CMS Power Platform Web Resources

This repository contains source-controlled assets used by CMS Power Platform solutions, including Power Apps, Dataverse plugins, and dataflows.

Organization

• /apps/
  App-specific code and resources
• /shared/
  Cross-app reusable components (when appropriate)

Guiding principle

Code starts app-specific and becomes shared only when reuse is proven.

This approach favors clarity, safety, and maintainability over premature abstraction.

Documentation

• Development environment setup
• Security Policy

Power Platform solution source

The PAC scripts clone the InitialITGO unmanaged solution in PAC's YAML source-control format from the reviewed development environment in apps/it-governance/solution-source.json. They never create, select, or modify PAC authentication profiles, and every remote command receives that environment URL explicitly.

Prerequisites and PAC versions

Install Node.js LTS, the .NET 10 SDK, and the current PAC CLI as a global .NET tool. The global PAC CLI performs authentication and solution clone commands:

dotnet tool install --global Microsoft.PowerApps.CLI.Tool

Canvas source comparison intentionally uses a second, repository-local PAC CLI pinned to version 2.4.1 in .config/dotnet-tools.json. PAC 2.4.1 can unpack older canvas apps with MSAppStructureVersion 2.0; current PAC releases reject those apps. Keeping the compatibility version local avoids downgrading the global CLI used for solution operations.

Restore the pinned compatibility tool once after cloning the repository and whenever the tool manifest changes:

npm run pac:setup

Do not globally downgrade PAC to 2.4.1. The scripts select the correct version for each operation automatically.

Solution cloning has been validated with global PAC CLI 2.10.1. Newer global versions are permitted, while canvas source expansion remains pinned to the repository-local PAC CLI 2.4.1 compatibility version.

Solution comparison normalizes two PAC-generated identifiers that change on otherwise identical clones: <ProjectGuid> in .cdsproj files and GUID-valued workflowName entries inside canvas-app ConnectionReferences. The files are still compared after normalization, so every other metadata or source change in those same files remains visible.

Authentication

Authenticate to the configured development environment before using the scripts:

pac auth create --environment https://itgovernancedev.crm9.dynamics.com

If Windows selects the wrong Microsoft account, use device-code authentication so you can explicitly choose the account that belongs to the Dev environment:

pac auth create --name "ITGO Dev" --environment https://itgovernancedev.crm9.dynamics.com --deviceCode
pac auth select --name "ITGO Dev"

Compare and export

Preview all solution and canvas-source differences without modifying the working tree:

npm run pac:diff

Export and replace the checked-out solution:

npm run pac:export

The export command requires PAC CLI 2.4.1 or newer and fails when the solution folder contains uncommitted or untracked files. It clones into temporary storage, displays the complete incoming file list, and requires confirmation before replacing the checked-out folder. It never stages or commits the result automatically.

The checked-in solution is intentionally a review snapshot rather than a repackable solution source. During export, the repository removes generated diagnostic data, environment-specific values, and PAC copies of web resources already managed by the canonical manifest. Those resources retain their original file extensions in apps/it-governance/web-resources and are compared and deployed with the webres:* commands. Solution-only web resources remain in the snapshot until they are deliberately moved into the canonical manifest.

After exporting, inspect the complete Git diff and run the appropriate Power Platform validation before committing. Changes to the configured environment, solution name, or repository destination must be made through a reviewed change to solution-source.json; UAT and production must not be configured as export sources for this workflow.