microsoft / coe-starter-kit

Microsoft Power Platform Center of Excellence (CoE) Starter Kit

The Center of Excellence (CoE) Starter Kit is a set of templates that are designed to help develop a strategy for adopting, maintaining and supporting the Power Platform, with a focus on Power Apps and Power Automate. The kit includes multiple Power Apps and Power BI analytics reports to view and interact with the data collected. The kit also provides several assets that provide templates and suggested patterns and practices for implementing CoE efforts. The assets part of the CoE Starter Kit should be seen as a template from which you inherit your individual solution or can serve as inspiration for implementing your own apps and flows.

About this GitHub repo

The CoE Starter Kit GitHub Repo contains the source, releases, issues and backlog items of all components that are part of the CoE Starter Kit.

Latest Release

The latest shipped version is available via Releases. From there, you can download the latest version of all managed solutions that have been tested and are ready for use.

Stay up to date with our releases by subscribing to them:

1. Select Watch
   
2. Select Custom > Releases > Apply to receive notifications about our releases
   

If you want to learn more about what's in the latest release of the CoE Starter Kit, you can check out our closed Milestones. This will list both bug fixes as new features that were introduced with the latest version.

If you want to learn more about what the CoE Starter Kit team is planning, check out our open Milestones. We use CoE Starter Kit - Month 2021 to plan our next release, and CoE Starter Kit - Backlog for our unprioritized feature requests. Please comment or upvote feature requests by using reactions.

Report a Bug or submit a Feature Request

Have you found a bug in the CoE Starter Kit or do you want to suggest a new feature? Either way, please let us now by filing an issue while observing the following guidelines.

Look for an existing issue

Before submitting your issue please search the issues to ensure your issue has not already been reported

If your bug or feature request has already been reported, join the conversation by commenting and adding your reaction. Please use reactions to vote and not "+1" comments.

• 👍 - upvote
• 👎 - downvote

Submitting your Issue

Select the Issue template that matches the solution for which you want to submit an issue.

File a single issue per problem and feature request. Do not enumerate multiple bugs or feature requests in the same issue.

Do not add your issue as a comment to an existing issue unless it's for the identical input. Many issues look similar, but have different causes.

The more information you can provide, the more likely someone will be successful at reproducing the issue and finding a fix.

Observe the inline guidelines of the Issue template.

Asking and Answering Questions

Use the question issue template and ask your question or contribute by answering questions from others. This is a great way to contribute by helping the CoE Starter Kit community.

If you have general questions about Power Platform Governance, unrelated to the CoE Starter Kit, please raise them in the Power Apps Community forum

Contribute with Code

If you are interested in contributing to the CoE Starter Kit by fixing issues or adding features please read the How to Contribute guide.

Setup Instructions and Documentation

Please find all information on how to install and use the kit on https://docs.microsoft.com/power-platform/guidance/coe/starter-kit

Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct

This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct.

Resources:

• Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct
• Microsoft Code of Conduct FAQ
• Contact [email protected] with questions or concerns

Trademarks

This project may contain trademarks or logos for projects, products, or services. Authorized use of Microsoft trademarks or logos is subject to and must follow Microsoft's Trademark & Brand Guidelines. Use of Microsoft trademarks or logos in modified versions of this project must not cause confusion or imply Microsoft sponsorship. Any use of third-party trademarks or logos are subject to those third-party's policies.

Security

Microsoft takes the security of our software products and services seriously, which includes all source code repositories managed through our GitHub organizations, which include Microsoft, Azure, DotNet, AspNet, Xamarin, and our GitHub organizations.

If you believe you have found a security vulnerability in any Microsoft-owned repository that meets Microsoft's Microsoft's definition of a security vulnerability, please report it to us as described below.

Reporting Security Issues

Please do not report security vulnerabilities through public GitHub issues.

Instead, please report them to the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) at https://msrc.microsoft.com/create-report.

If you prefer to submit without logging in, send email to [email protected]. If possible, encrypt your message with our PGP key; please download it from the the Microsoft Security Response Center PGP Key page.

You should receive a response within 24 hours. If for some reason you do not, please follow up via email to ensure we received your original message. Additional information can be found at microsoft.com/msrc.

Please include the requested information listed below (as much as you can provide) to help us better understand the nature and scope of the possible issue:

• Type of issue (e.g. buffer overflow, SQL injection, cross-site scripting, etc.)
• Full paths of source file(s) related to the manifestation of the issue
• The location of the affected source code (tag/branch/commit or direct URL)
• Any special configuration required to reproduce the issue
• Step-by-step instructions to reproduce the issue
• Proof-of-concept or exploit code (if possible)
• Impact of the issue, including how an attacker might exploit the issue

This information will help us triage your report more quickly.

If you are reporting for a bug bounty, more complete reports can contribute to a higher bounty award. Please visit our Microsoft Bug Bounty Program page for more details about our active programs.

Preferred Languages

We prefer all communications to be in English.

Policy

Microsoft follows the principle of Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure.

coe-starter-kit's Issues

Pipelines: Incorporate guidance on branching strategies using Deployment Profiles and Pipelines

Pipelines: Add solution checker / sarif reporting

Solution Checker emits sarif files. Let's incorporate into build:
https://develop1.net/public/post/2020/02/06/solution-checker-in-azure-devops-pipeline

SourceControlHelper: submit pull request from branch

User should be able to initiate a pull request without having to go to ADO.

Pipelines: Replace solution upgrade task with official (when available)

Can't deploy Developer Compliance Centre outside Dedicated environment?

Hi all,

Not sure if im doing this wrong or if I had the wrong impression of how this should work.

I have an environment dedicated to COE - I want to deploy the developer compliance center to users without giving them access to all the data in COE. Do the CDS entities that COE relies on need to each be manually moved, and then manually updated (regularly) from the coe environment where all the flows that grab this data lives, or is this an unintended issue?

Action 'Get_Model_Driven_App_from_CoE' failed

I get following error. Any suggestions what can cause this?

{
"error": {
"code": "0x80040217",
"message": "admin_app With Id = 83aa0ab5-04c4-e911-xx-xxDoes Not Exist",
"@Microsoft.PowerApps.CDS.ErrorDetails.ApiExceptionSourceKey": "Plugin/Microsoft.Crm.ObjectModel.CustomBusinessEntityService",
"@Microsoft.PowerApps.CDS.ErrorDetails.ApiStepKey": "xx-7b59-eb11-xx-xx",
"@Microsoft.PowerApps.CDS.ErrorDetails.ApiDepthKey": "1",
"@Microsoft.PowerApps.CDS.ErrorDetails.ApiActivityIdKey": "x-x-464c-x-x",
"@Microsoft.PowerApps.CDS.ErrorDetails.ApiPluginSolutionNameKey": "System",
"@Microsoft.PowerApps.CDS.ErrorDetails.ApiStepSolutionNameKey": "System",
"@Microsoft.PowerApps.CDS.ErrorDetails.ApiExceptionCategory": "ClientError",
"@Microsoft.PowerApps.CDS.ErrorDetails.ApiExceptionMesageName": "ObjectDoesNotExist",
"@Microsoft.PowerApps.CDS.ErrorDetails.ApiExceptionHttpStatusCode": "404",
"@Microsoft.PowerApps.CDS.HelpLink": "http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=398563&error=Microsoft.Crm.CrmException%3a80040217&client=platform",
"@Microsoft.PowerApps.CDS.InnerError.Message": "admin_app With Id = x-x-x-x-xDoes Not Exist"
}
}

Porting Azure DevOps pipelines to GitHub Actions

https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/github-actions-for-the-power-platform-now-available-in-preview/

AB#1344

Pipelines: Show how to deploy a Power BI report

Can't yet be done with Solutions, but can be done with Azure DevOps. See: https://github.com/devkeydet/cds-packagedeployer-powerbi

AB#1380

SourceControlHelper: show commit / build / deploy status

SourceControlHelper/Connectors: rename solutions and Canvas App something better

Naming is hard. Need help on naming. The goal of the app is to be the too for Power Users who know git / pipeline concepts and want to be more productive in their daily tasks.

Pipelines: eliminate hard coding of pipeline definition '13' in build-Solution.yml

Pipelines: Connection references fail on custom connectors

Known platform issue with connection references and custom connectors. Working with msft teams on a solution.

ALM Accelerator Sample Solution: Add Security Role example

AB#1362

DevOpsKitSampleSolution: Add Environment Variable Flow example

Setup automation based on the GETTINGSTARTED.md procedure · Issue #26 · microsoft/coe-starter-kit-preview (github.com)

Instead of requiring users to manually deploy the pipeline templates, create service principals, and ado service connections, provide a way to automate this from the canvas app.

Service Principal: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/alm/devops-build-tools#configure-service-connections-using-a-service-principal
ADO Service Connections: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/library/service-endpoints

Pipelines: use service principal wherever possible

Power Platform Build Tools tasks use service principal. Power DevOps Tools tasks use service principal. However, some of the powershell scripts don't. Need to investigate if it's possible. This should become obsolete once we are able to replace community / powershell tasks with Power Platform Build Tools tasks as they get built.

ALM Accelerator Sample Solution: show azure integrations

TODO: Breakout into individual issues and add more ideas. Ideas include:
CDS integration with Azure:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/developer/common-data-service/azure-integration
Custom Connectors that use API Management / Functions:
https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-api-management-connector-on-the-power-platform/

AB#1345

ALM Accelerator Sample Solution: Add PCF example

DevOpsKitSampleSolution: Add Entities example

Enhance canvas apps to support both Azure DevOps and GitHub

Error in Add pain points flow in Innovation Backlog

I installed the Innovation Backlog solution and when I ran the Add pain points flow I got the error in the screenshot below.

Looks like the flow is corrupt around the name of the Innovation Backlog Pain Points entity in the See if already exists and Create a new record actions. I refreshed the Table name parameter in both of those actions and this seemed to fix the issue.

Issue screenshot

Solution screenshot

Canvas app won't load in test environment

Login to custom connectors fails:

SourceControlHelper: Pipeline Dropdowns have empty items

ALM Accelerator Sample Solution: Add Custom Connector example

Pipelines: cover alm for gateways

AB#1378

Action 'Parse_JSON' failed

I get following error. Any pointer on how to fix this?

ALM Accelerator Sample Solution: move code to Github

While we have a snapshot in branches, this repo is not our working repo yet.

Flow "Microsoft Teams Admin | Weekly Clean Up of Microsoft Teams environments" was automatically executed and delete Microsoft Teams Dataverse environments without justification or approval

Good night,

We updated CoE to the latest version and when doing so, the Flow "Microsoft Teams Admin | Weekly Clean Up of Microsoft Teams environments" was automatically executed. This resulted in the deletion of 3 Microsoft Teams Dataverse environments (created before the upgrade) without any mail coming in for justification or approval.

admin_app With Id = xx Does Not Exist

I get following error from the CoE framework. Any pointers on how to solve?

SourceControlHelper: app should remember users settings next time they launch the app

This could be implemented rudimentary as "save state of app my last dropdowns", but ideally implemented as "save environment / solution profile" so users can pick form a list of solutions that have already been mapped.

ALM Accelerator Sample Solution: Add Dataverse plugin example

[AA4AM] Pipelines: import-unmanaged-to-dev-environment - handle setting environment variables and connection references for empty environments

Pipelines: automate canvas app tests

https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/automate-your-canvas-tests-in-your-devops-pipeline/

DevOpsKitSampleSolution: Add Model-Driven App

Error on the "Admin | Sync Template v2 (Model Driven Apps)" flow

The "Admin | Sync Template v2 (Model Driven Apps)" flow step "Upsert Model Driven App (created by SYSTEM)" fails with the error: "A record with matching key values already exists."

My assumption is that the "Update a record" action actually doesn't support upsert - to do this you would probably need to use the Web API directly: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/developer/common-data-service/webapi/update-delete-entities-using-web-api#upsert-an-entity

Pipelines: Register oauth secret for custom connectors after solution import

Currently it's not possible to authenticate to paconn without a login prompt:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/custom-connectors/paconn-cli
Investigating workaround. Likely direct REST API calls. Ultimately will need to be a Power Platform Build Tools taks.

AB#1361

SourceControlHelper: enable refresh on dropdowns

It will be common that the user has the canvas app open, then manually creates something in ADO (like a new project, repo, branch, etc.) and will need to refresh the dropdown.

Pipelines: Add validation step to the build

Before deploying to test make sure the solution package built can successfully import. If not, it's a failed build. This should trigger on pull request as a quality gate prereq approving PR.

Pipelines: Trigger build off of PR for vnext branch instead of vnext branch itself

ALM Accelerator Sample Solution: Show reference example of how to release features to a small subset of users

AB#1379

SourceControlHelper: refactor from "test harness" to have a scenario based UX

Current app is really just a "test harness" to drive custom connectors / running pipelines through custom connectors. Need to evolve the UX to something a maker familiar with git concepts could use to drive common scenarios.

Pipelines: instead of resetting everything in a dev environment, delete all unmanaged assets in the solution

Reset doesn't work as expected with CDS environments right now, plus reset is a time consuming action. Instead, try to walk the dependencies and delete all unmanaged components as a quick way to "clean" a dev environment.

Pipelines: add automated testing of model-driven apps using EasyRepro

https://github.com/Microsoft/EasyRepro

AB#1365

Pipelines: Use empty arrays to conditionally skip environment variable and connection reference tasks

right now, the task will still execute and perform initialization such as Install-Module or Import-Module. This is unnecessary overhead. Instead, put a task condition that if the value of the variable is '[]', then skip the task.

[ALM Accelerator] Add Documentation around Pipeline Customization

AB#1363

Pipelines: build-deploy-* pipelines show a 'waiting' status when waiting to deploy to production

Pipelines: ensure build fails when there are no changes to commit in export-solution-to-git.yml

ALM Accelerator Sample Solution: Add Canvas Component example

AB#1364

Pipelines: Create a pipeline to update a branch/branches from main

Pipelines: Review yml file comments and improve where necessary

files should be as self documenting as possible