CRM Audio

In today's podcast, Joel Lindstrom and George Doubinski talk about Dataverse, the new name of Common Data Service.

Microsoft has also renamed some of the CDS components. Entities are now tables, Option Sets are now choices, and fields are not columns.

These new names may be confusing for long time platform users, but they move the platform to be more consistent with other platforms and will help makers moving from SharePoint to Dataverse, as the naming is now consistent.

Nick, Colin and Nick discuss the recent Fall into Portals Virtual Conference and recap the incredible content.

Fall into Portals Recording: https://365.training/Courses/Detail/Fall_PowerAppsPortals

Content Publishing on Portals using multi-language: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6EDgqgk9G8&t=317s

Colin Vermander @koolin_ Nick Doelman @readyxrm Nicholas Hayduk @Engineered_Code

Sponsored by 365.Training

It's autumn in the the US, the leaves are falling, and we are back with another episode of CRM Audio.

In today's episode, Joel Lindstrom, George Doubinski, and Shawn Tabor talk about George's new in-line code editor function for Power Automate--how does it work, why would you want to use it over plain expressions, and is it secure?

We also get into Oakdale, the new light version of Common Data Service included in Microsoft Teams. After using it for several weeks, how does it compare with full CDS? Are there any performance differences? And what about storage capacity?

Microsoft released a public preview of Connection References, which store Power Automate (and some Power App) connections in solutions, and prompt for connection when the solution is moved to another environment.

This is a big deal because currently connections are not moved with solutions, which means that Power Automate flows are not connected after the solution is moved, and editing flows in Production environments are tedious and cause problems with ALM processes.

This change is also significant because it brings the value of solutions and ALM to non-CDS connected flows. Since Sharepoint, SQL, and custom connections can be automated using connnection references, deployment automation and CI/CD can now appply to connections other than CDS.

Listen to today's podcast as George Doubinski, Joel Lindstrom, and Shawn Tabor discuss connection references.

We also touch on environment variables and how these changes work with environment variables. And we celebrate Shawn "Hobbit" Tabor's 50th birthday!

Colin, Nick and Nick are back from summer vacation and chat about the portals WebAPI currently in public preview.

Portals WebAPI (Microsoft Docs)

2020 is the year of virtual conferences, and Power Apps portals are no exception with Power Portals Saturday and Fall/Spring into Portals conferences.

Power Portals Saturday (YouTube Playlist)

Fall into Portals

Colin Vermander @koolin_

Nick Doelman @readyxrm

Nicholas Hayduk @Engineered_Code

Sponsored by 365.Training

This week Jon Stypula from Dynamic Consulting joins CRM Audio to talk about the DynamicsCon virtual conference coming up on September 9-10.

Watch this episode on YouTube at https://youtu.be/lyL9dSO3wfc.

Find out how DynamicsCon is different than other Power Platform virtual events. Who is paying for it, and how the money will be spent.

• You can register for DynamicsCon at https://dynamicscon.com/
• Connect with Jon Stypula on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonstypula/

RPA is getting a lot of buzz these days, but what does it really mean?

Today Cody Erickson from Microsoft (and formerly Softmotive) joins CRM Audio, along with Joe (Flow Joe) Unwin, to discuss RPA:

• Why did Microsoft acquire Softmotive when they already had RPA?
• How can Power Automate customers use Softmotive RPA today?
• When should you use RPA (and when should you not use RPA?
• Setting proper expectations for RPA deployments
• Using RPA to empower users -Common RPA mistakes

Links:

• Cody Erickson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cody-erickson-b0663a74/
• Joe Unwin on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joeunwin
• CRM Audio Podcast: https://crm.audio

In this Service based episode of CRM Audio, Shawn & Sarah talk about how notifications within Dynamics 365 aren't just emails anymore! They talk about how notifications can be more actionable and meaningful for Dynamics 365 users! Also, Shawn talks about the upcoming Field Service Bootcamp coming to 365 Saturday on August 12-15! 365 Saturday - Field Service Bootcamp (August 12-15) https://events.powercommunity.com/field-service-bootcamp-2020/# Sarah Jelinek on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SarahJ_ND Sarah's blog: https://sarahjelinek.com Shawn Tabor on Twitter: https://twitter.com/crmhobbit Shawn's blog: https://crmhobbit.com

It's been my observation that with a few notable exceptions, people in the Power Platform community primarily focus on Power Apps or on Power Automate. Lots of people will use both, but generally, people are more "app people" or "flow people."

I don't have a strong preference between the two, and I regularly use and enjoy both platforms, but I've had conversations with people in the community that say something along the following lines:

Flow Person: "I love Power Automate, but Power Apps (canvas apps) are confusing."

Apps Person: "I can write canvas apps all day long but you need to be a developer to use Power Automate."

I've also noticed that if you suggest a flow solution in the Power Apps forum or an app solution in the Power Automate forum at powerusers.microsoft.com, people will give you funny looks.

Intrigued by this phenomenon, I interviewed some of my friends in the Business Applications community to see what they thought was behind this divide. Why does one tool seem accessible and easy to some while difficult to others?

In today's podcast (and on Power Platform Tip Of The Day) George Doubinski and Joel Lindstrom explore this phenominon and what makes people gravitate toward Power Automate or Power Apps?

Last week at Microsoft Inspire, Microsoft announced DataFlex, a light version of Common Data Service that will be included with Microsoft Teams and make it easy to build low-code applications inside of Teams with simplified security. They also announced that CDS will be rebranded as DataFlex Pro.

Joel, George and Shawn discuss what this change means, along with the confusion over the name.

9ejNL9yutzhpz0cyc6Ed