Power Platform Developer Suite Demo Solution

A reference implementation for Dynamics 365 CE / Dataverse that demonstrates the capabilities of the Power Platform Developer Suite VS Code extension and the PPDS ecosystem.

Purpose

This repository serves four main goals:

1. Showcase Extension Capabilities - Provides real-world examples of plugins, web resources, cloud flows, and other components that demonstrate what the VS Code extension can do

2. Reference Architecture / Starter Template - Clone this repo, replace the demo content, keep the infrastructure (CI/CD, branching, docs) as a starting point for new projects

3. AI-Assisted Development Reference - Well-structured patterns in CLAUDE.md that AI coding assistants can use when helping build Power Platform solutions

4. Educational Example - Shows complex ALM concepts at a micro level without clutter - one correct example of each component type

Prerequisites

Required

• .NET SDK 6.0+ (for tooling)
• .NET Framework 4.6.2 Developer Pack (for plugins)
• Power Platform CLI (PAC) (for solution management)

For Plugin Development

• PPDS.Plugins (NuGet): Plugin step registration attributes

  # Installed via project reference - see src/Plugins/PPDSDemo.Plugins/PPDSDemo.Plugins.csproj
  

For Plugin Deployment

• PPDS.Tools (PowerShell): Deployment automation cmdlets

  Install-Module PPDS.Tools -Scope CurrentUser
  

For Web Resources & PCF

• Node.js 18+

Optional

• Visual Studio 2022 or VS Code

Quick Start

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/joshsmithxrm/ppds-demo.git
cd ppds-demo

# Restore NuGet packages
dotnet restore

# Build the plugin projects
dotnet build src/Plugins/PPDSDemo.Plugins/PPDSDemo.Plugins.csproj

# Run tests (when available)
dotnet test

# Pack the solution (requires PAC CLI)
pac solution pack --zipfile solutions/exports/PPDSDemo.zip --folder solutions/PPDSDemo/src

What's Included

Component	Description
Plugin Assembly	Classic IPlugin implementations with PPDS.Plugins attributes
Plugin Package	Modern NuGet-based plugin package with external dependencies
Custom Workflow Activities	CodeActivity implementations for classic workflows
Web Resources	JavaScript/TypeScript, HTML, CSS, and images
Custom Tables	Demo entities with relationships
Solution	Unpacked solution using --packagetype Both
CI/CD Workflows	GitHub Actions for export and deployment

Project Structure

/
├── src/
│   ├── Plugins/                    # Plugin assemblies
│   │   └── PPDSDemo.Plugins/       # Classic plugin assembly
│   ├── PluginPackages/             # Modern plugin packages
│   │   └── PPDSDemo.PluginPackage/ # NuGet-based plugin package
│   └── Shared/
│       └── PPDSDemo.Entities/      # Generated early-bound entities
│
├── solutions/
│   └── PPDSDemo/
│       └── src/                    # Unpacked solution (source control)
│
├── tools/                          # Example deployment scripts
├── .github/                        # CI/CD workflows
└── docs/                           # Documentation

PPDS Ecosystem

This demo solution is part of the Power Platform Developer Suite ecosystem:

Repository	Purpose	Usage in this Demo
ppds-sdk	NuGet packages for plugin development	PPDS.Plugins package for step registration attributes
ppds-tools	PowerShell module for Dataverse operations	Deployment scripts in tools/
ppds-alm	CI/CD templates for GitHub Actions	Workflow examples in .github/workflows/
power-platform-developer-suite	VS Code extension	Development experience

Plugin Development

Plugins use attribute-based registration with the PPDS.Plugins package:

using PPDS.Plugins;

[PluginStep(
    Message = "Update",
    EntityLogicalName = "account",
    Stage = PluginStage.PostOperation,
    Mode = PluginMode.Asynchronous,
    FilteringAttributes = "name,telephone1")]
[PluginImage(
    ImageType = PluginImageType.PreImage,
    Name = "PreImage",
    Attributes = "name,telephone1")]
public class AccountAuditPlugin : PluginBase
{
    protected override void ExecutePlugin(LocalPluginContext context)
    {
        // Plugin implementation
    }
}

Deployment Workflow

1. Build: dotnet build -c Release
2. Extract: .\tools\Extract-PluginRegistrations.ps1
3. Deploy: .\tools\Deploy-Plugins.ps1

CI/CD

This repository includes GitHub Actions workflows for Power Platform ALM:

Workflow	Trigger	Description
ci-export.yml	Nightly / Manual	Exports from Dev with noise filtering
cd-qa.yml	Push to develop	Deploys to QA environment
cd-prod.yml	Push to main	Deploys managed solution to Production
pr-validation.yml	Pull requests	Validates solution builds correctly

See docs/strategy/PIPELINE_STRATEGY.md for details.

Documentation

Strategy (The "Why")

• ALM Overview - High-level ALM philosophy
• Environment Strategy - Dev/QA/Prod configuration
• Branching Strategy - develop/main workflow
• Pipeline Strategy - CI/CD approach

Reference

• CLAUDE.md - AI-assistable coding patterns
• Plugin Components Reference - Plugin development
• Solution Structure Reference - ALM structure
• Tools Reference - Deployment scripts

Contributing

This is primarily a demonstration repository. If you find issues or have suggestions for better patterns, please open an issue.

License

MIT License - See LICENSE for details.