Latest Power Platform CLI Updates - Oct/Nov Roundup

Power Platform Command Line Interface: October/November Updates Microsoft excited to announce the new updates released in Power Platform CLI October and November updates. There are a number of improvements that we have made for you, our developer community, and we want to share with you to help overcome roadblocks and make process enhancements. The development team, our PM team, and I are thankful for your continued support.

In the previous release of Power Platform CLI, new features such as pac canvas list and pac canvas download were introduced for .msapp files. Now, there's an added option --extract-to-directory, which allows for extracting a Canvas app to a specified folder. This offers more flexibility in handling your Canvas .msapp files.

Power Platform CLI Updates

The Power Platform CLI has been updated with several new features and improvements in October and November 2023. These updates are designed to make the CLI more user-friendly, powerful, and efficient for developers working with Power Platform.

These updates to the Power Platform CLI significantly enhance its capabilities and user experience, making it a more powerful and versatile tool for developers working with Power Platform. Developers can now manage localized content, extract template files, push Power Fx components, register and unregister applications, extract data from Canvas apps, utilize Power Fx aliases, deploy solutions, use long path names, improve security token management, detect data import failures, control environment access with security groups, and deploy solutions with solution files.

• Extract and Merge Files with Localized Content for Power Virtual Agent Bots
  The CLI now supports extracting and merging files with localized content for Power Virtual Agent bots. This includes extracting files from one bot and merging them into another bot, or extracting files from a bot and saving them to a local directory.
• Extract Template File from Existing Bot
  The CLI can now extract a template file from an existing Power Virtual Agent bot. This allows developers to easily share and reuse bot templates.
• Push Power Fx Component Using Unique Solution Name
  The CLI can now push a Power Fx component using the unique name of the solution, instead of requiring the publisher ID and prefix. This makes it easier to manage Power Fx solutions.
• Register and Unregister Applications
  The CLI now supports registering and unregistering applications using the
  pac admin application register and pac admin application unregister commands. This eliminates the need to use PowerShell for these tasks.

• Extract Data from Canvas Apps
  The CLI can now extract data from Canvas apps using the pac canvas download command. This allows developers to easily export data from their apps.
• Use Alias for Power Fx Commands
  The CLI now supports using an alias for Power Fx commands using the pac pfx repl command. This makes it easier to invoke Power Fx REPL.
• Deploy Solutions Using Package Deployer
  The CLI now supports deploying solutions using the pac package deploy command. This allows developers to deploy solutions to environments without having to manually create and manage deployments.
• Use Long Path Names in Power Platform CLI on Windows
  The CLI now supports long path names in Power Platform CLI on Windows. This allows developers to use longer paths for files and directories.
• Improve Security Token Cache in Pac Auth
  The security token cache in Pac Auth has been improved to better handle edge cases. This should prevent issues with token expiration and renewal.

• Fix Data Import Failure Not Returning Non-Zero Return Code
  The CLI now returns a non-zero return code if a data import fails. This makes it easier for developers to detect and diagnose data import failures.
• Support Security Groups in Pac Admin Create
  The pac admin create command now supports specifying a security group ID when creating an environment. This allows administrators to control access to environments.
• Use --solution Argument in Package Deployer
  The pac package deploy command now supports the --solution argument. This allows developers to deploy solutions to environments using a solution file, instead of having to create and manage deployments manually.

Read the full article Power Platform Command Line Interface: October/November Updates

 

What is Power Platform CLI?

Microsoft Power Platform CLI (Command Line Interface) is a simple, one-stop developer CLI that empowers developers and ISVs to perform various operations in Microsoft Power Platform related to:

• Environment management: Create, manage, and delete Power Platform environments.
• Resource management: Create, manage, and delete Power Platform resources such as applications, flows, and data sources.
• Deployment: Deploy Power Platform solutions to environments.
• Code generation: Generate code from Power Platform models and resources.
• Testing: Test Power Platform solutions.
• Continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD): Integrate Power Platform with CI/CD pipelines.

Power Platform CLI supports both inner loop and outer loop development. Inner loop development is where you use the CLI to automate tasks within your development process, such as building, testing, and deploying solutions. Outer loop development is where you use the CLI to integrate Power Platform with your CI/CD pipeline, so that your solutions can be automatically deployed to production. Power Platform CLI is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It can be installed from the Microsoft Power Platform CLI website or the Azure CLI command-line tool.

Here are some of the benefits of using Power Platform CLI:

• Increased productivity: Automate tedious tasks, such as creating and managing environments, deploying solutions, and generating code.
• Improved consistency: Ensure that your development and deployment processes are consistent and repeatable.
• Enhanced collaboration: Share development tasks and code with other developers using the CLI.
• Simplified CI/CD integration: Integrate Power Platform with your CI/CD pipeline using the CLI.

Overall, Power Platform CLI is a powerful tool for developers and ISVs who want to streamline their development and deployment processes for Microsoft Power Platform solutions.

Here are some examples of how Power Platform CLI can be used:

• Automate the creation of new Power Platform environments for each development project.
• Deploy Power Platform solutions to production environments with a single command.
• Generate code from Power Platform models and resources to improve development efficiency.
• Integrate Power Platform with your CI/CD pipeline to automate deployments to production.

If you are a developer or ISV who is looking for ways to improve your productivity and efficiency with Microsoft Power Platform, I encourage you to learn more about Power Platform CLI.

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