Improve user experience when editing a swagger file for custom apis

[mcorning]

I see that you guys justify the requirement to delete and recreate a custom api when the swagger file changes appropriates the infamous "by design" dev loophole.

since you don't justify the justification anywhere in documentation, i can only surmise that you think changing a swagger file is like changing regular apis. if this is the case, then your draconian assumption that the swagger changes are always breaking changes seems...well, draconian.

so please, do two things:

• document this "feature" of powerapps, and do it clearly. (you understand, don't you, that all your customers are powerapps rookies trying to learn by trial and error how to thrive in this brave new world of software development you offer us. forcing us to start from scratch with each thing we learn will not endear you to your customers.)
• do a much better job convincing us there is something peculiar to powerapps custom apis that warrants the "by design" designation.

[mcorning]

As a follow up to my rant just now, I need to confirm something i learned today online: our PowerApps accounts have a limit of five custom apis?

really?

I guess you don't expect us to use PowerApps to their fullest potential. and to make matters worse, since we cannot change a swagger file, the five api limit means it is not feasible to simply create multiple versions of our custom apis.

for the moment, i am going to do just that to see what the consequences are to the flows and powerapps that depend on my custom api today. and i will compare this pain to the pain of deleting and rewriting.

for all the valuable dev time PowerApps has given back to us, this versioning issue is a big step back toward the old days of programming...

[khaledhikmat]

I fully agree! I think the abiity to update the custom apis Swagger file is extremely important. This was added to the PowerApps ideas several months ago: https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/PowerApps-Ideas/Allow-the-custom-API-Swagger-to-be-updated/idi-p...

Regards

[mcorning]

I have since been shown it's not as bad as i thought, but it's not as easy as it could be.

The trick is in thinking of your modified Custom API as a new connection. So the first thing you do from the Connections page is click the +New connection link: Step 1

Then select the Custom list of connections:

Step 2

Then click the custom API to update:

Step 3

Now you will see the Edit icon at the top of the page:

Step 4

Edit you swagger file, then hit the Upload button and complete the process as you would normally.

Thanks Sunay...

[khaledhikmat]

Yeah...ok...thanks for sharing. I guess it is good enough. How about the limit of 5 custom APIs?

[khaledhikmat]

Hi, the Swagger update works....but I could not get the app to see the changes I applied to the connection until I removed the connection in the app and put it back. Just hought to let everyone know. It would be nice to allow a refresh or something like that. Thanks.

[mcorning]

I'm not sure this will address your observation, but after you make a visible change to a connection (e.g., you change its name), you won't see the new name until you hit the refresh button on the Open page listing your apps..

also, another related thing that unnecessarily alarmed me yesterday was that after i had some performance issues with PowerApps Studio, i restarted the editor and didn't see any of my custom apis. since i was already thinking negative thoughts about the Studio, i jumped to the conclusion (am i the only one who does that?) that the Studio lost my day's work. Later i realized that a more likely explanation was that i was not in my Environment. so before you follow my (bad) example, be sure you see (in the upper right corner of the Studio's Open page) your Environment's name. 

[khaledhikmat]

Thanks. The change that I made to the API connection was in the payload that it delivers to the app (I added some fields)...so I did not change the name. But I expected the app would recognize the changes after I restarted it...but it did not until I removed the connection and put it back.

Yeah...that env thing is tricky...I also had a similar issue with it 🙂

[AndyPennell]

Regarding the limit on Custom APIs, the limit is either 1 or no-limit, depending on whether you are using the free tier, or paying. See https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/ (and click on Expand to see the Custom API section)

[Audrie-MSFT]

Please check out these two articles and let us know if these help to clarify your ask:

https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/tutorials/register-custom-api/

https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/tutorials/customapi-how-to-swagger/

https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/custom-api-with-authentication/

Thank you again for your feedback and suggestions!

[Audrie-MSFT]

Here's a great video you may appreciate as well:

https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/featured-video-presentation-office-mechanics-extensibilit...