06 Jan
The fifth article in the ten part Power Platform Connectors A to Z series by Apptigent CTO Eric Shupps, Power Platform Customization and Extensibility, is now available. The fourth article in the series explored in detail the concepts of references, triggers, and policies. Each of these involves editing the underlying definition files and demands a certain level of technical acumen and comfort with JSON, YAML, command-line utilities, and testing tools. These are necessary skill areas for advanced connector creation, but mastery of them is not required—it is sufficient to just be familiar enough to use them when needed. This article discusses some additional advanced techniques related to optional configuration and constructing dynamic schemas, which involve the same level of technical knowledge. It also introduces the only true “professional developer” topic related to custom connectors—the Code step—with the caveat that actual coding is a task best left to programmers. It is important to understand, however, where it fits into the overall connector architecture and how it functions.
Below is a short excerpt from the article:
In some cases, the remote system hosting the APIs that a custom connector is calling is within the customer’s own data center or that of a partner, potentially even running in the cloud using Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). In these instances, it may be necessary to configure a more secure connection between the Microsoft network and the target servers than what can be achieved by simply opening a firewall port to the Internet. The on-premises data gateway application from Microsoft can address this issue, running on a Windows machine inside the customer network and serving as a bridge between local resources and designated Microsoft services. For instructions on how to install and configure the gateway, including a list of considerations and prerequisites, visit https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/data-integration/gateway/service-gateway-install.
The complete content is now available as a free eBook: The Ultimate Guide to Power Platform Custom Connectors.
