Power Apps Monitor Feedback discussion thread

[AengusHeaney]

We recently launched the new Power Apps Monitor tool to help you debug and improve the performance of your apps. You can read more about the Monitor in the blog post. As you use the Monitor, we'd love to hear your feedback. What did you find helpful? What additional features could we add to this tool to help you debug your apps better? This community post will be used to consolidate all feedback on the Monitor tool. You can also access this post directly from the "Provide Feedback" link in the Monitor. 

[AengusHeaney]

Thanks for the feedback @R3dKap and great to hear the monitor is helping you daily! I'll look into the connection issue and try to repro on my end. We do have one related bug that we fixed regarding the connection error, and this will be in prod in the next 1-2 weeks. If you could message me with the session id if this occurs again, that would be a great help to isolate the problem down, and confirm our fix will resolve this issue for you or whether we have another variant to investigate. 

On your suggestion, showing the control prop for a trace will be available very soon (in test as we speak!), in ~1-2 weeks. We'll also show the full property formula just like in other network traces with the specific expression highlighted to help :-). 

Please keep the feedback coming, very interested in knowing how we can continue to improve the monitor for you! 

[AengusHeaney]

@R3dKap - your Trace enhancement suggestion for showing the control prop is now rolling out across the regions btw along with new Invite feature where you can collaborate with your teammates when debugging your apps - https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/collaborate-and-debug-an-app-together-in-real-time-with-m... 

[R3dKap]

That's great news! Thanks a lot for the update...

[DennisG]

Wow, this looks great!

Who is able to access Monitor? Since the data included and viewable is pretty much everything all users are currently doing (or am I only seeing things my current user is doing?), my privacy alarm bells are ringing. What permissions do I need to use Monitor?

Secondly about the Collaborate announcement: https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/collaborate-and-debug-an-app-together-in-real-time-with-m... - my Invite button is greyed out. Is the feature not rolled out for my tenant? Do I need to activate something for the button to become active? Same question for the Collaborate feature. Can the other person with the private invite-link also see everything then for the Monitor session? Is the 60min expiration time configurable? Can the user click around and see everything that is happening in those 60 minutes even without me (the inviter) being present?

[AengusHeaney]

Hi @DennisG - glad you like it! I'll break down your questions...

Who is able to access Monitor? => Currently, you need edit permissions as the only entry point to Monitor (except for Invite) is from Canvas studio, so you are debugging the authoring app. However, we will be adding debugging of the published app soon and that will allow anyone with permissions to launch the app to open Monitor and start a debugging session from the portal. 

Since the data included and viewable is pretty much everything all users are currently doing (or am I only seeing things my current user is doing? => you only see the events for your session. You do not see events for all users currently using the app. If you invite someone to "your" session, they will see events that you are generating in your app, under your context. Now, we will in the future allow you to debug an end-users session, but in this instance, the end-user will need to explicitly acknowledge/give approval that they want to join a monitor debug session and that any data will be viewable to others in that session. Hope that help explain? If not, just let me know. 

Can the other person with the private invite-link also see everything then for the Monitor session?Yes, they will see all events that you are generating in your app, under your context.

Is the 60min expiration time configurable? Not currently. This is 60 mins to use the link to login/join the session. If they have joined the session, the 60 min does not apply. They can't use the link again to login after 60 mins, even if you have the same debug session going. 

Can the user click around and see everything that is happening in those 60 minutes even without me (the inviter) being present? 
The events are all stored on the client. Any activity sent to the client monitor will be viewable to the invited user once they open the link. If you have finished your debug session and want to end it, you need to close/exit out the Canvas studio. This effectively ends your session and no more events will be sent to the invited user. You can start a new session for yourself again by re-opening the Canvas studio and monitor - this is a new session. 

What region is your app located - can you message me your AppId and session id and i'll see why it is not enabled. 

Thanks!

Aengus

[AndrewFitz]

Just used this today for the first time, trying to figure out what was slowing down my app. This monitor is awesome! I saw the issues, fixed them, tested, and now my app runs much faster.

Thanks for making this monitor!

[AengusHeaney]

Great to hear this @AndrewFitz - thanks for the positive feedback! 

[InvisoMike]

I can't even expand the Properties pane!  Hopefully when I can, it'll show the variable values there, because this would be extremely helpful in debugging.

[AengusHeaney]

@InvisoMike What browser/version are you on? You won't be able to see variable values in the properties panel by default (an app state viewer is on our backlog) but you can write custom Traces in your app and these will get sent as an event to the Monitor. For example, Trace("Debug: varX - " & varX) or alternatively you can send multiple values in a single trace Trace("Debug variable values", TraceSeverity.Information, { varX : varX, varY: varY, varZ: varZ}); - the message you write will appear in the properties panel details tab. 

[InvisoMike]

I'm using Edge Version 83.0.478.50 (Official build) (64-bit).  Also tried using Chrome, but didn't work.