Under Høstkonferansen kan du høre MVP, løsningsarkitekt og medgründer av Proximo 3 & Scottish Summit Mark Christie snakke om PCF – PowerApps Component Framework. Vi lar ham like gjerne fortelle selv hvorfor det er viktig.
PCF Controls: Because Apparently We Still Can’t Have Anything Nice
So here we go again, trying to make Power Platform apps look like they weren’t built by someone who’s just discovered computers. You’ve got your form, your fields, and then you’ve got the controls. And that’s where the horror begins. Because let’s be honest, the standard controls are about as useful as a chocolate teapot. Dropdowns that don’t search, lookups that take three clicks to do anything, and grids that make you want to throw your laptop out the window. It’s like Microsoft gave us the basics and said, “Good luck, you’re on your own.”
The problem is simple. These controls don’t work the way users expect. They’re clunky, they’re slow, and they make people hate your app before they’ve even used it. And when users hate your app, they don’t use it. And when they don’t use it, your project fails. And when your project fails, you get to explain to your boss why you spent six months building something that’s about as popular as a wet weekend in Fife.
So what do we do? We build our own. Enter PCF—PowerApps Component Framework. It’s Microsoft’s way of saying, “Fine, you want to do it properly? Here’s the tools, now stop moaning.” With PCF, you get to write actual code. Not low-code, not drag-and-drop nonsense, but proper, grown-up code. TypeScript, React, the works. You can build controls that look good, behave properly, and actually make sense. You can bind them to Dataverse, make them responsive, and even throw in a bit of animation if you’re feeling brave. It’s like giving your app a proper UI, instead of whatever Frankenstein’s monster the default controls give you.
We had a client once who was using a lookup control that was so bad, even the intern refused to use it. So we built a PCF control that pulled in data, let users search and filter, and even showed a preview of the record before selecting it. Revolutionary, I know. But here’s the thing—it worked. People started using the app. Voluntarily. Without threats. And because it was a PCF control, we reused it across three other apps. One build, multiple wins. Like a good whisky—versatile, effective, and slightly addictive.
Building it wasn’t exactly a walk in the park. It started with the usual chaos: requirements that changed every five minutes, a deadline that was yesterday, and a team that had never touched PCF before. We set up the CLI, wrote the control, styled it, tested it until it stopped crashing, and then deployed it. And it worked. People didn’t complain. They actually said nice things. And that, my friends, is a miracle.
Mark Christie, MVP, MCT, Solution Architect, Co-founder of Proximo 3 & Scottish Summit