The blog post at hand, authored by Scott Durow [MVP], shares the exciting news of the general availability (GA) of modern commanding with Power Fx. The modern commanding is said to provide a user-friendly low/no-code experience for customizing model-driven app command bars. This incorporation marks the debut of an in-product command designer and a choice between Power Fx or JavaScript for creating business logic. More info
The blog post mentions that modern commanding has undergone several improvements since its preview last year. Durow expresses his gratitude to the Power Platform community and Scott Durrow for their immense support and valuable feedback, the result of which is the final version of modern commanding. The key goals and features of this GA are explicitly stated.
A wealth of usability improvements and enhancements aimed at enriching productivity has immensely simplified the user or 'maker' experience. Some of these include copy + paste, drag and drop within command designer, optimized navigation & layout, and performance improvements. These changes have increased the scope for doing more with Power Fx.
New functions have been introduced to better support regular command use cases. Custom page visibility, actions, and interaction have notably improved. For instance, command visibility can now be controlled using RecordInfo() and DataSourceInfo(); one can also manage unsaved data using Self.Selected.Unsaved. Several parity gaps with classic Ribbon commands have been eradicated, with the addition of new functionalities. Additionally, the makers now have the potential to create dropdowns, split buttons, and groups. Also, a specification of different scopes is now possible that determines a command's publication reach—either to a single app, to a table and all apps accessing it, or even globally to all apps and tables.
The changes prevent duplication for commands required in multiple apps. Moreover, it allows citizen developers to modify or hide broad scoped commands while keeping other apps unaffected. Major improvements, although not ostensibly visible, have been made to modern commanding infrastructure as mentioned, mainly focusing on fixing issues, enhancing performance and reliability, and managing application lifecycle consistently.
The last part of the blog post outlines the future plans for Power Fx. Despite GA being considered a milestone, it's not the end. Work is being done to solve complex problems reliably, like allowing the editing of Microsoft's first party commands using modern command designer. Migrated commands will then be entirely supported in command designer, without affecting existing customer customization or the ability to maintain classic capabilities. The update anticipates further support for classic enable rules, display rules, and custom rules. It also looks into improving the publishing experience and other known limitations.
Power Fx has shown signs of progress. It's an excellent stride towards democratizing software development by making it more accessible and easy to understand for coders and non-coders alike.
Read the full article More Superpower to Power Fx
With the advent of Power Fx, a more dynamic and coder-friendly tool, modern commanding has become generally available. This groundbreaking functionality is designed to enhance the ease of customizing command bars in model-driven applications. It not only provides the first-ever in-product command designer but also improves business logic expressivity by allowing the use of Power Fx or JavaScript.
Critical updates have been made to modern commanding since its debut, thanks largely to the invaluable feedback and support from the Power Platform community and the valuable partnership with Scott Durrow. There are numerous key features and objectives in the latest release that were central to this update.
One of these includes a maker-friendly experience, which has been streamlined through numerous usability and productivity enhancements. Key improvements incorporate features such as copy and paste, optimized layout, and navigation, a drag and drop command builder, performance boosts, and the postponement of command component library creation.
Power Fx now supports numerous new functionalities to better equip users for common command applications. You can now more effectively define visibility, actions, and interactions with tailor-made pages. For instance, you can control command visibility using RecordInfo() and DataSourceInfo(), and manipulate unsaved data (also known as the buffer) using Self.Selected.Unsaved.
Modern commanding has also filled many parity gaps with traditional Ribbon commands, introducing new possibilities simultaneously. For instance, you can now create dropdowns, split buttons, and groups, and designate different scopes which determine the publishing reach of a command. These features help avoid duplicating efforts for commands needing to be in multiple apps.
The future holds a lot more improvements, some of which cannot be divulged at the moment. However, one thing to look forward to is easing the use of Microsoft first-party commands using the modern command designer. Efforts are also being made to incrementally transfer classic OOB commands to the modern commanding infrastructure. Migrated commands will have full support in the command designer. This change will not have any effect on current customer customization or the possibilities for using classic capabilities. The support for classic enable rules, display rules, and custom rules are in the offing as well.
With additional Power Fx functions and an enhanced publishing experience, modern commanding is on a roll. Intriguingly, there are plans to address other known constraints in the future. With these exciting improvements lined up, it’s unquestionably the perfect time to delve deeper into modern commanding and Power Fx.
For more insights on modern commanding, you can check the comprehensive documentation or watch the recent Power CAT Live interview with Phil Topness, Prabhat Pandey, and Casey Burke.
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