{"id":817,"date":"2016-10-27T01:35:24","date_gmt":"2016-10-27T07:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.idubbs.com\/blog\/?p=817"},"modified":"2016-10-27T12:41:42","modified_gmt":"2016-10-27T18:41:42","slug":"powerapps-admin-center-environments-and-data-policies-first-look","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idubbs.com\/blog\/2016\/powerapps-admin-center-environments-and-data-policies-first-look\/","title":{"rendered":"PowerApps: Admin Center, Environments, and Data Policies –First Look"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few new features have been added (or are in the process of being added) to PowerApps for us to review. These pieces are capabilities administrators and governance folks will be happy to see once flushed out.
\n(10\/27) Updates! Per a webinar with the product team today. Shown below…<\/span><\/p>\n

Admin Center<\/h2>\n

The Admin Center is available in the settings dropdown and allows you to manage both Environments and Data Policies.<\/p>\n

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Once in the Admin Center, the view defaults to Environments.<\/p>\n

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I created a Demo Area environment just to have another one listed for now. There\u2019s certainly seems to be room for more controls here, so we\u2019ll see what else gets added eventually. \"Smile\"<\/p>\n

Note: Navigation is a bit odd right now. It appears the only way back to the PowerApps page from the Admin Center is by using the waffle control \u2013 which opens a new tab. Being able to click on \u2018PowerApps\u2019 in the top might be useful and more consistent with how SharePoint in O365 works.<\/p>\n

Now that we have the Admin Center to launch from, let\u2019s take a look at what\u2019s in it.<\/p>\n

Environments<\/h2>\n

Environments available to you are visible in the upper right in a dropdown. As an Admin I can see the default environment and a new one I created. The dropdown control will switch you between environments while working in the PowerApps interface. If you\u2019re browsing around and it seems like apps or connections are missing you\u2019ll need to remember which environment they belong to.<\/p>\n

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Note: Switching environments brings you back to the Home page for that environment. I haven\u2019t decided if I\u2019m a fan of that or not\u2026 it might be nice to be able to stay on the Connections or Apps page and switch between environments within those pages quickly.<\/p>\n

Environments are managed in the Admin Center (see screenshots above or below).<\/p>\n

Note: Creating a new environment differed a little from the initial PowerApps post<\/a> in that I didn\u2019t see any controls for a Database. Update: This is addressed by latest blog post<\/a> from the team. Some features are unavailable while changes are rolled out.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Once you\u2019ve created a new environment it shows up in the list:<\/p>\n

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Selecting an environment drops you into the environment details page which defaults to the Security groups. This is another page that looks ripe for enhancements. We\u2019ll see what else eventually gets built here. Will there be a need to add additional roles? What\u2019s the reason for the additional left-ish nav control that currently only lists \u2018Environment Roles\u2019? Update: Well, more stuff. \ud83d\ude42 In addition to ‘Environmental roles’, we’ll see ‘User roles’ and ‘Permission sets’ coming soon. Additional environmental roles were also mentioned…\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Digging a level deeper we can add users to a group. As the person who created the environment I\u2019m automatically added to the Admin group. \u2018Details\u2019 here shows the name and description of the security group \u2013 which are currently not editable.<\/p>\n

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\u2018Details\u2019 for the environment shows just that. But also nothing that appears to be editable at present.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019d hope to eventually see a way to edit the name of an environment, if nothing else. Also missing is a way to *delete* environments. I expect the default to be locked up, but it seems logical to be able to remove the others. Maybe name changes and deletes will be available via PowerShell or via some other method.<\/p>\n

Data Policies<\/h2>\n

Also in the Admin Center is management of Data Policies. Data Policies allow administrators to control which data and connectors can coexist in which environments. This functionality still needs some clarification. Hopefully it\u2019ll be cleared up as documentation is released.<\/p>\n

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When adding or editing a policy, there are two configuration pages here: Choosing the environment – \u2018Applies to\u2019 and choosing how data groups are used within those environments – \u2018Data Groups\u2019.<\/p>\n

Something that didn\u2019t immediately jump out to me is the Policy Name editing, available at the top of the page.<\/p>\n

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Note: It might be nice to add a \u2018Description\u2019 or \u2018Notes\u2019 field here as well. Otherwise folks are going to need to use longer, more descriptive policy names. Time will tell.<\/p>\n

Choosing environment seems pretty straightforward. You\u2019ll be able to set specific policies for each environment and\/or broader rules to multiple environments at the same time.<\/p>\n

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Note: One thing I saw that was a bit wonky was after selecting \u2018Apply to ALL environments\u2019 and saving the setting actually changed to \u2018Apply to Only selected environments\u2019 with both environments checked. So, functionally was ultimately the same \u2013 but a bit confusing from a user experience perspective.<\/p>\n

The Data groups page is a bit more confusing. (the \u2018Learn more\u2019 link doesn\u2019t currently work) If I interpret this correctly you are defining which connections or services are allowed by the apps in the environment.<\/p>\n

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Note: Hopefully verbiage can be made consistent if that is the case\u2026 it might be confusing to use both \u2018connections\u2019 and \u2018services\u2019 when talking about the same thing \u2013 though it does seem pretty intuitive. I\u2019m just getting nitpicky here\u2026<\/p>\n

Best Practices<\/h2>\n

At this point, TBD (To Be Determined). It\u2019s too early to tell, but these are the kinds of controls that IT Pros and\/or governance folks are pretty happy to see.<\/p>\n