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Hey guys,
just a short question: As I think that the browser-based development of PowerApps is still unpractical in some details I just want to ask if anyone knows about plans by Microsoft to build a real IDE for the PowerApps development to make that even better. GreetingsJulian
Heya,
I don't think that's on the roadmap, as their approach is to improve the online IDE rather than create a standalone IDE.
Out of interest, is there something in particular you think is unpractical? We could raise it on the Ideas forum as issues if they have merit,
Thanks!
Sancho
The main thing I miss with not having a stand-alone IDE is the ability to have pop out windows. Having the properties and code bar on another screen would DRAMATICALLY increase the productivity. The other small things I could deal with, but continually having to expand the code bar to make edits then shrink it to see its effect becomes tedious.https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Power-Apps-Ideas/Code-Editor-Allow-popout-into-separate-resizable-window-dialog/idi-p/147303
Totally agree with @Bahalzamon. Expanding the code bar is annoying, especially since it overlaps the top of the properties pane, so you can't see that stuff when you're coding, e.g., name of the thing at issue. A dedicated horizontal coding pane would be a huge help!
Hey @stephielapugh,
Agreed, but you can do a workaround for that by using the browser's inspect function on the Formula Bar, find the formula-bar-container div section, click it and then set the width from 100% to 85% (or whatever you'd like)
Whaaaaat?! Well, shoot. That's a fun trick! Thanks @iAm_ManCat; you're a peach!
Happy to help, I too find the overlap of the properties pane reeaaaaalllllly annoying 😁
Dang Skippy! I know the purpose of PowerApps is to allow for citizen-developers. But, why not cater to both traditional developers and citizen-developers. This would just open up what could be done with a PowerApps app. I find so many limitations in what I can do for my clients if restricted to the citizen-developer universe.
At the very least, add troubleshooting capabilities found in Visual Studio--such as break-points. Having the pop-out tools as Julian stated, and troubleshooting capabilities would help pump out apps much quicker with higher quality.
If we are going to be restricted to the current PowerApps designer, at least give us the ability to customize the designer, such as setting default size of the code bar and set it to automatically rollup when we click in the app window...stuff like that. Breakpoints would be fantastic. It's like trying to build web pages when .asp first came out. Who remembers putting temp textboxes on the screen so we can see values while we code and test?
Thank you. Nice suggestion. I will try that.
I know this was a long time ago but the issue still persists. The existing IDE is great if you have a few lines of code. Any longer and it's quickly impractical. I know the official advice is "don't write lots of code in one formula" but - since we're not allowed to call code from other objects - that doesn't really work. There are times when you just need a whole bunch of code. At the moment I copy/paste it to Notepad++ but I would LOVE to get proper code markup for it in Visual Studio - even if it was offline and still required a copy/paste it would be better than now.
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