FluentUI granular imports

Microsoft FluentUI (the ex Office UI Fabric) is often used to develop PCF components, since the controls have a very similar look and feel with the out of the box controls. But take care how you import it in your modules! Some examples in the documentation are importing the controls like this: Of course, there...

pac pcf version strategy

Build a PCF release solution, with just one command from VSCode, using the new option of the pac cli: "pac pcf version --strategy"

Features of a Dataset PCF – Multiple datasets

This is the third part of my blog about the dataset PCF features. The other ones are: Seamless integration, Extensibility. Multiple datasets in one PCF This one I didn't expect in the first place. But it was the comment that I've saw in the manifest, when I made my first dataset PCF: That's a wonderful...

Features of a Dataset PCF – Extensibility

This is the second part of my blog about the dataset PCF features. The other ones are: Seamless integration, Multiple datasets Dataset <property-set> A dataset PCF has another nice feature: allows you to define properties inside the dataset. This attribute doesn't have to be in the view itself, the framework will add this attribute at...

Features of a Dataset PCF – seamless integration

Lately I come to design a PCF dataset component, where I needed two datasets for the same component. I've googled and searched all the blogs that I knew, but couldn't find what I needed (maybe I just missed the right one). So I made some research. I'll try to put together what I've found out...

Can PCFs communicate?

A PCF component is isolated in a sandbox. It gets a piece of the document (a div) where it can play, and it's allowed to report when the value(s) changed. That's it. I totally understand that the components has to be in "isolation", but what if they need to "tell" more? Platform way: Communication through...

PCF: getOutputs

The getOutputs method of the PCF components seems pretty self-explaining: (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/developer/component-framework/reference/control/getoutputs) It is called by the framework prior to a component receiving the new data. Returns an object based on nomenclature defined in manifest, expecting objects[s] for the property marked as bound or output. I was a little unsure about the possibility of PCF components to set the...

PCF Solution Packaging: Unmanaged for Production (Release)

Usually I use React for my PCF components, and am I aware that there is a big difference between the debug and the production bundling, which can have a big performance impact. So I tried to be a good developer and deliver the right solution for production. But this time I needed an unmanaged solution,...

PCF: Caching

When writing PCF components, the Framework already provides the metadata for the component and the properties defined in the manifest. For instance for an OptionSet control, we get all the available options. And that's already a great advantage compared with a plain HTMLWebResource. But sometimes that's not enough. Maybe you need related data that won't...

PCF: When is updateView called?

When we have a PCF component, it's important to know when updateView will be called, in order to take care about performance. So when is updateView called? In the documentation is stated: "This method will be called when any value in the property bag has changed. This includes field values, data-sets, global values such as...