Dynamics 365 and Power Platform Monthly Update-October 2021

Watch the video

• Read the vision and customers stories on how Dynamics 365 and Teams empower employees to enhance collaboration.

Learn more

• Website: Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Teams
• Microsoft Teams tech blog (Ignite 2021): What’s New in Microsoft Teams
• Dynamics 365 blog (Ignite 2021): Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Teams: extend collaboration across teams
• Dynamics 365 blog (Inspire 2021): Bring Dynamics 365 into the flow of work with Teams—at no additional cost
• Microsoft 365 blog (Inspire 2021): From collaborative apps in Microsoft Teams to Windows 365—here’s what’s new in Microsoft 365 at Inspire

Dynamics 365 |  Have questions on the Cloud Migration ?

Migrating to the cloud should be a business priority.

Deprecations | Power Platform | Dynamics 365 | Portals |  Most recent deprecations with deadlines in 2021 & Impactful 2022 deadlines

Important Changes coming in Dynamics 365 Apps | Deprecations

October 2021 | Deprecations with no support with the 2021 Release Wave 2

Low-density headers in model-driven apps won't be supported with the 2021 release wave 2

• With the upcoming 2021 release wave 2 (public preview in August 2021 and GA in October 2021), the low-density header option, and runtime experience won't be supported in model-driven app forms.
• Impact:
  • Any current form that is configured to be “low-density” is automatically updated to render in a high density with flyout mode in a model driven app.
• Action required by you
  • To meet the October 2021 deadline, be sure you update any of your forms from a low-density format to a high density with flyout mode using the modern form designer.
  • More information: Configure header density.
  • If you don't make this change, the form no longer honors this setting at runtime. It also defaults to high density with flyout.

Refer to the Microsoft docs for more information on deprecations..

Form footers in model-driven app won't be supported with the 2021 release wave 2

• With the upcoming 2021 release wave 2 (public preview in August 2021 and GA in October 2021), form footers won't be supported in a model-driven app form.
• Impact
  • Main forms will no longer include the footer when a record is opened.
  • Any out of box or custom controls that have been added to the form footer will no longer be available and you'll need to remove the fields if they're no longer necessary or move the fields to the header and use the high-density header with flyout or add them onto the main form.
  • The recommended approach is to move fields that users need to access regardless of the form tab a user is on to the header and set it to use the high-density header with flyout.
  • If there's only one tab, the recommendation is to move them into a new section on the form.
• Action required by you
  • To meet the October 2021 deadline, be sure you move fields or controls added to a form footer to either the header or a section on the form.

Refer to the Microsoft docs for more information on deprecations.

Tooltips for column descriptions on model-driven forms

• With the upcoming 2021 release wave 2 (public preview in August 2021 and GA in October 2021), hover tooltips on column labels for full descriptions will be removed.
• Why is this needed?
  • These tooltips aren't an accessible way to access information about the column.
• Impact
  • Starting October 2021, these descriptions will no longer be available on hover.
• We will be introducing a new fully accessible feature for April 2022.

Refer to the Microsoft docs for more information on deprecations..

Business recommended icon on model-driven forms

• With the upcoming 2021 release wave 2 (public preview in August 2021 and GA in October 2021), business recommended icon on model forms will be removed.
• Why is this needed?
  • The icon is not presented in an accessible way to identify itself.
• Impact
  • Starting October 2021, these icons will no longer be available on the form.
• We will be introducing a new fully accessible feature for April 2022.

Refer to the Microsoft docs for more information on deprecations.

Task flows are deprecated

• Task flows are used to create a step-by-step data entry form for common tasks, such as after-meeting follow-ups.
• Task flows are deprecated and will be removed by October 1, 2021.
• They will be replaced by the immersive experience for business process flows that is planned for release.

More information: Business process flow immersive experiences

Important Notice | Important Changes coming in Power Platform | Deprecations

February 2022 | Deprecations

Support for Microsoft 365 Groups and Yammer in Dynamics 365 is deprecated

• Effective February 2022, support for Microsoft 365 Groups (previously known as Office Groups) and Yammer in Dynamics 365 will be deprecated.
• This will impact customers who use Microsoft 365 Groups and/or Yammer for collaboration in Dynamics 365.
• We recommend that customers transition to Microsoft Teams for more advanced collaboration functionalities.
• For information about integrating Dynamics 365 with Teams, see Integrate customer engagement apps in Dynamics 365 with Microsoft Teams.
• If you've questions about the deprecation, contact your Microsoft Customer Service representative or Microsoft Partner.

April 2022 | Deprecations

WS-TRUST\OrganizationServiceProxy Authentication Type deprecation and Shutdown

• We are doing this to provide better Identity security, authentication support, cross platform support and to enabled future improvements in our overall platform supported product suite.
• Who is affected?
  • This affects you, your customer, or your tools if your connecting to Dataverse\PowerPlatform and:
    • You’re using a version of our SDK Client OLDER then 9.0.2.3 (shipped in April of 2018 )
    • You’re using Office365 Authentication with the CrmServiceClient on ANY version.
    • You’re Using the OrgnaizationServiceProxy directly, either via the CrmServiceClient, or using it directly from the Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Client.dll
  • This does NOT affect Plugins that run on the Dataverse Server.
• Requested GO-DO’s
  • If you are in the in the use case above, make plans and fix it now without waiting until close to the deadline.
  • If you are using tools, Partner or ISV provided tools, raise awareness,  provide the link HERE which walks though identification and updates required. 
• Deprecation of Office365 authentication type and OrganizationServiceProxy class for connecting to Dataverse
  • Effective February 4, 2020, the WS-Trust authentication type that is used by custom clients to connect to Dataverse is deprecated.
  • This change affects applications that utilize Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Client.OrganizationServiceProxy and Microsoft.Xrm.Tooling.Connector.CrmServiceClient
  • Effective April 2021, the authentication protocol will be retired for all new environments within a tenant.
  • Effective April 2022, the authentication protocol will be retired for all new and existing environments within a tenant.

Deprecated Client API : ClientGlobalContext.js.aspx

• Replacement Client API: None
• Comments:
  • The ClientGlobalContext.js.aspx page is deprecated and scheduled to be unavailable after April 1, 2022.
  • Alternative methods to access global context information will be available by December 2021.
  • More information to come HERE

Important Changes coming in Power Apps Portals | Deprecations

Table permission changes for forms and lists on new portals

• Starting with release 9.3.7.x, newly created portals will have table permissions enforced for all forms and lists irrespective of the Enable Table Permissions setting.
• More information HERE

SameSite mode changes

• Starting with portals version 9.3.6.x, makers can mark SameSite mode as Strict for all portal cookies where applicable.
• Starting October 2021, all newly provisioned portals will have Strict as the Default value instead of None.
• More information HERE

For Power Platform and Dynamics 365 Apps :

Important changes (deprecations) coming in Power Apps, Power Automate, and model-driven apps in Dynamics 365

For Power Apps Portals:

Important changes coming in Power Apps portals

Power Platform & Dynamics 365 | Manage Updates

Understanding Release Updates

What’s New in Managing Updates for Dynamics 365 Apps Customers

Announcing Public Preview of Maintenance Window Management! (Public Preview)

Power Platform & Dynamics 365 | Release Waves

What’s new and Planned for Power Platform & Dynamics 365

Power Platform & Dynamics 365 | Service Updates

Important: Service Updates are separate from the Release Wave deployments.

Microsoft Dataverse |Service Updates

Released Version of Microsoft Dataverse

Dynamics 365 Apps |Service Updates

Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise

Dynamics 365 Customer Service

Dynamics 365 Field Service

Power Automate, Power Automate Desktop & Power Apps | Service Updates

Power Automate

Power Automate Desktop

Released Version for Power Apps

Power Apps Portal | Service Updates

Power BI Desktop & Power BI Server | Service Updates

Microsoft Dynamics 365 On-premises | Service Updates

For the latest Service Updates for Dynamics 365 on-premise version 9.0 and 9.1 visit Service Updates

Dynamics CRM (on-premises) 9.1

• Service update 1.4 (9.1.4.31) – September 2021 is now available.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 9.0                                                                                                                               

• Service update 0.32 (9.0.32.3) – September 2021 is now available.

Power Apps Model-driven Apps| App side panes available with model-driven apps (public preview)

• Public preview | With the Model driven Apps| App side panes public preview, developers can open one or more panes on the right/far side of the model-driven app using the Client API. 
• The panes can contain model-driven app pages like views or forms as well as the new custom page.

Learn more from this page on Power Apps blog.

Power Apps | Managing solutions has a new look (public preview)

• Public Preview | We are releasing the public preview of the updated solution explorer experience, which provides richer tooling to manage your solution as well as a myriad of updates that mean most makers will have all the tools they need to be successful, without ever needing to switch to the classic solution explorer.
• This experience will soon become the default experience on the maker portal, but whilst we’re in preview if you run into any issues, you can disable the preview experience by toggling the switch on the solution list.

Learn more from this page on Power Apps blog.

Power Automate | Product Updates

Introducing Power Automate machine runtime

• In May 2021, we introduced direct connectivity between Power Automate and your machines.
• This new capability allows you to connect your machine directly to the cloud and run desktop flows without the use of the separate On-Premises Data Gateway.
• We also released in May new machine-management capabilities to help scale your robotic process automation (RPA).

Now, we are launching a new machine-runtime app dedicated to manage your machine settings.

Advantages:

• A clearer and easier user interface to register and manage your machine
• The capability to create your machine group directly from the machine-runtime app
• An independent app that redefines roles between the Power Automate Desktop app (for the creation and testing of your desktop flows) and the machine-runtime app (for machine configuration to trigger desktop flows through Power Automate).
• A direct access to the troubleshoot tool (preview) to get your logs and change the user account your machine connectivity is running as.

Learn more from this page on Power Automate blog.

Power Automate | Announcing co-presence in Power Automate

• We are excited to announce the availability of co-presence within Power Automate. 
• This is yet another step in our journey to make Power Automate the best at providing collaborative maker experiences.
• Collaborating with your colleagues often helps you in developing complex workflows faster.
• Through our sharing feature, users can share flows with other users in their organization for co-developing workflows together. 
• Each user can know in near real-time which other users are currently editing the flow.
• If multiple users make changes to the flow simultaneously, we detect conflicts during the flow save operation, and present appropriate options to the user to minimize conflicts.
• A user can choose to refresh the flow definition or save a copy of the flow to not lose the changes.

Learn more from this page on Power Automate blog.

Power Automate |  15 Independent Publisher Connectors in July and August

Welcome to the very first Independent Publisher connector blog!

• Independent Publisher connectors are connectors developed, tested, published, and supported by connector developers that are independent from the end service or API.
• The Microsoft Certification team performs validations and checks to ensure that the connector is safe to use.
• We are happy to announce that we have 15 new Independent Publisher connectors that were published in July and August.
• These connectors are available across the Power Platform.

Airtable | CQC Data | Discord | Etsy | Hashify | HubSpot CMS | HubSpot CRM | HubSpot Marketing | JIRA Search |

Secure Code Warrior | Spotify | Toggl Plan | UK Bank Holidays | What3Words | Yelp

Power BI | Product Updates

Power BI | Export Power BI report to file API – Preview Update

• Export Power BI report to file API (preview) allows you to export Power BI reports to the following file formats: PDF, PPTX (PowerPoint) and PNG, by using a REST call.
• We expect that this Export Power BI report to file API becomes GA by the end of November 2021.

Click here for feedback and more details on imposed limitations and introduction to the capability. 

Power BI | Pre-Announcing Automatic Installation of the Power BI app for Microsoft Teams

Many organizations use modern collaboration in Microsoft Teams to enable faster decision making and action.

• Now, Power BI is making it easier for organizations to roll-out Power BI experience in Teams, so users get can discover and use data where they work.
• This helps people get notified faster, get richer link sharing experiences, and access all their data without leaving Microsoft Teams.
  • Power BI will begin automatically installing the Power BI app for Teams for users when they visit the Power BI service
  • Power BI admins can choose not to auto-install through a new Power BI tenant setting
  • The tenant setting has started to roll-out now, giving admins time to opt-out if desired
  • The automatic installation will start to take effect in November 2021, for organizations with the setting enabled.

Learn more details about this new capability HERE on Power BI blog.

Power BI | Announcing public preview of Insights (Public Preview)

We are excited to announce the public preview of Insights!

• The Insights feature helps users easily find and explore insights such as anomalies, trends, and KPI analysis in their data as they interact and consume their reports.

Click here for feedback and more details on imposed limitations and introduction to the capability. 

Power Automate | Considerations when using Connection References with Power Automate flows

Want to know more and cover further grounds using Connection References with Power Automate?

• Connections –
  • These are user owned and specific. There is no concept of sharing connections, even if you share a flow.
  • There is also no visibility to view or use another user's connections in an environment.
• Connection reference -
  • These are also user owned and user specific. It is the link between a user, an action within a flow and the connection to that specific data source.
  • If a user has the proper security privileges, they can see connection references owned by other users within Solution Explorer.
  • To know more about connection reference and usage tips. See here.

Now check the 5 scenarios below and recommendations. 

• The scenario 1 looks at how this works in a scenario with only one developer/maker creating flows who is also doing the import of the solution into the destination environment. This is more common for a smaller deployment.

• The scenario 2 looks at multiple developers/makers creating and modifying flows in an environment where they would continue building on the flow using another user's connection and connection reference.

• The scenario 3 looks at multiple users building flows within an existing solution, which already exists in the Destination environment that were originally imported by one user, but the updated solution being imported by another user.

• The scenario 4 looks at multiple users building flows within a new solution, which uses connection references that already exist in the Destination environment (from another solution import) that were originally imported by one user, but the new solution, containing new flows, being imported by another user.

• The scenario 5 looks at multiple users building flows within a new solution, which uses connection references that already exist in the Destination environment (from another solution import) that were originally imported by one user, but the new solution, containing new flows AND existing connection references, being imported by another user.

Read here the recommendations

Power Apps | Case Studies | Microsoft utilizes Power Platform to automate a leadership training program

Digital Transformation Platform (DTP) Group in Microsoft launched a new leadership development program to develop and prepare the next bench of leaders for DTP. This program includes a combination of classroom sessions and hands-on experience solving real-life customer, business, or technical challenges. Participants are divided into smaller teams and are assigned coaches who are leaders in the organization, who guide the participants through various phases in the program.

This article describes how management of the program was transformed to save time, and holistically track and monitor the program and drive actionable insights using Power Platform and Dynamics 365.

Click  here for inspiration by understanding the business scenario, the challenges before Microsoft Power Platform and the Power Platform Solutioning using he power of Power Apps Portals, Power Apps model drive apps integration with Dynamics 365 Marketing, Integration with Dynamics 365 Customer Voice , Integration with Power Automate and Integration with Power BI.

Power Apps Portals |  Q&A

Q: Have you wondered if your organization has Power Apps Portals installed?

Option 1:  For IT Admins, you can go to Power Platform Admin Center >Portals

Option 2 : Power Platform CoE Kit - Last update now has basic Portals inventory that tells you if Power Apps Portal is installed.

Power Platform & Dynamics 365 | Technical Update Briefing

Stay up to date with the monthly Technical Update Briefing by watching live and on-demand videos on Microsoft Business Applications Technologies to explore new tech that's ready to implement.HERE

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