Microsoft Power Apps Portal integration with Dynamics 365 CE On-Premise

Hello,

It has been quite long since I did not post any guides with you.

Today, I am going to share a PoC of mine result with detailed screenshots as much as possible.

You will see how we can easily position Power Apps Portal in front of Dynamics 365 CRM ( CE ) Engine 9.x on-premise edition.

You are going to see following subjects in the study;

Solution generation for the scenario in Dynamics 365 CRM on-premise

Create Solution
Create Custom Entity
Add Existing entity to a custom solution
1:N relation
Form creation for Portal
visibilities for portal specific fields

Microsoft Common Data Service (Microsoft Dataverse) - an environment -creation
Solution generation for the scenario in Dynamics 365 CRM on-premise
Microsoft Power Apps Portal creation (Starter Portal) in the environment
Microsoft Dynamics 365 On-Premise customization for PoC Scenario implementation
Reflecting Dynamics 365 On-Premise solution to CDS (Microsoft Dataverse) - to the environment-
Aligning Microsoft Power Apps Portal with CDS customization (Power Apps Portal Web Form Steps instruction)
Microsoft On-premise gateway installation and configuration
Connection creation in the environment which is created above
Custom Connector for Portal and Dynamics 365 CE on-premise integration (Web Api Call)
Microsoft Flow data push to the Dynamics 365 CRM (CE) onpremise

You do not need to flow all steps within an order. It is easy to jump to a section where you are stuck or looking for a solution.

Prerequisities;

Power Apps subscription that include Microsoft Power Apps Portal, Microsoft Flow, CDS (Microsoft Dataverse) Environment
Dynamics 365 on-premise up and running
You should have necessary access rights for Power Platform Admin Center and Dynamics 365 CRM On-Premise Organization Customization section

Scenario:

Field service team who is not employee of organization, needs to create case in Dynamics 365 CE (CRM) on-premise.

I am going to implement turnkey solution by implementing all technolgoies that are mentioned before.

Expected operation

Field Service user should be able to open a form anonymously (no login to the protal)
Field Service user should be able to create a case with title, contact fullname, behalf Of ( keeps CRM user who is going to handle the issue ) and creates incident (custom entity which has 1-n relation with Case entity) so lookup field in case form.

High-Level Design;

Solution generation for the scenario in Dynamics 365 CRM on-premise
&
Microsoft Dynamics 365 On-Premise customization for PoC Scenario implementation

According to the scenario, We need to create custom entities and make 1-N with out of box Case entity. It makes the PoC to cover complex entities structure displaying in PowerApps Portal Page.

Open Internet Explorer or Google Chrome browser
Type url address of Dynamics CRM On-premise organization which will be used throughout the PoC.
Login to Dynamics 365 CRM Onpremise
Click arrow near the Sales in the Navigation Bar. Ribbon menu will be expanded then choose Settings> Solution (Under Customization section)
Click +New to create new solution
Fill Display Name, Choose Publisher, enter Version then click Save
Go to Entities TreeView Menu item and Click New for new custom entity.
New Pop-up windows will display, give Display Name, Plural Name and Name for the entity then tick Sales under "Areas that display this entity".
Click Publish
Go to Entities node then click "Add Existing" and find Case.
Select "Add All Assets" right upper top of the pop-up window after that click "Finish"
Go to 1:N relationships node under Entities>Incident then click "New 1-to-Many Relationship
Choose "Case" from "Related Entity" then fill "Display Name"

Please payy attention Name under Relationship Definition and Name under Lookup field for some best practice.
Click "Save and Close" to close the window.
As Case form is out-of-box entity, It comes with default form which is not proper for the PoC scenario. we need to keep form sample for easy understanding so need to create new form call "Case for Portal" so
Go to Forms node under Entities>Case>Forms then open "Case" form under Active Forms (System Forms) via double click.
Click "Save As" from menu
A pop-up window will display type "Case for Portal" then click OK and Save & Close respectively.
Double Click "Case for Portal" from list to Open it again
Add Incident field to the Summary tab from Field Explorer left (just drag and drop)
Set unnecessary fields invisible for portal : Case Title, Customer, Incident fields can be leave as visible (Sceenshot might be difference below no need to make it exactly same at your end.)
Double click to the field that you want to make it invisible
Click Ok> Save & Close to come back main Solution window
Click "Publish All" to apply all to the organization.
It is time to export the solution for CDS at Cloud ( We want to reflect the solution to the CDS in order to push data back through Microsoft Flow. Portal should keep all generated records in CDS for not CRM user view)
Click Information leaf in the left treeview. You are going to see "Export Solution" button in the ribbon (top of the page).
Click Solution Export
Dynamics 365 CRM on-premise will open export tool wizard Click Next to the first step.
Next again
Leave radiobox selection as is (unmanaged) then click export
Wait until Dynamics 365 CRM onpremise engine creates package, you are going to see zip file bottom of the pop-up window once solution package is ready.
CLose all browsers. Dynamics 365 CRM on-premise is ready for the journey

Microsoft Common Data Service (Microsoft Dataverse) - an environment -creation

Connect to https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com/environments through browser
Login the PowerPlatform Admin center with your valid subscription
Click + New to the Environments
Enter a name to the environment and Click Save from the recently displayed panel on the right
Provisioning may take some time so wait until State column of the new environment is Ready.
Close all browsers
Environment is ready to be used for Portal.

Reflecting Dynamics 365 On-Premise solution to CDS (Microsoft Dataverse) - to the environment-

Connect to https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com/environments through browser.
Click to the newly created environment name .

Environmet detail is going to be opened.

Click Environment URL to open environment . New tab is going to be opened.
Click "Dynamics 365 - Custom" under "Published Apps"

Environment main page will be opened
Click Gear icon in from top right of the window then Advanced Settingfrom the menu

A form within new tab will be opened.
Click arrow near the Settings in the Menu then choose Solutions under Customization
Click New

Enter Display Name, Publisher, Version then click save, Solution will be created.
Create Case entity with fields what we created before in Solution generation for the scenario in Dynamics 365 CRM on-premise & Microsoft Dynamics 365 On-Premise customization for PoC Scenario implementation section (The very first one) and implement instruction to environment from there.

Microsoft Power Apps Portal creation (Starter Portal) in the environment

Connect to PowerApps through Power Apps and login with your valid subscription
Make sure that you are connected to the correct environment what we created before.
Click "Portal from Blank" section from "make your own app"
Enter Name to portal and unique address (system is going to check availability - Change it where needed) then click create (portal name is an example and it will not be used in the guide anymore).

Portal Management (Common) and your portal apps are going to create acoordingly. it may take quite time. Please wait until provisioning are completed.

Continue with following section, no need to close browsers

Aligning Microsoft Power Apps Portal with CDS customization (Power Apps Portal Web Form Steps instruction)

Click Portal Management to open portal (you should use existing web page of the previous step)

New tab will open. Active Web Sites will be displayed

We are going to create
- Web Forms under "Home" Web Page under "Starter Portal" Web Sites
- Web Forms will have "Web Forms Steps" for staging (or wizard steps implementation)
Go to Web Forms from Content in the left section of the window (SAM Case Form will be used in the guide so you will see form update instead of form creation in folowing steps)

Enter Name, choose "Starter Portal" for Website Lookup and save it. Record will be created.
First page of the wizard should create. We can achieve it from "Start Step" lookup.
To do this
Click magnifying glass then choose + New Web Form Step from drop-down menu.
This is our Case form steps will collect incident and 1:N relations.
We are going to create
- Case Web Step Type of "Load Form"
- Conditional Web Step for Next Step
- 1:N look up selection as Load Form Type of Web Step
First Web Step: "Case Main Form"

Second Web Step: "Case Type";
Enter a name for the step, it will display in portal as a stage
Choose Condition as Type so Condition tab will appear
Choose Target Entity Logical Type where we are going to use a filed from in condition tab
Choose Next Step for the condition pass

Click Condition Tab for station rule . Choose Condition and select Next Fail Step.

Third Web Step: Incdent Lookup select in Case form
Create Web Form Step for Case entity

and display Portal Incident Lookup view of Case entity (It is custom form that has only Incident lookup field enabled).

When the Microsoft Power Apps Portal is loaded, Created records will be generated as a component by PowerApps engine.
Main Web Step Form

Incident Web Step (Condition that is bound to Form Type, sets Load Form of Incident as a next Step due to Web Step Condition)

Next Step field in Inceident Web Step will be called once user click next. It is Bind to Case Web Step

Lookup value is selected as seen below
Submit saves the form to the CDS (Microsoft Dataverse)

Microsoft On-premise gateway installation and configuration

Open the environment which is creted above from https://makes.powerapps.com
Then goto Gateways under Data
Click New gateway from the main section

You are going to be forwarded to https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads for On-Premise Data Gateway wizard download.
You have to install it to a Server/PC/Laptop which is accessible for Dynamics 365 On-Premise Organization.
Click downloaded file to start wizard and wait untill installation is completed

Sign in with an account which has proper rights on the environment. Emaill address and password need to enter

Choose first radio button for new registration then click Next

Fill gateway name and Recovery Key (any values but min 8 characters) by considering warning in the form. Click Configure for the final step

Choose a region or keep auto-selected value and click done

Wait until configuration completes, Click Close for wizard closure

Once the On-Premise data gateway wizard completes configuration you should be able to see Gateways in the Power Apps section of newly created environment.
Gateway builds a highly secure bridge from cloud into local machine and Dynamics 365 CRM on-premise as well since local machine can access the local Dynmacis CRM Front End server.

Double click the row to see gateway detail

Connection creation & Custom Connector for Portal and Dynamics 365 CE on-premise integration (Web Api Call)

Our scenario requires custom connector creation in order to push data to the Dynamcs 365 CRM in-premise through On-Premise Gateway.
It is used by Microsoft flow to be triggered automatically when a case record updates. We do not set a trigger to record creation since we have a 1-N relatd entity for case that is called Incident so First step User is going to create a case record then create an incident finally bind Incident to case .

Note: I have a case creation request for Dynamics 365 CE on-premise under a Postman collection. We are going to import it as a template.
Request :
{
"id": "110b8796-f20e-4773-a400-969ff71a82b1",
"name": "Case Creation",
"url": "{{webapiurl}}incidents",
"description": "",
"data": [],
"dataOptions": null,
"dataMode": "raw",
"headerData": [
{
"key": "Content-Type",
"value": "application/json",
"description": "",
"type": "text",
"enabled": true
}
],
"method": "POST",
"pathVariableData": [],
"queryParams": [],
"auth": {
"type": "ntlm",
"ntlm": [
{
"key": "domain",
"value": "<hiden>"
},
{
"key": "username",
"value": "<hiden>"
},
{
"key": "password",
"value": "<hiden>"
}
]
},
"events": [],
"folder": null,
"rawModeData": "{ \r\n\t\"title\":\"First Postman Case\", \r\n\t\"customerid_contact@odata.bind\":\"/contacts(4349D8CA-2C5B-EB11-9687-000D3A98AD7F)\" \r\n}",
"headers": "Content-Type: application/json\n",
"pathVariables": {}
}

Go to Custom Connectors under Data node of the environment that we created before.

Click to New custom connector from the right top menu of the form

Choose Import a Postman Collection from the menu item

A pop-up menu will be displayed. Enter a connector name and give postman collection path via Import button then click Continue

Power Apps is going to create connector and open the main form.
type Host as a IP address and choose http scheme
then click Security bottom of the General Information section

Choose Authentication type as "Windows authentication" then click Definition

Enter Summary, Desctiption and OperationId like Incident Creation as a name and IncidentCreation as an Operarion ID

Click Create connector to save it.

You can test it from Test tab

Connection will be there

Microsoft Flow data push to the Dynamics 365 CRM (CE) onpremise

Go to "Flows" item from Power Apps portal for new environment
Click "+ New Flow" from menu toolbar then click "Automated cloud flow"
Automatic cloud flow window will display.
Find and choose "When a records is created, ipdated or deleted" for Common Data Service (current environment) then click Create
Configure trigger rules with bound entity as seen below
Create condition for following flow;
When case record updates, check

On-Premise Case ID field must be null
Incident lookup must have a valid value

in order to add condition to flow, click + New Step button
Choose Condition from the menu
Add condition
set first rule
for "No" result
for "yes" case
choose Custom for our D365 connector that we created before
here is the all applied flows of "Yes" step

Hopes, it will be useful for you.

Enjoy !

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I.T. Notes