Power Platform Weekly - Issue #261
Welcome to Power Platform Weekly!
Earlier this month, it was announced that Power Apps model‑driven apps can now be part of Microsoft 365 Copilot conversations. Last week, the next step was introduced with custom tools and app‑powered UI.
Three new skills were also announced for the Power Pages agentic code plugin for GitHub Copilot and Claude Code CLI.
Have a great week and thanks for reading!
📰 Articles
Re-introducing Data Validation Tool for Dataverse – PPTB
🛠️ Back in 2020, Matt Beard released his Data Validation Tool for Dataverse in XrmToolBox. Six years later, he has now released an updated version of the tool for Power Platform ToolBox.
Power Apps- Comparing Different Ways to Create Apps With AI
🦸🏻♀️👩💻 David Wyatt tests different options for building apps. He creates 2 demo apps and builds them across the different options. If you’re wondering about the viability, be sure to check this blog out.
Create Add To Outlook Link For Sessions or Events In CIJ
🦸🏻♀️ Megan V. Walker shows you how to link directly to Outlook instead of sending a .ics file to people. If you expose calendar invitations, be sure to try this.
Other articles
🦸🏻♀️ Adventures with Power Platform: Deploying the Power Platform Communication Site Template by Matt Ruma
🦸🏻♀️ Accelerating Model-Driven App Development with Power Apps Generative Pages: A Simpler Way – Part 1 by Sam Kumar
🦸🏻♀️👩💻 Power Pages Backend Trifecta by Oleksandr Olashyn
📺 Videos
🎙️ Podcasts
Ctrl+Alt+Azure Podcast
👩💻 In this week's episode, we look at recent Microsoft Tech updates. By popular request, we're expanding our scope beyond Azure to include Microsoft 365, Power Platform, and related Microsoft platforms and capabilities. What's new? What's interesting? What's retiring?
Awkward Silence Podcast
🚀 Join us as we discuss Wave 1 updates relevant to Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform, focusing on Sales, Service, Power Apps/Dataverse, Project Ops, and Power Automate. On the Sales side, they highlight qualification, close, and research sales agents moving to GA, note FastTrack-enabled production access, question availability in Government Cloud, and debate whether sales agents will become as proactive as service agents. They emphasize that AI setup and evaluation criteria require significant effort and raise concerns about licensing and cost tradeoffs. For Dataverse/Power Apps, they call out restoring deleted records (admin-only, 30-day retention), generative pages going GA, added Copilot customization for summaries, view visualizations, and smart copy/paste. They also mention Project Ops time zone agnostic work to address inconsistencies across apps and scheduling boards. Power Automate items include restoring deleted flows, shared process license capacity, and an improved licensing dashboard.
Tech Directions Podcast
🧭 Step into a lively discussion where experts from EY and Microsoft share how Agentic AI is changing the game for enterprise operations—especially within the SAP ecosystem. Rather than sticking to traditional, reactive AI, the conversation explores how intelligent agents are now able to sense, reason, and act, bringing a proactive edge to business processes.
📅 Events & Webinars
Update Days Power Platform
(📅 April 27-28, 2026)
Curious about diving deeper into Power Platform? Encountering challenges while using it on advanced projects? You’re not alone. Join a conference that goes beyond the basics, offering practical insights into enterprise-level challenges like governance, professional development, and scalable solutions. Come learn from experts who work in the field every day, and connect with peers who, just like you, want to use Power Platform efficiently and strategically.
European BizApps Summit
(📅 May 5-7, 2026)
With 3000 attendees, the European BizApps Summit is the largest European conference focused on Power Platform, Dataverse, Microsoft Fabric, and Business Applications in general.
DynamicsCon
(📅 May 12-16, 2026)
Join thousands of other Microsoft Dynamics 365, Dynamics GP, and Power Platform users and professionals for more than 300 sessions, exhibitors, and endless community networking.
DynamicsMinds
(📅 May 25-27, 2026)
DynamicsMinds 2026 brings the global Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform community together for three inspiring days of real‑world insights, learning, and connection. Join industry experts and peers to explore what’s next and elevate the way you build, automate, and innovate.
Build
(📅 June 2-3, 2026)
At Microsoft Build, you’ll go deep on real code, real systems, and real workflows with the teams building and scaling AI. Two days. Hands-on sessions. No fluff.
European Power Platform Conference
(📅 June 29-July 2, 2026)
The European Power Platform Conference 2026 in Copenhagen brings together the Power Platform community to learn, connect, and share real‑world experiences. Through expert-led sessions and customer stories, attendees will explore how to build impactful solutions with Microsoft Power Platform and Copilot in a strong, collaborative community setting.
💙 Out of the Blue
Intelligent apps, human leadership, and the new shape of work
🧭🤵🏻🚀 Tiffany Treacy shares Microsoft’s vision on how intelligent applications are reshaping work by augmenting human decision-making rather than replacing it. The post covers how Power Platform fits into the broader strategy of empowering organizations to build AI-driven solutions while keeping people in the lead.
Custom tools and rich UI for app-based conversations are now in public preview
🦸🏻♀️👩💻🚀 Hemant Gaur announces the public preview of custom tools and rich UI components for in-app conversations in Power Apps. The post explains how makers and developers can extend Copilot chat experiences with tailored actions and interactive visual elements directly inside their apps.
More secure SharePoint integration in Power Pages with site-scoped permissions
👩💻🚀 Nagesh Bhat explains how Power Pages now supports site-scoped permissions for SharePoint integration, replacing broader tenant-level access. The post walks through how this least-privilege approach limits document access to specific SharePoint sites, reducing the security surface for portal deployments.
Translytical task flows (generally available)
👩💻🦸🏻♀️🚀 Zoe Douglas announces the general availability of translytical task flows in Power BI, which let report users add, update, and delete records or trigger external API calls without leaving a report. The post covers how Fabric User Data Functions connect reports to write-back actions, turning analytics into an interactive operational workflow.
Power BI April 2026 feature summary
👩💻🦸🏻♀️🚀 Katie Murray walks through the April 2026 Power BI Desktop and service update, covering expanded mobile Copilot chat, modern visual defaults with a base-theme switcher, fixed-size layouts for card and slicer visuals, and new modeling previews including Direct Lake calculated columns, user-context-aware calculated columns, and DAX user-defined function enhancements.
💡 Suggest content
Do you have a blog, YouTube channel or podcast that you want us to track, or do you know someone creating great content or community tools you think we should be aware of? Let us know about it!
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🕺 About the “Persona icons”
🤵🏻 Business User
🦸🏻♀️ Maker
🧭 Decision Maker
👩💻 Developer / Architect
🚀 Admin / Center of Excellence
🛠️ Tools
📅 Events & Webinars