th>Taking Policy For</th> <th>Get Policy</th> {% for contactRecord in contact.results.entities %} <tr> <td>{{contactRecord.firstname}}</td> <td>{{contactRecord.lastname}}</td> <td><input type="text" required id="{{contactRecord.contactid}}" placeholder="Enter Your Input" /></td> <td> <button onclick="CreateRecord('{{contactRecord.contactid}}','1')">1 Year</button> <button onclick="CreateRecord('{{contactRecord.contactid}}','3')">3 Year</button> </td> </tr> {% endfor %} </table> {% else %} <h2>No records found.</h2> {% endif %} <script> function CreateRecord(contactid, year) { var policyfor = document.getElementById(contactid).value; var _url = "https://softwarecares.powerappsportals.com/_api/cloudflow/v1.0/trigger/ed758f6e-fdff-46f1-bd60-fab3df53711b";  //add the URL you got while adding the flow var data = {}; data["Policy For"] = policyfor; data["Contact Id"] = contactid; data["Year"] = year; var payload = {}; payload.eventData = JSON.stringify(data); shell .ajaxSafePost({ type: "POST", contentType: "application/json", url: _url, data: JSON.stringify(payload), processData: false, global: false, }) .done(function (response) { console.log(response); }) .fail(function (error) { console.log("failed" + error); }); } </script> </div> </div>

Now visit the site where you can see the below pop-up click on sync and the changes we have made in the code will get synchronized.

After that, you can see the  “No records found” on the web page. But when you will open it in the preview you can see the records as shown in step 1.

After clicking the policy button our flow will be called and the policy record will get created based on how many years the user is taking the policy for.

Conclusion

Thus, we learned how to create a record through Power Automate Flow when we want to create a record using Power Pages with some calculated values and logic.

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As companies increasingly look for ways to digitize and automate their business processes, Power Platform is becoming a top choice to quickly develop and deploy custom applications. Power Platform is a low-code development platform that allows users to build custom applications with little to no coding. These platforms provide a great opportunity for leaders like Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) to leverage outsourced development teams to accelerate their digital transformation efforts. In this blog, we will explore the benefits of embracing Power platform adoption for CTOs through outsourced development. We will discuss how Power Platform can help CTOs achieve their digital transformation goals, the benefits of outsourcing development work, and how to select the right development partner for your organization.

The Benefits of Power Platform Adoption for CTOs

Power Platform helps businesses to be nimbler and more efficient in their operations. Here are some ways in how Power Platform Adoption benefits CTOs

• Accelerate digital transformation: Power Platform enables CTOs to achieve their digital transformation goals by providing a fast and flexible way to develop and deploy custom applications. By using a low-code approach, Power Platform empowers non-technical users to create business applications and automate processes, reducing the need for custom development by IT.
• Optimize IT resources: Power Platform help CTOs reduce their reliance on IT resources, allowing IT staff to focus on more strategic projects. By enabling business users to create applications without coding, Power Platform shifts the burden of application development from IT to the business, freeing up IT resources to work on projects that require specialized skills.
• Foster innovation: Power Platform allow CTOs to quickly prototype and test new ideas, enabling them to stay ahead of the competition. With their low-code approach, Power Platform makes it easy to create and modify applications, allowing business users to experiment with new ideas and test them with customers. This can lead to faster innovation cycles and more successful product launches.

The Benefits of Outsourced Development

Power Platform outsourcing saves vital time for own rapid development as a company. Here are some key benefits to CTOs.

• Access to specialized skills and expertise: Outsourcing can provide CTOs access to specialized skills and expertise that may not be accessible in-house. This can help them build custom applications that require specialized knowledge or expertise.
• Cost reduction: Outsourcing Power Platform development can help CTOs reduce their development costs as outsourced development teams are often located in lower-cost regions like India. This means development work can be completed at a lower cost than in-house development with no compromise on quality.
• Faster time-to-market: Outsourcing development work can help CTOs reduce their time-to-market for custom applications. Outsourced development teams can work around the clock to complete development work, which means that custom applications can be developed and deployed more quickly than in-house development teams.

Selecting the Right Development Partner

When it comes to selecting the right development partner, there are a few key factors to keep in mind:

• Experience with Power Platform: Since Power Platform is relatively new, it’s important to choose a development partner that has experience working with them. This will help ensure that the partner is familiar with the platform’s capabilities and can effectively leverage them to meet your business needs.
• Industry expertise: Choosing a partner that has experience working in your industry can be beneficial in several ways. They’ll be more familiar with the unique challenges and requirements of your industry, and they’ll be better equipped to provide custom solutions that meet your specific needs.
• Proven track record: It’s important to select a partner that has a strong track record of delivering high-quality development work. You can evaluate this by reviewing their portfolio, reading customer reviews, and speaking with references. This will help you gauge their level of expertise, professionalism, and ability to deliver on their promises.

Other factors to consider when selecting a development partner might include their communication skills, project management capabilities, and pricing structure. Ultimately, the goal is to find a partner who can work closely with you to understand your needs and deliver a solution that meets or exceeds your expectations.

In today’s fast-paced business environment, embracing innovation and new technologies is crucial for companies looking to stay ahead of the competition. For Chief Technology Officers (CTOs), this means adopting Power Platform, which offers numerous benefits, including faster application development and deployment, reduced reliance on IT resources, and the ability to test and prototype new ideas quickly.

With Inogic Power Platform professional services, businesses can unlock their full potential by leveraging Microsoft Dynamics 365 deployment automation. Inogic, a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner can accelerate process flow, improve efficiency, and enable precision and seamlessness across industrial environments. By choosing Inogic, businesses can reduce development costs, shorten time-to-market, and enjoy the benefits of a proven track record of delivering high-quality development work. Inogic with an experience of 1000+ completed projects understands that innovative solutions require in-depth analysis, and their team is here to support you every step of the way.

To learn more about Inogic Professional Services, visit their New Services website for more details, or email at crm@inogic.com. Stay connected with Inogic on social media and subscribe to their YouTube channel for regular updates. With Inogic, take your business to new heights and stay ahead of the competition with crafty and professional solutions.

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Microsoft Power Platform has unveiled its 2023 release wave 1 plan, offering a new era of digital transformation for businesses. The release will bring hundreds of new features to the Power Platform applications, enabling individuals, teams, and organizations to foster a data culture and provide solutions for low and no-code development, advanced governance capabilities, and easier data stewardship with tools like Power Fx. The new features will allow businesses to automate their processes, analyze their data, and create solutions quickly and efficiently. The release promises to revolutionize the way organizations use the Power Platform, making it easier than ever to drive business innovation and growth. Below are a few of the Power platform’s upcoming updates.

Power BI

Enhancements for Every User

Power BI is a business analytics solution that lets you visualize your data and share insights across your organization. Microsoft is committed in empowering every individual, team, and organization to cultivate a data-driven culture with Power BI.

Enhanced Creation Experience

Individual users will benefit from enhanced creation experiences in Power BI, with greater parity on the web and the inclusion of the Power Query diagram view. These enhancements will provide users with a deeper understanding of their data, enabling informed decision-making.

Meetings and Multitasking

For teams, Microsoft is introducing improvements to meetings and multitasking in Power BI. Power BI meetings will offer a shared space for real-time collaboration among meeting participants, while new multitasking features will allow users to easily switch between dashboards and reports.

Explore the Power BI release plan here.

Power Apps

Reducing Risk for Organizations

Power Apps allows organizations to create customized business applications quickly and with ease using low-code development. Microsoft is prioritizing the reduction of risks for organizations by providing advanced governance features, simplifying onboarding processes, and ensuring low-code capabilities can be easily managed and scaled.

Modern Experiences

With Power Apps, makers and developers of varying skill levels can enjoy modern experiences in building apps, managing data, and logic, which leads to increased productivity. Additionally, users will benefit from the modernization of web and mobile experiences, which translates to faster and more modern experiences across all apps.

Explore the Power Apps release plan here.

Power Pages

Bringing Out-of-the-Box Capabilities

Power Pages is a robust content management system (CMS) that empowers users to create and handle websites and digital content. The platform is constantly expanding its range of capabilities, catering to both low and no-code developers, as well as professionals

Design Studio

The Design Studio will furnish creators with added solution templates and capabilities. Professional developers will be empowered to perform additional actions, such as working more efficiently with code via Power Platform CLI tools and Visual Studio Code. Additionally, administrators will have an improved ability to manage and regulate their Power Pages sites.

Explore the Power Pages release plan here.

Power Automate

Simplifying Workflows

Power Automate is a cloud-based service that lets you create automated workflows between your favorite apps and services. Power Automate has introduced new capabilities that allow users to describe them using natural language.

Work Queues

New improvements have been made to help new users start using workflows more easily. These improvements include work queues, which allow automated tasks to be seen and managed together.

Simpler Connectivity

Power Automate is also providing simpler connectivity to a machine for desktop flows, removing the need for additional installations and password management.

Explore the Power Automate release plan here.

Power Virtual Agents

Improved Bot Management

Power Virtual Agents provides improved bot management through its unified authoring canvas, which is a single conversational AI studio for all bot-building requirements.

Added Integration

Bot creators, including subject matter experts and developers, can start building bots today with the public preview of Bot Framework capabilities and Azure Cognitive Services integration. The advanced authoring canvas will be widely available in the near future.

Explore the Power Virtual Agents release plan here.

Microsoft Dataverse

Enhancing Makers’ Experiences

Microsoft Dataverse is making improvements focusing on enhancing makers’ experiences by improving app-building productivity, seamless connectivity to external data sources, and easier data stewardship with low-code tools like Power Fx.

Document processing improvements

With more pre-built model capabilities like contract processing, the ability to identify personal information, and the possibility to extract field types from documents, Microsoft has brought a game-changer in the market.

Explore the Microsoft Dataverse release plan here.

Conclusion

With the 2023 release wave 1 plan, Microsoft Power Platform is delivering new and enhanced features to help businesses achieve their digital transformation goals. The enhancements to Power BI, Power Apps, Power Pages, and Power Virtual Agents will provide more modern experiences for creating apps, managing content, and building bots. With these improvements, businesses can streamline their processes, automate workflows, and gain insights from their data to make informed decisions. The integration between Power Automate Desktop and Power Apps will enable businesses to create custom desktop apps with workflows, bringing automation capabilities to the desktop.

Looking for a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner to provide development expertise on Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform? Look no further than Inogic! At Inogic, we understand that every business is unique, and that’s why we offer customized solutions that cater to your specific needs. We pride ourselves on providing exceptional customer service and delivering high-quality work on time and within budget. Inogic’s Power Platform offshore development services enable organizations to optimize their workflows, enhance collaboration, and make informed decisions based on data.

Planning to take your business to the next level, visit our website or reach us via email at crm@inogic.com. For the latest news and developments, follow us on social media platforms LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and by subscribing to our YouTube channel.

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So let’s get started!

If you’re an administrator in Power Platform Admin Center, you might have heard of Maker Welcome Content. It’s a feature that allows you to create custom welcome screens for your app makers.

Maker Welcome Content is a feature in Power Platform Admin Center that allows administrators to create custom welcome screens for their app makers when they get started with Power Apps.

It’s a great way to provide a personalized experience to your users and make them feel welcomed. Maker Welcome Content can include text, images, and videos to help app makers understand the purpose and use of the environment.

Maker Welcome Content is displayed to app makers when they sign in to the environment. It’s a one-time experience, and they won’t see the welcome screen again unless you make changes to it.  In case you have enabled it, users will be able to see customized welcome content every time they sign in to the Power Apps portal. You can add help content, it will replace the default Power Apps first-time experience page content. Moreover, you can customize Maker Welcome Content for different environments, so each environment can have its own welcome screen.

The below steps will help you enable Maker Welcome Content:

1. Sign in to the Power Platform admin center.

2. Click on the Environments option from the left panel > Select the specific managed environment from the list > Click on Edit Managed Environment as shown in the screenshot below:

3. After clicking on the Edit Managed Environments option, it opens the editor window of the environment which contains the Maker welcome content option. You can create the welcome page > Enter Welcome or Help content in the text box under Maker Welcome content as shown in the screenshot below. You can enter simple text or Markdown for your content.

4. If you want to provide some blog or website links then you can enter a link into Learn More URL box.

5. After configuring the welcome content click on Preview in the new tab option to quickly preview your welcome page.

Please follow the below step to see your Welcome Content Page in Power Apps:

Step 1: Login Power Apps portal and select a specific environment from the list > Welcome page will show as follow when the user login into Power Apps. Users can select the ‘Don’t show this again here’ option if the user doesn’t want to see welcome content again.

Step 2: There is one more option to see your welcome page after selecting the environment. Select Learn option from the left navigation > Click on From your org tab it will show your custom welcome content page as shown in the screenshot below.

Conclusion

‘Maker Welcome Content’ is a powerful feature that can help organizations improve end-user adoption of the Power Platform. By providing users with custom welcome messages, organizations can ensure that their end-users have the resources they need to get started with the Power Platform. As organizations continue to explore the capabilities of the Power Platform, ‘Maker Welcome Content’ will play an increasingly important role in driving adoption and success.

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