Low code ROI/TCO and observability - Monitoring Low code Platforms

Overview: With Low code gaining tremendous traction, the rate at which apps are being built is increasing quickly.   More citizens can build and pro developers can build more.

Governance helps maintain the quality of the apps and their code, but as an app needs to be updated, it becomes significantly expensive to maintain and update the low code solutions.  The P-F curve has been around for awhile for regular assets (I first saw this 20 years ago with Mining equipment in Southern Africa, Machine maintenance on the mines help significantly reduce the cost of the assets/equipment and reduce catastrophic outages, anyway I've digressed...).  

Microsoft Low Code/Power Platform:

All low-code platforms have the same issues, governance improves the situation but it does not address the P-F interval, and monitoring comes into play.  Microsoft's Canvas Apps has the ability to ship logs to Azure Monitor (App Insights) and there are internal analytics available on the platform.  These are great and should be implemented.  Now most enterprises have multiple environments and tenants in Power Platform, ALM is used to improve the quality of the application being  released.

Canvas apps has an internal testing tool called Test Studio which is fairly limited and yet still underused.  Tests can be recorded, on deployment releases the recorded rules can be run and reported on in ADO or any CI/CD pipeline.  

You can also make web calls from CI/CD or a dedicated service to continually run advanced availability tests, you should do this.  It ensure we pick up when part or all of the process changes.  And you can setup alerts and respond.

Tools:

You can also log to SIEM (enterprise logging tools) and use this for Monitoring.  For instance, you can ship you App Insights/Log Analytics/Azure Monitor logs to Dynatrace so it is part of your overall monitoring and response strategy.

You can continuously monitor API using CI/CD tools like ADO but I prefer to use Postman's Enterprise Infrastructure service (it's awesome).  Similarity, I am a full convert to Microsoft Playwright (I was a Selenium and Cypress fan, not i'm only Playwright).

Grafana, Power BI, Azure Dashboards all have different pros and cones for monitoring.  There is also some great AI stuff coming out at the moment around UI testing.  Specifically, I've seen Dynatrace, Playwright and BrowserStack use AI to compare screenshots for test validation.

I'll be expanding on automation, continuous testing in this series of posts.  These are my initial thoughts and there is a lot of good results coming out.

Unique solution to reduce licencing costs for Power Apps for Guest users when using SharePoint for storage

I have a fairly unique situation where I have a user base of a company employees using a Canvas App to work with SharePoint list data. This data is used to generate word documents. This 4 minute video provides the overview of the setup i used:

Upgrading Two web applications and verifying using Playwright - super fast

Overview: A couple of my internal recent projects all clipped together to allow my to upgrade two websites to .NET 8. And verify the upgrade and commit to source control in a regulated controlled manor and it took less than 30 minutes.

I download the latest version of Visual Studio 2022 Enterprise edition and noticed an option to upgrade my .NET projects, so I clicked it. The .NET Upgrade Assistant downloaded and installed upgrade in Visual Studio.  The upgrade is done using a vsix template import: Microsoft.NET.UpgradeAssistant.vsix

I thought I may as well upgrade my two current .NET projects:

1. App Service on Azure running Blazor .NET 6, using TFS for source control and published using my Visual Studio profile.

Once the upgrade was applied took 10 seconds and i chose LTS  .net8, I published.  Code is still not checked in.  I has a quick look and the  app loos to be running correctly in a browser. 

2. Static Web App hosting a Blazor .NET 6 connected to Github and published as a gated checkin using git Actions. Upgrades, and when I checked into the main github branch, the action fired and upgraded the static web app.

Verify Build:

So I had checked both apps where running using the good old open in a browser and look around.  A few days ago I was playing with Playwright and my testing covered validating the App Service website can send email, is running and text is visible, it also checks a Mendix low code website and lastly it looks at the Static Web App to validate it is service pages.  I did this is Visual Studio Code. 

The tests tell me both applications are running, verifies WAG compliance on 1 app and also checks a Mendix website is running.

Summary:  By re-using the test project I could quickly verify the project upgrades and the first project still requires a commit to complete but it is way safer than my direct to production gated checking done on the static web app.

Mendix - Part 2 - Diving deeper (E2E automation testing of Mendix using Playwright)

Mendix Series

1.  Overview of Mendix 

2. Mendix - Part 2 - Diving deeper (This post)

AI with Mendix (current version Mendix 10.5.x):

1. Logic bot - recommends what you are likely to do, like a copilot as you go along building the app
2. Performance bot - shows redundancies, recommends performance improvements 
3. Chatbot in beta

Playwright is a good UI testing tool for Mendix:

For more advanced applications, Playwright is a good testing framework that can help developers know their code is running end-to-end, useful for monitoring applications and behaviour, and also can be used as part of the CI process to validate Mendix end user accessibility as shown in this mp4 (7 minutes - good video).

Thoughts:

• Deployment can take time when the project grows.
• Domain modelling: can use existing models and add to Mendix.
• Playwright is perfect for Mendix testing, here is a basic dev example.
• The Mendix Community is a good place to post questions.

I needed to change from US format to UK date time format:

Community has the answer: Mendix Forum - Question Details

Playwright series - Post 1 - Overview of E2E testing using VS Code for Low Code

Setup: I have installed Node 20.100.0 and the VS code extension for Playwright.  The installation and getting started guides are clear and of a high quality.  https://playwright.dev/docs/intro  I am running on Windows 10 Surface 4 with 16GB.  I am using TypeScript (ts) as it is the default and the recording mechanism works well with ts.  Previously I have use C# as it's my language of choice but I feel ts is easier to maintain and there is no need for complex logic/functions in end-2end (e2e) UI testing.  New features always come out in TS/JS first.

Thoughts:  Postman is easy to use, fast, configurable and flexible.  UI e2e testing allows me to know my app/sites are working as expected.  Manual testing is time consuming, and amending automated tests can be hard.

Setup Reminder:

1. Install the Playwright extension using VSCode (once at initial setup)

2. Open a new folder in VSCode, and open the "Command Pallette" (once for each new project)

>Install Playwright

These are the defaults and will use TypeScript as the base language, stick to this it is the simpliest.  VSCode builds the default file scaffolding as shown above

3. Create your first New Playwright UI Test:

3.1. Record new

3.2. Enter a URL in the recorder browser, and click around (optional add Asserts) 

3.3. Save the Test

3.4. Execute the test

The Green tick can be used to quickly run the test locally.  In the "Test Results" terminal, you can see the same test was run 3 times, my configuration is set to test Chrome, Firefox and webkit.

Why Playwright?

• Easy to understand/follow,
• Easy to record,
• Open source, 
• No paid licencing, 
• Faster than Selenium,
• Various coding languages supported (bindings for C#, Python, Java, JS, TypeScript),
• UI verification using screenshot and AI to minimize flakiness/static DOM reliance,
• Ability to debug and trace is strong,
• Can do API testing,

Possible Playwright UI testing Layers: 

1. Full regressions goes into detail and runs in Chrome, Firefox, webkit/devices 
2. Check in tests are comprehensive on a single browser for code check ins
3. Continuous testing - record logging in and reading from a db and calling an API.  Can write to logs i.e. Dynatrace, Azure Monitor, SolarWinds using API's,  Doing this every 5 minutes will tell you at a high level if the service and it's dependencies are running and if there is a performance change.
4. Developer can write detailed local tests when working in an area, and reuse them if he comes back and changes any code.

Testing Challenges:

Unit testing is a challenge in low code - while they are fast and ideal for C# or code, not easy to implement for Low code.  Their is a new beta feature for component testing in Playwright, i don't think it adds value.  API Testing - I use Postman for API testing including controlling my CI.  Low code automation testing is hard in the Power Platform, E2E playwright testing in context works pretty well.  API's/ network traffic needs to be mocked.

Challenger products:

• Selenium - QA's highly skilled here
• Cypress - Devs tended to use this over Selenium
• Specific products like in Power Platform Test Studio and ...
• I also like BrowserStacks low code testing, especially if no CI/CD and can manage from here and use different low code technology.  

Summary: Generally I'd go for Playwright over all the others. 

UK Tax - MTD for ITSA Updated

The MTDfITSA saga has been running for many years, and as of 23 November 2023, this is the current state:

Go live: start 5 April 2026 and apply to a way smaller base than the original intended group of 4.5 million users.   These are the key changes and points: 

• Who is in?  Self-employed people and property landlords (outside of Limited companies) need to register.  Initially, landlords with joint property ownership are not mandated to join (HMRC must provide more information).  Individuals MTDfITSA that previously did a Self Assessment can have ten or multiple self-employment businesses and 0 to 3 (4 - Foreign property is unclear) property businesses under MTDfITSA (Ord UK property, FHL UK, FHL EEA, Foreign property).
• Who is out?  Partnerships are out, and non-dom status (has specific rules).  If a person is currently self-employed but has complications such as joint individual property ownership that generates rental income, being a partner in a partnership - will mean you are outside and continue to fill in self-assessments.  Trusts/estates, LLP and Ltd are out at the start.  Specific exemptions for income from foster care and individuals without a National Insurance Number do not need to register for MTDfITSA.
• EOPS concept is removed from MTD for ITSA. 
• Quarterly submissions are now cumulative booking numbers for the business.  The quarterly figures are cumulative per business for the year, i.e. Q2 submission consists of all data from Q1 and Q2.  Unlike VAT, ITSA quarters are cumulative during the year, whereas VAT is for a specific quarter.
• For each self-employed business or property business, a quarterly per-business submission is due to HMRC within 30 days of the quarter’s completion.  Declaration per business is still required (31 January the following year). 
• A single crystallisation submission for the user at the year-end is due 31 January each following year.  A yearly declaration is also required.

·       Digital links/keeping (digital records).  Can’t re-key/copy and paste.   There is no requirement to use bank feeds/PDS2 data.  Some booking software firms will likely file quarterly MTDfIT returns for each self-employed (and property) business.  Spreadsheets are an acceptable form of record-keeping.   Excel and bridging software are sufficient for the source for filing.  Recording sales can use daily sales totals for the digital source but, ideally, link to the raw input system.  

·       Quarterly submissions requiring corrections are cumulative now, so you merely correct a mistake by adjusting in the next period/quarter.

• Starting 6 April 2026, this shall apply to less than 750k users
• Self-assessment people with a combined income of £50k for the two years previous need to register for MTDfITSA; the plan is to drop to £30k the following year.
• There is a new penalty system.  Late payment has interest penalties, basically no penalty for 15 days late, then 2% for 16-31 days and then 4% is paid after this.  4% is on the outstanding balance from the day past due.  Payment is due the following year on the 31 January.  There are points, fines, and interest charges.  Penalty points for late filing, missing four quarters in 24 months, is £200 penalty.  Record of last 24 months retained. 

Summary of comparison between ITSA & SA:

SA	ITSA
1 SA return is done each year per person.	Four quarterly returns via approved software per business required a digital record link to the underlying transactions per self-employed business. Ask HMRC to explain how to correct business totals for the year as 1.  missing types of expenses, 2.  As EOPS was removed, assume you have 30 days to finalise business accounts from business year-end, bringing this forward nearly eight months. Crystallisation/Finalisation using HMRC-approved software per person, not per business.
Paper submission due 31 October for the previous year. Online submissions are due 31 January – 9 months after the financial/tax year-end.	Approved Digital Software to submit (no paper returns). One month after each quarter, submit the quarterly cumulative return. No EOPS is due on 31 January the following year with new rules.   The Crystallisation/Finalisation/Final Declaration is also due 31 January the following year.

Quarterly MTDfITSA is done per business and is due one month after the quarter period ends.  Property business quarters and year-end run in the same cycles as personal tax, starting on 6 April and ending the following year on 5 April.  As MTDfIT begins on 6 April 2026, the four quarterly submissions for the 2026-2027 tax year and filling due dates are:

Qrt start date	Qtr end date	Qtr submission due date
6 Apr 2026	5 July 2026	5 Aug 2026
6 July 2026	5 Oct 2026	5 Nov 2026
6 Oct 2026	5 Jan 2027	5 Feb 2027
6 Jan 2027	5 Apr 2027	5 May 2027

 

Self Assessment filling options:

1. Most people use the current XML online filing done on 31 January after the personal tax year.  +-11 million people 2026/2027.
2. Some people still use paper-based self-assessments due Oct after the tax year.
3. MTD for ITSA will be due one month after each business quarter, and the finalisation/crystallisation process is due 31 January, the year after the personal tax year.  As HMRC calc tax, declarations are required from the taxable individual for the year and after each quarter per business. +-500k people

Review of Browser Stacks Low Code Automated test tool

Overview: Low code testing relies heavily on complete UI end-to-end testing.  It needs to be fast, flexible, quick to correct, scale-able, highly configurable and BrowserStack's low code test tool is in beta and definitely on the right path - for me, it needs a few features.  I ran my testing against customised apps created on three platforms:

1. Mendix low code,
2. Microsoft's Blazer hosted on Azure Web App, and
3. Canvas app within Power Platform. 

Tip: I've looked and use BrowserStack for many years and it has moved from being an device emulators infrastructure testing provider to a full ALM testing platform.  The low code Browser stack has a recorder to capture steps.

Where does Low Code fit into Browser Stack:

Image1. Low code automation works well as part of the full BrowserStack Platform or just using the product by itself.

Pros of the Low Code BrowserStack Product:

• The local recording feature is easy to set up and use
• Seamless integration with the cloud version running on BrowserStack's infrastructure
• Logical layout of UI, little to no training required
• UI validation using the DOM or, more importantly, screenshots using BrowserStack's AI verification (required further review) has the potential to self-heal as in the screen changes, but the validation can be smart enough to understand it is just an updated screen (example a single colour in the page and the position of the name is moved).
• SDK is available to work with the full BrowserStack platform.
• Not Low code specific but BrowserStack generally has the new phones included in their offering within days of being release.

Cons:

• Provide a webhook or allow for a REST client call as a step (I'd want to log directly from the test run into Azure Monitor)
• More run options, I'm sure it's already on the road map, but the ability to run every hour for continuous monitoring.
• Refresh tokens on a schedule (allows you to not use MFA such as SMS codes or Authenticator).
• Make it clear if the run is from the local or the browser, and keep the historical logs for both together.
• Export results - I could not find this, but it would help compare step performance.
• I use DevOps, I'm unlikely to take the whole BrowserStack platform unless i need the emulators which is what BrowserStack was originally famous for.

Summary: This is an excellent tool for testing; the low code product was still in beta when I reviewed it.  It is a nice tool and has the potential to disrupt the market.  I feel Playwright is a better point solution and integrates to CI/ALM platforms.

References: https://www.browserstack.com/low-code-automation/features?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_platform=paidads&utm_content=668760067900&utm_campaign=Search-Brand-EMEA-Navigational&utm_campaigncode=Core+9045914&utm_term=e+browserstack

Other: 

Image 2. Emulate a Samsung Galaxy phone on Android using the Chrome browser.

Thought: I like BrowserStack's reporting, clean and simple on tests and easy to get the history.