Posts

Copilot Studio Tools: A Practical Guide (Using This Chat as a Case Study)

Modern copilots must act, not just chat. Copilot Studio Tools (Actions) enable an agent to invoke flows, call APIs, query data, and write to systems with governed inputs and outputs. Properly engineered Tools improve reliability, traceability, and user outcomes. This article defines Tools, explains how to connect them to your Copilot, details observability and error handling, and provides design guidance for production-grade implementations. What are Copilot Studio Tools? Tools (also called Actions) are typed, parameterized operations a Copilot can call at runtime. Each Tool declares its purpose, inputs, outputs, and authentication context so the agent can decide when and how to use it safely. Common Tool categories include: Power Automate flow actions: Rapid composition over Microsoft and third-party connectors. Custom connectors / OpenAPI endpoints: HTTP/JSON services with defined schemas. Dataverse actions/queries: CRUD and lookups with security trimming. Micro...
Post a Comment
Read more

Creating Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down Feedback in Copilot Studio with Adaptive Cards and Storing Data in Dataverse Using Power Automate

Providing users with an easy way to give feedback is crucial for improving the performance and user experience of your AI copilot. In this blog post, we'll walk you through the steps to create a thumbs up and thumbs down feedback mechanism using Adaptive Cards in Copilot Studio and store the feedback in Microsoft Dataverse using Power Automate with a Power Virtual Agent trigger. What are Adaptive Cards? Adaptive Cards are a way to present and collect information in a flexible and visually appealing manner. They are platform-agnostic snippets of UI that can be integrated into various applications, including chatbots created with Copilot Studio. Step-by-Step Guide Step 1: Set Up Your Copilot in Copilot Studio Create Your Copilot : Use Copilot Studio to design and configure your AI copilot. Define its capabilities, responses, and integrations. Test your copilot within Copilot Studio to ensure it works as expected. Navigate to the Adaptive Cards Section : In Copilot Studio, go to the s...
Post a Comment
Read more

Detailed Guide to Embedding Copilot Studio in a Custom Website

  Embedding Copilot Studio into your custom website can enhance user interaction by providing AI-driven assistance directly within your web environment. Here’s a comprehensive guide on how to achieve this: Step 1: Prepare Your Copilot in Copilot Studio Create Your Copilot : Use Copilot Studio to design and configure your AI copilot. Define its capabilities, responses, and integrations. Test your copilot within Copilot Studio to ensure it works as expected. Configure Authentication Settings : Navigate to Settings > Security > Authentication in Copilot Studio. Decide on the authentication type: No Authentication : Ideal for external websites where anyone can use the copilot. Authentication Required : Use this for internal tools or scenarios where sensitive information is involved. Save your settings after making the selection. Step 2: Generate the Embedding Code Access Embed Options : In Copilot Studio, navigate to the deployment or integration section where you can generate...
Post a Comment
Read more

Customizing the appearance of your Copilot

Customizing the appearance of your Copilot involves modifying its visual elements to match your website's design and user experience. Here’s a detailed guide on how to achieve this: Steps to Customize the Copilot's Appearance Step 1: Access the Embed Code Generate Embed Code : In Copilot Studio, navigate to the deployment or integration section where you can generate the embed code for your copilot. Copy the generated embed code to the clipboard. Step 2: Modify the HTML and CSS HTML Integration : Paste the embed code into the HTML of your website where you want the copilot to appear. Ensure the embed code is placed correctly within your website’s structure, typically within the <body> tag. CSS Customization : Use CSS to style the copilot interface to match your website’s theme. You can adjust colors, fonts, sizes, and other visual elements. Example Code Snippet Here’s an example of how you might customize the appearance of the copilot: <!DOCTYPE html> <html lang...
Post a Comment
Read more

Integrating Copilot Studio with SharePoint Using Single Sign-On (SSO)

Integrating Copilot Studio with SharePoint using Single Sign-On (SSO) enhances the user experience by allowing seamless access to AI-driven assistance without repeated logins. Here’s a detailed guide on how to achieve this integration: Overview Copilot Studio allows you to create custom AI copilots that can be deployed across various platforms, including SharePoint. By leveraging SSO, users can interact with these copilots without needing to re-authenticate, streamlining the process and improving efficiency. Key Steps for Integration Prerequisites: Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) : Administrative access to configure authentication. SharePoint Online : Access to the SharePoint site where the copilot will be deployed. Copilot Studio Environment : A configured copilot that you want to integrate. Development Tools : Installed tools like Visual Studio Code, Node.js, and PowerShell. Create an App Registration in Microsoft Entra ID: Sign in to the Azure portal using an admin account i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Comparison of Copilot Studio, Azure AI Studio, and Microsoft 365 Copilot

Copilot Studio Overview: User-Friendly Interface : Designed for non-developers with a low-code environment, making it accessible to a broader audience. Integration : Seamlessly integrates with Microsoft products like Microsoft 365, enhancing the user experience. Customization : Allows for the creation and extension of custom copilots with over 1500 connectors, including non-Microsoft systems like Salesforce and ServiceNow. Deployment : Ideal for businesses needing fast deployment of AI features due to its straightforward setup process. Target Audience : Best suited for businesses already utilizing Microsoft platforms and seeking quick, easy-to-deploy solutions without requiring deep AI expertise. Key Features: Low-Code Development : Provides a low-code environment for building custom AI agents with workflow automation, external integrations, and more control over business logic. Generative AI Capabilities : Incorporates generative AI capabilities into its functionality, enabling featur...
Post a Comment
Location: United States
Read more

Power Apps: Modern Controls vs. Classic Controls – A Comprehensive Comparison

 In the realm of Power Apps, the evolution from classic to modern controls marks a significant milestone, enhancing user experiences and development processes. This shift not only reflects Microsoft's commitment to innovation but also addresses the growing demands for more intuitive, efficient, and visually appealing applications. In this blog, we'll delve into the differences between modern and classic controls in Power Apps, exploring their functionalities, user experience, performance, and customization capabilities. In the realm of Power Apps, the evolution from classic to modern controls marks a significant milestone, enhancing user experiences and development processes. This shift not only reflects Microsoft's commitment to innovation but also addresses the growing demands for more intuitive, efficient, and visually appealing applications. In this blog, we'll delve into the differences between modern and classic controls in Power Apps, exploring their functionalit...
Post a Comment
Read more

Power Platform CLI: A Game-Changer for Power Platform Development

Power Platform CLI is a simple, one-stop developer command-line interface that empowers developers and ISVs to perform various operations in Microsoft Power Platform related to environment lifecycle, authentication, dataverse environments, solution packages, portals, code components and more 1 . In this blog, I will show you how to install, update and use Power Platform CLI with different methods and commands. Installation You can install Power Platform CLI on Windows, MacOS and Linux devices. The easiest way to install Power Platform CLI, is to install the Power Platform Tools extension for VS Code. This will automatically install the CLI and make it available in the integrated terminal 2 . For Windows, it’s also possible to install the CLI via a MSI Installer 1 . Although Power Platform CLI is a cross-platform CLI, some commands only work on Windows. That’s simply because those commands work with tools that haven’t been available cross platform. In the docs on Microsoft Learn, you wi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why You Should Install Power Platform COE in Your Organization?

Power Platform is a low-code platform that enables you to create solutions that automate workflows, build apps, analyze data, and create bots. Power Platform consists of four main tools: Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, and Power Virtual Agents. Power Platform can help you improve your productivity, efficiency, and innovation by enabling you to build solutions that suit your specific needs and scenarios. However, to get the most out of Power Platform, you need to have a strategy for adopting and supporting it in your organization. This is where Power Platform COE comes in. Power Platform COE, or Center of Excellence, is a collection of tools and templates that are designed to help you develop a strategy for adopting and supporting Power Platform in your organization. Power Platform COE helps you plan, govern, and nurture Power Platform adoption and innovation, while maintaining standards, consistency, and governance. Power Platform COE can help you achieve the following benefits: ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Best Practices for Power Automate: What You Need to Know

Power Automate can help you improve your productivity, efficiency, and innovation by enabling you to build solutions that suit your specific needs and scenarios. However, to get the most out of Power Automate, you need to follow some best practices that will ensure the quality, performance, and security of your flows. In this blog, we will share some of the best practices that you should follow when using Power Automate. Understand Power Automate in the Power Platform ecosystem Power Automate is part of the Microsoft Power Platform, which also includes Power Apps, Power BI, and Power Virtual Agents. These tools work together to enable you to create end-to-end solutions that automate workflows, build apps, analyze data, and create bots. You should learn how to use Power Automate with the other tools in the Power Platform to create powerful and integrated solutions. For example, you can use Power Automate to handle the business logic and data integration for your Power Apps, or to trigge...
Post a Comment
Read more

Power Automate Pagination: How to Retrieve More Than 5000 Items from a SharePoint List

One of the common scenarios that you may encounter when using Power Automate is to retrieve data from a SharePoint list and perform some actions on it. However, if your SharePoint list has more than 5000 items, you may run into some challenges and limitations. In this blog, we will explain why this happens and how to overcome it using pagination. Why does Power Automate have a limit of 5000 items for SharePoint lists? The reason why Power Automate has a limit of 5000 items for SharePoint lists is because of the underlying SharePoint API that Power Automate uses to connect to SharePoint. SharePoint has a feature called list view threshold, which limits the number of items that can be returned in a single query to 5000 by default. This is to prevent performance issues and ensure optimal performance for all users. If you try to query more than 5000 items from a SharePoint list, you will get an error message like this: This error message will also appear in Power Automate if you use the Ge...
Post a Comment
Read more

Power Platform Dataverse Security Role: What You Need to Know

One of the key features of Power Platform Dataverse is its rich security model that can adapt to many business usage scenarios. This security model is based on the concept of security roles, which are collections of privileges that define what users can do with the data and resources in Power Platform Dataverse. In this blog, we will explain what security roles are, how they work, and how to use them in Power Platform Dataverse. What are security roles? Security roles are groups of privileges that control access to data and resources in Power Platform Dataverse. Privileges are the basic units of security that define what actions users can perform on a specific type of data or resource, such as create, read, write, delete, share, or assign. Privileges are combined with access levels, which define the scope of access that users have to the data or resource, such as user, business unit, parent-child business unit, organization, or none. For example, a user with the read privilege and the ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Canvas vs Model-Driven Power Apps: Which One to Choose?

But did you know that there are two types of apps you can create with Power Apps? They are called canvas apps and model-driven apps, and they have different strengths and limitations. In this blog, we will compare and contrast these two types of apps and help you decide which one is best for your scenario. What are canvas apps? Canvas apps are apps that start with a blank canvas, like an artist’s canvas, and you can design the user interface by dragging and dropping controls, such as buttons, labels, galleries, forms, and charts. You can connect to various data sources, such as SharePoint, Excel, SQL Server, or Microsoft Dataverse, using connectors. You can also add logic and expressions to make your app interactive and dynamic. Canvas apps are good for creating pixel-perfect, customized user experiences that work across different devices, such as phones, tablets, and PCs. What are model-driven apps? Model-driven apps are apps that are based on the data model and business logic defined...
Post a Comment
Read more