Solutions in Power Platform

[@BulbDigital]

What gets in your way when using Solutions?

[@jasonwojcik]

If it's not me, it's my idiot users.

[@Krinabr]

Great video, very useful and well explained! Maybe you have already fixed this in newer videos, but I do just to give feedback on that I do think the background music in this is a bit too loud. I like it having music, but right now I think it steals focus a bit too much :)

[@BulbDigital]

Thanks for the advice! We appreciate it 😊

[@jasonwojcik]

this is a great video on solutions, thank you for putting this together!

[@leokearns1221]

Sweet. Must try this. Also what a happy presenter. Well explained.

[@BulbDigital]

We appreciate the kind words! Thanks!

[@LauraLuisaRosenberg]

What security role do I need to export/ important my solution? Environment Maker or System Customizer?

[@BulbDigital]

Hey Laura, if you're making Dataverse changes, you'll need System Customizer, though you can get pretty far with Maker otherwise.

[@LauraLuisaRosenberg]

@@BulbDigital What does it mean I can get pretty far with Maker. is there a rule like this is possible with maker, this not anymore? and thank you for your reply :)

[@BulbDigital]

Sorry for being unclear - you can import/export solutions with Maker as long as there aren't Dataverse entities (as far as we understand). As soon as you want to import/export Dataverse entities, you'll need System Customizer.

[@Loves-f3y]

Hi Dork :) When you remove the environment variable prior to export - so that you can update it upon import - is this still considered a managed export?

[@BulbDigital]

What's up dork 😆 It's possible I'm misunderstanding the question, so let me know if this doesn't answer it. You'll leave the environment variable itself within the solution to include it in the export, but you'll empty the value. When you remove the value prior to exporting the solution, you'll be prompted to fill it in upon import. Your solution is still imported as managed without unmanaged layers. Mike has a couple videos that detail environment variables in more depth than I did - check out the "Pro Tip" section on his video Harnessing Environment Variables and he'll walk through what I've described above, I think this will help answer your question! kzbin.info/www/bejne/q5rGfZZ9rMqYis0&si=xLeoQKVpcSqyZsaj

[@travis570]

Great video with a great presenter.

[@BulbDigital]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@ianalexandertorres6189]

If i create a database needed for the solution, does it have a cost?

[@BulbDigital]

It depends on licensing requirements for the database - if you are planning to use tables in Dataverse (the back end of the Power Platform), you will need a license to support this; Microsoft has documentation about it here (learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/pricing-billing-skus). There are other options outside of the Power Platform (such as SQL) which may have additional costs associated to them. Mike has a few videos about the costs tied to Dataverse that you may find helpful. His first video discusses moving from SharePoint to Dataverse (kzbin.info/www/bejne/gmGwiXqBhL5jZrc) and the second one focuses on Dataverse and Model Driven Apps (kzbin.info/www/bejne/j4XZh6SDjrqmadU).

[@ec9030]

Neat explanation. Currently studying for my PL100/200s and this was a good supplement for the course I'm already taking.

[@BulbDigital]

Best of luck! Glad that the video could help!

[@ThreeDigitIQ]

How do you share environment variables with other users? In my solution I created environment variables and the other users in my solution cannot see or edit them. I also cannot see or edit environment variables they have created.

[@BulbDigital]

This sounds like a permissions issue; environment variables are stored in a team / user owned table. If you have the appropriate permissions or security role in the environment, you should be able to fix this by adjusting users' roles or table permissions - check out this Microsoft article for details on how to resolve this: learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-apps/maker/data-platform/environmentvariables#security Let us know if that helps!

[@HilaryBridelVK2IUW]

Nice explanation. Thank you. How do you update / patch / upgrade a managed solution after making changes in the unmanaged solution?

[@BulbDigital]

You can do this just like a normal import and it'll identify the solution you're looking to upgrade - in the unmanaged version, publish all customizations, then export the solution as managed and import it into the destination environment! It should look similar to what the video shows; the import pane will help guide you through any necessary customizations like new, empty environment variables.