Continued platform unification across PowerApps and Dynamics 365 – Look behind the scenes!

Few months back, we took the first step of unifying PowerApps and Dynamics 365 platforms. We continued our unification efforts as mentioned by Ryan here.

With the initial launch, every CDS database provisioned there was a CDS Management package installed, as displayed below in a screen shot from Dynamics 365 admin center.

The key purpose of this package was to add specific role (Environment Maker role) and user account (Business Application Platform Service account) which were needed to make the expereince seamless across PowerApps and Dynamics 365.

With our latest efforts, on the unification across Dynamics 365 and PowerApps, these roles and permissions come inbuilt by default. Now, there is no need to install the CDS Management package, improving the performance and reliability of the CDS database provisioning. This is how the integration works without needing the package.

1.       Environment Maker role: This was a new role introduced at the time of our CDS for Apps launch, back in Mar’18. Any user needing the capability of creating canvas-based apps and flows in the environment needs to have Environment Maker role assigned to them. The role is displayed in Dynamics 365 admin center for the environments which have a database:

Now, this role is available by default in all the CDS database instances (even without installing the CDS Management Package).

2.       Business Application Platform Service account: This was a system user which operates on behalf of the user to perform the specific operations on CDS.

With the latest updates, there is no more need of this user account hence, we have got rid of this user being added to the environment (with CDS database instance). 

Keep a watch on more updates coming in CDS database provisioning…

Thanks

CDS for Apps team.