Creating canvas apps as Dataverse solutions by default (preview)

We are excited to announce the public preview of canvas apps in Dataverse solutions by default.

Solutions are used to transport apps and components from one environment to another or to apply a set of customizations to existing apps. A solution can contain one or more apps as well as other objects such as site maps, tables, processes, web resources, choices, flows, and more. A solution and its objects are stored in Microsoft Dataverse. Solutions are also the key mechanism for implementing application lifecycle management (ALM) in the Power Platform. For more information about solutions, see Solutions overview, and application lifecycle management (ALM) guide

Unlike model-driven apps and most other objects, makers can optionally create their canvas apps outside of a solution and outside Dataverse. This can lead to unhealthy ALM practices, and create an overhead for DevOps teams and admins as they try to automate their ALM process.

With this feature, environment admins will be able to set citizen makers and developers in a healthy ALM ready state from day one by enabling canvas apps as Dataverse solutions by default for one or more environments.

Enable canvas apps creation as Dataverse  solutions by default 

Canvas apps in solutions by default feature is disabled by default. However, environment admins can enable this feature by going to environment advanced settings, Product Settings, and toggle the feature “Create new canvas apps in Dataverse by default”  to “On” to enable the feature.

Default behavior

By default, this feature saves all canvas apps to the default solution named Common Data Services  (CDS) Default Solution published by Microsoft Dataverse Default Publisher (see below). As a best practice, we recommend that makers create their canvas apps in custom solutions or move canvas apps created from the default solution to a custom solution to facilitate the management of solutions and establish a common standard across all environments.

As always, we would love to hear from you on how we could keep improving this feature. Please leave your feedback and comments on this post so that we can keep track of your comments and requests.

For more information about adding canvas apps in solution by default, see Add canvas apps to solution by default (preview).

See related:

Manage feature settings in a Power Platform environment

Implement healthy solution ALM with canvas apps in solution by default