(The title isn’t generate with AI, it just sounds silly)
Let me tell you why first, as we are using some questionable techniques here. You may wonder why we didn’t use the ALM approach to set up the environment. But first things first. Our customer went live with the project for replacing the key operational system. We built the integration layer for it. As we built the integration layer for the previous system as well, we decommissioned some of our apps for the obvious reasons: a new system did some out of the box. The apps are meant to perform calculations and generate files for import elsewhere. The next day, after GoLive, the customer asked us to run the old app connected to the old system to produce the files based on the old data. However, we couldn’t do so on PROD, again for obvious reasons. The quickest and least harmful way was to restore the PROD backup with all integrations, then use it to connect to the old system. Clean up the new system data, load the old system data. Our apps use the operating system’s data as a dictionary that can be reloaded at any time. So, data can be easily deleted without causing harm. So see what happens next.
Olena
Recently, we were required to restore a production environment from a backup. The essential functionality was the integration we built with Dataflows. After the restore, we discovered that all Dataflows have disappeared.
Apparently, it’s a known limitation documented here:
Another thing to remember, when you deploy Dataflows via solution, as we did, make sure your environment in not in Admin mode.
Another known limitation for Dataflows in a solution:
For dataflows to import successfully into an environment, either the environment can’t be in administration mode, or background operations need to be enabled.
And this is the explanation, in the list, item above:
To enable dataflow import, the Dataflows plugin performs unmanaged customizations during the asynchronous import step. These modifications are essential for a successful import.
We need plugins enabled during deployment.
After discovering that Dataflows were disappearing, we deployed them using a solution. But the environment was in Admin mode after the environment restore.
It didn’t block the deployment, but when I checked, I couldn’t see Dataflows outside the solution in the Dataflows area, nor could I edit them within the solution.
Regardless of limitations, incomplete features, or missing features, Dataflows for Power Apps is my favourite tool for integration on the Power Platform. It’s not perfect, but still amazingly useful.
(This article was created by a human. The information in the article is based on the author’s real-life consulting experience and reflects the author’s perspective on aspects of life and technology: subjective, unfiltered, and genuine.)