david wyatt

Posted on Jan 20

Let's Talk About Power Platform Previews

#powerplatform #powerapps #powerautomate #experimental

You may have seen the word "Preview" all over the Power Platform, and its something that I think needs to be discussed.

After years on the platform and some research I have a few thoughts around:

Consistency Across the Platform
Microsoft's Interesting Implementation of it
How it should be

So lets dive in 😎

1. Consistency Across the Platform

In a nutshell preview features are new features not fully implemented, they are subject to change, maybe buggy, and have different support service level agreements (SLA's), that bit is consistent, but how it is implemented is totally different.

If you google "Power Platform Preview" you will find 2 pages from Microsoft, the first (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/what-are-preview-features-how-do-i-enable-them) says:

and the second page is specific to Power Apps (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-apps/maker/canvas-apps/working-with-experimental-preview), and this to me is the epitome of preview in the Power Platform (and probably the platform as a whole), why does Power Apps do it differently, why does it need a different doc.

Power Apps

Power Apps has the most detail and robust process, but to make things confusing they use the word preview differently. The rest of the platform is:

Private preview
Public preview
General Availability (GA)

Power Apps has:

Private preview
Experimental (early preview)
preview (normal preview)
General Availability (GA)
Retired (just to spice it up)

Everything is well documented, makes sense, and even better you can turn them on/off, A* Power Apps Team

Power Automate

Power Automate has no documentation on whats in preview, to access it you have to go to "View all Power Autoamte Settings" and you get a single option, Experimental Features on/off.

So first off is this preview or the same as Power Apps and experimental, if its experimental then how do I turn on preview?

And what exactly does it turn on? Power Apps tells you, Power Automate, you have to guess.

So far I haven't seen the word 'Experimental' used anywhere in Power Automate. I have seen 'Preview', and guess what, that's still on even if the setting is off.

The only thing the setting seems to do is turn on the new UI, and by new ui I mean the beta version of the classic UI (this UI)

So our way to control preview features is we cant, we can only control experimental features, which we have no idea are, and the only one we can find is for a discontinued feature/branch.

Oh Power Automate team, and you were my favourites D-

Connectors

There appears to be no option to remove preview connections, not even a filter in the new UI.

So for connectors we are a little all over the place, in the docs we have the lightbulb.

But unlike the Premium diamond, I have never seen this icon in the studio. In the connections section they appear with a '(Preview)' label after the name.

In the flow edit screen its a little different, with the Preview now a tag added to the action, not the connector (even though its the connector or nothing in preview).

PPAC (Power Platform Admin Centre)

In the admin centre I can't find any preview options centrally, just certain options/features tagged with the preview label. But even that is not consistent, with either a rectangle and cone label, of just a (Preview).

And again, consistency, why is a cross product feature like 'Create new in a solution' out of preview in Canvas Apps but not Power Automate. Why is it not prioritised and worked on as a uniformed platform 😡

2. Microsoft's Interesting Implementation of it

This section could go on for ever but the 3 things that I wanted to flag (aka moan about).

Preview Environment

Along with preview sprinkled across the platform we have a preview environment. From what I gather this is just the first environment in the release cycle, so its not a preview, well technically it is a preview of the previews but you get my thoughts. This approach makes it confusing again, as it implies that preview is ring fenced to an environment, but they are not.

And also there is https://make.preview.powerapps.com and https://make.preview.powerautomate.com, that turn any environment into a preview environment (I think as its not documented but what I have experienced), so whats the point in a preview environment if every environment is a preview environment.

Connectors

This one is from personal experience, every new connector is set as Preview, which makes sense. To move out of preview into GA there is as set of uptime performance metrics and a "Recommended" requirement for the connector to have 500 active weekly users over 3 weeks and 50 atvice connections per month.

But then you read our first line about preview:

So I need users but Microsoft is actively discouraging users from using the connector (Catch 22). I know there is development but do you honestly expect there to be 500 developers developing on a connector they cant use in production?

I suspect all connectors have to do the below exception route, which means, why have the normal route at all.

The eternal life of preview

And this is the big one, preview is a point in time, its pre, so the expecation is it goes into GA. But it is far to common for preview functions to be left in preview forever.

Power Automate Static Results (a very cool testing feature) 3+ years in preview.

Microsofts very own Content Conversion connector has been in preview for atleast 2+ years

Power App Modern Controls, were a Upcoming feature in March 2023!

Power Apps PDF view has been stuck in Experimental for a year,

And the list goes on and on, there seems to be no comitment to preview features (I understand that certain ones might not make the cut but that should be by exception).

3. How it should be

If you've read above you can see where Im going with what it should be.

First consistency, Preview should be the same across the platform, ideally go with Power Apps approach, but either way it has to be consistent:

Same Naming
Same Activation/Management
Same Tagging
Same Levels

Key there is naming, preview should mean one thing (Microsoft naming different things the same is a pandoras box all of its own).

Secondly document it, create a central place for all of the Power Platform previews. Everything in preview should be listed, with status and regular updates.

Thirdly it needs to be a Power Platform strategy, not a Power App/Automate/Copilot/Pages strategy. If a feature is is out of preview for one team it should be for both (looking at you Power automate 😉 ).

Fourth and finally, there needs to be a commitment by Microsoft, things cant sit for eternity in Preview, they either progress up or get retired, and they should be SLA for that, something like:

Experimental: 6 Months into Preview or Retired
Preview: 1 Year into GA or Retired

If Microsoft cant get something that is 90% ready into production within a year then its either not important or they have bigger issues.