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Use Monitor to troubleshoot model-driven app form behavior

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Monitor is a tool that can help app makers debug and diagnose problems, which helps them build faster, more reliable apps. Monitor provides a deep view into how an app runs by providing a log of all activities in the app as it runs.

Filtering on model-driven app form-related events in Monitor can provide information about related tables, tables, controls, and components on a form in Monitor as your app runs.

There are many situations where Monitor can help makers understand why a form behaves a certain way. Many form issues are based on business rules, JavaScript, form events, or client API that admins and makers have set. Monitor can also help identify whether the issue experienced is designed out-of-the-box or is due to a customization. It provides details that can help answer the following questions:

Follow the instructions below to understand the behavior of your model-driven app forms.

Step 1: Create a Monitor session

There are two ways to open a Monitor session.

Option 1:

  1. Sign in to Power Apps, select Apps.

  2. Select ... next to the model-driven app or on the global command bar, and then select Monitor.

    Sample model-driven app

  3. Follow the instructions on your screen to run the app and join the monitoring session.

Option 2:

  1. Play your model-driven app.

  2. Add &monitor=true to the end of the URL in your web browser, and then refresh the page.

  3. Select Monitor on the command bar.

    Location of Monitor button in global command bar

Step 2: Connect your app to the Monitor session

  1. Once in the monitor, select Play model-driven app from the menu on the command bar. This opens the app and begins the monitoring.

  2. Perform actions within the model-driven app consistent with normal use of the app. For example, open and change data using a table form.

  3. On the browser window running Monitor, select the Category column, and then select Filter by.

    Filter on form events in Monitor.

  4. Select Equals or Contains from the dropdown list, and then enter formchecker in the box. Select Apply.

    Enter formchecker filter

  5. The categories are now filtered. The Operation column can be expanded to see the full name of the events that are tracked by selecting and holding the right side of the column and dragging to the right. As you use the app and open and use a form, Monitor updates the list of events.

    Monitored form events displayed.

Use Monitor to understand form behavior

For each row with Monitor, detailed information about the form event can be reviewed. For example, imagine you have a question about an error taking place within the form. You go to that form in the app and select the appropriate form component. Then return to the browser with Monitor enabled and review the results either with or without filtering. In this case, there is an error on the composite control. By expanding areas of the Details, you can learn more about the event itself.

Monitoring a related menu.

There are many types of events that are monitored, including the standard form events like onload, onsave, and onclose.

As you continue to use the app that's being monitored, Monitor updates the information in the list of events. For forms, there are many different scenarios that you can troubleshoot and find additional information on the form, control, or table currently being worked on.

Supported form-checking areas and events

Supported areas for form monitoring include the following.

App area Description
Control state Details about the state of the visible, enabled, and label source of a control when the form is loaded.
Related menu Details about the state of related menu items. Examples:
Why is a menu item not being displayed?
Where does the menu item come from?
Tab / section / control state change Details on who (via the callstack) has caused a form component—such as a tab, section, or control—to change the component's visibility and enabled state.
Navigation Details about what's causing navigation or unexpected dialogs by tracing the callstack of these Xrm.Navigation client API methods: openAlertDialog(), openConfirmDialog(), openDialog(), openErrorDialog(), navigateTo(), openForm(), openTaskFlow(), openUrl(), openWebResource()
Unsupported customizations Details about unsupported client API access before the form is ready. Examples:
Accessing parent.Xrm.Page in iFrame before the form is fully loaded.
Accessing Xrm.Page in a form web resource outside of form handler contexts using window.setTimeout() to periodically call the form client API.
Accessing Xrm.Page in updateView() method of the Power Apps control framework control code.

Examples of the supported form-related events in Monitor include:

  • FormEvents.onsave
  • XrmNavigation
  • FormEvents.onload
  • FormControls
  • TabStateChange.visible
  • RelatedMenu
  • ControlStateChange.disabled
  • ControlStateChange.visible
  • SectionStateChange.visible
  • UnsupportedClientApi

Next steps

For more information about how to troubleshoot issues with forms in a model-driven app, see Troubleshoot form issues in model-driven apps.

Learn about Monitor as a Power Apps tool