Creating a new environment for Power Apps

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Posted on by BradonK

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Hi all,

I had a question about environments and when to make them.

The business I work for has an environment that contains the company's SharePoint site, OneDrive, and other data. I have been making Power Apps under this environment.

I just found out about Dataverse and want to start using it. However, when I try to create a table in the Table page on Power Apps Studio, I don't have the permissions to create them. From what I have read, It requires a certain role to create new Tables. I don't have this permission but am able to get it. I was curious whether it's better practice to create a new environment just for the apps I make or just get the permissions for my current environment?

Also, how does Dataverse work? Are tables just individual items that can be referenced in an app or can you group tables by apps, like solutions? I have been using SharePoint up until now and create a new list for each set of data I need to collect. How do they differ?

Thanks

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Microsoft Dataverse with Power Apps

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EricRegnier 8,720 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hi @BradonK,

It really depends on your situation. Are you building an app/data just for you or your team/organization? How mature is your ALM practice? How mission critical is the app, etc? For "larger", more important apps, I usually suggest having a set of their own environments (eg Dev, Test, Prod) with a proper process for deployments.

I assume you're working in the Default environment now and you'll needs Power Apps or Dynamics 365 licenses to create tables and use Dataverse. If you're trying it out and playing with it for now, you can create a trial (expires) or Developer environment which are free, and you'll have all the privileges. More about environments: https://learn.microsoft.com/power-platform/admin/environments-overview?WT.mc_id=DX-MVP-5004271

To answer your question on difference between SharePoint and Dataverse, here are some quick pros of Dataverse and disadvantages of SharePoint:

SharePoint doesn't support relational data model

Deployments/releases are much more limited as you are "meant' to configure directly in prod and doesn't support solutions. You'll need to "hack" the power app to deploy from dev to prod with SharePoint.

SharePoint has max number of records/rows, whereas Dataverse not really.

Hope this helps!

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janson 62 on at

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Hello @BradonK,

Just to add to what @EricRegnier mentioned, Dataverse is a managed database. In fact, it is more than a traditional database like SQL Server. But for most practical purposes, you can consider Dataverse as a database for Power Platform. It is well integrated with Power Apps and it is extremely easy to use from Apps (both Canvas Apps and Model Driven Apps).

If you are using Dataverse (which is highly recommended for enterprise grade applications that uses relational data), always start with a Solution (and a publisher). A lot of people who are starting out with Dataverse on Power Platform start creating tables in the default solution and it is a mistake. In the most simplistic terms, you create an unmanaged solution in your Dev environment and then export a managed solution from Dev and migrate (import) it to higher environments (Test, Prod).

I also recommend going through ALM Concepts before defining an enterprise strategy.

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EricRegnier 8,720 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Here's an article that also provides more info on Dataverse: https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Power-Apps-Community-Blog/Dataverse-is-not-a-database/ba-p/756215#:~:text=Although%20Dataverse%E2%80%99s%20main%20database%20is%20Azure%20SQL%20and,type%20of%20system%2Fapplication%20especially%20in%20the%20enterprise%20space.

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BradonK 375 on at

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Hi @janson,

Thanks for explanation.
The business I'm making apps for is relatively small. We only have under 100 employees and these apps are simply to automate some processes around the place.
I have never used the Power Platform before and don't have much experience with ALM.
But I would like to do things properly.

If I am understanding this right, I should make two environments in my case. Dev and Production for each app, yes?

In the dev environment I should create a solution and build my app from that solution ensuring dependencies are met. Then, once the app is ready for prod, It gets exported from dev and imported into production?
Is this the basic idea?

Thanks

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janson 62 on at

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Hello @BradonK,

Welcome to the Power Platform world! Though it is easy to start on the power platform, I had some learning curve to do it "properly". Let me see if I can help answer your questions in simple terms.

Environments - don't create separate environments for each App. Instead create two (Dev, Prod) or three environments (Dev, Test, Prod - preferred) given the size of your organization. As you grow, you may want to create more environments for different departments or complex applications.
Solutions - You are right, you should create a solution and add all the components required by your application (tables, canvas apps, cloud flows...) in the solution. The solution will be an unmanaged solution in the Dev environment. Once you ready, you can export it as a managed solution and import it into the higher environment (Test, Prod).
Environment variables and connection references - I highly recommend creating environment variables and connection references as needed. If you are using just a Canvas App that connects to Dataverse, this may not apply to you (as it automatically takes care of connecting to the right Dataverse when you move the app from one environment to another environment).

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BradonK 375 on at

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Thanks, that helps a lot!

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