Custom Email Address PCF Control for Model-Driven Apps

Hey Dynamics and PowerApps community!

Many may not know that there is specific functionality tied to the out-of-box Single Line of Text field with the Email Format. Many will simply create this field so that the email address value is clickable, using MailTo, to open that email address in their local mail client.

However, the functionality behind this field is actually used for email resolution and correlation for Exchange Integration (Server-Side Sync, App for Outlook, and Dynamics for Outlook Client). Once you create a field of this type and data is added to this field, it will create a row in the EmailSearchBase table, which is then looked at when a record is tracked to Dynamics.

There is a scenario called out in Part 4 and Part 5 of my App for Outlook blog. See the Bob Jones/ Happy Hogan scenario. In short, if you have multiple entities with OOB Email format Single Line of Text fields that, for any reason, have the same email address, if this email address exists as a recipient of an Email or Appointment, each entity record will resolve. See the screenshot below:

This functionality is not called out specifically when creating this type of field, as you can see in both the new and old Field creation forms.

Here is the public documentation for this field type:  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/common-data-service/types-of-fields

Since most of the time, this field type is not created specifically for correlation purposes, but to use the click to email functionality, I have created a PCF control that mimics the out-of-box Email field. However, this will be bound to a standard Text formatted Single Line of Text field. Meaning, this will not be used in the Email Resolution or Email Correlation process.

It will still allow the click to functionality from both web browser and mobile app. However, this is not clickable from a grid.

This is a sample control, so please do your diligence with testing before implementation to ensure this works for your uses cases and feel free to provide any necessary feedback to me directly or in the comments. 

Note: This is not clickable from the grid

You can find the source for this control at GitHub. This is also available in the PCF Gallery.

Thanks!