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FBI Top Ten Power Platform Connector

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Today’s digital landscape offers unprecedented opportunities to leverage technology in the service of public safety. The FBI’s open API, a comprehensive source of data on the nation’s most wanted individuals and significant art crimes, now seamlessly integrates into the Power Platform thanks to the FBI Most Wanted Custom Connector. This innovation enables low-code developers across federal agencies to quickly and easily repurpose critical law enforcement data for the greater good. Inspiration Behind the Connector The inception of the FBI Most Wanted Custom Connector was driven by the untapped potential within the FBI’s publicly available data. Recognizing the wealth of information housed on the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted list and the broader FBI’s Most Wanted API , the development of this connector was aimed at unlocking this data trove. By facilitating streamlined access to these resources through the Power Platform, the connector is designed to empower developers and agencies to b...
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How to Show Notes (Annotations) on a Model-Driven App Dashboard

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Model-driven apps in Power Apps allow users to create dashboards that display key data from different entities. By default, dashboards do not provide an easy way to display Notes (Annotations). However, using a combination of dashboard customization and XrmToolBox, you can modify a dashboard to include a list of Notes. This article provides a step-by-step guide to achieving this. Step 1: Create a New Dashboard Navigate to the Maker Portal . Create a new dashboard . When adding components to the dashboard, insert a List for any entity (e.g., Accounts). The selected entity does not matter, as we will modify it later to display Notes. Step 2: Obtain the Notes View ID In the Maker Portal , navigate to an existing View for the Notes (Annotations) entity or create a new custom view. Once the view is open, copy the View ID as it will be needed later. Step 3: Install XrmToolBox and FormXml Manager Plugin Download and install XrmToolBox from https://www.xrmtoolbox.com/ . ...
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Using Web Templates as Custom Components in Power Pages: A Classification Banner Example

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Introduction Web templates in Power Pages offer a powerful way to create reusable components that can be used across multiple pages, headers, and footers. This approach simplifies development and maintenance by allowing common elements, such as banners or data tables, to be managed centrally. In this article, we will explore how to use web templates as custom components, focusing on a practical example: a classification banner that can be placed in the header or footer of a Power Pages site. What Are Web Templates in Power Pages? Web templates are Liquid-based templates that allow developers to structure and render dynamic content within Power Pages. They are commonly used for: Custom layouts : Defining reusable structures for pages. Reusable components : Creating elements like banners, notifications, and data tables. Dynamic content : Injecting data dynamically using Dataverse and Liquid expressions. Microsoft has provided comprehensive guidance on using web templates as com...
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From Messy to Manageable: Cleanly Load Dataverse Tables in Power BI

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First and foremost, I want to take a moment to acknowledge Brandon Pires , who originally crafted the script that inspired all of this work. Brandon’s creativity laid the foundation for this blog post, and his efforts are key to helping Power BI developers improve efficiency and cleanliness in their reports. Introduction: Using Templates to Keep Your Dataverse Clean When working with Microsoft Dataverse in Power BI, things can get messy quickly. Dataverse often contains a wealth of fields, system columns, and metadata that can make your reports harder to understand, cluttered, and less efficient. However, by leveraging templates and custom functions, you can automatically clean and format your data, allowing you to focus on deriving insights rather than grappling with unnecessary noise. One such function, inspired by Brandon Pires, is designed to clean column names from Dataverse and keep them tidy. In this blog post, I will explain how this function works, why it improves efficien...
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Bypass Power Apps Consent Prompts Using PowerShell

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When a user opens a Power App for the first time, they are often presented with a consent form asking for permission to access data sources or APIs used by the app. This Canvas API consent form can be disruptive, especially in scenarios where the app is intended for a broad user base or part of an automated deployment. The consent form can create unnecessary friction, requiring every user to individually approve permissions. Fortunately, there’s a way to bypass this pop-up consent form using PowerShell. In this blog post, I will guide you through automating the process of bypassing the Power Apps consent form using PowerShell. The goal is to either allow users to select an app from a specific environment or use a configuration file to perform actions on multiple environments. This automation can be particularly useful for initial deployments of a new app or to ensure all apps currently have this applied. Background: Bypassing Power Apps Consent Before diving into the PowerShell s...
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Custom Auto Number in Dataverse with Fiscal Year-Based Incrementing Using Plugin Code

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In many scenarios, businesses require custom auto-numbering for records in Microsoft Dataverse that go beyond the default functionality provided. In this article, I’ll walk you through a solution that involves creating a custom auto-number field without using the out-of-the-box auto-numbering feature in Dataverse. Instead, we’ll use a combination of a custom entity as a counter and a plugin that triggers on the pre-create event of the target table. The Approach For this solution, we’ll create a custom table called Fiscal Year Counter . This table will manage our numbering sequence based on the fiscal year. The idea is to dynamically generate invoice numbers that reset each fiscal year, providing a high level of customization to fit your organization’s unique fiscal calendar. The Fiscal Year Counter Table Setup First, create a table named Fiscal Year Counter with the following fields: Name (String): To store the fiscal year name, such as “FY2024.” Start Date (Date Only, Time...
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Connecting the Paconn CLI Tool to GCC, GCCH, and DoD Environments for Power Platform Connectors

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When working with the paconn CLI tool to create and manage custom connectors in the Power Platform, it’s essential to configure your environment settings properly, especially when targeting different government cloud environments like GCC, GCC High, and DoD. In this article, we’ll guide you through setting up these configurations, including creating a connectionSettings.json file for each environment, downloading a custom connector, and updating the connector’s settings for seamless management. Prerequisites Azure Subscription : You need an active Azure subscription to register an application. Paconn CLI Tool : Ensure you have the paconn CLI tool installed. You can install it using Python’s pip: pip install paconn Step 1: Create an Azure App Registration Begin by registering an application in Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) that will serve as the identity for your paconn operations. Navigate to Azure AD : Sign in to the Azure portal and go to Azure Active Directory ....
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