Power Apps component framework overview

Power Apps component framework empowers professional developers and app makers to create code components for model-driven and canvas apps. These code components can be used to enhance the user experience for users working with data on forms, views, dashboards, and canvas app screens. For example, you can:

• Replace a column on a form that displays a numeric text value with a dial or slider code component.
• Transform a list into an entirely different visual experience bound to the dataset, like a Calendar or Map.

Important

• Power Apps component framework works only on Unified Interface and not on the legacy web client.
• Power Apps component framework is currently not supported for on-premises environments.

How is it different from web resources?

Unlike HTML web resources, code components are rendered as part of the same context and loaded at the same time as any other components, providing a seamless experience for the user.

You can create code components that can be used across the full breadth of Power Apps capabilities, and reuse these components many times across different tables and forms.

Developers can bundle all the HTML, CSS, and TypeScript files into a single solution package file and move across environments, and also make it available via AppSource.

Advantages

• Access to a rich set of framework APIs that expose capabilities like component lifecycle management, contextual data, and metadata
• Seamless server access via Web API; utility and data formatting methods; device features like camera, location, and microphone; and easy-to-invoke user experience elements like dialogs, lookups, and full-page rendering
• Support for modern web practices
• Optimized for performance
• Reusability
• Ability to bundle all files into a single solution file.
• Ability to handle being destroyed and reloaded for performance reasons while preserving state.

Licensing

Power Apps component framework licensing requirements are inline with existing connectors and components and are based on the type of data and connections used in your app. More information: Power Apps pricing. To align with the licensing requirements, we will be classifying code components into two types:

• Code components that connect to external services or data directly via the user's browser client and not through connectors are considered as premium. When these components are used in an app, the app becomes premium, and end-users are required to have Power Apps licenses.
• Code components that don't connect to external services or data. When these components are used in an app that uses standard features, the app remains standard, and end- users are required to be licensed at minimum for Office 365. More information: Power Apps pricing
• Code components can be declared as premium components by adding a <external-service-usage> node to the component's manifest file with all the external service domains this component is connecting to.
  XML

    <external-service-usage enabled="true">
     <domain>www.microsoft.com</domain>
    </external-service-usage>
  

Note

If you're currently using code components in model-driven apps connected to Microsoft Dataverse, end users will require Power Apps licenses.

Related topics

What are code components?
Code components for canvas apps
Create and build a code component
Learn Power Apps component framework
Use code components in Power Pages