Embedded PowerApps in D365 CE using custom control

Recently, I saw Canvas App control in the list of custom control and thought of giving it a try. So, let’s see how to go about it.

Steps to perform

1. You would need a new field to be created in CRM that can hold the App Id
2. Add that field on the form where you want to show the App
3. Click on “Change Properties” for that field and navigate to Custom Control’s tab
4. Click on “Add Control”
5. Look for Canvas app (preview) and click add
6. Make sure you select Canvas App under Web
7. Now click on “Customize” button – this should open PowerApp studio so you can create your App. As soon as you save the App, App Id will auto-populate in the App ID field on the custom control.

Things to note in the PowerApp

• You get a control called “ModelDrivenFormIntegration” in the PowerApp that supplies the CRM entity context for that particular record – making this PowerApp CRM entity context aware.
• By default it loads with a Gallery control which will have the data populated from this ModelDrivenFormIntegration control.
• Currently, the custom control is only available on “Web”.
• PowerApps can be CRM solution aware and can be deployed from one environment to another but with this type of PowerApp we were having issues (explained below).
• These feature is currently in preview mode only.

Deployment issue encountered with this particular type of PowerApp

We deployed this particular PowerApp from “DEV” to “TEST” via CRM solution using new admin interface. And as the App Id changes from environment to environment we changed the App Id on the field in TEST pointing to the correct App. We also had to change the connection inside PowerApp to point to TEST. After doing all these settings the PowerApp did not work in TEST environment.