Earlier this week I found myself trying to embed an existing Canvas app into a Model-Driven app to better present information relating to the record using the flexible UI controls, but as an infrequent user of such a feature, I struggled to understand how I could reference the current Model-Driven app record’s data within the Canvas app!
All over the web I could find resources pointing towards a special type of control called ModelDrivenFormIntegration and how it works, but I simply couldn’t see it within my solution. This is where it should be:
The new Power Platform interface has improved so many of the existing controls and added fantastic new features, but unfortunately at the time of writing, embedding a Canvas app via the new user interface needs a little more work, and it doesn’t quite complete the job in all circumstances. There are two reasons for this:
- You have to associate the control with a field on the Form, and when adding the Canvas app via the new User Interface, it doesn’t configure the field control automatically leading to errors when loading.
- The functionality available via the ‘Customize’ button is not available in the new User Interface, which is partly the reason for this blog post!
As some of you will be aware, sometimes it’s just better to head over to the classic user interface to complete your configuration, and although I’m finding myself using this user interface less these days. In this post I attempt to bridge the gap and I’ll explain how to get things working.
What is ModelDrivenFormIntegration?
As Microsoft have explained in detail here, this control allows us to bring contextual data from the Model-Driven app that the Canvas app is utilised in.
There are a significant number of benefits to doing this, primarily because it provides you with the ability to dynamically change your Canvas app content based upon the record you’re currently viewing in the Model-Driven app.
Enable ModelDrivenFormIntegration
Step 1: From https://make.powerapps.com, navigate to the correct environment and choose the relevant Table’s Form within your solution file. Use the ‘Switch to Classic‘ button from the navigation bar straight away.
Step 2: Navigate to the required field you’ve configured for your Canvas app control and double click. You’ll notice a pop up window which provides the ability to navigate to the Canvas app control configuration. Click on ‘Controls‘ and press the ‘Customize‘ button.
Step 3: Your Canvas app will now open, and you’ll notice that ModelDrivenFormIntegration is now available as the first control on the list for the first time! We’re not done yet though, we need to tell the control which Table we are using within the Model-Driven app by editing the ‘DataSource‘ Property.
And finally the ‘OnDataRefresh‘ Property.
We can use the plural label/friendly name of the Table here, instead of having to look up the logical name, which is a great touch in a lot of Power FX’s abilities.
Conclusion
And we’re done!
The configuration for this isn’t difficult, but finding out why the issue exists can often be challenging, especially if you’re an infrequent user of this functionality.
Remember to ‘Save‘ and ‘Publish‘ your Canvas app changes when you’re ready, but you don’t need to publish your Model-Driven app as this was simply a route into enabling the functionality with no configuration changes.
There are a few pointers to be aware of when generally configuring embedding Canvas Apps:
- Microsoft advise that associating your embedded Canvas app control is tied to a mandatory field, so that you can guarantee the operation of the Canvas app.
- Remember to share your Canvas app or make other users Co-Owners as appropriate before releasing the functionality to end users.
- The classic user interface is due to be deprecated in an upcoming release nearer the end of the year. I suspect this feature will still work for a short period of time, but we will have to watch and wait until such a time, and I’ll update this post if/when this happens.
AaronKGumbs 
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