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Power Apps component framework

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To be accessible by Power Apps makers, components in the Power Apps component framework must be packaged in a solution, exported, and then imported into a Power Apps environment with Dataverse. The following sections describe how to do this.

For more information about using ALM techniques with code components see Code components application lifecycle management (ALM).

Package and deploy a code component

This section describes how to import code components into Microsoft Dataverse so that the components are available to Power Apps makers.

After implementing the code components by using the Power Platform CLI, the next step is to pack all the code component elements into a solution file and import the solution file into Dataverse so that you can see the code components in the maker runtime experience.

To create and import a solution file:

  1. Create a new folder in the folder that has the cdsproj file, and name it Solutions (or any name of your choice) by using the CLI command  mkdir Solutions. Navigate to the directory by using the command cd Solutions.

  2. Create a new solution project by using the following command. The solution project is used for bundling the code component into a solution zip (compressed) file that's used for importing into Dataverse.

    pac solution init --publisher-name \<enter your publisher name\>
--publisher-prefix \<enter your publisher prefix\>

    Note

    The publisher-name and publisher-prefix values must be unique to your environment. More information: Solution publisher and Solution publisher prefix

  3. After the new solution project is created, refer the Solutions folder to the location where the created sample component is located. You can add the reference by using the command shown below. This reference informs the solution project about which code components should be added during the build. You can add references to multiple components in a single solution project.

    pac solution add-reference --path \<path to your Power Apps component framework project\>
```dotnetcli

  4. To generate a zip file from the solution project, go to your solution project directory and build the project by using the following command. This command uses the MSBuild program to build the solution project by pulling down the NuGet dependencies as part of the restore. Only use /restore the first time the solution project is built. For every build after that, you can run the command msbuild.

    msbuild /t:build /restore

    Tip

    • If MSBuild 15.9.* is not in the path, open Developer Command Prompt for Visual Studio 2017 to run the msbuild commands.
    • Building the solution in the debug configuration generates an unmanaged solution package. A managed solution package is generated by building the solution in release configuration. These settings can be overridden by specifying the SolutionPackageType property in the cdsproj file.
    • You can set the msbuild configuration to Release to issue a production build. Example: msbuild /p:configuration=Release
    • If you encounter an error that says "Ambiguous project name" when running the msbuild command on your solution, ensure that your solution name and project name aren't the same.

  5. The generated solution files are located in the \bin\debug\ (or \bin\release) folder after the build is successful.

  6. You can use the Microsoft Power Platform Build Tools to automate importing the solution into a Dataverse environment; otherwise, you can manually import the solution into Dataverse by using the web portal.

Additional tasks that you can do with the framework and solutions

Below are links to additional common tasks that you can do when working with the framework and solutions.

See also

Plug-ins