Export vs Migrate

[pternouth1]

Hi Team

I have a live Powerapps Portal.  I have provisioned the first version as a production version, which is now being used by end-users.   I would like to take a copy of this solution, and provision it on a separate environment within the same tenancy for demo and testing new features before configuring the production version.

I am getting a bit confused as to what the difference between "solution export/import" vs "migrate portal configuration".  Not sure which of these approaches I am supposed to take to achieve my goal.

Can anyone advise on the difference, and when I would use each approach?  I have done an export of my solution, but it appears to be a very small zip file, without much of the content I would expect, so I suspect I need to "migrate portal configuration", but I am not sure.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. 

Kind REgards

Peter

[Fubar]

Solution Files are used to move customizations (typically does not move data, but there are some exceptions) between Dynamics 365/DataVerse instances.

The Portal (Web Pages etc etc) are meta data held within specific tables in DataVerse, Migrating/Copying/Moving the portal usually by use of  the Configuration Migration Tool (with the appropriate Portal Schema file - already setup for the correct DataVerse portal tables based on the type of portal) or  using XrmToolBox, allows you to copy/update the meta data that comprise the Portal settings from one Dynamics 365/DataVerse instance to another.

In most Portal deployments, you will have created new or customized existing dataverse Entities/Tables and Forms, as well as created Web Pages , Entity (Basic) Forms and Web (Advanced) Forms, etc and as such you need to move the Dynamics 365/DataVerse customizations via Solution Files as well as the Portal elements via tools such as the Configuration Migration Tool

[pternouth1]

Thanks Fubar

So lets see if I have this right....

I think you are saying that the build consists of two parts... a Dataverse 'solution' and a Powerapps Portal.   I think you are saying that these both need to be moved to the new environment, and this is done separately. 

Firstly the Solution is migrated via the export and import, and secondly the Portal "configuation" must be migrated using a Configuration Migration Tool.

Have I got that right or am I misunderstanding?

Cheers

Peter

[Fubar · Accepted solution]

Correct (for most cases).

Its not always the case, that both are needed e.g. if someone just went and created some static Web Pages or updated the Copy on an existing Web Page in the source environment then the Solution File would not be needed.  The key for the Solution File is is the target environment missing any changes that were made in the source's Dynamics 365/DataVerse forms or data structures that the Portal references (if so then the Solution File export/import will be required)

There are a number of different ways the Portal can be moved including CLI, Configuration Migration Tool and XrmToolBox (also has a plugin that someone has written).

FYI: typically when you copy/migrate the Portal it performs an upsert (so if you deleted something from the source, migrate the portal to the target, the deleted items will still exist in the target and you may need to manually remove or hide those items in the target environment. 

[pternouth1]

Thanks very much Fubar