The Power Platform Solution Checker task is an automated tool primarily used within continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, such as Azure DevOps, to perform a static analysis of Power Platform solutions. Its core function is to systematically identify potential issues related to performance, security, reliability, maintainability, and best practices within your applications, flows, and components.
This task runs the same comprehensive battery of tests as the Solution Checker available directly in the Power Apps maker portal or by executing the checker via the Power Platform CLI (using pac solution check). The pivotal advantage of integrating the Power Platform Checker as a task within a DevOps pipeline is to ensure that the checker is consistently run on every build or deployment, thereby standardizing quality gates and proactive issue detection across development lifecycles.
Why is the Solution Checker Task Essential?
Integrating the Solution Checker task into your development process offers significant benefits, transforming how Power Platform solutions are developed and maintained.
- Automated Quality Assurance: It provides an automated layer of quality assurance, ensuring that solutions adhere to Microsoft's recommended best practices and avoid common pitfalls. This helps catch potential problems early in the development cycle, reducing technical debt and costly fixes later on.
- Consistency and Standardization: By automating the checks, the task guarantees that every solution component undergoes the same rigorous scrutiny. This eliminates human error and ensures a consistent standard of quality across all team members and projects.
- Early Issue Detection: The static analysis identifies issues without actually running the code. This means performance bottlenecks, security vulnerabilities, and reliability concerns can be pinpointed before the solution is deployed, minimizing impact on end-users.
- Improved Solution Health: Regular checks help maintain the long-term health and stability of your Power Platform solutions, making them more scalable, robust, and easier to maintain over time.
- Developer Empowerment: Developers receive immediate feedback on their code, allowing them to learn and adapt their practices to align with best standards, leading to a higher quality of work.
How the Solution Checker Task Works in a DevOps Pipeline
Typically, the Power Platform Solution Checker task is configured as part of an Azure DevOps build pipeline. When a developer checks in code or a pull request is created, the pipeline runs, and the Solution Checker task is executed against the solution package.
- Solution Packaging: The Power Platform Build Tools for Azure DevOps first package the solution.
- Task Execution: The Solution Checker task is invoked, targeting the packaged solution.
- Static Analysis: The task performs an in-depth static analysis of the solution's components, including:
- Canvas apps (e.g., formulas, controls, data sources)
- Model-driven apps (e.g., forms, views, business rules)
- Power Automate flows (e.g., actions, triggers, connections)
- Dataverse components (e.g., plugins, custom workflows, web resources)
- Report Generation: After the analysis, a detailed report is generated, highlighting identified issues, their severity (informational, warning, error), and recommendations for remediation.
- Pipeline Control: The pipeline can be configured to fail if critical issues (errors) are found, preventing non-compliant solutions from progressing to deployment environments.
For more details on configuring the task, refer to the official Power Platform Build Tools documentation.
Common Checks Performed
The Solution Checker task evaluates solutions against a comprehensive set of rules, including:
- Performance: Identifying inefficient data queries, complex formulas, or excessive network calls.
- Reliability: Flagging potential runtime errors, unhandled exceptions, or unstable configurations.
- Security: Detecting hard-coded credentials, insecure data handling, or improper access controls.
- Maintainability: Pointing out deprecated components, overly complex logic, or inconsistent naming conventions.
- Scalability: Highlighting patterns that might hinder performance under increased load.
Comparing Solution Checker Methods
| Feature | Power Apps Maker Portal (Manual) | Power Platform CLI (pac solution check) |
Power Platform Solution Checker Task (Automated) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Execution | Manual via UI | Manual via command line | Automated in CI/CD pipelines |
| Consistency | Relies on manual initiation | Relies on manual initiation | Guaranteed consistency across all builds |
| Integration | Part of maker experience | Developer workstation/scripts | Seamlessly integrated into DevOps workflows |
| Feedback Loop | On-demand results | On-demand results | Automatic with every code change |
| Primary Benefit | Ad-hoc checks for individual solutions | Scriptable ad-hoc checks, local dev validation | Enforces quality gates, automated governance |
| Use Case | Before publishing a solution from maker portal | Local development, pre-commit checks | Continuous quality assurance, release management |
In summary, while the underlying analysis engine for the Solution Checker remains consistent across its various access points, the Power Platform Solution Checker task in a DevOps pipeline is the most robust method for enforcing quality standards and best practices throughout the entire solution lifecycle.
