We will understand the key upgrades in Release 2022 Wave 2 upgrades for Power App & Power Automate. Before we start, make sure to subscribe to CRM Crate so that you can stay up to date in the field of Power Platform.
Release 2022 Wave 2 key upgrades for Power Apps
Feature 1 – Grid control support for grouping, aggregation, nested grids
We can now be more productive in the grid by being able to access related records without leaving the grid and by getting meaningful insights into your data through grouping and aggregation capabilities.
Below are the capabilities of this feature rolled out in the Release 2022 Wave 2.
Customizable cells
If the default visualization for the cells in one or more columns doesn’t meet your needs, makers can create custom cell renderers and editors to modify how cells look when showing data and when users are editing data
Inline editing within views and subgrids
In addition to being available for read-only scenarios, this control can also be used as an editable grid. When editing is enabled by the maker, users can be more productive by making edits directly in the grid instead of having to make changes in the corresponding form.
Infinite scrolling
Users no longer need to page to see more records. Instead, users can continue scrolling to get to the row(s) they are interested in. The grid can be configured to use paging buttons instead by the maker if desired.
Viewing data in nested grids
Expand a row to see a grid of related records. Multiple rows in the grid can be expanded simultaneously.
Aggregation
Get meaningful insights into tabular data by enabling aggregation on one or more numeric columns in a grid. For each column, users can choose to see the total, minimum value, maximum value, or average of values from that column. If grouping has been applied to the group, then this aggregate value will also be displayed for each group.
Grouping
Organize tabular data in interesting ways by grouping the data based on one column. Each group of rows can then be expanded and collapsed as desired.
Feature 2 – Filter grid data, save results as view
The following usability enhancements to grids in model-driven apps allow you to be more productive when you’re exploring data ad-hoc:
- The placeholder text in grid search is updated to filter by keyword which indicates how it can be used.
- When you filter by keyword, you can save the quick find filter conditions as a personal view.
- When Dataverse search is enabled, invalid queries, such as searches that begin with an asterisk are blocked.
Feature 3 – Modern advanced find turned on by default
With modern advanced find, you can access any table in a model-driven app through search and use advanced filters to explore the data easily. Below are the applications present in the Modern Advance Find.
- Explore any table in a model-driven app through structured search and filters.
- Edit columns and filter data and construct views that will help you apply the right lens to your data.
- Search for a view and easily find the view that you’re looking for with the enhanced view selector.
- Managing views is simpler with personalization options that let you build your own set of views. You can hide views and order them differently. Your personalized view list travels with you across all apps and devices both in online mode and in offline mode.
- Collaborate with your team by sharing views easily and managing the views shared with you.
Feature 4 – Power BI quick reports in Power Apps
This capability to enable Power BI quick report visualization on a table on an existing app is generally available. All new apps have this capability enabled by default, with the app setting still available for makers to disable.
Below are the capabilities with the new Visualize this view option on all grid pages rolled out in Release 2022 Wave 2.
- Create a Power BI quick report, starting from a view with just one button-click. The Power BI service generates visuals and a layout intelligently based on the underlying data.
- Create a Power BI quick report, starting from a view with just one button-click. The Power BI service generates visuals and a layout intelligently based on the underlying data.
- Save the Power BI report to a workspace of your choice, so you can access it anytime and customize it for your needs.
Feature 5 – View form updates to command bar, business process flow, header, and tabs
Makers can now build complex multi-entity forms that support highly productive experiences in model-driven apps. They can work on related records with additional capabilities without leaving the larger context where the form component control is added.
Form component will support rendering model-driven app forms that can be used on another form, or easily added to other pages including dashboards and views in modeldriven apps. Users will be able to configure command bar, business process flows, show or hide tabs, and form header.
Feature 6 – Model-driven app client toasts moved to the toast stack
This feature improves the user experience by using a single location for all toast notifications. With the in-app notification feature, we introduced a toast stack in the upper-corner of model-driven apps. When in-app notification is enabled for an app, both the in-app notification toasts and the client toasts are shown in the unified toast stack. With this release, we’re moving the client-side toasts (like quick create View Record) from the lower center to the toast stack.
Feature 7 – Use Teams chat with others in app
Now we can start multiple Teams chats with anyone else who is working on the same record without leaving your app. You can easily find existing chats related to a record or start a new one with anyone else who is working on the same record. All chats are shown in a side-panel on the right. The chats are tracked as chat activities in the timeline and activities views.
This feature will be available in preview for all stand-alone model-driven apps.
Feature 8 – Dataverse tables integrated inside Power Apps Studio
Everyone will be able to easily get started with Microsoft Dataverse using a familiar, tablecentric experience directly within the Power Apps, including a fresh onboarding experience for new makers.
This feature provides the below given capabilities.
- Familiar table experiences in Power Apps, app designers, other Power Platform products, and within Microsoft Teams.
- Dataverse will also support Power Fx calculated columns, making a much wider audience of citizen developers able to build powerful tables.
- New makers are guided with the experience of how Power Apps works through examples while building their first app that uses Dataverse data.
Feature 9 – Easily configure mobile offline for modern converged apps
The offline capability for custom pages helps further enable mobile scenarios. Modern converged applications have basic offline capabilities for custom pages. Custom pages have offline capabilities for all data types except files and images.
Using the new offline infrastructure built for model-driven apps, the offline capabilities include incremental syncing, network detection, and data that persists across sessions. Updated UI to manage the offline profile (a specification of which tables and what filters are used) accompanies this feature. Offline profiles can be auto generated based on the tables currently in the application or you can use a previously created profile.
Feature 10 – Connect to external data from Dataverse
Connect existing data sources, such as SQL Server, Excel file, or Microsoft List with Microsoft Dataverse and interact with that external data as if it’s part of Dataverse.
Microsoft Dataverse has supported virtual tables for a long time. They’re extremely powerful but can be difficult to set up. With this release, you’ll be able to create tables in Dataverse that surface external data by leveraging simple connections to find the external data. For example, a Dataverse table with data from an Excel workbook in OneDrive or a SQL Server in Azure.
Depending on the connection, a table will be automatically generated with the correct schema and integration. You can do all this through a simple wizard in Power Apps, which gives you as much control as you need over configuring the details while creating the Dataverse table.
Feature 11 – Custom pages are responsive by default with rich layouts
Custom pages brought the power and control of canvas apps to the model-driven world. Custom pages are now being extended to introduce more tools to support makers creating responsive layouts quickly while still maintaining the precision of canvas apps.
options.
Below are the capabilities of this feature.
- Responsive layout templates: Choose from a selection of rich responsive layouts for rapid, responsive custom page development.
- Easy layout configuration: Easily move controls from one responsive section to another in layouts and maintain the control and precision of canvas app development.
- Multiple form factor support: Support desktop, mobile and other form factors automatically with a single custom page just as you are accustomed to with modeldriven apps.
Feature 12 – View your colleague’s presence
You can now view your colleague’s picture and online presence by default in all modeldriven apps. This feature will be available in the record owner field, grids where users are shown, and lookup controls that show user information.
For the release, this feature will be in general availability. Previously, this feature was only available in preview, and it needed to be enabled in your environment settings.
Release 2022 Wave 2 key upgrades for Power Automate
Feature 1 – Improvements to the flow sharing experience
Microsoft has added more capabilities to improve how you can share flows with others. For example, this feature allows you to send someone a flow using a shareable link, or you can share flows by sending them in a Teams message to a person, group, or channel.
Also, you can include a personalized message to the person/group with whom you’re sharing a flow. In this message, you can specify why you’re sharing the flow, what it does, if you want them to collaborate with you or take any action on it, and so on.
Feature 2 – Improvements to the flow sharing experience
This feature provides greater data privacy and data protection when using Power Automate. Customers can use their own encryption keys that reside in their Azure Key Vault to encrypt all customer data Power Automate uses. Internally, Power Automate builds on many Azure services, including Logic Apps, Azure Storage, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Cognitive Search, and more. No matter where the data is saved, it’ll now be completely encrypted using these keys. Customers are also able to use different keys on different Power Platform environments.
Feature 3 – Improvements to the OData editor in cloud flows
This feature provides easier filtering in actions like the SharePoint Get Items action that previously required OData syntax.
With this new feature, cloud flow actions hide the OData syntax by default, making it easier to filter items without in-depth knowledge. Makers can switch between basic and advanced mode. Advanced makers can still use the OData syntax if they choose. This feature will first be available in the Get Items action for the SharePoint Online connector.
Feature 4 – Support for sequential approvals in Power Automate
This feature allows users to create more complex approval workflows within Microsoft Teams and using Power Automate flows.
With this feature, makers can define multiple levels/stages in an approval flow from within Microsoft Teams or from within Power Automate. Makers can define who needs to approve a flow at different levels/stages. The approval request goes to the next level/stage after all the approvers in a previous stage approve the flow. If someone rejects the flow at any stage, it’s considered rejected, and it isn’t passed on to subsequent stages. All approvers can see the history of the approvals at each stage and the outcome.
Feature 5 – The Parse JSON action now handles null objects
Customers often use Power Automate to read data from a variety of formats, including JSON. This feature unblocks customers who encounter null values in the JSON parsing action.
Currently, cloud flows don’t handle null values in the Parse JSON action. For example, if you want to parse a JSON object, and you specify multiple fields in the JSON schema, you’ll get an error if one of those fields isn’t present in the parsed JSON object. When the Parse JSON action encounters a null object, it’s difficult for users to troubleshoot and requires makers to explicitly handle null values in their flows.
In 2022 release wave 2, Microsoft will add support to handle null values in the Parse JSON action. Makers will no longer receive an error message that states that the “Schema Validation failed” if there are nulls in their JSON.
Feature 6 – Greater control over connection reference creation and reuse
Connection references are an important cornerstone of the application lifecycle management (ALM) process for solution flows. This feature gives more control to cloud flow authors when creating and reusing connection references during flow creation.
Currently, when you create flows, the connection references are automatically created or reused. This automatic creation can result in the use of connection references in other solutions and the creation of connection references in the wrong solution. In 2022 release wave 2, cloud flow authors will have greater control over connection reference creation and selection.
Feature 7 – Improved experience for editing expressions
With the new expression editor, you can now build multiline expressions and add dynamic values without having to switch tabs. This feature makes it much easier to build richer expressions in the provided editing experience.
Feature 8 – Improved experience for selecting dynamic values
This upgrade allow users to easily interact with dynamic value picker on the designer. With this feature, users will have an improved dynamic values token picker experience while they build their flows. With the new dynamic values token picker, they’ll be able to view the datatype of the tokens to avoid potential runtime errors. The token picker view pops open to the bottom of the card rather than drift on the side for a better user experience.
Feature 9 – Improved experience for selecting dynamic values
The new version of the Power Automate mobile app for iOS provides an updated, modern experience for users on their iPhones. This experience aligns the mobile app with the Power Automate website experience. Users can receive notifications, trigger instant flows on the go, and create widgets (shortcuts to trigger instant flows from the home screen on their mobile home screen). You can view your list of approvals more quickly with the new design, too. The fast rollout of new features and updates will be supported as well.
