Where is a Dynamics 365 System Administrator supposed to make changes these days? The Maker Portal? Classic Solution Designer?
It depends.
For Dynamics 365 online customers, things are changing on a regular basis. More and more things can be managed at make.powerapps.com, aka “The Maker Portal.” Yet there are still some integral system update tasks that must be done in the classic solution designer. In this blog, we’ll take a look at some of the changes you’ll need to use the classic solution designer for.
Switch to Classic: Relationships
As we all know, relationships are complicated… and this rings true even in Dynamics 365 and Dataverse tables.
The Maker Portal has introduced more functionality that it one had, which is fantastic. However, it still lacks some important configuration capabilities that cause me to Switch to Classic every time I have to manage them!
Here’s a breakdown on some of the relationship configuration tasks and where you can do them:
| Maker Portal | Classic Solution Designer | |
| Add new relationship | ✅ | ✅ |
| Change relationship behavior: Type of behavior, Delete, Assign, Share, Unshare, Reparent | ✅ | ✅ |
| Change relationship behavior: Rollup View & Merge | ✘ | ✅ |
| Add Mappings | ✘ | ✅ |
| Change Lookup column display name | ✅ | ✅ |
| Change Lookup Field Requirement | ✘ | ✅ |
Switch to Classic: UI Controls
I love the user interface controls available to system administrators in Dynamics 365 and Power Apps. I feel like allowing users to visually see their data enhances the user experience. UI controls can be applied at the table (or entity) level, the view level and the individual column (field) level on a specific form. This is an area that often leads to the Switch to Classic button for me. Here’s why:
- All table/entity UI controls must be applied in the Classic Solution Designer.
- All view level UI controls must be applied in the Classic Solution Designer.
- Field level UI controls in the maker portal are limited – some are only available in the Classic Solution Designer.
Switch to Classic: Model-driven app building
In June 2021, a new design experience was launched for model-driven apps, and it’s beautiful. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out my YouTube video walkthrough here:
However, this new design experience does not come without limitations that require you to use the classic designer. What are these limitations? Here are a few:
- As a builder, you cannot currently add more than one area to an app’s navigation.
- You are unable to specify the app’s URL.
- As a builder, you cannot change the app’s icon.
- Three components are not available in the new designer: charts, URLs and business process flows.
I’ve also noticed that any time I want to edit an existing model-driven app, it opens in the classic designer.
Want to Learn More?
If you want to learn more about this, I will be speaking at DynamicsCon on September 21st at 12 noon EST on this exact topic! It’s a free online conference – sign up today!