perf-optimise

Skill: Performance Optimization

When to Use

Trigger when diagnosing or optimizing performance for Canvas Apps, Model-Driven Apps, Code Apps, Power Automate flows, Dataverse queries, or plugins. Also trigger when addressing API throttling (429 errors) or capacity limits.

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Canvas App Performance

Delegation

Delegation pushes query logic to the data source. Non-delegable operations process only the first 500-2000 records locally.

Delegable to Dataverse	NOT Delegable
Filter with =, <>, <, >, <=, >=	Distinct
Filter with in (choice columns)	CountRows (use CountIf for delegable)
Sort (single column)	GroupBy
Search (Dataverse only)	AddColumns in a Filter
StartsWith	Nested Filter
LookUp	First applied to non-delegable

Key Canvas Optimizations

// BAD: Non-delegable — loads all records, filters locally
Filter(Contacts, Text(Phone, "[$-en-US]#") = "555-0100")

// GOOD: Delegable — server-side filter
Filter(Contacts, Phone = "555-0100")

// BAD: Loading all records then counting
CountRows(Filter(LargeTable, Status = "Active"))

// GOOD: CountIf is delegable to Dataverse
CountIf(LargeTable, Status = "Active")

Concurrent() for Parallel Data Loading

// BAD: Sequential loading
ClearCollect(colAccounts, Accounts);
ClearCollect(colContacts, Contacts);
ClearCollect(colOrders, Orders);
// Total time = T1 + T2 + T3

// GOOD: Parallel loading
Concurrent(
    ClearCollect(colAccounts, Accounts),
    ClearCollect(colContacts, Contacts),
    ClearCollect(colOrders, Orders)
);
// Total time = max(T1, T2, T3)

Named Formulas (Pre-Computation)

// App.Formulas — computed once, cached
ActiveAccounts = Filter(Accounts, statuscode = 1);
UserDepartment = Office365Users.MyProfile().Department;
TodayDate = Today();

// These are evaluated once and cached — no re-computation on screen navigation

Collection Pre-Loading

// App.OnStart — load reference data once
Concurrent(
    ClearCollect(colStatusOptions, Choices('Accounts'.Status)),
    ClearCollect(colCategoryOptions, Choices('Accounts'.Category)),
    ClearCollect(colCountries, Filter(Countries, IsActive = true))
);

// Galleries and dropdowns use local collections (fast) instead of Dataverse calls