Originally announced in March, Power Fx aims to bring the low-code approach of Canvas Apps to model-driven apps and the Microsoft Dataverse.
The initial introduction of Power Fx outlined what would be achievable, but yesterday’s announcement at Microsoft Build 2021 added further details of its scope.
Adding custom commands to model-driven apps
Typically, if you wanted to customise the command ribbon in a model-driven app (as seen in the example below for the Case table), a significant amount of knowledge of either JavaScript or third-party tools was required.
However, Power Fx will allow for a new low-code approach based on Excel to be used to quickly and easily create new custom functionality directly in a web browser:
In the above example, the new Nurture Program button is being used to automatically create a Task against an Opportunity, with specific details prepopulated. This quick example illustrates what will be possible and will already be familiar to those who have been building Canvas Apps.
Dataverse Calculated Columns
Due for a public preview release in June 2021, creating new calculated and rollup columns will soon become a lot more intuitive and flexible. Gone will be the old, limited editor and in comes a new Power Fx experience, which will not only make it easier to create new calculated/rollup columns, but will expand the range of functions available.
It will be interesting to see if the existing limitations around calculated/rollup columns will still be apparent when the public preview is released.
Summary
The upcoming functionality of Power Fx is certainly something to look forward to, both for experienced Dataverse and Power Platform developers, but also for ‘Citizen Developers’, business users with little or no coding experience, wanting to build new or expand upon existing business applications. As more details of Power Fx are released in due course, we will of course issue further updates.
For Microsoft’s introduction to Power Fx, click here.
