New Analysis Engine

[GregLi]

Similar to the dependencies between cells in a spreadsheet that drives recalc, Canvas apps depend on understanding all the dependencies between properties of controls so that data can flow between them properly and efficiently.  We call this process "dependency analysis" and it is something that Studio is doing all the time in the background while you are editing an app.

For more than a year, we have been rewriting the analysis engine to both perform better and to optimize the results.  The result is that complex Canvas apps that can take minutes to load should load significantly faster.  It is a major change, at the very heart of Canvas apps, that we have been working on for over a year.

We are very excited to announce that this feature is now available as an experimental feature for your testing and feedback.  Please make a copy of complex apps, turn on this setting, see if you run into any problems in Studio and at runtime, and provide feedback here in the forum.   

Do not use this feature in production!  There could be subtle behavior differences that will take time to discover, just because the app loads and saves doesn't necessarily mean all is well, some testing is needed too.

Thank you!  And with your help we hope to turn this feature on for everyone soon.

[magikbus]

Sorry it seems to have disappeared

[ejs65]

Switched this on in one of our apps now it's moved to preview. 

It has caused issues with some, but not all collections collected in OnStart.

In the maker everything appears to work fine, but in published app the collections are blank. 

Turning off new analysis engine and republishing the app has removed the issue entirely. 

Happy to demonstrate if needed.

[WiredForSound]

I hope they get these bugs worked out.  Looking forward to being able to use UDFs when it's not in preview anymore.  IMO UDF should have been a basic feature rolled out from the get-go.  🙂

[ShantanuP]

Hi @ejs65 , There is an issue about collections in component which team has recently fixed. But this one appears to be collections declared in OnStart. Is it possible for you to share msapp? You can send a private message to me with link to Onedrive where you can share msapp if it's possible for you to do so.

[claytsch]

I was really excited for version 3.24054 because of the fixes for New Analisys Engine and we could finally see named formulas in the variables section.

I went ahead and enabled the New Analysis Engine for testing and spent all day fixing the errors related to Record Variable schema since the New Analysis engine is much more strict on Schema when setting record/table variables.

Everything was working great for a few hours on 3.24054.19 but then at the end of the day I randomly started getting more errors and noticed it had updated to 3.24054.23.  I literally just have to go to any place that I set the variable, cut and paste it back and the errors go away and the app works fine but every time I reload the app, the errors return.

[ShantanuP]

@claytsch , Can you please share more details about the issue? It would help if you can share more details about the scenario and expressions where you are getting the error. I would like to see if I can reproduce the issue on my end.

[claytsch]

Sure thing.  I have a global component that use for my header, menu and navigation.  It also has some functions that track and update information about the current task the user is working on.  I have some smaller components that feed properties into my main navigation component to update things like the current step or records related to the current task.

After the app updated to 3.24054.23, it didn't like that I had "defined" a record property in one of my smaller components to an "Untyped Record" { }.   In version 3.24054.19 it didn't have an issue with that as long as I used the record structure my main component was expecting { Employee: 0, Request: 10 } in the component instance that was feeding into my main component.

Since enabling the New Analysis Engine it seems like each update, has some slightly different preference how record structures are defined.  Before the New Analysis engine, components would accept untyped records and tables, but now they don't.  Maybe that's part of the efficiency improvements of it so it might not be a bad thing.

Most of the errors just say "Type Error" but don't offer any sort details on where the conflicts are.  But I can usually just find anywhere that the variable is set and then cut and paste it right back and the errors go away and the app functions as expected.  But after re-loading the app, they re-appear.

My main issues are that it's hard to find the root of the errors since there's so many cascading errors.-- It would be helpful if you could filter out indirect errors in the error panel to narrow down the root cause.

It would also be helpful if component properties didn't reset the existing values when you update the property schema inside the component.  When we have dozens of components, I have to copy the existing properties for each instance, update the component property schema, then paste all of them back.

[PeterCBell_au]

For what its worth, an app fell apart and I was initialising with onStart (including not realising the restrictions associated with OnStart() which dont trigger an explicit error- I was referencing components in invisible unloaded screens).

I ended up creating a splash screen (which contained some general purpose calculation components- IMHO formulas isnt ready) which navigated to the start screen after 1 second and its onvisible property performed the OnStart stuff --> fixed

I continue to have problems with powerapps internal record schema tracking being out of sync with schemas defined in the app and/or components, particularly with component libs.

The following has mitigated the problem to some extent... For most of my components they live in component libs and I have an output record 'DefaultConfigRecord' and an input record 'ConfigRecord' whose default is set to DefaultConfigRecord. Most of the properties required within the component are read from componentname.ConfigRecord.

Within an app, if variation from the defaults is needed, I set the components 'ConfigRecord' using Patch(Self.DefaultConfigRecord,{...}) modifying selected properties.

I have found that apps often trigger massive error counts when updated component libraries are incorporated. I usually delete and retype the dot for obvious record errors (the internal and actual record schema are discordant), save, then reload.

For any Microsoft readers

1). I think we need something like 'record schema refresh' (which seems to happen when the app is reloaded but not when a component lib is 'reviewed' and updated) and perhaps an error akin to 'record schema mismatch with schema defined in ScreenNameOrComponentNameOrControlNameOrFormulaNameOrUDFname[.Propertyname]  ...' to give some clue to both us and you.

2) Secondly, there is still inconsistency in implementing sharepoint internal and displaynames. PLEASE, just use the display name consistently. If sharepoint would allow renaming internal names it wouldnt be a problem, but it is. Powerapps records/table still lack the ability to define the equivalent of sharepoint complex columns (choices, images, etc) which makes it much more difficult to develop component libs using tables having those fields.

[claytsch]

It sounds like we're having a lot of the same issues.  The new analysis engine seems to change a lot with the OnStart Property behavior.  Reset() is no longer allowed for starters.  I'm also referencing hidden components and screens as well is probably triggering the analysis engine to analyze those screens and components before they're visible.  Which would explain why it seems to be processing so many things when the app loads.

Could not agree more with both of your recommendations.  My app always seems to load fine but after it finishes loading, it throws thousands of errors.  The errors are always vague like "Type Error" with no details as to where the conflicts are.  I just have to go anywhere where I've set the variable that giving errors, cut and paste it right back and the errors go away and the app runs as expected... until I reload again.

[PeterCBell_au]

I actually dont think its the analysis engine- I had many more of the same problems before the engine and it has improved using it. I am sure its some sort of internal caching and/or the deductive logic they are using.

As I have posted a number of times, some of the issues could be avoided by allowing optional explicit record schema declarations which would obviate the need for their engine to deduce record structures. Once the defining mechanism is implemented it isnt hard to see being able to pass records in UDF's.

It may also allow the use of more complex sharepoint column types in components and elsewhere (powerapps handles those column types when a sharepoint table is attached so it probably isnt that much of a stretch).

It is of course useful to 'low code' but sometimes allowing developers, as they 'develop', to access more advanced options is better.

When I look at the experimental code view it doesnt show record structures for parameters within components yet, but it gives me the feeling they are headed towards the alternative of a vscode type of editor. 

Also, I didnt quite explain properly what I do with my splash screens. Initialisation is hived of to an icon on the splash screen and global lib components are hosted on the splash screen. The OnVisible property just does a select on the icon and the initialisation runs (including any lib component initialisations). The timer then navigates to the appropriate screen.