Power Apps Standards: Reviewing Canvas Apps

Table Of Contents:
• App Checker
• Power Apps Code Review Tool
• Source Code Review
• Functional Testing & User Acceptance Testing

App Checker

App checker identifies potential issues within a canvas app.  A red dot will appear when there are formula errors or runtime errors to notify the developer a fix is needed.  The red dot will not appear for accessibility issues and performance errors.

Fix all issues identified in the app checker before publishing an app to production.  This includes accessibility errors and performance errors. Sometimes it is not possible to clear all errors due to an error with the app checker itself.  Have a strong justification for any errors that were not fixed

Power Apps Code Review Tool

The Power Apps Code Review Tool is an automated code review tool built by Microsoft.  A canvas app loaded into the review tool is analyzed against a checklist and is given a pass or fail score for each item.  Failed items will tell the developer what code must be fixed.

Aim for a score of 90% with the code review tool.  It is not necessary to achieve 100% because there are occasionally good reasons to avoid best practices.

Source Code Review

The Power Apps source code tool is useful for manual code reviews.  It unpacks an msapp file an allows the developer to review all code for a specific screen in a single file YAML file.  This is useful because the developer does not have to click into each individual property of a canvas control to read the code.  They can simply scan the YAML from top to bottom.

Use Visual Studio Code to read the unpacked canvas app code.  The C# syntax highlighter is preferred over the YAML highlighter because Power Apps code is more similar to C#.

Functional Testing & User Acceptance Testing

Functional testing of an app should not be done by the developer who made the app.  If there is more than one developer in the organization peer-testing is recommended.  Another developer is more likely to uncover issues with app behaviour.

All apps must undergo user acceptance testing before being launched into production.  Select a small, representative group of end users and ask them to test an app against a test script.

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