Assumptions

This write up is executed in sequence in that if you jump to a section, it assumes you have completed the parts before it. This write-up assumes the following;

  • You have a Power Apps tenant with administrative privileges.
  • For the source control and CI/CD sections;
    • An Azure DevOps project configured with the Power Apps Build Tools Extension.
    • 3 Power Apps environments; development, staging/build, and production.

Executive Summary

This write-up is for anyone looking to learn how to automate the deployment of their Power Apps or Dynamics solution customizations. It starts out walking the reader through setting up a new environment since, for this exercise, you’ll need three of them. It also takes some time to demonstrate setting up a proper Power Apps solution, making sure to include a unique publisher prefix and only what components and subcomponents we need to satisfy our requirements. In other words, our solution stays clean and manageable. If you have already done these things, and have three environments ready, feel free to proceed to the section “Getting our Solution into Source Control.”

Create the New Environment

    1. Create a new environment.
      New Environment in PowerApps Image 1
    2. Create a new database in the process. Notice I checked the “Deploy sample apps and data” for this new environment:
      New Environment in PowerApps – Add Database Image
    3. Let’s change the Environment URL now to something that looks a little nicer than the organization’s internal name that was set up automatically by the system. Click on the new environment from the list, and you should be taken to a page where you can edit the URL:
      Change Environment URL
    4. Click on the link for the environment, and you will be taken to the Power Apps landing page for that environment. It should look something like this, except you may or may not have the sample apps installed:
      New Environment Home Page with Sample Apps Image
    5. Head over to make.powerapps.com, and let’s look at what we have there. You can get here by using the menu in the top-left corner next to the word Power Apps.
      Make PowerApps.com Image

      Create a New Publisher

    6. The first thing we want to do is build our own solution…and as many of you know, you’ll want your own custom prefix on your solution items. As far as I know at this time of this writing (11/7/19) Microsoft has not added a new user interface for adding publishers so that we can customize our prefix. That said, use the cog in the top right to open the Advanced settings window. You should see a window like this:
      Classic Advanced Settings Page Image
    7. Using the Settings dropdown, select the Customizations menu item.
      Classic Advanced Settings Page with Flyout
    8. Select Publishers on the Customizations page
      Classic Customization Image
    9. Click New on the Publisher page and fill out the Display Name and Prefix on the new Publisher dialog. The Name field should auto-populate based on what you put in the Display Name. Click Save and Close to take you back to the Publisher page.
      Classic Add Publisher Image

      Create a New Solution

    10. Back to our make.powerapps.com page, let’s select the Solutions menu item on the left.
    11. On the Solutions page, click the New solution button and provide a Display Name and Version for the new solution. Select the new Publisher we just set up in previous steps. Once again, the Name should auto-populate. Click Create.
      Create New Solution with New Publisher Image
    12. Open the solution by clicking on its Name in the solution list.
      Empty Solution Image

      Create a New Custom Entity

    13. Since you’ll undoubtedly see an empty solution, let’s start simple and add a custom entity. Click New so that you see the dropdown menu. Then select Entity. Fill out the Display Name and take note of the Publisher prefix.
      New Custom Entity

      Add an Out-of-Box Entity to the New Solution

    14. Once that Entity is created, click on it to open it, and you should see a number of out-of-box fields that were automatically created with your new Entity. Now go back to the solution. Let’s take it a step farther and see what happens when we add an out-of-box entity that is deployed when we create our database. Click Add existing from the solution home page and select Entity. Please scroll down and find Contact, select it, and click Next.
      Adding Contact Image
    15. This next page may get a little confusing. It asks what components you want to include, and if you wish to include the entity metadata. For now, let’s not select any parts and just add the Contact entity. You can always go back and add those components using the Add subcomponents button at the top of the Solution inventory page when you have the entity selected. For now, though, I just want to create a new form for the Contact entity so Cancel out of this.
      Add Subcomponents Image
    16. Open up your Contact entity in the solution by clicking on it. Then, select the Forms tab. From there, click the Add form menu and select Main Form from the dropdown.
      New Form of Contact Image
    17. You should have a window open up with the Contact form designer ready to go.
      Contact Form Designer
    18. Make some changes to this form and consider changing the Display Name of the form. Save it.
      Contact Form Designer with Changes
    19. Go back to the solution view and click Publish all customizations. If all was successful you will see a success message.
      Publishing Customizations ImagePublish Successful Image

      Getting our Solutions into Source Control

      This section will require 3 different service connections, one for each of the environments we’ll be using for our build and release pipeline. I’ll show you how to create these in this section, but if you’re already familiar go ahead and set your 3 service connections up now. For this example, we’ll use the following connections:

      – ogs-powerapps-connection – this is our dev environment
      – cds-powerapps-connection-ogsllcbox – this is our staging/build environment
      – cds-powerapps-connection-ogsllc – this is our production environment
      Connections Image

    20. Navigate to the Azure DevOps project you should already have created with Power Apps Build Tools installed (see Assumptions). Under Pipelines, select Builds and click New, then New Build Pipeline. We will use the classic editor for this write-up.
      DevOps Step 1 Image
    21. Click Continue, and then click the link to start with an empty job.
    22. Give your Pipeline a meaningful name then select the Agent job 1 node. Save the pipeline.
      DevOps Step 2
    23. On the Agent job 1 node, make sure to select the Allow scripts to access OAuth token
      Allow Script to use Ouath Toaken
    24. Click the plus (Add task) on Agent job 1. Type in Power Apps Tool into the search box and add the Power Apps Tool Installer to your pipeline.
      DevOps Step 3 Image
    25. Add another task to the agent job, this time search on Power Apps Export, and select the Power Apps Export Solution. Select this new task to make the necessary configuration changes. Use $(SolutionName) for the Solution Name field.
      We’ll add that variable later. Use $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)\$(SolutionName).zip for the Solution Output File. I need to configure a new service connection, so click Manage next to the Power Apps Environment URL label.
      DevOps Step 4 Image
    26. Configure the new generic service connection
      DevOps Step 5 Image
    27. Add another task to the agent job and search on Power Apps Unpack to locate then select the Power Apps Unpack Solution. Use $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)\$(SolutionName).zip for the Solution Input File. Use $(Build.SourcesDirectory)\$(SolutionName) for the Target Folder to Unpack Solution. Save the pipeline.
      DevOps Step 7 Image Saved Unpack Task
    28. Add another task to the agent job, this time use the Command line task. Give it a meaningful name and use the following script to commit the code to the appropriate repository. In this case, we are using ‘master’.
      echo commit all changes
      git config user.email "<>"
      git config user.name "Automatic Build"
      git checkout master
      git add --all
      git commit -m "solution init"
      echo push code to new repo
      git -c http.extraheader="AUTHORIZATION: bearer $(System.AccessToken)" push origin master

      DevOps Step 6
    29.  Click on the Variables tab above the Pipeline designer area and add a variable for SolutionName. Save the pipeline. At this point, you can actually use the Save and Queue, or just queue the pipeline and cross your fingers.
      DevOps Step 9 ImageHopefully, all is successful.
      DevOps Final Successful
    30. Go over to your repor now and you should see something like this:
      Repo after Source is Loaded

      Deploying Solution as a Managed Solution (to Test, QA, Production)

      Creating a Managed Solution

    31. Now that we have our customizations in source control, we want to create a managed solution for deployment to our production environment. Create a new build pipeline using the classic interface, and empty job, and give it a meaningful name.  Once again on the Agent job, make sure to check the box to allow scripts to access the OAuth token.  Also add the Power Apps Tool Installer as we did in our first build pipeline.  Save your pipeline.
      Create Managed Solution Image
    32. Now we want to add a Power Apps Pack Solution task. Use $(Build.SourcesDirectory)\$(SolutionName) for the source folder, and $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)\$(SolutionName).zip for the solution output file.  Leave the Type of Solution as Unmanaged.  Save the pipeline.
      DevOps Create Managed Solution
    33. Add a Power Apps Import Solution task. For the Solution Input file use $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)\$(SolutionName).zip.  This is where we want to use our staging/build environment so either select that service connection or create a new service connection and point it to said environment.  Save your pipeline.
      DevOps Create Managed Solution Image
    34. Add a Power Apps Export Solution task. Use $(SolutionName) for the Solution Name, and $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)\$(SolutionName)_managed.zip for the Solution Output file.  Make sure to check the Export as a Managed Solution checkbox.  Save the pipeline.
      DevOps Create Managed Solution Image
    35. Add a Publish Pipeline Artifact task and use $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)\$(SolutionName)_managed.zip for the File or directory path. Use drop for the Artifact name.  Save the pipeline.
      DevOps Create Managed Solution Image 5
    36. Click on the Variables tab up top and add your SolutionName variable.
      DevOps Create Managed Solution Image 7
    37. Run the pipeline. If it was successful you should see a drop artifact in the Artifacts dropdown menu.
      DevOps Create Managed Solution Image 6

      Deploying to Production – Creating the Release Pipeline

    38. Now it’s time to create a Release pipeline. Click on Releases in the left nav, then click New, and then New release pipeline from the dropdown menu.  Start with an empty job on the next screen.
      Release Pipeline Image 1
    39. Select the Add an Artifact block and select the build pipeline that we created to build the managed solution.
      Release Pipeline Image 2
    40. Click on the 1 job, 0 tasks link in the Stage 1 block. Add the Power Apps Tools task, and a Power Apps Import Solution task.
    41. Click on the Agent job and scroll to find the Artifact download and select the build pipeline that was built for creating the managed solution.
      Release Pipeline 3 Image
    42. Click on the Power Apps Import Solution task. You will use something similar for the Solution Input File.  $(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)/ogs-powerapps-create-managed-solution/drop/OGSPowerAppsCore_managed.zip
    43. Select the production environment service connection from the Power Apps Environment URL. Save the pipeline.
      Release Pipeline Image 4
    44. Use the Create Release button to test the release pipeline out.
      Release Pipeline Image 5
    45. Now you should be able to go to your production environment and see the solution, plus the changes we made to the contact form.
      Productions with New Solution Image
      Production Deployed Contact form with Updates Image

Conclusion

I hope this helped demonstrate how to use the Power Apps Build Tools to get your solutions into source control and automate the deployment of said solutions across any environments. I hope you were also able to pick up something new about your Power App solutions composition.