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Look, I admit, a concept like Code View can be scary to someone who already thinks the concept of "Low-Code" already had too much code. And then you find out that it is YAML and you are like, I am out! Well calm down a minute. Remember, I am not a pro developer either. I don't write C# or Python or whatever. It is okay. YAML is very similar to JSON and remember how happy we all were when we learned that? It is all just text with a specific format. So, let's learn what does code view get us. How about the ability to quickly see what has been modified in a control. How about the ability to copy that code and send it to a co-worker in a Teams chat or email and then they can paste it straight into their app and it just works. How about the ability to paste that code into Notepad or VS Code and edit that code before pasting it back into Power Apps. This opens a lot of doors! Below let's talk about it a bit and give you some examples. But if you are thinking I want to see a deeper dive and I want to see it in action then check out this video Power Apps View Code and VS Code with YAML View Code and Copy Code in Power Apps This one is pretty simple. Now anytime you want to know what properties have been set for a control, right click on it and select View code. Works for controls, containers, and even screens! Once you click you now see all of the non-default properties for that control. Meaning if you have set the Color, you will see the Color, if you are using the default, you will not. You cannot edit through this experience, but you can click Copy Code in the bottom left which will put the code in your clipboard. If you know you want to just copy thecode,e then you can also right click on the control and select Copy > Copy Code. Edit Power Apps code with Notepad Now that you have copied the code you can edit it with any text editor, like Notepad. (In a later section we will talk about VS Code but for now let's keep it easy.) Open up Notepad and paste it in. This text, formatted the way it is, is called YAML. Like JSON, it is just a fancy name for text with some formatting rules. Don't over think it, it is just text. The cool thing is you can edit it and then take it back to Power Apps. In the screenshot below I pasted in our boring button code and added an OnSelect property to create a global variable called varDog and set its value to Buddy. 🐶 Now highlight all of that code and copy it back to your clipboard. Enjoying this? Then you will love our training! Click training at the top of the page and join us for live or on demand training. Everything from intro Power Apps to Copilot AI or even a full 6-month deep dive University! Paste Code in Power Apps Head back over to Power Apps, right click on your screen and select Paste > Paste Code And now look. It creates the button, automatically updated the button name to avoid duplicate Button1 and the OnSelect property is set to Set(varDog, "Buddy") When it comes to pasting in code you can paste single controls, multiple controls, and even containers with all of their child objects. The only thing you cannot paste right now is a whole screen. Very cool. One of the neat scenarios this opens is if I want to give you a control configured with a bunch of awesome settings, I can just give you the text now. 😎 So take this cool image of Buddy going for a swan dive into the pool. All you need to do to get it is steal this fancy YAML. 😜 - Image1: Control: Image Properties: Image: ="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/263017_282af94507eb474d8a8a6dc99e1e7586~mv2.jpg" BorderColor: =RGBA(246, 88, 16, 1) BorderThickness: =10 Height: =277 RadiusBottomLeft: =100 RadiusBottomRight: =100 RadiusTopLeft: =100 RadiusTopRight: =100 Width: =336 X: =40 Y: =36 Boom! You have the diving pup! What about Pro Developers Truth be told, you are why they started all of this. Why? This will open doors for you using Source Control like Github with all of your branches and forks and stuff. And if you install the YAML extension from Red Hat, you can even add the Power Apps Schema. 🤯 Allowing more IntelliSense, throw in some Github Copilot and now you are cooking! To see how to get all of that fun configured check out the video list at the top of the article. This blog post has gotten too long to explain VS Code, and if you are a pro dev, you probably know more than I do anyway. 🙃 Summing it up This is an interesting twist, which opens new doors of understanding and sharing controls for all of us. Yes, it is also meant to power pro developers to do more powerful stuff but doesn't mean the rest of us cannot benefit. If you need help with any of your Power Platform projects let us know, we have lot of options from training, to mentoring, to full scale consulting to help you out. Scroll down a bit more and fill out that contact form and we will be happy to help.

If you haven’t seen it yet, then you need to check out our new video Intro to Power Pages featuring our own Haylee Adamson. In this blog series, we’ll recap the highlights and hopefully whet your appetite for more. What is Power Pages? Power Pages is a way to build a website based on Microsoft Dataverse data where you can use a low/no code experience to create your website. Using templates, drag and drop interface, and visual controls to adjust settings, there’s no code you need to write to set up your website. Since it’s built using Dataverse, you can put strict controls on what data you’re exposing, and who can interact with it. Why should I use Power Pages? Power Pages is your best bet for allowing users outside of your organization to interact with your data. We’ve encountered some use cases where Power Pages might be your best bet: Mockup of production solution for user training sites Collect demographic information from new customers Collect and provide information to event attendees, such as schedules, dietary preferences, housing selection, and release sign-offs Create a calculator for customers or sales reps to self-serve a quote Create a storefront for clients or reps to place orders Manage service requests Provide a portal for your resellers Manage evaluations and auditions Built on Power Platform Since it’s built on the Power Platform, if you’re familiar with Power Apps and Power Automate, or even SharePoint, you’ll feel at home creating in Power Pages. You may have created web pages around SharePoint data that you could share with other users in your organization, however, it was impossible to share your SharePoint pages outside of your organization. With Power Pages, you can create externally facing web pages (or ones that customers can view)! What about security? Did I mention security? Since it’s based on your Dataverse tables, your users will only see data according to permissions that you place on the data itself. Did I mention how easy it is to begin? Microsoft has provided customizable templates and a cool design studio very similar to what you see in Power Apps. Intro to the Power Pages solution In the next blog post, we’ll begin building with Power Pages together, but for now let’s examine what we could achieve. Haylee has developed a “Community Events” hub where users can add events and view a community calendar. With the ability to “View Events”, a user can see the Community Events on a calendar. Selecting an event shows event details: The hub also allows users (with the right permission) to add community events, by selecting the “Add Event” button from the header. The link brings up a form experience where the user can input the details of the event: Recap To recap, Power Pages is a webpage with a Dataverse data source. That does make it “premium”, in that, there’s a monthly cost for it. The advantage for developers already familiar with Dataverse tables is that you don’t need to create any new data, you can base it on data tables that you’ve already built! You can make Power Pages for audiences external to your organization, which is unique for the Power Platform. You can also use it to harvest data (like Haylee’s “Add event” form), where your webpage users can input data for you. If you’re looking for inspiration, you can take a look at what other organizations have already done with Power Pages here . In the next blog post, we’ll look at how to get your experience started! Resources from PowerApps911 In the meantime, if you’re anxious to get started and you’re new to Power Pages, you can begin with the free Power Pages module (about an hour of content) in our   Power Platform 101   course. You can also sign up for our Power Pages Jumpstart course. This 3-day live course, running from July 16-18, is designed to teach you everything you need to know to build your own Power Pages solution.