{"id":3568,"date":"2019-06-04T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-04T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/power-platform\/blog\/power-apps\/improved-data-source-selection-and-common-data-service-views\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T08:03:46","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T15:03:46","slug":"improved-data-source-selection-and-common-data-service-views","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/power-platform\/blog\/power-apps\/improved-data-source-selection-and-common-data-service-views\/","title":{"rendered":"Improved data source selection and Common Data Service views"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are excited to announce that we have added a new experience rolling out this week for selecting data sources in canvas apps and to allow using the Common Data Services views as a filter on entities.\u00a0 Configuring a gallery or data table control is much easier with a prompt guiding the data source or connector to use.<\/p>\n

With this new experience is an improved data access to Common Data Service and will soon include all of the recent connection improvements.\u00a0 To streamline use of Common Data Service, the data source selection includes a list of suggested entities.\u00a0 The ability to use entity views as a filter allows more advanced queries to be used without delegation limits.<\/p>\n

Enabling the experimental flag<\/h2>\n

This new capability is available via an experimental flag in App settings under Advanced settings. Find “Improve data sources experience and Common Data Service views” under the Experimental section and turn the setting On.<\/p>\n

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\n\"Experimental<\/p>\n

If the “Explicit column selection” setting is enabled, it will need to be turned off before using this experimental feature. We are working to allow both to work together in an upcoming update.<\/p>\n

Selecting a data source<\/h2>\n

When an gallery or data table control is inserted, a call out prompts for the data source to use. It will show data sources already used in this app, Common Data Service entities, and connectors.\u00a0 Because the list of entities or connectors can be long, we show suggested items first and an action to see all of them.<\/p>\n

Clicking a data source in this app or an entity will set the Items property which causes the default fields to be added.<\/p>\n

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When you search, we look across all sections in the call out to find matches.\u00a0 This includes the matches within the full lists for Entities and Connectors.<\/p>\n

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Selecting an entity from Common Data Service<\/h2>\n

Selecting an entity will add to the In your app <\/strong>section\u00a0and set the Items property.<\/p>\n

\"Gallery<\/p>\n

The same data source selection experience is used for the Items property picker in the property pane.<\/p>\n

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When the app has data sources, the data source picker shows those used in your app in the first section for easy access.<\/p>\n

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Adding other data sources from a connector<\/h2>\n

Under the Connectors section, the data source picker shows the connectors which have connections created in the environment.\u00a0 By clicking on a connector the list of connections is shown and also allows creating a new connection.<\/p>\n

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For tabular connections clicking the new or existing connection will prompt for the location of the data.<\/p>\n

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PowerApps has a large number of connectors available. They are easily found using the data source picker search .\u00a0 If a connection doesn’t exist, clicking the connector will prompt with the new connection panel.<\/p>\n

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New connector or new connections will select the resulting data source for the Items property and add into the data sources in the app.<\/p>\n

Filtering a Common Data Service entity using a view<\/h2>\n

The Filter function now optionally takes a Common Data Service entity view as a parameter to provide filtering on the entity records.\u00a0 Each entity contains an enumeration of the views.<\/p>\n

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When editing, the Filter formula continues to show the enumeration name.<\/p>\n

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When no longer editing, the Filter formula hides the enumeration name for easier reading.<\/p>\n

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When the entity view filter is nested within other functions, the query is combined together.\u00a0 The view will always be executed on the server and additional delegable conditions will also be appended on the server to further reduce the view results.\u00a0 Non-delegable conditions will happen client side like normal filtering.\u00a0 Below is an example using a view and filtering based on a city taken from user input.<\/p>\n

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Data is returned in the order defined by the view unless Sort or SortByColumns function is used which overrides the view ordering.<\/p>\n

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Coming soon we will provide property pane support to allow selecting the view similar to selecting a data source.<\/p>\n

Things to note<\/h2>\n

Use this list to successfully enable the Experimental option for your application.<\/p>\n