My top 3 features in 2020 Release Wave 1
Finally, the release notes are published and I'm more than happy to go through them.
You can find them on the Docs pages below:
After a quick first read, I wanted to make my favorites list and choose the top 3 features that caught my attention in this release.
Let's start with the countdown!
3. Save is always visible in the command bar on edit forms
Customers using model-driven Power Apps will see the Save and Save & Close option on the out-of-box entity command bar when editing a record. Before this release, if the auto save option was turned on, both options were hidden and not available in the command bar. The save option was only visible in the footer.
Microsoft Docs
Really a small addition, but it makes out lives so easier. I stopped counting the requests that included adding the save button on the ribbon at all times. This is definitely one of the most requested features by the customers in the past years.
It will save us a lot of time and make us use Ribbon Workbench for more complex stuff than adding the Save button all around.
2. Modern solution import experience
In addition to supporting capabilities of classic solution import, the modern experience offers the following enhancements:
- You're now able to create and authorize the connections required by your flows so that they're created in a working state
- Set environment variable values required by other components in your solution
- Reduced complexity when choosing from import actions
- Accessibility
Microsoft Docs
Old solution import really needed an upgrade since nowadays we have a ton of new stuff that we can put inside and configure. Flows are a great example because at the moment our Flows are not working straight away when we import them to the environment. I hope that with the new experience we will set all the configurations and connections before publishing the final changes so we can run them straight after the import.
Setting the connections after the import to the new environment is the most annoying part for me today so this one makes me quite happy.
1. Web APIs for CRUD operations on Common Data Service entities
The liquid tags in portals today provide read-only capability. Creating, updating, and deleting operations require using UI components like entity list and entity forms. This feature adds Web APIs for portals that allow users to create, read, update, and delete operations across all Common Data Service entities.
Microsoft Docs
I'm 100% sure that all the Portal guys out there are so excited. We all know how Portals didn't provide us an easy way to do a bit more complex operations other than simple creates and updates. With this feature, we can finally do some crazy magic like we are used to doing on classic forms on our applications. No more hacks to perform such straightforward actions anymore, but in the end, I must admit that I still love some Liquid hacks out there only because it just shows that imagination has no limits.
Nice addition to this one should be a support for PCF controls in the near future, maybe in the next release, so we can truly push the Portal forms to the next level.
Final thoughts
There is more interesting stuff in the release notes, but those 3 I mentioned up there stick to my mind on the first read. Since we can't try any of those we can only hope that we will get the expected result as soon as they become available.
I'm also sure that there are already some hidden gems in this release and that we will find them out in the following days. Until then it's time to study the given Docs even more!