The Dynamics GP Blogster

This is the final installment of a 3-part series vlog on Robotic Process Automation with Power Automate UI flows and Microsoft Dynamics GP. In this final episode, I am adding AI Builder capabilities to present an end-to-end solution that you can implement in your business *now*. This video shows how to combine the power of AI Builder form processing to read a sample utility bill and submit it to your legacy ERP system. The objective here is to show yet another integration mechanism to get data into another application and in no way this video is intended to suggest you replace your current integration processes by what you are seeing here. However, it does open the door to consider modernizing the tools you have in house with the flexibility of the Power Platform. My previous videos in this series can be found here: Robotic Process Automation with Microsoft Dynamics GP and UI flow (Part 1/3) - Click  here Robotic Process Automation with Microsoft Dynamics GP and UI flow ...

This is the 2nd of a 3-part video series on implementing Robotic Process Automation (RPA) with Microsoft Power Automate UI flows and Microsoft Dynamics GP. This video shows how to call a UI flow from a Power Automate flow. I also show how to create and leverage a manually triggered flow to enter field values corresponding to a payables transaction and pass those on to the UI flow inputs to instrument the Dynamics GP application UI. Reference: Set Up UI flows -  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/ui-flows/setup Music: Dubstep- www.bensound.com (Royalty free music from Bensound) Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP

This is the first of a 3-part video series on implementing Robotic Process Automation (RPA) with Microsoft Power Automate UI flows and Microsoft Dynamics GP. This video shows how to get started with UI flows by automating a vendor invoice voucher entry in Microsoft Dynamics GP and while some of what's outlined here is specific to this ERP, the same principles apply for instrumenting any other type of application. Reference: Set Up UI flows - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/ui-flows/setup Music: Dubstep- www.bensound.com (Royalty free music from Bensound) Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP

This video was made in response to the Microsoft Power Apps team challenge, found here . What was your best app and what workplace frustration inspired you to make it? Film a video with your answer and share it with #MadeItWithPowerApps and #Sweepstakes for a chance to win. This is the second video in a series of weekly videos leading up to the announcement of the sweepstakes winners. Music in this video comes courtesy of Bendsound: Summer - www.bensound.com (Royalty free music from Bensound) Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP

Welcome to another video about Microsoft Power Automate and building flows! This week I team up with none other than Jon Levesque , Sr. Platform Evangelist for the Power Platform at Microsoft (Twitter: @JonLevesque , YouTube: click here ) to show how to incorporate the Google Maps API to enrich our Dynamics data! Big thanks to Jon for inviting me this week to show off how to use this API!   For additional information, please check the following resources: Google Static Maps API - click here Google Directions API - click here Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel, here . Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP

In this episode I walk through the creation of a bot agent with Power Virtual Agents. I show you how to setup the Power Platform environment, along with creating the bot, setting up the topics, testing and deploying the bot.   For additional information, please check the following resources: Create a bot https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-virtual-agents/getting-started-create-bot Music in this video comes courtesy of Bendsound: Dubstep- www.bensound.com (Royalty free music from Bensound) Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP

This video was made in response to the Microsoft Power Apps team challenge, found here . The challenge is meant to provide newcomers to the platform with rapid fire tips and tricks that will help them get started. This is the first video in a series of weekly videos leading up to the announcement of the sweepstakes winners.   For additional information, please check the following resources: Add and configure a canvas-app control in PowerApps https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/canvas-apps/add-configure-controls/ Music in this video comes courtesy of Bendsound: Summer - www.bensound.com (Royalty free music from Bensound) Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP

This video shows how to leverage the power of PowerApps and the capabilities of Microsoft Flow to work with REST APIs. In this case, I will take advantage of NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day open API  to show Microsoft Flow in action. The resulting picture's title, URL, and explanation are used to create a nice app to display the latest NASA space picture prowess. For additional information, please check the following resources: Using the HTTP action to make requests with Microsoft Flow https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/http-card-tutorial/ Music in this video comes courtesy of Bendsound: Summer - www.bensound.com (Royalty free music from Bensound) Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP

This video shows how to create a manually triggered Flow to transfer a file to an Azure Storage Container using the Azure Storage Blob connector. You will learn how to set up an Azure storage account and a container and create a workflow to transfer a file from your mobile device or PC to a blob in Azure. I also show how to leverage expressions to obtain the file name for the selected file. For additional information, please check the following resources: Flow Buttons - click here PowerApps Azure Blob Storage Connector (Shane Young) - click here Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP

MVPs Steve Endow (Twitter: @steveendow ), Belinda Allen (Twitter: @MsBelindaAllen ), and Mariano Gomez (Twitter: @dgpblogster ) sit down with Bob McAdam  (Twitter: @4mcadam ), General Manager of the GP User Group (GPUG) to discuss the addition of Power Platform sessions in a Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference. Recording was done live and onsite from Fargo, ND on September 12, 2019, but captures the bulk of where the Microsoft Dynamics GP partner channel is with the demand for these sessions. Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP

In my previous video, I showed you how we can pass collections from PowerApps as a JSON payload to Microsoft Flow. Now, we will see how we can get a JSON payload back into PowerApps. The technique used here requires knowledge of various PowerApps functions to accomplish the job: Split(), FirstN(), Last(), RemoveIf() , and a timer.   For more information, take a look at the following videos and articles: Microsoft Flow | Passing collections from PowerApps to Flow - click here Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP

I just got done with presentations at the yearly Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference in Fargo, ND and had the privilege of delivering a session titled Leveraging your on-premises data with the Power Platform . During this session I presented a moderately complex sample application that leverages PowerApps AI Builder Form Processing to capture utility bills. These bills are submitted to the Microsoft Dynamics GP ERP application via a call to Microsoft Flow, which then invokes an eConnect API stored procedures to integrate these documents as Accounts Payable invoices. The Solution The solution leverages 3 AI Builder forms processing models for 3 distinct utility vendors. Each model contains 5 form fields, selected during the build process, after training the model with 5 documents. Each model was published and used to create a PowerApps application - the Fabrikam Utility Billing Center app. This canvas app, is capable of reading utility bills for each vendor...

In this video I explore how you can pass a collection of records from PowerApps to Microsoft Flow by leveraging the JSON() serialization function. I also cover some other topics like working with JSON schemas, Data Operations, Variables, and Control Structures in Flow. References: PowerApps | Form Processing with AI Builder: https://youtu.be/sVx6gsA2N5M PowerApps | A look at the new JSON() serializer function: https://youtu.be/CWt_t5OaCzs Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP

This short introductory video walks you through the installation of the PowerApps Build Tools component in an Azure DevOps environment. In addition, I show you where you can find information about PowerApps Build Tools and point you to a hands-on lab you can download to get your PowerApps DevOps journey started. For more information, please check the following sources: PowerApps Build Tools for Azure DevOps Overview - here Build Tools for Azure DevOps Hands-on Lab - GitHub  here Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP

You previously saw me use a AI Builder to build and train a form processing model to understand a utility bill. I also show how to build a real life PowerApps application to take advantage of the utility billing model and some elements and considerations while doing so. In this new video, I show you how to leverage Microsoft Flow to create a simple orchestration around the same utility bill form processing model. In the process, we will look into building simple expressions with WDL, parsing JSON with the JSON connector, and working with variables. More info on using AI Builder with Microsoft Flow here . Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP

This video shows how to embed PowerApps applications inside of Microsoft Dynamics GP, leveraging the Connect gadget feature as a mechanism to deliver the application. Learn how you can achieve this in 2 simple steps to create a unique user experience. More information on Dex.ini settings and web client: Dex.ini on this site - click here Web client on this site - click here Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP

This is part 2 of 2 showing how to build a persisted button pressed numeric up/down control. This video shows how to leverage PowerApps components to create a single reusable unit that can be leveraged across other applications. You can find more information about PowerApps Components by watching the following Microsoft MVPs and community members' videos: Shane Young - Intro PowerApps Components including Input and Output properties Daniel Christian - PowerApps community call-April 2019 Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP

This is part 1 of 2 showing how to build a persisted button pressed numeric up/down control. This video addresses the fundamentals of the control, starting with understanding the button pressed event, how it can be used to start and stop a timer, how to make 2 buttons increase and decrease a text input control, and finally introducing a timer to persist the press. Part 2 will show how to componentize all these controls into a unit that can be reused across other applications. For more information on button and timer controls, please check the following videos from MVP Shane Young ( Twitter: @ShaneCows ): PowerApps Timer Control: https://youtu.be/Xe2NI2aTGvY PowerApps Hide Button Based on User and other fun: https://youtu.be/0MB-z9cyFCQ Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP

In this video I explore the recently released AI Builder Form Processing component, by creating and training a utilities billing model. I also show how to build a real life PowerApps application to take advantage of the utility billing model and some elements and considerations while doing so. You can find more information on AI Builder here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/ai-builder/overview Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP

This video explores some basic capabilities available with the PowerApps, Microsoft Flow, and Power BI mobile applications.   Here I only highlight 3 of those capabilities: 1. Pinning PowerApps applications to the device home screen and marking an application as favorite 2. Create a Flow workflow from a template or from blank 3. Annotating a Power BI dashboards and tiles for easy follow up Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP

This is a session I presented at the recent Azure Virtual Day Camp, hosted by Dynamic Communities' D365UG , on June 26, 2019. In this presentation I show how to leverage Azure Cognitive Services ' Computer Vision service with PowerApps and Flow to build a badge scanner. In addition, I show how to use some simple, but powerful PowerApps and Flow functions to do string and image manipulation.   NOTE : During this live presentation I had a few audio irregularities. I did the best I could to edit the video to eliminate any moderator shouts to check if I was still around :) However, I don't think it takes away from the ease of understanding the session. Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP

In this video I take a look at the newly released JSON() serialization function and how it can be used to serialize an image, added to PowerApps in the month of June. You can read the full details on the PowerApps Blog article, JSON for canvas apps . Also, take a look at the video created by PowerApps MVP, April Dunham on the subject, along with her intro to AI Builder. Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP

This past Microsoft Business Applications Summit 2019 - Atlanta , I teamed up with fellow Microsoft MVP, Belinda Allen to deliver a 20 minutes theater session showing how to build a cash flow in Power BI, then use Microsoft Flow to get notifications based on specific conditions in the report, and embedding the cash change calendar as a tile in a PowerApps application. We had a lot of fun putting this presentation together, so I hope you enjoy it. Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP

Hi PowerAppers! PowerApps Canvas Apps Components remain one of those features that seem to have endless possibilities. I have, for quite some time now, been working with the Google Maps API in many of my applications to return a static image pointing to a specific location on the map. As I moved from application to application, I noticed that I always ended up doing the same operations: format a label with a string representing the maps API Url, then substituting very specific elements within that string, with address information or latitude and longitude coordinates, adding the API key, and playing with the size of the map image returned by the maps API. Frankly, a time consuming process that added no value to my projects. This is a sample Google maps API Url string with some the classic substitution patterns: Click image to enlarge In order to solve this problem, I decided to farm this out to Canvas Apps Components. Since my Url string had many placeholders for things li...

So far, I have covered the process of setting up both the Microsoft Dynamics 365 BC containerized application components, along with the VS Code IDE and AL language extensions. We also built the "Hello World" extension on BC's Customer List page and deployed it to our container by following some simple debugging steps. You can read more about it in the following articles: #MSDYN365BC: Building a Development Environment for Microsoft Dynamics GP ISVs Part 1/3 #MSDYN365BC: Building a Development Environment for Microsoft Dynamics GP ISVs Part 2/3 #MSDYN365BC: Building a Development Environment for Microsoft Dynamics GP ISVs Part 3/3 #MSDYN365BC: Building a Development Environment for Microsoft Dynamics GP ISVs - Installing Visual Studio Code The purpose of today's article is to show you how to set up a source code control provider to host your projects for a multi-developer's environment. If you are a Microsoft Dexterity developer, you are probably familiar...

In the previous 3 articles of the series, I talked about the rationale for selecting a container based environment for development purposes, we also installed Docker and downloaded and installed the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central containers for Docker. This then set us on a path to installing the development IDE and selecting a source code control provider to host our AL solutions. See: #MSDYN365BC: Building a Development Environment for Microsoft Dynamics GP ISVs Part 1/3 #MSDYN365BC: Building a Development Environment for Microsoft Dynamics GP ISVs Part 2/3 #MSDYN365BC: Building a Development Environment for Microsoft Dynamics GP ISVs Part 3/3 This article in particular, will focus on the installation of Visual Studio Code (VS Code) and the AL language extensions for the environment. Installing VS Code VS Code is to BC developers what Dexterity is to Dynamics GP developers. VS Code provides the IDE required to incorporate the AL language extensions to develo...