What is the Power Platform?

Power Platform solutions are used to implement application lifecycle management (ALM) in Power Apps and Power Automate. Solutions are developed in development environments while admins make changes to your application. They serve as the source for Microsoft Power Platform assets. Solutions allow admins to transport apps and components between environments.

In summary, solutions are essential for managing customizations, deploying changes, and ensuring effective ALM in the Power Platform.

Common Power Platform solution import failures

Solution Import failures are common mostly due to the fact that dependencies exist between solutions and their components. Some common failures we’ve seen include (but not limited to):

• Microsoft updates have completed in the originating organization, but not yet in the target organization
• Connection References don’t have a corresponding Connection in the target organization
• Connection Reference is required for a Flow in the solution, but the Connection Reference is not in the solution
• Missing Dependencies as a result of a customization

When solution failures occur, they require additional time to investigate and resolve, then repackage the solution and attempt again. Unfortunately, each time a solution import is attempted, Microsoft is only able to present 1 error at a time. So, even though your initial solution import attempt presented 1 error, there could be others that surface once that is resolved.

Best practices to prevent common Power Platform solution import failures

Following best practices is the best way to prevent common failures and reduce time spent on Power Platform solution imports. Best practices can and will evolve over time as the platform changes and your teams needs change. Some of these can include:

• Create a DevOps pipeline using the Power Platform Build Tools. This not only saves time from having to manually export and import solutions, but has features to help prevent import failures. Once is the SkipProductUpdateDependencies parameter. This parameter allows you to skip enforcing Microsoft product update dependencies during the import process. It will NOT skip enforcing missing dependencies as a result of your customizations (which is preferred).
• Use a consistent Connection Reference and Connection for common Connectors in Flows, such as the Dataverse, SharePoint, Outlook and Excel. Have a pre-check in place to deploy new Connection References and Connections ahead of the Solution Import.
• Always configure customizations and new Flows inside of the Solution within the Development org. Configuring the customizations inside of the solution will automatically add dependencies as you work on them.

While best practices won’t prevent all failures, they can dramatically reduce the time spent to import solutions. They help save your team time so they can spend more time on designing and delivering new enhancements.

Contact Beringer Today!

We love to implement Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform solutions here at Beringer.  We’ve been working with Microsoft Dynamics since its inception, and we’re always finding innovative ways to implement the latest tools and help automate business processes.

Let us guide you through the process of integrating, customizing, and optimizing Dynamics 365 to meet your unique business needs. Contact us today to learn how we can help you transform your customer relationship management processes.

Beringer Technology Group, a Microsoft Solutions Partner for Business Applications, specializing in Microsoft Dynamics 365 and CRM for Distribution also provides expert Managed IT Services, Backup and Disaster Recovery, Cloud Based Computing, Email Security Implementation and Training, Unified Communication Solutions, and Cybersecurity Risk Assessment.

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Microsoft Power Pages, part of the Power Platform, allows organizations to develop public-facing websites utilizing the Dataverse as its database. While Microsoft Power Pages has come a long way since its inception as Adxstudio, certain features are not yet built into the Power Pages design studio. One of these features is full control of page styling using CSS. While basic styling is available within the design studio, a more granular approach to stylizing Microsoft Power Pages sites requires custom CSS.

What is CSS?

CSS, or cascading style sheets, is a styling language used to specify the presentation and styling of a document written in HTML. Put simply, CSS separates the style component of a website from how that website actually functions (HTML handles the functional component). When CSS is combined with HTML, a website looks good and functions properly.

Why use custom CSS with Power Pages?

By default, the Power Pages design studio – at the time of this publication – allows for minimal configuration of site appearance. Such basic configurations include a limited font selection; font weight, colors, and sizes; and link text behavior, among others. With CSS, however, you can control the look and feel of most webpages at a very granular level, including custom hover behavior, field outlines, and much more.

How do I implement custom CSS with Power Pages?

CSS files are stored within Microsoft Power Pages web files and can be accessed directly via the Power Pages Management model-driven app. You can either create a new Microsoft Power Pages web file to store your custom CSS, or you can upload it graphically via the Power Pages design studio. Please note that you should NEVER modify, delete, or otherwise change the bootstrap.min.css, theme.css, or portalbasictheme.css web files as they are required for your Microsoft Power Pages site to function correctly. Instead, override the theme.css file by using your custom CSS.

Contact Beringer Today!

We love to implement Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform solutions here at Beringer.  We’ve been working with Microsoft Dynamics since its inception, and we’re always finding innovative ways to implement the latest tools and help automate business processes.

Beringer Technology Group, a Microsoft Solutions Partner for Business Applications, specializing in Microsoft Dynamics 365 and CRM for Distribution also provides expert Managed IT Services, Backup and Disaster Recovery, Cloud Based Computing, Email Security Implementation and Training, Unified Communication Solutions, and Cybersecurity Risk Assessment.

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Microsoft Dynamics 365 has three primary column (field) types with numerous available data types to choose from. The three primary column types are simple, calculated, and rollup. The data types number over a dozen, with some having different options as to how the data is displayed. Recently, Microsoft began notifying app builders and customizers whenever a new calculated column is created – via an alert banner – that calculated columns will eventually be deprecated. Because of this soon-to-be discontinuation, formula columns are now the preferred method of handling calculations in Dataverse columns.

What is a calculated column?

According to Microsoft, “calculated [columns] let you automate manual calculations used in your business processes. For example, a salesperson may want to know the weighted revenue for an opportunity which is based on the estimated revenue from an opportunity multiplied by the probability. Or, they want to automatically apply a discount, if an order is greater than $500. A calculated [column] can contain values resulting from simple math operations, or conditional operations, such as greater than or if-else, and many others.”

How do formula columns handle calculations?

Formula columns are very similar to calculated columns, however, they use the Power Fx language to handle the calculations. Power Fx is a low-code language – similar to the language of Excel formulas – that can be used across the Power Platform. The language is what drives canvas apps, what allows custom command bar buttons to function properly, and now, what allows calculations to be performed within a column. More information on the Power Fx language can be found here.

An example of a Power Fx formula would be:

Sum(Number_Field_1,Number_Field_2)

The result of the above formula would the sum of the two number fields: Number_Field_1 and Number_Field_2. If a number were to change in either of these fields, the sum would be immediately calculated without any intervention by a user.

Contact Beringer Today!

We love to implement Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform solutions here at Beringer.  We’ve been working with Microsoft Dynamics since its inception, and we’re always finding innovative ways to implement the latest tools and help automate business processes.

Beringer Technology Group, a Microsoft Solutions Partner for Business Applications, specializing in Microsoft Dynamics 365 and CRM for Distribution also provides expert Managed IT Services, Backup and Disaster Recovery, Cloud Based Computing, Email Security Implementation and Training, Unified Communication Solutions, and Cybersecurity Risk Assessment.

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It’s not just an AI chat assistant in Bing anymore.

Microsoft Copilot is an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant that helps users with various tasks and challenges in their work and personal lives. Copilot is not a one-size-fits-all single solution from Microsoft, but rather a family of AI assistants and features powered by Copilot, that are tailored to specific applications and domains. Let’s explore how Microsoft has developed assorted flavors of Copilot for their ecosystem, and how they can benefit you in different scenarios.

Copilot for Microsoft 365

Copilot features have been added to Microsoft 365, the suite of productivity applications that includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook and more. In Microsoft Word, users benefit from AI-powered writing assistance, grammar and style suggestions, content generation, and summarization. Excel leverages Copilot for data analysis, insights generation, formula suggestions, and automated chart creation. Outlook assists with email drafting, scheduling, and meeting summaries. PowerPoint users can create presentations faster with design ideas and content generation.

Worth its own shoutout, is the extensive and powerful Copilot features added to Microsoft Teams. An assistant that is always keeping minutes of your meetings, diligently listening, no matter how boring. With Copilot in Teams you can ask to summarize meetings, identify follow-up tasks, and generate insights from chats and calls. Live transcription that helps users stick to agendas, recap key points, and pinpoint important information without disrupting the flow of discussions. Available on multiple platforms, Copilot requires transcription or recording to function and offers features like action item capture, unresolved question identification, and chat summarization. It is accessible during and after meetings and chats, providing a seamless and efficient way to manage and review collaborative efforts, or just get that detail from that meeting that time, that you’ve forgotten since.

Copilot for Dynamics 365 Apps

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a family of business applications that includes Dynamics 365 Sales, Microsoft Dynamics Customer Service, Dynamics Field Service, and more. In Sales, get Copilot-written account summaries of your important clients. A detailed Copilot summary of an Opportunity record in your sales pipeline with all the related info concisely written. Case Summaries in Customer Service, Knowledge article suggestions, and Field Service gets great Copilot-powered shortcuts for closing Work Orders and getting Copilot-summarized details of complex site visits in a glance.

Copilot for your Windows 11 OS

Windows 11 is the latest version of Microsoft’s operating system (OS) for personal computers and workstations. Copilot for Windows 11 is an AI assistant that runs natively in the OS and helps users with various tasks running your personal machine. For example, Copilot for Windows 11 can help users find files, apps, settings, and information faster and easier by using natural language queries, voice commands, and gestures. Copilot for Windows 11 can also help users with tasks like managing notifications, optimizing performance, securing devices, customizing preferences, and more.

Copilot for Business, in Business Apps

Copilot for Power BI can help users create and explore data visualizations by suggesting charts, filters, slicers, and more. Copilot for Power Apps can help developers and consultants build and deploy apps faster and easier by suggesting components, formulas, expressions, and more. Copilot for Azure Security Center can help security professionals protect their cloud resources by suggesting security policies, alerts, and remediations. Copilot for GitHub can help developers write and review code by suggesting code completions, re-factorings, comments, and more.

Get in touch with the Beringer team today!

Microsoft Copilot is not just one thing. Copilot in Word was used to start the draft of this blog post, Copilot-powered Cocreator (Preview feature) from Microsoft Paint was used to create the images, Copilot in Bing was used for researching updates and Copilot in Teams was used to recap  transcripts of other discussions I already had about Copilot with clients and coworkers. With the addition of Copilot Studio, you can even make your own Copilots. Microsoft keeps adding Copilot-enabled feature after feature to each of its products. Keep in touch with an expert in all things Microsoft, like Beringer, if you need help navigating all the choices and choose the flavors you want for yourself.

Beringer Technology Group, a Microsoft Solutions Partner for Business Applications, specializing in Microsoft Dynamics 365 and CRM for Distribution also provides expert Managed IT Services, Backup and Disaster Recovery, Cloud Based Computing, Email Security Implementation and Training, Unified Communication Solutions, and Cybersecurity Risk Assessment.

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Websites come in many different shapes and sizes.  They can run on a variety of platforms and use several different coding languages.  Despite these differences, all clients want the same the same result from their websites … deliver an easy way to capture and track their website leads in their CRM system.

Check out our interview with our CTO, who demonstrated how you can solve the website lead automation challenge with Microsoft Power Automate, and read the full blog here.

Reach out to Beringer today!

We love to implement Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform solutions here at Beringer.  We’ve been working with Microsoft Dynamics since its inception, and we’re always finding innovative ways to implement the latest tools and help automate business processes.

Beringer Technology Group, a leading Microsoft Gold Certified Partner specializing in Microsoft Dynamics 365 and CRM for Distribution also provides expert Managed IT Services, Backup and Disaster Recovery, Cloud Based Computing, Email Security Implementation and Training, Unified Communication Solutions, and Cybersecurity Risk Assessment.

The post Lead Automation with Microsoft Power Automate appeared first on Beringer Technology Group.

Adding new users to Dynamics 365 can be a time consuming process due to the delays in users syncing from Azure and the Office 365 Admin Center to Dynamics 365. A process that would take minutes to complete but can take up to an hour depending on backend processes that run to see that user in Dynamics 365. This has been a struggle for administrators, especially when a user needs to be added quickly to Dynamics 365.

Now, through the Power Platform Admin Center, you have the ability to sync users instantly to Dynamics 365. This tool can also be used to force updates to users and troubleshoot user access issues. Below are the steps on how to sync users instantly to Dynamics 365.

After the user is created in azure/office 365, log into the Power Platform Admin Center using a Dynamics System Admin or Global Admin account depending on the type of user you are adding. This can be accessed through the following url.

https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com/environments

From here, select the environment where you would like to add the user to. On the right side of the environment’s page, there is a section call “Access.” Click on “See All” under the “Users” section.

On the following page, click the “Add User” button in the top left of the ribbon.

A quick create box will pop up on the right side of the page. In the search box, start typing the name of the user or the user’s email and it will display results to choose below. You can only add one user at a time from here. Click the “Add User” button and this will add the user to the organization.

In the next screen, you can add the security roles to the user for the org. Once you save the record, everything will update into the Dynamics 365 organization.

This area can also be used to diagnose user issues or update a user instantly in Dynamics 365. On the user screen, search for the user that is experiencing issues or need updating. For example, the user’s name changed or they are having access issues in Dynamics but are configured correctly. Click the check box next to the user then in the top ribbon, click on the “Refresh User” button. This will pull all the fields and settings from Azure to the user record in Dynamics 365.

If you are still experiencing issues with the user, you can use the user diagnostic tool found on the ribbon. This will verify the user is allowed to sign in, has an active license, is a member of the environment’s security group and has security roles assigned. If there are any issues, it will alert you to it and display what needs to be fixed. In the below example, the user is missing security roles. These would need to be added before the user can have access to the environment.

Give us a call today!

Interested in learning more about Beringer Technology Group’s support and development services for Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform? Read our Cloud Applications page for details!

At Beringer, we go beyond traditional IT support – we are strategic partners, dedicated to helping businesses thrive in the digital age. Let us navigate the complexities of your IT infrastructure, allowing you to focus on what you do best – driving innovation and achieving your business objectives. Partner with Beringer Technology Group, and together, let’s build a foundation for sustained success.

Beringer Technology Group, a Microsoft Solutions Partner for Business Applications specializing in Microsoft Dynamics 365 and CRM for Distribution also provides expert Managed IT Services, Backup and Disaster Recovery, Cloud Based Computing, Email Security Implementation and Training,  Unified Communication Solutions, and Cybersecurity Risk Assessment.

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A Dynamics 365 plug-in is a powerful feature that can allow you to inject custom functionality directly into your CRM. Plug-ins extend the limits of the native automation tools available within Dynamics 365. Whether you’re looking to automate complex business processes or simply streamline daily tasks, plug-ins are an essential tool for any Dynamics 365 developer.

What is a Dynamics 365 Plug-in?

A plug-in is a custom C# program that you can use to extend the standard behavior of Dynamics 365. When an event occurs, such as the creation of a new record or the update of an existing one, the plugin will execute and perform the program that you have written. This could be as simple as auto-populating a few fields, or as complex as calling an integration with other systems.

Why Use Plug-ins?

Plug-ins provide a level of customization that workflows and Power Automate flows cannot match. They are the best of both worlds, since they can perform automations in real-time while remaining flexible and scalable. You can use plug-ins to validate data before saving a record, integrate with external APIs, or simply perform automation that is impossible to achieve with workflows alone.

How to Make a Plug-in?

Here are a few things to consider before creating a plugin:

• You’ll want working knowledge of C#.
• Visual Studio, to write, test, and compile your code.
• And the Dynamics 365 SDK, which provides the necessary libraries to create a plugin.

Now that you have the essentials to get started, below is a 30,000 foot view on the process for creating and implementing a plugin into your CRM:

• Create a new Class Library project in Visual Studio using the .NET Framework. This will contain your C# code.
• Add the Microsoft.CrmSdk.CoreAssemblies NuGet package to your project. This package contains the libraries needed to interact with Dynamics 365. It contains useful tools that allow you to query, write, and update data within Dynamics.
• Write your plugin logic in C#.
• Register your plugin with Dynamics 365. The most common way to achieve this is by using the Plug-in Registration Tool created by Microsoft.

Best Practices

When developing plug-ins, there are several best practices to keep in mind. First, always make sure to implement logging into your plug-in. This will allow you or other users to troubleshoot potential failures with your C# code. You can achieve this by enabling plug-in trace logs underneath system settings in any of your CRM environments. Next, account for failures. If a plug-in fails, it can throw an intimidating error to you or your users. Luckily, you can control this within the plug-in itself. Finally, test your plugin. When you think you are done testing, test it again. Once you are done testing a second time, test some more. It is crucial to thoroughly test plug-ins given their highly custom nature.

Conclusion

Dynamics 365 plugins are an excellent option for extending the capabilities of your CRM. By understanding how to develop and implement them, you can create powerful automations that cannot be achieved with out-of-the-box tools.

Reach out to Beringer today!

Do you need a custom plug-in to help extend the functionality of your CRM? Take a look at our Microsoft Cloud Applications consulting services page for more information.  We’ve been working with Microsoft Dynamics since its inception, and we’re always finding innovative ways to implement the latest tools and help automate business processes.  Contact us today!

Beringer Technology Group, a Microsoft Solutions Partner for Business Applications, specializing in Microsoft Dynamics 365 and CRM for Distribution also provides expert Managed IT Services, Backup and Disaster Recovery, Cloud Based Computing, Email Security Implementation and Training, Unified Communication Solutions, and Cybersecurity Risk Assessment.

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What is the Microsoft Dataverse Web API?

The Microsoft Dataverse Web API (Application Programming Interface) is used by Developers to integrate other platforms, applications and websites to your Dataverse or Dynamics 365 environment. It supports all CRUD (create, read, update, delete) operations to your Dataverse environment. It is a RESTful web service that supports OData, which makes it easier for Developers of different programming language backgrounds to use it.

How do you create Data with the Dataverse Web API?

Developers can use POST requests to create table rows, deep insert to create multiple related rows, and use @odata.bind to associate new rows to existing tables.

Basic Create

A basic create allows you to create a record, such as an Account, by using the entity set name, properties and values. Once the operation succeeds, a status code of OK or No Content is returned.

Create with data returned

You can extend the basic create by specifying properties to return once the record is successfully created. This is especially useful to the source system if it needs the results to complete additional requests or perform validations. This is accomplished by setting the return=representation preference in the request headers and appending the $select query option to specify which column values to return from the entity, or use $expand to return related entity data.

Create multiple records in a single request

If you have many rows of a table to create and efficiency is your priority, then you can use the CreateMultipleAction. For example, you can bulk create your Accounts in a single request. The data must be of the same entity and can be specified in your POST request as [webAPIUrl]/[entitySetName/Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.CreateMultiple

The body will consist of a JSON array for each row of data.

Create related table rows in one operation

Using a pattern known as deep insert, you can combine multiple creation and association requests in one operation, known as atomic operation. Atomic operations will succeed only if all records were created successfully and otherwise fail, which is a good fail-safe mechanism to have! For example, you can create an Account, the primary Contact and its related Activities in one operation.

You can use the same preferences and query options as mentioned earlier to return the data that gets created.

Associate new table rows with existing table rows

Using the @odata.bind annotation with the value of navigation properties, you can create related table rows with existing data. For example, you can create child Contacts, Invoices, Orders with an existing Account.

Check for duplicate records

In Dynamics 365, there is a feature known as “Duplicate Detection Rules”. When the feature was initially released, they only executed based on end user interaction with the data to alert them of a possible duplicate record. With the Dataverse Web API, Developers can set the MSCRM.SuppressDuplicateDetection: false in the header of their POST request to enable duplicate detection using the existing Duplicate Detection Rules configured by your administrators.

Create a record from another record using column mappings

Developers can use the InitializeFrom function to retrieve values for an existing record, based on relationship column mappings configured by your administrators. The response from the Web API can then be used in a POST request when creating the new record. While this is a 2-step process for Developers, this essentially allows your integrations to mimic what end users experience when they create a child from a parent and fields are pre-populated. For example, if address fields are mapped from Account to Contact then when a new Contact is created from within an Account, the address fields are pre-populated.

Create documents in storage partitions

Microsoft has created Dataverse Elastic tables which are powered by the Azure Cosmos DB. They can be useful when the data is unstructured or semi-structured and have high volumes of input and output requests. They are not meant for data that needs to be structured, validated, consistent or complex relationships to other tables.

As you can see, Microsoft has provided Developers with many useful options for integrating data with the Dataverse. Not all options will make sense for your implementation though. It will ultimately depend on what the priorities and integration goals are. For example, you will need to consider efficiency, data structure & logic, timeline and budget.

If you’re interested in more information on these topics, take a look at our service pages for Power Platform and Azure.

Reach out to Beringer today!

We love to implement Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform solutions here at Beringer.  We’ve been working with Microsoft Dynamics since its inception, and we’re always finding innovative ways to implement the latest tools and help automate business processes.

Beringer Technology Group, a Microsoft Solutions Partner for Business Applications,  specializing in Microsoft Dynamics 365 and CRM for Distribution, also provides expert Managed IT Services, Backup and Disaster Recovery.

The post Exploring Options for Data Creation with the Dataverse Web API appeared first on Beringer Technology Group.

Power Automate flow is an automated workflow that can be created using Microsoft Power Automate. Power Automate is a cloud-based software that allows users to create and automate workflows and tasks between multiple applications and services. Power Automate can be used to automate repetitive tasks and bring efficiencies to any organization.

When are Power Automate Flows triggered?

Power Automate flows can be triggered automatically, instantly, or via a schedule. For example, flows can be triggered by an event such as an update to a Dynamics 365 record, creation of a SharePoint document, receiving an email from a specific person or a mention of a company on social media.

Improve User Experience with Power Automate Flow

To ensure that these automations are running efficiently, Power Automate Flows run asynchronously.  What this essentially means is that they are running in the background, giving no visibility to the end user when it succeeds or fails. In most cases, the end users do not need to know the status of a flow as they are typically performing backend tasks. Additionally, your support team should be monitoring for and rectifying failures.

However, when a flow is triggered instantly, such as from a button on a form or toggle changed by the end user, displaying the status of the flow as it’s in progress (if it’s a long running flow) and once it completes can improve user experience. For example, a flow may be designed to send data to another application or send an email out to a customer. If there is an issue with communicating to the other system, it can be very beneficial for the end user to be aware so that they can take immediate action to get help for resolving an issue.

Some ways of notifying the end user of the Flow status are to design the Flow to update a status field on the record that it triggered from or send an email to the user. Additionally, you can include a link back to the execution log of the flow to help to your admins troubleshoot a failure when the end user reports it. This will empower your admins to resolve failures that may be a result of bad data, for example.

Reach out to the Beringer Team today!

Interested in learning more about the features found in Microsoft Power Platform?  Read our Power Platform service page!

We love to implement Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform solutions here at Beringer.  We’ve been working with Microsoft Dynamics since its inception, and we’re always finding innovative ways to implement the latest tools and help automate business processes.

Beringer Technology Group, a Microsoft Solutions Partner for Business Applications,  specializing in Microsoft Dynamics 365 and CRM for Distribution, also provides expert Managed IT Services, Backup and Disaster Recovery, Cloud Based Computing, Email Security Implementation and Training, Unified Communication Solutions, and Cybersecurity Risk Assessment.

The post Improve User Experience with Power Automate Flow appeared first on Beringer Technology Group.

We’ve been busy building many data integrations over the years, specifically with Azure Functions, which provide automatic scaling and cost optimization for serverless workloads. Some data integrations we’ve built involve authenticating to Web APIs for Dynamics 365 (Dataverse), Business Central and SharePoint Online. When building applications or data integrations to authenticate to other applications there comes the challenge of implementing efficient methods to re-use connections and automatically refresh expiring security tokens to avoid port exhaustion errors. In order to optimize our authentication methods, we instantiate our connections once and use the MSAL which maintains a Token Cache.

What is the MSAL?

The MSAL, or Microsoft Authentication Library, is a Python library that allows developers to get security tokens from the Microsoft identity platform. This allows developers to authenticate users or Azure app registrations and access secured Web APIs. These Web APIs include:

• Microsoft Graph, which can be used to read and write to SharePoint
• Other Microsoft APIs, such as for Dynamics 365 (Dataverse) and Business Central
• Third-party Web APIs
• Your own Web API

What is a Token Cache?

The MSAL uses a cache to store tokens based on specific parameters. When needed, MSAL retrieves the token from the cache. To acquire an MSAL access token, you can use the AcquireTokenSilent (for user-based authentication) or AcquireTokenForClient (for app-only authentication) method. Each is designed to check the cache in browser storage to see if a non-expired access token exists and returns it.  We typically use the AcquireTokenForClient method. Depending on your application, there are a few Token Cache methods that a Developer can configure to retrieve and refresh the token.  The default token lifetime is 60 minutes (1 hour), with a minimum of 5 minutes and a maximum of 1,440 minutes (24 hours).

MSAL vs OAuth libraries

The MSAL provides benefits over OAuth libraries because it can maintain the token cache and will automatically refresh the token(s) once they expire. Additionally, it allows Developers to specify who can sign into your application, such as:

• Your organization or several organizations
• Work, school or personal Microsoft accounts
• Social identities with Azure B2C (Gmail, Facebook, etc.)
• Users in sovereign and national clouds

Using MSAL when re-using HttpClient instances

The MSAL Token Cache method can and should be used in conjunction with your method to re-use HttpClient instances. HttpClient instances are intended to be reused throughout the lifetime of an application. Instantiating an HttpClient class for every request can exhaust the number of sockets available under heavy loads. Reusing HttpClient instances can help avoid port exhaustion problems if the request rate is high.

Interested in learning more about the features of Microsoft Power Platform, Azure, or Dynamics 365? Take a look at our services pages on these and other topics.

Reach out today!

We love to implement Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform solutions here at Beringer.  We’ve been working with Microsoft Dynamics since its inception, and we’re always finding innovative ways to implement the latest tools and help automate business processes.

Beringer Technology Group, a leading Microsoft Gold Certified Partner specializing in Microsoft Dynamics 365 and CRM for Distribution also provides expert Managed IT Services, Backup and Disaster Recovery, Cloud Based Computing, Email Security Implementation and Training, Unified Communication Solutions, and Cybersecurity Risk Assessment.

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