Hi all,
I'm building a Canvas App using Dataverse for the first time and was wondering what is the best practice for developing a test app which can then be exported into a prod environment? I have read up on importing and exporting Solutions - but not sure how this works for Dataverse.
We have a sandbox environment which I plan to use to for the dev/test app which will be connected to test tables in Dataverse.
We then want to import the test app into the prod environment, however we will need to update the Dataverse tables to reflect the prod data.
Does this mean whenever we import the test app into the prod environment we will have to manually update the code to repoint our controls to the correct Dataverse tables or is there another way of doing this?
Any help will be appreciated 🙂
HI @Anonymous ,
Some answers to your questions:
1. Data will not move with the solution migrations. You will need to import the data to production through a number of options including:
Solution Migrations (Patching)
If you want to move only small changes you can create patches and move them to your production environment from your non-prod environment. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/alm/create-patches-simplify-solution-updates
Hope this helps! Please accept if answers your question or Like if helps in any way.
Thanks,
Drew
Hello @Anonymous,
Try Creating a Solutions
Blog:https://microsoftcrmtechie.blogspot.com/2021/09/how-to-create-and-distribute-solutions.html?m=1
Then add all your components like Model driven app or flows or JavaScript or plugins etc, and going further if you want to create a new fields or what ever do it inside the solutions.
once all done click on Export and Export solution as Managed if you don’t want to edit in destination environment else import as unmanaged. That’s it 🙂
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Hi @dpoggemann thanks for your reply.
I didn't fully understand your reply at first, so I've spent the past couple of weeks trying to learn solutions better but there are still a few things I'm unsure about.
In my Sandbox env. I have a test/dev solution that contains an app, a few tables, some automate flows, and dataflows. (I actually haven't added the automate flows yet because it looks like I will need to create them from scratch, but let's just say that I have done that for this scenario).
I imported this solution as a managed solution into the prod environment - I found that only the table schema is imported - not the data inside. So I want to check my understanding here - if I've created a table called "Notes" in Dataverse for my dev/test solution in my Sandbox env. when I import my solution into the prod env, this will then create a "Notes" table in the Dataverse of my prod env.
Moving forward, if we want to deploy updates to the app, automate flows, or tables - these updates should be done in the dev/test solution and then exported to the prod env. as an upgrade.
My question is then - if I only want to perform some updates to one flow, or the canvas app - would I still need to export/import the entire solution?
Appreciate any guidance you have on this topic 🙂
Hi @Anonymous ,
yes, you can create a solution that includes the canvas app along with dataverse tables, power automate flows, classic workflows etc. and deploy this as a managed or unmanaged solution to your production environment.
I wouldn't think you would need to change controls as it would be pointing to the current dataverse environment (i.e. production) when migrated. If you do have some specific environment specific settings you can utilize environment variables to set these (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/data-platform/environmentvariables)
Hope this helps. Please accept if answers your question or Like if helps in any way.
Thanks,
Drew
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