PCF Gallery: 1 year after

Guido Preite

54,087 Super User 2024 Season 1

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1 year ago I opened PCF Gallery, time really does fly. The site went beyond my expectations, listing more than 200 controls and having more than 90 authors. My goal was simple: to have a space where open source controls can be listed so developers can see what others are doing, publish their work (in addition to the repository) and show what PCF controls can actually do to help end users.

The site really needs some improvements (mainly regarding the search) but thanks to the suggestions of the community I was able to introduce small features that I implemented as indicators: if a control is for Canvas Apps, if the control has a license and if a managed solution is available.

License information is really important for some end users and also for the authors, it may be a secondary thing, but having a license really step up the control and how it should be used or expanded by others.

The managed solution indicator is something that I needed for myself in a first place. The process to compile a PCF control isn't so straightforward for end users and can be annoying for developers, if the author spends extra time to publish also a managed solution for the control, the minimum that I can do is to make that information available to others.

I am aware that the community created several tools to assist users in the creation or deployment of PCF controls, and also if they are not shown inside the gallery, I try to create awareness using the Twitter account (there is also a LinkedIn Page by the way).

I am not good to write this kind of posts, but this morning I received this message:

"Dear Guido, thank you for all the effort behind the PCF Gallery and possibility for me and all other Power Apps enthusiasts to use all those tools. I think this is an incredible way to bring the community together."

I don't care about the views or the stats behind the site, I just try to make something available for others (as simple as it can be to list other people controls) and I am happy when someone finds the site useful.

Thanks everybody and especially the authors listed inside PCF Gallery.