ALM Accelerator for Power Platform: Advanced Maker Experience

Demo: Advanced Maker Experience in the ALM Accelerator
Interested in optimizing your Power Platform solutions? Watch the demo video to learn more about the Advanced Maker Experience using the ALM Accelerator for Power Platform, a tool designed to streamline solution management and deployment.

Configuring Advanced Maker Settings

To enable the advanced maker experience in the ALM Accelerator app, you need to configure the User Functions settings. This allows for smoother control over how solutions are managed, imported, deployed, and updated.

Here’s how you can configure key settings:

In addition to function configuration, setting up User Labels enhances clarity:

Walk-through: Advanced Maker Experience

To start, install the ALM Accelerator administration app, which lets administrators configure and manage the maker experience. The steps below outline how to begin with the advanced maker experience.

Starting the ALM Accelerator Advanced Maker Experience

1. Open the ALM Accelerator: Navigate to Apps > ALM Accelerator for Power Platform.
2. Create Connections: When prompted, create connections and grant consent.
3. Entra Connection Setup: If prompted, set the Base Resource URL and Azure AD Resource URI to https://graph.microsoft.com.
4. Choose Environment: On first use, select an environment. The app will remember your selection for future sessions.
5. View Unmanaged Solutions: A list of unmanaged solutions will appear. Based on your user deployment settings, the following options will be available:
   • Commit Solution: Commits changes made to your solution to version control, triggering the creation of deployment pipelines.
   • Deploy Solution: Moves the solution across environments.
   • Choose a Profile: Configures deployment options (organization, repository, branch).
   • Delete Solution: Removes the solution; it can be re-imported from source control.
   • Import Solution: Imports unmanaged solutions into your environment from source control.
   • Request History: View all commits and deployments associated with a solution.

Selecting a Deployment Profile for a Solution

Creating or importing a solution in Power Apps or from Azure DevOps is the first step. After this, select a deployment profile to configure where and how your solution is deployed.

1. Import Solution: Select Import Solution, then configure:
   • Profile: Points to an Azure DevOps organization and project.
   • Solution Source: Select the branch containing the solution.
   • Solution Folder: Choose a folder containing your exported solution.
   • Configuration: (Optional) Add deployment settings to ensure necessary post-import configurations.
2. After configuration, select Save to associate the profile with the solution. If you’re an admin, you can create profiles directly, or contact your admin to make one available.

Configuring the Solution for Deployment

Once a profile is set up, the next step is configuring the solution for deployment:

1. Deployment Environment List: Select the environment where the solution will be deployed. This list reflects the environments available based on the deployment profile.
2. Connection References: Configure connections in downstream environments to match the target environment.
   • To create a connection, select +, then Refresh to update the list.
3. Environment Variables: Set values for environment variables, ensuring the correct configurations for string, number, or JSON variables. For data sources, select the appropriate data source for downstream environments.
4. Canvas Apps: Share apps with downstream environments using a Microsoft Entra group. Configure sharing permissions to either View, Edit, or Share.
5. Group Teams: Set up Dataverse Teams for sharing flows and custom connectors. Create new teams, assign AAD Groups, and configure security roles.
6. Flows: Manage flow settings, including the owner, sharing with Dataverse Teams, activation status, and flow order. Activate parent flows before child flows to maintain sequence dependencies.
7. Custom Connectors: Configure sharing for custom connectors in downstream environments using Dataverse Teams.

Committing and Deploying the Solution

Once configuration is complete, it’s time to commit and deploy your solution:

1. Commit Solution: Before committing, ensure any app changes are published. Enter a commit comment (using hashtag notation to link work items in Azure DevOps, e.g., #123) and select Prepare Solution.
   • Once the commit succeeds, monitor the status through progress indicators, which link to the Azure DevOps pipeline.
2. Deploy Solution: When ready to deploy, select Deploy Solution. Depending on your permissions, you can specify advanced settings (source/target branches, pull request details). If you lack these permissions, select the target environment directly.
3. Approval and Execution: If a pull request is required, the approval and merge process occurs in Azure DevOps. For direct environment deployments, the pipeline is triggered automatically.

Deployment to Production

For production environments, you can either:

• Select Advanced Settings and specify the main branch for deployment.
• Create a pull request directly in Azure DevOps, tagging it with solution-upgrade to initiate the process.

Final Thoughts and Recommended Resources

The ALM Accelerator allows for a streamlined, automated deployment process that aligns with best practices for managing Power Platform solutions. By incorporating tools like Azure DevOps and managing dependencies through NuGet, you can ensure a more efficient, secure, and reliable ALM strategy.

Microsoft Resources to explore further:

• ALM Accelerator Documentation
• Azure DevOps CI/CD
• NuGet Package Manager

By leveraging these resources, you can further enhance your Power Platform solutions with confidence and precision.