Password security is a major challenge in the current environment. The development of software has reached every corner of the people where the management of passwords and identities is a major challenge. People try to have a password that is easily memorable and is the same for each access to the software. Such a situation makes the identity of the user more vulnerable. To solve such a situation, expertise has come up with the new concept called break glass. Break glass refers to a quick means for a person who does not have access privileges to certain information to gain access when it is necessary. Microsoft has been implemented similar concept in the Azure environment as Azure Active directory privileged identity management which provides a service that enables us to manage, control and monitor  access to important resources of organization. These resources include Power Platform, azure resources and others. Managed identities provides an identity for applications to use when conne

Certainly, Azure Functions is true example of serverless which provides the abstraction of servers with cost effective. In the cloud concept, developer concentrates on the code rather server management. Although, it describes as unit of logical code, it divides in the three different piece, which assists it to work efficiently. There are three key components of Azure Functions: Function App : Unit of development (can have many functions). Triggers : Event source that starts the function (One per functions) Bindings :  Input : Data that is pulled in at the start an execution. Output : Data that pushed out after execution. All components are important in Azure Functions, but Triggers make it to run Azure Functions and Binding is the way to declaratively associate another resource. Triggers and bindings let us avoid hardcoding access to other services. Triggers and bindings are defined differently depending on the language of development. Those languages depend on function.json. A trigger

Serverless is beautiful concept in cloud computing where developer focus on business logic instead of taking care of infrastructure as well as it is cost effective as it bills on pay as per performance. The most interesting fact is that Serverless aka Azure Functions supports many programming languages. In the article, we are going to explain about long running operations using Azure Functions. If you would like to know more about Azure Functions, please click here . Azure functions execute event-driven serverless code with an end-to-end development experience : Microsoft Azure Functions have a shorter execution time period and the default time out is 5 minutes, but Azure functions with HTTP triggers have to respond in less than four minutes, but this can be increased to ten minutes as well. Serverless function is stateless, so developers need to maintain state. Because of these limitations, Azure Functions is not suitable for long running process operations. Azure functions provides &

With the advancement of technology era, identity authentication is the major challenge in the computer world. Modern business cannot be imagined with computers, software and data. Nowadays, cloud computing technology is augmenting the model and technocrats are trying to find a solution to the authentication problem. In other words, they are trying to reach the right people at the right time. Authentication is not a new concept in the modern technology world. Authentication is the process of recognizing a user's identity. In April 2007, a group of talented people formed a group called the OAuth Discussion Group and drafted a proposal for an open protocol and gradually published a new open framework for identifying them. Nowadays, OAuth 2.0 framework is available for authentication. OAuth stands "Open Authorization". OAuth 2.0 is a framework, not a protocol (like version 1.0) that allows third party services to exchange user information without sharing any information. OAut

Some factors like performance, concurrency, transactions and batching are important for every business application. These factors can be a barrier to users and interactive applications, so Microsoft implements various mechanisms in the Dataverse web API to increase performance and deal with the various factors. In the article, I will highlight every factor and make an outline. Dataverse Web API Performance: JSON Serialization: Use JSON instead of XML for exchanging data between service provider, because JSON is light weight. Use OData to query data: OData is time tested language for query RESTful APIs , It improves the performance during CRUD operations against Microsoft Dataverse Data. Use Patch method: Patch methods  provide Upsert capability. Use FetchXML to Query Data:  FetchXML is a robust query language that was developed by Microsoft to enable complex operations to be performed against Microsoft Dataverse Data Web API. Web API requests are subject to the throttling and request l

API limits act as guardian to control random and unpredictable surges in API request volume. A large number of requests create availability problems and reduce performance, in other words, API limits ensure the health and accessibility of the API. With HTTP API requests, this error usually appears as a response with a 429 status code. It also sends additional information to indicate the time required to wait until another request is attempted. This header is usually called "Retry-After". Dataverse API limits help ensure service level, availability, and quality. Dataverse API limits are part of the Power Platform request limit and allocation. There are two categories of limits that apply for Dataverse. Entitlement limits Service Protection limits Entitlement limits: Entitlement limits are associated with type of license assigned to each user. If user exceeds their requests, the administrator would be notified. Service Protection limits: To maintain the performance and availabi

API is not a new concept, but in the modern computer world, it is the popular way of communication between applications. An API is a component that allows different platforms, applications, and systems to connect and share information with each other. Developers use this component to improve their products/software by accessing other business data, software, services or code. Most of the benefits of an API are that it is easy to use in code and allows access to resources with control manners. Web API is basically an Open-Source framework that is used to write HTTP APIs. In the Dataverse, Microsoft provides different mechanisms to work with data, tables and column definition. Those are below: Web API Organization Service Microsoft first introduced this feature in Dynamics CRM 2016 and it uses similarly in the Dataverse  with different programming languages, multiple platforms, and devices. The Web API in Dataverse uses the Open Data Protocol (OData), known as OData version 4.0. OData (O

Azure Functions is the popular choice in the serverless platform where the developer concentrates on business solutions and develops the code rather than manage the instances, software, and hardware. The most interesting fact about the Azure function is that it is cost-effective as the bill pays as per the execution. Power Platform allows custom connectors to be integrated with Azure Functions. Serverless architecture is event-driven, so all functions written in Azure Functions are triggered by events. Among those events, HTTP is one of the trigger events. This HTTP request and the trigger of the Web API work in exactly the same way. To create a custom connector, we must describe the API so that the connector can understand the API's operations and data structures. While creating Azure function for custom connector, we need to follow below steps repeatedly: Create, test, and debug the Azure Function locally with Visual Studio Code. Deploy Function App to Azure. Update the Custom Co

Cloud has changed the digital world and it gives a new way of digital transformation.  On premises stuff have been reached to hybrid, multilayer and type of cloud.  It has pioneered a new way of software design, developing, deploying and messaging our server and business solutions. The application hosting and execution platform includes a new concept called Serverless computing. Serverless computing is nothing, it is cloud computing execution model which cloud provider allocates machine/applications resources on demand without having manage servers. Azure Function Apps is a serverless computation service provided by Microsoft that can run code in response to predetermined events or conditions. It is one of the most popular services in Azure. They provide the ability to run pieces of code that are triggered by events or schedules. It automatically manages all the computing resources that those processes require. Azure Function Apps is an event-driven serverless compute platform which is

The policy template provides the structure design or framework for policy information and ensures consistency. It should be written clearly and concisely. Such a policy helps to enforce organizational standards and assess compliance at large. In the Azure, Policy plays prominent roles and it helps to enforce organizational standards and to assess compliance at scale. Azure policy evaluates resources in Azure by comparing the properties of those resources to business rules. these business rules, described in JSON format, are known as policy definitions. Definitions include metadata and the policy rule. The defined rule can use functions, parameters, logical operators, conditions, and property alias. In the Custom Connector, Policies are used to enforce throttling limits on API calls, to route calls to different endpoints, and so on . Policy templates are available only for custom connectors. To use a policy template, either create a new custom connector or edit an existing one. Policies

Security is always a concern in every development especially software development. The REST API is the popular choice for communication because it is lightweight, flexible and scalable, so security is an essential concern for API development, as hackers can easily compromise access control. The API works on the hypermedia transmission protocol so it is easy for hackers to steal legitimate user credentials and access business and financial data. Data breach remains a significant issue for business with loss of revenue and reputation, therefore, it is essential to protect APIs. A connector is a proxy or a wrapper around an API.  . According to Microsoft, A custom connector is a wrapper around a REST API (Logic Apps also supports SOAP APIs) that allows Logic Apps, Power Automate, or Power Apps to communicate with that REST or SOAP API. Because APIs are used so much, and because they enable access to sensitive software functions and data, they are becoming a primary target for attackers.

API gives the advantage of communication between two software products or applications. In the past, there was a challenge between the two applications especially in cross platform. API is an acronym for Application Programming Interface, which acts as an intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. APIs allow different platforms, applications and systems to communicate and share information with each other. API means Application Programming Interface. In a power platform, the connector is the key component that helps to connect different types of platforms to the power platform. There are over 350 connectors available in the Power Platform that help talk to Microsoft Power Automate, Microsoft Power Apps, and Azure Logic Apps. It provides users with a way to link their accounts and leverage a set of pre-built actions and triggers to build their apps and workflows. A connector is a proxy or a wrapper around an API. According to Microsoft: A custom connector is a wrap

In the Microsoft Dataverse, there are many processes that run in the background. Normally, such processes work for business automation. In Dynamics CRM 2013, Microsoft introduced a new feature called Actions. It is a type of process that composes the multiple custom business logics in the single message. Action is the type of message that can be defined for the table or globally and is used to extend the standard functionality of the Microsoft Dataverse platform. With Actions, business users can implement business logic, and then developers can associate those actions with platform events. An Action is process which wrapper for multiple server-side operations. Actions provide the ability to define a single message that corresponds to an operation that needs to be performed for the business. These new messages are driven by a process or behavior rather than what can be done with the table. In the early period, messages were limited in scope that could be implemented by plugins or custom