This is a summary of the most interesting aspects of announcements made here:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform-release-plan/2022wave2/
- Power Automate is adding some UI enhancements to make it easier for mere mortals to work with Flows.
- Date formatting can be specified with example output instead of a "programmy" expression
- OData queries can now be created with an Advanced Find-like expression builder instead of using raw OData syntax.
- Multi-line editor for expressions (more like the VBA expression builder in SRS, for those who remember…)
- WHOA! This is cool -- they are talking about efficient InsertMultiple, UpdateMultiple that will work better than ExecuteMultiple (though not completely replace it): https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform-release-plan/2022wave2/data-platform/use-optimized-apis-bulk-data-operations
- Conditional execution of plug-ins! Finally! https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform-release-plan/2022wave2/data-platform/enable-conditional-execution-improved-plug-in-execution-efficiency
- And we can finally include third-party DLLs without using special compiling options!: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform-release-plan/2022wave2/data-platform/dependent-assemblies-support-plug-ins
- Power Fx: a new strongly-typed language for use in business rules. Business rules will no longer be limited to very simple conditions, but can do more complex operations: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform-release-plan/2022wave2/data-platform/enable-power-fx-dataverse-business-rules
- Record owners will be able to view a list of all users who have access to their record.
- Delegated mailbox approval process: this will help with setup of Queues for sending email notifications from workflows. Right now you need a global admin to set that up for you; with this feature, they will be able to delegate that permission to a lesser user. (We usually only set up one or two queues, though, so not a huge deal for us.)
- Co-presence and co-authoring: multiple users will be able to work on the same model-driven app at the same time, seeing each other's changes in real time. This might make for better training experiences, with a consultant working in real time with a customer sysadmin to build out things together. It's unclear exactly where this experience will be available, though.
- Share virtual tables between Dataverse instances. Meh. They are still virtual entities, with all their limitations.
- Moving Business Unit, Team, and Access Team editing into the modern UI (no longer need to use the classic interface for those items.)
- Security role editor also migrating from classic to modern UI.
- Moving lots of other settings from the classic to modern UI in the Admin Center.
- "Managed Environments" -- not really sure what this means. Better control and visibility for low-code assets (Flows?)
- Better Visual Studio Code UI -- basically, allow you to make PCF controls in VS Code and push them straight to CRM, without having to use obscure command-line tools.
- Azure DevOps pipelines and GitHub Actions will now support automated creation of connectors. You know how you have to configure a bunch of connections every time you deploy certain solutions that contain Power Platform stuff like Flows? Evidently this will allow that process to be automated so you won't have to redo that work every time you deploy an updated solution from dev to QA to production.
- Auto-update AppSource installed ISV applications: if a solution is downloaded and installed from AppSource, admins can choose to have it auto-updated. (We're not using the AppSource deployment right now, but we might consider it in the future if it automated some of our deployment processes.)
- Dataflows look like they could be a contender for the technology we should use in future for our Connector. In this release they will support updating the Power BI data lake or an Azure SQL database with dataflows, which can be populated with pretty much any Power Query from any data source. From there a lot of data could be exposed through Power BI reports embedded in CRM, or use Flows to push data into CRM.
- The OData v2.0 service will be removed on November 11, 2022. https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/odata-v2-0-service-removal-date-announcement/
These are some features I think are worthed hightlight:
Power Apps
Collaborative workloads: Collaborative workloads use app experiences and data, allowing users to collaborate with team members using existing tools like Teams.
- Try cards for Power Apps
- Skills match for Power Apps makers
- Form UX improvements
- Power BI quick reports in Power Apps
Every system connected: Power Apps enables organizations to remove data silos and connect every system for consistent and reliable access to data.
- Connect to external data from Dataverse
- Dataverse tables integrated inside Power Apps
- Use Monitor to debug apps that run on mobile Power
- Sync data offline in the background for mobile devices Users
- Switch tenants on mobile devices
- Enable faster model app starts using distributed caching with CDN
Fusion of components, composition, and collaboration: Fusion of components, composition, and collaboration brings together the skills, insights, and knowledge of makers into a single application.
- Appointment description supports rich text
- Create and join Teams meetings in-app or from appointments
- Easily copy links to records
- View only relevant activities in dropdown
- View your colleague’s presence
- Searching on a table is easier with Dataverse search
- Custom pages are responsive by default with rich layouts
Power Page
Administration and governance: Administration and governance capabilities enable administrators to efficiently manage, configure, and maintain websites.
- Use preconfigured WAF for websites
- Portals admin center updates improve usability
- Support for portal actions using admin APIs
- Control your Power Pages site visibility to external users
Design studio: Power Pages design studio gives makers a simplified no-code/low-code experience to create a website.
- Configure basic forms in design studio
- Add advanced forms as a component
- Learn hub enhancements
- Configure data grids in design studio
Professional developer experiences: Developers can build advanced customizations and configurations with their websites.
- Utilize code editing improvements
Template hub and prebuilt templates: The template hub provides a set of predefined industry-specific and cross-industry website patterns.
- New Power Pages site templates
- Select Dynamics 365 website templates in the template hub