Power Platform Community Forum Thread Details

Dear Community,

I have created a boilerplate/template MSBuild solution to help developers use modern software development practices like distributed code versioning system (git), continuous integration and delivery etc. to build model driven applications in power platform. The idea is to provide a one stop shop when it comes to building all things power platform. There's a still a long way to go but I thought I would share what I've accomplished so far with the community so folks can provide early feedback and possibly benefit from it if needed.

Here's the link to the project : ⚡ Shazam

Features

- A Sample Power Platform Solution project which generates both managed and unmanaged solutions (.cdsproj)
- Sample Power Control Framework Components (.pcfproj)
- A Sample Web Resources project using typescript auto wired to the solution using packageMap file
- A Sample Plugins project which auto wired to the solution using packageMap file
- A Sample .net core 3.1 Azure Functions project
- A Sample CRM Package to install the Sample solution with pre and post deployment steps
- A Sample github action to publish crm pacakge, solutions and azure functions artifacts.

IDE Disclaimer:

1. Visual studio currently doesn't support .pcfproj and .cdsproj projects yet, although you can open the solution fine and work on rest of the projects you probably wouldn't be able to build the solution in VS. I would suggest using a powershell core terminal to compile the solution until Microsoft develops support for these project types.
2. Jetbrains Rider supports unknown *.*proj files and loads, cleans & builds both .pcfproj and .cdsproj projects. I am currently using this as my primary IDE

Considerations

1. Uses MSBuild as the primary build engine for all projects. You can build the solution using one single command `dotnet build`
2. Uses PowerApps MSBuild targets published as part of nuget packages
3. Compatible with Power Apps CLI tools to for PCF controls and cds solutions
4. The project is setup as a github template, meaning you can start a new project using this template as a baseline. Eventually the plan is to convert this to a dotnet template.

Roadmap:
- Add ILMerge to plugins project
- Add Stylecop
- Add Sample Console Apps
- Add Sample Test Projects
- Add Sample AzureDevops CI/CD pipelines using PowerApps AzureDevOps Extension
- Add Wiki
- Build and add CRM dotnet tool to perform common solution actions like import/export solutions/configuration data, import packages, code generators
- Convert the project to an interactive dotnet template such that a user can provide values for several variables while spinning up a new solution, for e.g. solution name, publisher prefix, publisher name. Also the ability to choose which projects you want to create as part of the solution, for e.g. controls, webresources, plugins, azure functions etc.
- Add frameworks for both server and client to provide a documented and structured way to add business logic in a test driven development fashion.

Please feel free to look around, take it for a test run. Your feedback/contribution would be highly appreciated

Cheers 🍻
Roshan

Categories:

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM)