Power Platform CLIx: A New XrmToolBox Tool for Power…
Power Platform CLI (PAC) is a simple, one-stop developer CLI that empowers developers and ISVs to perform various operations in Microsoft Power Platform related to environment lifecycle, authentication, dataverse environments, solution packages, portals, code components and more. However, not everyone is comfortable or familiar with using the command line, especially when it comes to using the XRM tooling cmdlets that are required to connect to and perform actions in Dataverse. Even as a developer, myself, I find using the command line less than productive a lot of times.
That’s why I created Power Platform CLIx (or ‘Clix’ for short). The tool allows you to explore and run power platform command line functions using a graphical user interface inside of XrmToolBox. With CLIx, you can easily browse, search, and execute the available cmdlets without writing a single line of code. You can also view the parameters, documentation, and output of each cmdlet.
In this post, I’ll show you how to install and use CLIx, and demonstrate some of the features and benefits of this tool.
How to Install CLIx
CLIx is available as a plugin for XrmToolBox, a free application that provides a set of tools to work with Dataverse and Dynamics 365. To install CLIx, follow these steps:
- Download and install XrmToolBox from here if you don’t have it already.
- Launch XrmToolBox and click on the Plugins Store button on the toolbar.
- Search for Power Platform CLIx and click on the Install button.
How to Use CLIx
You can launch CLIx from XrmToolBox and start exploring the XRM tooling cmdlets. Here is a screenshot of the main interface:
As you can see, CLIx has three main sections:
- The left panel shows the list of available commands, grouped by their noun and verb. For example pipeline > list or solution > import. You can expand or collapse each noun or verb to view the details, including their arguments and the associated help. As you navigate the commands the command bar in the middle will update with the specific command line command to execute.
- The middle panel shows the current command with the associated arguments if any are specified in the Command Arguments property panel on the right. Also, the output of the most recently run command is displayed below the command text. Finally, you’ll see the details of the selected cmdlet, including the name, description, syntax and parameters in the Help section.
- The right panel shows the arguments for a given noun/verb combination. You can select the argument to see a description of the expected value and enter the value into the Command Input Arguments property panel.
To run a cmdlet, simply select it from the list and provide any necessary arguments. Note you can usually try running a command without specifying any arguments to start and if an error occurrs is will tell you what is required. Select the Run button in the Menu. You can also manually type a command into the command textbox to run it. Additionally, the menu allows you to choose from existing authentication profiles to switch between environments or sync your current CLI connection to the XrmToolBox connection, if one exists. If CLIx is unable to find a connection matching the XrmToolBox connection you will be asked to create a new connection using the auth->create cmdlet with some values prefilled based on the current XrmToolBox connection.
Finally, you have the ability to install and run commands from any and all published versions of the Power Platform CLI by selecting the version from the CLI Version dropdown menu. This will allow you to try newer versions but return to a previous version if something doesn’t work that did previously.
If you have any issues or questions be sure to let me know by checking existing issue or opening a new issue on the GitHub.
4 COMMENTS
wow. Awesome tool indeed. How do you cope with any new additions or changes in Pac CLI and the Xrmtoolbox plugins UI ?
Thanks for the question! The tool is using the NuGet feed for Power Platform CLI to get the latest version and defaulting to using the latest version whenever it’s loaded. Whenever a new version of Power Platform CLI is released, the latest version will be installed automatically. You can always revert to a previous version by selecting the version from the drop down. The tool effectively uses command line calls to retrieve the help information from the CLI and parses that help information to dynamically populate the UI controls so everything is dynamic based on what options are available in the selected version of the CLI tool. It’s also open-source so feel free to peruse the code to get a better feel for how it functions https://github.com/mikefactorial/MikeFactorial.XTB.Plugins.PPCLIx
That’s pretty cool
[…] Read more here : https://mikefactorial.com/2024/02/19/introducing-pac-ui-a-new-xrmtoolbox-tool-for-power-platform-com… […]