Apps are a new feature introduced in Dynamics 365 to provide quick navigation for the users to quickly access the most relevant entities, and so on. Apps are convenient and each app has its own site map. The details of designing a site map in Dynamics 365 will be discussed in Chapter 1, Customize Application Navigation. Briefly, a site map is a component which stores navigation links and is internally stored in XML format in Dynamics 365. Apps can contain components such as:

• Entities
• Dashboards
• Forms
• Views
• Charts
• Business process flows

Before we start discussing the steps required to configure apps in Dynamics 365, it is important to understand the prerequisite security privileges which are required for a particular user, before they are able to have access to configuring apps. This is particularly important if you wish to give a power user or end-user the ability to design and use their own apps. The following table summarizes the minimum privileges required to configure apps in Dynamics 365:

A detailed look at the security roles area via CRM screens is given here:

1. Under the Customization tab in Dynamics 365, Security Role: Read, Write, and Create privileges for App should be configured. Please refer...

In this section, we will understand the various steps required to configure Dynamics 365 apps. The following diagram outlines the steps required to configure Dynamics 365 apps:

Here are descriptions of each step:

1. Configure app properties: App properties such as name, Unique Name, icon, and more, need to be configured as the starting point to configure the app. A detailed description is given in the next section.
2. Configure App Navigation with Sitemap designer: Every app can have its own site map. A detailed description is given in Chapter 1, Customize Application Navigation.
3. Include Required App components: App components can consist of artifacts or Entity Assets which need to be included in the app.
4. Check App for any missing required components: The app needs to be checked for any missing required components. This can be done by hitting...

Apps have some specific properties which we need to go through before configuring an app. The following properties need to be provided before configuring an app. The following table summarizes the properties:

Now that we understand the app properties from the last section, it is time to configure our first Dynamics 365 app using the Dynamics 365 App Designer, and also understand the interface. The following steps can be taken to create a Dynamics 365 app:

1. Navigate to Settings | My Apps as shown in the following screenshot:

2. On the My Apps screen, you will be able to see a list of already configured apps out of the box, or any other custom apps already configured in your organization:

3. On the My Apps screen, select the Create New App button, available at the top right of the screen, as shown in the following screenshot:

Alternatively, you can also select the Create New App tile, available at the bottom of the My Apps screen, under the Apps Being Edited option on the screen:

4. The next...

In the last section, we published a new custom app called Lead Generation. In this section, we will try to use our newly created custom app. Follow these steps to use your newly created custom app:

1. Expand the area under Dynamics 365 and you should be able to locate the newly published Dynamics 365 app for Lead Generation:

Alternatively, the user can also navigate to Settings | MyApps and see the app on the list of Published Apps:

2. Notice that the new app is now launched, and the navigation options in the site map show the site map we had configured earlier:

3. Also, as selected in the Entity Assets configuration, only two Views are available in the Leads for usage:

In real-world scenarios, it is often a requirement to give specific app access to a certain set of users only. For this requirement, we can secure apps to be accessible via certain security roles only.

We now wish to edit the Lead Generation app security permissions so that they are only available to sales manager and salesperson security roles. We can do this by enabling app access for certain Security Roles only. Follow these steps to enable app access for certain security roles only:

1. Navigate to Settings | MyApps and select More options under the Lead Generation app:

2. Select the Manage Roles option. This will launch the Manage Roles window on the right side of the screen, where various Security Roles can be selected. Select the appropriate roles and click Save:

Note: The system administrator and system...