So you've built a custom connector for Power Platform, now what? It's time to take it to the next level and commercialize your solution. But to get there, you need proper infrastructure, monitoring, security, operations management, and - most importantly - you have to get your connector published. Learn how to make all the pieces fit together using Azure API Management, Function Apps, Application Insights, Front Door, DevOps, and more. Plus, take a guided tour through the ins and outs of the publishing process and how to avoid common mistakes that can lead to failed submissions. Everything you need to know in order to take your Power Platform solutions from concept to reality.

1. SCALING, SECURING, MANAGING AND
PUBLISHING POWER PLATFORM
CUSTOM CONNECTORS
Eric Shupps | CTO, Apptigent | Microsoft MVP

2. Eric Shupps
Office Servers & Services MVP
@eshupps
sharepointcowboy
slideshare.net/eshupps
linkedin.com/in/eshupps
github.com/eshupps

3. PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER
3
Delivery Development
Consumption

4. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
• Pipelines and Releases
• Environment targeting
• Security vs. testability
• Resource consumption
• Versioning
• Code
• Specification
• Connector
4

5. VERSION MANAGEMENT
• Open API does not directly support versioning, consensus is to use
path based versioning (can make your spec messy)
• /v1/endpoint
• /v2/endpoint
• PPC’s support “x-ms-api-annotation” tag for two levels of versioning
• Preview
• Production
• Optional tags:
• deprecated
• expires
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/custom-connectors/operational-versioning

6. Throttling
Security
Scale
Self-Service
Visual elements
Spec variations
End-to-end integration
First-pass backend validation
CI/CD Pipelines
App service validation
Endpoint reachability
Routing and policies
Paths and methods
Inputs and outputs
Examples and references
TESTING

7. SECURITY CHALLENGES
• Anonymous/Basic
• Simple but insecure
• Useful for testing and prototyping
• API Key
• Most common for web API’s
• Requires key registration and management solution
• User self-service (”developer”) portal
• OAuth
• Token management infrastructure
• Expiration and re-authorization
• Easy to get wrong, hard to troubleshoot

8. Forwarding
Routing
Filtering
Throttling
Policies
Inbound
Outbound
Processing
Internal
External (Consumption
Tier)
Caching
Metrics
Alerts
Activity Logs
Monitoring
1 2
4 3
TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT

9. Token or key creation,
refresh and revocation
User feedback, issue
reporting and endpoint
verification.
Expose API definition,
inputs, outputs and
examples.
SUBSCRIPTIONS

10. API MANAGEMENT

11. API MANAGEMENT TIERS
Feature Consumption Developer Basic Standard Premium
Azure AD Integration 🅧 ✓ ✓ ✓
VNet Support 🅧 🅧 🅧 🅧 ✓
Multi-Region Deployment 🅧 ✓
Custom Domain Names 🅧 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Developer Portal 🅧 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
External Cache ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Policies 🅧 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Backup and Restore 🅧 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Management API 🅧 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Availability Zones 🅧 🅧 🅧 🅧 ✓
Analytics 🅧 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Self-Hosted Gateway 🅧 ✓ 🅧 🅧 ✓
GraphQL ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

12. Download connector package using PACONN
command-line utility and modify packaging files
Submit package to ISV studio. Test in sandbox
environment. Submit PR to public GitHub
repository.
Global deployment by region.
Create and test connector in your tenant
ROADMAP

13. Create fully functional custom connector in your tenant
Set production logos, colors, descriptions and security method
Test all actions and environments (Power Apps, Flow, Logic
Apps)
Update specification with all references, definitions and
information
CUSTOM CONNECTOR

14. Download and install Power Platform Connectors CLI
https://github.com/Microsoft/PowerPlatformConnectors/tree/master/tools/paconn-cli
apiDefinition.swagger.json - Update with final spec values and footer
apiProperties.json – Set security, branding and publisher values
settings.json - Modify connector ID only if updating existing submission
Run validation command to analyze package contents
paconn validate --api-def [Path to apiDefinition.swagger.json]
Customer-facing description and instructions.
Not part of the package but required for submission.
PACKAGE

15. Create a new submission and upload your
custom connector package
Update connector based upon feedback
and re-submit
Add your connector documentation to the public GitHub
repo and submit a PR (can substitute for Step 1)
Create a new sandbox environment and re-
test all connector actions
ISV STUDIO

16. REFERENCES
• Custom connector overview and walkthroughs
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/custom-connectors/
• Custom connector OpenAPI extensibility
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/custom-connectors/openapi-
extensions
• Azure API Management
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/api-management/
• Power Platform Connectors Repository
• https://github.com/Microsoft/PowerPlatformConnectors
• Connector Publishing
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/custom-connectors/paconn-cli
er-apps/