Unable to map Connection to a Custom connector using Solution connection references

[craigblowfield]

o the Solution I have in one environment consists of:

• Power App - Calls the Power App trigger Flow (below)
• Power App triggered Flow - This has the following actions
  • Send Office 365 Email action - Uses the Exchange Connection Ref connection reference
  • Get Rows SQL Action - Uses a SQL Test Connection Ref connection reference
  • Custom Action - This is from a Custom Connector provided by another Solution - Uses the Provisioning Connection Ref connection reference
• Connection References
  • Exchange Connection Ref
  • SQL Test Connection Ref
  • Provisioning Connection Ref

The target environment already has the other Custom Connector solution imported.

When importing the above solution in to the target environment, the connections panel shows the following

Clicking New Connection results in the

Unpacking the solution and viewing the Customizations.xml seems to point to the connectorid for the custom connector being different to the connector id for the Custom Connector provided by the other solution. Is this currently an unsupported approach for custom connectors?

If I edit the Customisations.xml and update the connectorid to match the one provided by the other solution containing the the custom connector, it shows existing connections as shown below and imports correctly

It said in the release blog the custom connectors were supported and granted this is in preview, but I have tried various things to get this to work and can't.

Also I have been unable to get the Power App within the solution to use the connection references, for example the SQL connection reference. The blog mentions something, but its not clear what the exact steps are.

Anyone able to help with the above would be appreciated

[Jcook]

Hello @craigblowfield 

Since this feature is in preview, it may not work as intended for all connections.

[craigblowfield]

I am aware it is in preview, but the blog states it supports connection refs for custom connectors and Canvas apps. So either:-

• Its a bug in its current implementation - But these issues would be obvious when testing before preview release as these just don't seem to work
• A known limitation in the currently version - But this would go against what was stated in the blog
• I'm doing it wrong (quite likely) or there is a workaround

[craigblowfield]

So it doesn't look like it's possible to deploy a custom connector with a static/defined ID using either Solutions or the Connector CLI (paconn).

Therefore, as the connection references mechanism use the connector ID, its not possible for a Solution with a connection reference for a custom connector to be portable across environments, as the custom connector in each environment will have a different Connector ID.

The only way I have got round this is to create a unique Solution for each target environment. Setting up an Azure pipeline task to Extract the Solution and set the connection reference connector ID in Customizations.xml and repack. So I now have X_Test.zip, X_Prod.zip

[packnology]

Hi @craigblowfield it looks like you figured out the "bug" with connection references, custom connectors and Solutions. It basically means that adding custom connectors to Solutions is a waste of time. Surely the whole point of Solutions is portability between environments? I have an open support ticket with Microsoft (3 weeks+) and they've been unable to tell me what you already posted here.

My situation is slightly different from yours, but I'm affected by the same problem with static custom connector IDs in the connection references. I have the custom connector, connection reference and the flows which use the custom connector all in the same solution. I'm trying to export the solution (as unmanaged) and import into a new (blank) environment, and get the same error message you described. If I split the custom connector out into its own solution, do you know of a way I could automatically import it into a new environment and get the deployed connector ID (to use in the solution export as you did)?

Thanks,

Greg

[darb1985]

How exactly did you do this portion "If I edit the Customisations.xml and update the connectorid to match the one provided by the other solution containing the the custom connector, it shows existing connections as shown below and imports correctly"? I am facing a similar issue, I created a post here already. Thanks!

[preeti_jeena]

It might be late, but I encountered a similar issue and have exact steps for your query

https://medium.com/@preetijeena221/powerapps-canvas-app-connection-with-custom-connector-not-mapped-...

Details  with screenshots in above story. Let me know if you have any additional questions. This approach works perfectly for me.

[wfranczyk]

I used to have the same issue but I have different way to solve it using azure DevOps pipelines without modifying solution. To simplify things lets say that we have only 2 solutions:

1. Solution A - contains only custom connector

2. Solution B - contains connection reference to custom connector from Solution A. Let's call this connection reference with display name Sample Reference and name SampleReference

and 2 environments DEV and PROD 

1st we need to move Solution A to PROD. Manually or using pipeline doesn't matter (i prefer using pipeline). After importing it we need to create connection to custom connector. When you go to connection details you will get in url something like https://make.powerapps.com/environments/<environment_guid>/connections/<connector_guid>/<connection_... or 
https://make.powerautomate.com/environments/<environment_guid>/connections?apiName=<connector_guid>&...

connection_guid and connector_guid will always be different on DEV and PROD.

To move Solution B from DEV to PROD let's use DevOps pipeline. Add to pipeline tasks:
1. Power Platform Tool Installer

2. Power Platform Export Solution - fill all required data based on DEV environment and Solution B

3. Power Platform Import Solution - set

• Service Connection to PROD environment,
• Solution Input File - place where solution was saved in step 2.
• tick "Use deployment settings file"
• Deployment Settings File - path to json file with settings

In our case setting file will look like this:

{"ConnectionReferences": [

    {

      "LogicalName": "SampleReference",

      "ConnectionId": "<connection_guid>",

      "ConnectorId": "/providers/Microsoft.PowerApps/apis/<connector_guid>"

    }]}

Both guids should be from PROD environment. This pipeline should be able to quickly move Solution B from DEV to PROD.

In normal scenario this setting file should contain all environment variables and other connection references added to solution. If there would be problem with even one connection then pipeline will fail with extremely useful error message "An unexpected error occurred.". Connections needs to be created or shared with the account used in service connection.

Hope it will help someone