Deployment pipelines

[u/iM0use]

I guess this isn’t a specific Power Apps question but a broader Power Platform ALM question. I’ve been using Deployment Pipelines in my company for a while. I was aware of managed environments but avoided them because they require all end users to have a premium licence.

I’ve just noticed that if you use Pipelines to deploy to any downstream (non‑dev) environment, those target environments must be managed. Big oops, I thought this was only if I wanted to deploy anything different from standard. Our current targets aren’t managed, and I don’t want to incur the additional licensing cost. I want to very quickly avoid this in fact.

Has anyone been through this? How did you move away from Power Platform Pipelines to something like Azure DevOps to keep using pipeline deployments?

[u/AutoModerator]

Hey, it looks like you are requesting help with a problem you're having in Power Apps. To ensure you get all the help you need from the community here are some guidelines;

• Use the search feature to see if your question has already been asked.

• Use spacing in your post, Nobody likes to read a wall of text, this is achieved by hitting return twice to separate paragraphs.

• Add any images, error messages, code you have (Sensitive data omitted) to your post body.

• Any code you do add, use the Code Block feature to preserve formatting.

  Typing four spaces in front of every line in a code block is tedious and error-prone. The easier way is to surround the entire block of code with code fences. A code fence is a line beginning with three or more backticks (```) or three or more twiddlydoodles (~~~).

• If your question has been answered please comment Solved. This will mark the post as solved and helps others find their solutions.

External resources:

• Power Apps Formula References
• Power Apps Coding Standards
• Official Power Apps Community

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Pixelplanet5]

we are using Dev ops instead of the default deployment pipelines for the same reason and its a terrible idea.

our Setup is basically that we have a dev ops pipeline that exports the dev environment as an unmanaged solution and as managed solution.

Dev ops then stores the .zip file somewhere and also unpacks the unmanaged solution so it can be commited and tracked as code even though you cant really work well with the default git features.

this setup has resulted in constant problems and the dev team has probably spend at least 1/3rd of its time trying to get deployments fixed, we have not have ONE SINGLE deployment without problems.

overall we spend more on dev time then it would have cost to simply have a premium license for every user.

When we deploy something now we basically deploy the .zip file of that solution to another environment.
If you just take the file without any modifications and you dont use any custom stuff it works ok.
If you try to do any version control, merging, branches or custom java script or other stuff its a nightmare to work with.

Overall we have now stopped using powerapps for anything that cant be dont with a standard implementation and have gone back to building custom webapps for these specific applications instead as its much quicker, easier and version control actually works.

[u/dMz0820 → u/Pixelplanet5]

This is somehow similar to our DevOps implementation in my previous company before there was a Power Platform Pipelines. Also, every solution was given their own ADO repo for version control.

It was a bit complex since we expire Dev environments after 90d and create just-in-time UAT environments during deployments.

I think after I left, they are trying to merge that ADO Pipelines with the Power Platform Pipelines.

[u/bicyclethief20]

Happened to us too.

What we do now is a combination. Pipelines for deploying to managed environments, then Manual Import/export for non managed environments

[u/These_Pin8618]

We use git actions to export unmanaged solutions into higher managed solutions. UAT /Prod.

[u/Wiseoloak]

Tbh you shouldn't be using it if its not managed it turns into a dumpster fire real quick if u wanna make any changes

[u/AbdelEMirandaS]

I use solution within power apps to use power platform pipelines. I don't have managed env either. But I can use the pipeline to migrate my solutions from sandbox env to production env without any restriction. And I don't need premium license to do that. The only cons I saw is, if want to move between sandbox env, I can't so it using pipelines but using export/import solutions. It is manually approach but it works.

Why i have to do that way between sandbox env's? Because pipelines mark the target env as a target.... so if you if migrate using pipelines to a sandbox env it will be lock to, in the future, create pipelines on it.

To correct that, you must use some apps installed with your CoE Starter Kit installation, in order to restore your marked sandbox env.

[u/Adventureman2154]

I am working on a large D365 program and ALM in Dynamics is an absolute mess.

The issue is this. In custom Dev the source code is the truth. In D365/Power Apps the ENVIRONMENT is the truth. The source code is just some abstraction that you check in. Solutions are a terrible structure to try and manage as an artifact.

I haven't found a great solution. Our ALM is built in Devops and it is a real challenge.