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Microsoft Power Platform Updates: What's New in Spring 2022
Power Apps Updates
Modern App Designer
The new modern app designer is now generally available:
Key Features:
- Unified design experience
- Real-time collaboration
- Component libraries
- Responsive design tools
- Git integration preview
Power Fx Enhancements
New functions and capabilities:
// New ParseJSON function
Set(userData, ParseJSON(jsonString));
userData.name // Access properties directly
// Enhanced error handling
IfError(
LookUp(Customers, ID = customerID),
Notify("Customer not found", NotificationType.Warning),
Navigate(CustomerDetails)
)
// Named formulas (preview)
userFullName = User().FullName;
currentDate = Today();
// Use anywhere in your app
Label.Text = userFullName
Dataverse Improvements
// Improved Dataverse operations
// Batch operations for better performance
ForAll(
Filter(Customers, Status = "Pending"),
Patch(Customers, ThisRecord, {Status: "Processed"})
)
// File and image columns
Patch(
Documents,
Defaults(Documents),
{
Name: "Report.pdf",
FileContent: UploadedFile.Content
}
)
Power Automate Updates
Cloud Flows
New triggers and actions:
{
"trigger": {
"type": "When_a_row_is_added_modified_or_deleted",
"inputs": {
"table": "accounts",
"scope": "Organization",
"filterRows": "statuscode eq 1",
"runAs": "Flow owner"
}
},
"actions": {
"Get_row": {
"type": "GetRow",
"inputs": {
"table": "accounts",
"rowId": "@triggerOutputs()?['body/accountid']"
}
},
"Condition": {
"type": "If",
"expression": {
"greater": ["@outputs('Get_row')?['body/revenue']", 1000000]
},
"actions": {
"Send_notification": {
"type": "SendEmailNotification",
"inputs": {
"to": "sales-team@company.com",
"subject": "High-value account updated",
"body": "Account @{outputs('Get_row')?['body/name']} has been updated."
}
}
}
}
}
}
Desktop Flows
Power Automate Desktop enhancements:
New Actions:
- PDF text extraction
- OCR improvements
- Excel macro execution
- SAP GUI automation
- Terminal emulator support
Performance:
- 40% faster execution
- Reduced memory usage
- Better error recovery
Process Advisor
AI-powered process mining:
# Process Advisor analyzes recorded processes
# and provides optimization recommendations
# Key metrics tracked:
# - Process duration
# - Variation analysis
# - Bottleneck identification
# - Automation opportunities
Power BI Updates
Enhanced Visualizations
// New DAX functions
EVALUATE
SUMMARIZECOLUMNS(
'Date'[Month],
'Product'[Category],
"Total Sales", [Total Sales],
"Running Total", CALCULATE(
[Total Sales],
FILTER(
ALL('Date'),
'Date'[Date] <= MAX('Date'[Date])
)
),
"YoY Growth", DIVIDE(
[Total Sales] - [Total Sales LY],
[Total Sales LY]
)
)
Deployment Pipelines
# CI/CD for Power BI
stages:
- development
- test
- production
deployment_rules:
- require_approval: production
- auto_bind_datasets: true
- preserve_workspace_users: true
Power Virtual Agents
Enhanced Bot Capabilities
# New conversation features
Topics:
- name: "Order Status"
trigger_phrases:
- "Where is my order"
- "Track my package"
- "Order status"
actions:
- type: "Question"
prompt: "What's your order number?"
variable: OrderNumber
- type: "Action"
flow: "Get Order Status"
inputs:
orderNumber: "{OrderNumber}"
- type: "Message"
content: "Your order {OrderNumber} is {OrderStatus}"
Power Automate Integration
{
"name": "GetOrderStatus",
"trigger": {
"type": "PowerVirtualAgents",
"inputs": {
"orderNumber": "@triggerBody()['orderNumber']"
}
},
"actions": {
"Query_Orders": {
"type": "Query",
"inputs": {
"table": "orders",
"filter": "ordernumber eq '@{triggerBody()['orderNumber']}'"
}
},
"Return_to_Bot": {
"type": "Response",
"inputs": {
"statusCode": 200,
"body": {
"orderStatus": "@{first(outputs('Query_Orders')?['body/value'])?['status']}"
}
}
}
}
}
Governance and Administration
Environment Management
# Power Platform Admin PowerShell
# New environment management capabilities
# Create environment with settings
New-AdminPowerAppEnvironment `
-DisplayName "Production" `
-Location "unitedstates" `
-EnvironmentSku "Production" `
-ProvisionDatabase $true `
-CurrencyName "USD" `
-LanguageName "English"
# Configure DLP policies
New-DlpPolicy `
-DisplayName "Default Policy" `
-DefaultConnectorClassification "Blocked" `
-Environments @("Production", "Test")
# Set business data connectors
Set-DlpPolicyConnectorConfigurations `
-PolicyName "Default Policy" `
-ConnectorConfigurations @(
@{
ConnectorId = "shared_sharepointonline"
Classification = "Business"
},
@{
ConnectorId = "shared_office365"
Classification = "Business"
}
)
Center of Excellence Starter Kit
# Updated CoE components
components:
- core:
- Environment inventory
- App inventory
- Flow inventory
- Connector audit
- governance:
- Compliance dashboard
- Adoption metrics
- License management
- nurture:
- Training tracking
- Community management
- Innovation hub
Best Practices
App Development
// Performance optimization
// Use delegation-friendly queries
Filter(
LargeDataset,
StartsWith(Name, TextInput.Text),
Status = "Active"
)
// Avoid:
// - Non-delegable functions on large datasets
// - Complex nested galleries
// - Unnecessary data loading
// Cache data appropriately
Set(CachedCustomers,
Filter(Customers, Region = userRegion)
);
Flow Design
best_practices:
error_handling:
- Use scopes for try-catch patterns
- Implement retry policies
- Log errors to central location
performance:
- Use pagination for large datasets
- Implement parallel branches
- Minimize API calls
maintainability:
- Use descriptive action names
- Add comments
- Create child flows for reuse
Conclusion
Spring 2022 brings substantial improvements to Power Platform:
- Enhanced development experience
- Better performance and scalability
- Improved governance tools
- Deeper AI integration
Whether you’re a citizen developer or professional developer, these updates make building business applications faster and more powerful.