DEV Community: Natraj Yegnaraman

Power Apps Checker Action

Natraj Yegnaraman — Sun, 06 Sep 2020 04:37:07 +0000

Power Apps Checker is a Microsoft service that helps you to check the quality of your Solutions and generates recommendations and suggestions that can be used to improve the quality of your solution. It is sort of the ESLint for Power Apps Solutions.

For example below are some rules that are checked by Power Apps Checker

Id	Description
meta-remove-dup-reg	Do not duplicate plug-in step registration
flow-avoid-invalid-reference	Include valid references for actions
web-avoid-crm2011-service-soap	Do not target the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 SOAP services
il-avoid-unpub-metadata	Retrieve published metadata
il-avoid-crm2011-depr-message	Do not use Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 deprecated messages
app-avoid-autostart	Autostart of video and audio files can be distracting. Let users choose whether to play or not.
app-formula-issues-low	There are formula issues for the app reported by app checker that are of low severity
app-use-delayoutput-text-input
web-use-navigation-api	Use the navigation APIs
web-avoid-isactivitytype
flow-avoid-recursive-loop	Avoid recursive action as they may result in an infinite trigger loop
il-specify-column	Retrieve specific columns for an entity via query APIs
app-formula-issues-medium	There are formula issues for the app reported by app checker that are of medium severity
web-use-global-context	Use the global context
app-include-readable-screen-name	People who are blind, have low vision, or a reading disability rely on screen titles to navigate using the screen reader.
meta-avoid-crm4-event	Do not use Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 plug-in registration stage
web-use-client-context	Use client contexts
app-avoid-interactive-html	Your app won't work correctly and will not be accessible if you place interactive HTML elements.
web-remove-debug-script	Avoid including debug script in non-development environments
web-avoid-2011-api	Do not use the deprecated Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 object model
web-avoid-modals	Use the Client API functions for Dialogs
app-include-alternative-input	Some users can't use a pen and require another way to input information. Example: Typing in a signature.
meta-avoid-silverlight	Silverlight web resource usage is deprecated
il-use-autonumber-feature	Use the built-in auto number feature instead of a custom auto numbering solution
il-avoid-parallel-plugin	The usage of parallel patterns should be avoided within plug-ins
app-include-tab-order	When a screen reader reads the elements of a slide, it's important that they appear in the order that a user would see them, instead of the order they were added to the slide.
app-include-helpful-control-setting	Changing this property setting will give the user better information about the function of the controls in your app.
il-avoid-specialized-update-ops	Do not use specialized update operation requests
web-use-strict-mode	Use strict mode when possible
il-avoid-lock-plugin	Avoid lock of static members in plug-ins
app-reduce-screen-controls
il-avoid-batch-plugin	Avoid usage of batch request types in plug-ins and workflow activities
app-include-captions	Without captions, people with disabilities may not get any of the information in a video or audio segment.
meta-avoid-reg-no-attribute	Include filtering attributes with plug-in registration
app-include-accessible-label	If there's no accessible text, people who can’t see the screen won't understand what’s in images and controls.
web-remove-console	Remove console statements in client script
meta-remove-inactive	Remove deactivated or disabled customizations
web-avoid-crm2011-service-odata	Do not target the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 OData 2.0 endpoint
web-avoid-browser-specific-api	Avoid using Internet Explorer legacy APIs or browser plug-ins
web-use-async	Interact with HTTP and HTTPS resources asynchronously
meta-avoid-reg-retrieve	Limit the registration of plug_ins for Retrieve and RetrieveMultiple messages
meta-avoid-retrievemultiple-annotation	Avoid registering a plugin on RetrieveMultiple of annotation
web-use-strict-equality-operators	Use strict equality operators
web-use-relative-uri	Do not use absolute CDS for Apps endpoint URLs
web-use-offline	Use the offline API
app-make-focusborder-visible	If the focus isn't visible, people who don't use a mouse won't be able to see it when they're interacting with the app.
web-remove-alert	Remove alert statements in client script
app-formula-issues-high	There are formula issues for the app reported by app checker that are of high severity
app-include-tab-index	People who use the keyboard with your app will not be able to access this element without a tab stop.
flow-outlook-attachment-missing-info	Include all required outlook attachment information
il-turn-off-keepalive	Set KeepAlive to false when interacting with external hosts in a plug-in
web-avoid-window-top	Avoid using window.top
app-include-state-indication-text	Users won't get confirmation of their actions if the state of the control isn't showing.
web-use-grid-api	Use the grid APIs
web-avoid-eval	Do not use the 'eval' function or its functional equivalents.
web-use-org-setting	Use organization settings
web-unsupported-syntax	web-unsupported-syntax

This Action uses the Power Apps Checker PS module. You would need to register a new app on Azure AD, give it access to PowerApps-Advisor application and also create a secret. You would then be able to use the ApplicationId and Secret in this Action.

Here is sample output of the Action running.

The action also create a new issue with the Power Apps Checker recommendations, if there are any.

The sarif file with the full set of recommendations is also uploaded into your repo.

You can use Jonas Rapp's Power Apps Checker Tool tool to read the whole file.

Sample Workflow

Here is a sample Workflow on how you can use the Power Apps Solution Checker Action in your workflow.

name: powerapps-solution-checker-sample
on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      solutionName:
        description: "Solution Name"
        required: true
        default: 'Solution Name'
      sourceEnvironmentUrl:
        description: "Source Environment URL"
        required: true
        default: 'https://xxxx.crm.dynamics.com'       
      ruleSet:
        description: "Rule Set"
        required: true
        default: 'Solution Checker' 
      geography:
        description: "Geography"
        required: true
        default: 'Australia'                           
      saveResults:
        description: "Save results of Power Apps Solution Checker"
        required: false
        default: "true"                              

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: windows-latest

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2

      - name: Power Apps Checker
        id: powerapps-checker
        uses: rajyraman/powerapps-checker@v1.2
        with: 
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          solutionName: ${{ github.event.inputs.solutionName }}
          sourceEnvironmentUrl: ${{ github.event.inputs.sourceEnvironmentUrl }}
          applicationId: ${{ secrets.APPLICATION_ID }}
          applicationSecret: ${{ secrets.APPLICATION_SECRET }}
          tenantId: ${{ secrets.TENANT_ID }}
          geography: ${{ github.event.inputs.geography }}
          saveResults: ${{ github.event.inputs.saveResults }}

      # Ideally, you would have a deploy step here, which should be blocked until issues identified by the Power Apps Solution checker have been resolved         
      - run: echo "Solution Checker identified issues. DON'T deploy."
        if: steps.powerapps-checker.outputs.issueNumber != ''

      - run: echo "AOK. Deploy."
        if: steps.powerapps-checker.outputs.issueNumber == ''

Submission Category:

Wacky Wildcards

Yaml File or Link to Code

rajyraman / powerapps-checker

GitHub Action to check a specified solution using Power Apps Checker

Power Apps Checker Action

This Action runs Power Apps Checker against the specified solution and creates a new issue with the results provided. Before you can run the checker, you would need to create an Application in Azure AD on your tenant, with permission to PowerApps-Advisor App. You can use the PowerShell script to create the Azure AD application with the correct permission. Once this is done, you would also need to create a secret on this Application in Azure AD, store this secret as a GitHub secret on your repo and also use it in this Action.

Inputs

Input	Required	Default	Description
token	✅	-	GitHub Personal Access Token. This is required for downloading the solution files from Releases. You can also use `${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}`
solutionName	✅	-	The Unique Name of the solution. This is used in Solution Upgrade step, if you are deploying a Managed

…

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GitHub Actions to assist with Power Apps Solutions

Natraj Yegnaraman — Sun, 30 Aug 2020 04:26:56 +0000

My Workflow

In Power Apps we package assets into Solution. Solutions are how customisations move from one environment into another. We use Solution Packager to unpack and repack the Solutions.

It is easy to do this in Azure DevOps, as there are Microsoft, aswell as third-party tools to help with this. Since there is no Action currently in GitHub Marketplace to help with this, I thought it would be a fun project to do this using only PowerShell, so I have developed these two Actions.

Power Apps Extract Solution - This Action unpacks the Solution files into assets using Solution Packager and commits them into your repo
Power Apps Deploy Solution - This Action deploys the Solution file into the Power Apps environment.

Since I wanted to do this just using PowerShell, I found it relatively easy to do this using open-source commandlets in PowerShell Gallery and composite run steps

Sample Workflow

Here is a sample Workflow on how you can use these two Actions in your GitHub Workflow.

# This workflow is run only manually, as it uses a workflow_dispatch. It is recommended to use cron or push into main branch to trigger this. Since this workflow also commits into the repo, use ignore tags to prevent infinite loop. Refer https://docs.github.com/en/actions/reference/workflow-syntax-for-github-actions#example-ignoring-branches-and-tags

name: extract-and-deploy
on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      solutionName:
        description: "Solution Name"
        required: true
        default: "GitHubSolution"
      sourceEnvironmentUrl:
        description: "Source Environment URL"
        required: true
        default: "https://xxxx.crm.dynamics.com"
      targetEnvironmentUrl:
        description: "Target Environment URL"
        required: true
        default: "https://xxxx.crm.dynamics.com"
      release:
        description: "Release?"
        required: true
        default: true
      managed:
        description: "Managed?"
        required: true
        default: true
      debug:
        description: "Debug?"
        required: true
        default: "true"

jobs:
  build:
    # The type of runner that the job will run on. This needs to be Windows runner.
    runs-on: windows-latest

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2

      - name: Dump GitHub context
        if: github.event.inputs.debug == 'true'
        env:
          GITHUB_CONTEXT: ${{ toJson(github) }}
        run: echo "$GITHUB_CONTEXT"

      - name: Extract Solution
        id: extract-solution
        uses: rajyraman/powerapps-solution-extract@v1.1
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          solutionName: ${{ github.event.inputs.solutionName }}
          sourceEnvironmentUrl: ${{ github.event.inputs.sourceEnvironmentUrl }}
          applicationId: ${{ secrets.APPLICATION_ID }}
          applicationSecret: ${{ secrets.APPLICATION_SECRET }}
          releaseSolution: ${{ github.event.inputs.release }}

      - name: Deploy Solution
        id: deploy-solution
        uses: rajyraman/powerapps-deploy-solution@v1.1
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          solutionName: ${{ github.event.inputs.solutionName }}
          targetEnvironmentUrl: ${{ github.event.inputs.targetEnvironmentUrl }}
          applicationId: ${{ secrets.APPLICATION_ID }}
          applicationSecret: ${{ secrets.APPLICATION_SECRET }}
          tag: ${{ steps.extract-solution.outputs.solutionVersion }}
          managed: ${{ github.event.inputs.managed }}


        # This step below can be removed, if you do not want to send a notification to Teams about this solution deployment.
      - name: Notify Teams
        uses: fjogeleit/http-request-action@v1.4.1
        with:
          # Url to Power Automate Flow to notify about Solution Deployment
          url: "${{ secrets.FLOW_HTTP_URL }}"
          # Request body to be sent the Flow with HTTP Trigger
          data: >-
            {
                "solutionFile": "${{ steps.deploy-solution.outputs.solution }}",
                "tag": "${{ steps.deploy-solution.outputs.solutionVersion }}",
                "environmentUrl": "${{ github.event.inputs.targetEnvironmentUrl }}",
                "repoUrl": "https://github.com/${{ github.repository }}",
                "runId": "${{ github.run_id }}",
                "sha": "${{ github.sha }}"
            }

Sample Workflow Run

Release and Assets created by Power Apps Extract Solution Action

Teams Notifications using Power Automate

Submission Category:

Wacky Wildcards

Yaml File or Link to Code

rajyraman / powerapps-deploy-solution

GitHub Action to deploy Power Apps Solutions

Power Apps Deploy Solution

This Action deploys a solution file in the Release with matching tag into the target environment.

Inputs

Input	Required	Default	Description
token	✅	-	GitHub Personal Access Token. This is required for downloading the solution files from Releases.
tag	✅	-	Git Tag associated with the Release. If you are using Power Apps Solution Extract Action, it tags the Release with the Solution's version number.
solutionName	✅	-	The Unique Name of the solution. This is used in Solution Upgrade step, if you are deploying a Managed Solution.
targetEnvironmentUrl	✅	-	Environment URL where the Solution will be deployed to.
applicationId	✅	-	Application Id that will be used to connect to the Power Apps environment.Refer Scott Durow's video if you do not know how to set Application Registration and scopes in Azure to facilitate this.
applicationSecret	✅	-	Secret that will be used

…

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rajyraman / powerapps-solution-extract

GitHub Action to extract, commit and release Power Apps Solutions.

Power Apps Extract Solution

This Action exports the specified solution in the source environment, extract and decomposes them them into individual components and commits them into the repo. This Action can also build the Managed and Unmanaged Solutions from the individual components in the repo, and publish these file to Release as assets.

Inputs

Input	Required	Default	Description
token	✅	-	GitHub Personal Access Token. This is required for downloading the solution files from Releases.
solutionName	✅	-	The Unique Name of the solution. This is used in Solution Upgrade step, if you are deploying a Managed Solution.
sourceEnvironmentUrl	✅	-	Environment URL from where the Solution will be downloaded from.
applicationId	✅	-	Application Id that will be used to connect to the Power Apps environment.Refer Scott Durow's video if you do not know how to set Application Registration and scopes in Azure to facilitate this.
applicationSecret	✅

…

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