An introduction to Fabric Apps
One of the shiny new items in Microsoft Fabric is Fabric Apps, and these open up a bunch of possibilities for what is possible in Fabric. Fabric Apps enabled functionality that previously would have needed to be custom workloads, which are a lot more complex to get up and running than Fabric Apps. What is a Fabric App? A Fabric app (built on the Rayfin SDK) is a Fabric item with two components, a backend service for data access and authentication, and a front end web app. When a Fabric App is created, Fabric automatically creates a SQL Database, an authentication server, and static content hosting for the front end web app. You provide data models for your application in TypeScript and Fabric Apps automatically creates a database schema and type-safe GraphQL API. Before you can create one, a tenant admin has to enable it. It's still in preview, so it needs to be explicitly enabled, and Fabric Apps are not available in all regions. Fabric Apps are currently available in the following regions (As of August 18th, 2026): US - Central US US - North Central US US - West US US - West US 2 Europe - West Europe France Central Italy North Norway East Switzerland North UAE North South Africa North Asia - East Asia Asia - Southeast Asia Australia East India - Central India Japan East Korea Central To enable the preview in your tenant: 1. Sign in to the Fabric admin portal (https://app.fabric.microsoft.com/admin-portal). 2. Go to Tenant settings. 3. Under Enable Fabric App Items (preview), toggle it to Enabled, scoped to your whole org or specific security groups. 4. Select Apply. Give it a few minutes to propagate. If you don't see App (preview) in your New item list, either this is why or your capacity is in an unsupported region. Part 1: Create and Deploy the Sample App Create the item in Fabric Creating the item itself is the same as any other Fabric item: 1. Open a workspace where you have contributor or higher access. 2. Select New item. 3. Search for App (preview), select it, give it a name, and select Create. This creates the item, and all the backend services I mentioned before. From here, you can select a blank app, or start with a sample To-Do App, or a sample Data App. For the sake of this post, I am going to select the To-Do App. Once selected, Fabric will start to deploy your app and present you with some instructions for getting the Rayfin CLI up and running. Create the project with npm From a terminal, run the command shown in the Fabric App: npm create Microsoft/rayfin@latest -- "<appitemname>" --template todoapp --workspace <workspacename> That one command creates a full project from the `todoapp` template and wires it to the workspace and item you just created, using the Rayfin CLI. Then change your working directory to the project directory that was just created cd <your project directory> Run it locally npm run dev This spins up the frontend and backend together against your Fabric backend, so you can test changes before anything goes live. By default it runs at `http://localhost:5173`. Deploy with npx npx rayfin up Under the hood, `rayfin up` does six things in order: 1. It creates (or reuses) the Fabric App item 2. It retrieves the publishable key 3. It syncs your `rayfin.yml` settings 4. It applies the database schema from your TypeScript models 5. It builds and deploys static content, 6. Finally, it writes the deployment details back to `rayfin.yml` and a `.env.fabric-<workspacename>` file. When it finishes, you get a live hosting URL, a Fabric portal link, and a deployment ID. Tip: Want to check what a deploy will do without actually running it? Use `npx rayfin up --dry-run`. To check current deployment state at any time, use `npx rayfin up status`. Part 2: The Database Objects Here's the part that surprised me the most coming from a data background: there's no SQL to write, and no separate database designer to open. Your data models are TypeScript classes, and Fabric Apps turns them directly into database tables. Defining an entity Entities or tables live in `rayfin/data/` and use the `@entity()` decorator from `@microsoft/rayfin-core`, as well as field decorators for each column: Each table needs to be defined in it's own typescript file. import { entity, uuid, text, boolean, date } from '@microsoft/rayfin-core'; @entity() export class Todo { @uuid() id!: string; text() title!: string; text({ optional: true }) description?: string; @boolean({ default: false }) isComplete!: boolean; date() createdAt!: Date; date() updatedAt!: Date; } Every entity gets a UUID `id` primary key. If you don't include it in your entity definition, Fabric will automatically add it. When records are inserted into your table, Fabric will generated a UUID server-side unless you supply your own. Composite keys and custom key names aren't supported. The full set of field decorators: `@uuid()`, `@text()`, `@int()`, `@decimal()`, `@boolean()`, `@date()`, `@email()`, and `@set()` for enumerated strings. Modifiers like `{ optional: true }`, `{ unique: true }`, `{ default: value }`, and `{ min, max }` add constraints to the columns. Note: The TypeScript `?` optional marker only affects the compile-time type. To actually make a database column nullable, you need `{ optional: true }` in the decorator itself. Relationships If your app has more than one table, use `@one()` and `@many()` to define relationships, and Fabric auto-generates the foreign key column for you following a `{property}_id` convention. One-to-many and many-to-one are supported; many-to-many is not, so model it with an explicit join table instead. Registering the schema Once every entity has been created, they then need to be added to `rayfin/data/schema.ts`: import { Todo } from './Todo.js'; export type TodoAppSchema = { Todo: Todo; }; export const schema = [Todo]; Applying schema changes Whenever you add or edit an entity: npx rayfin up db apply If a change would drop a column or rename a table, the CLI blocks it and warns you first. You can override with `--force`, but know that as soon as you add --force, you will be making a destructive change that cannot be undone. Warning: Using `--force` on a schema apply can cause data loss and cannot be undone. After being deployed, you are able to see the database in your workspace under the Fabric App. The SQL Database child item will allow you to access the Fabric SQL query editor where you can run SQL queries to read data. Don't change things in SQL here, as anything you change will be overwritten the next time you deploy the schema. Wrapping Up This post covers creating the sample app, deploying it, and how the database objects work. The full version, including how authentication (local email/password vs. Fabric SSO) and the front end (the RayfinClient data calls) work, is on the blog, linked below. Microsoft Learn references: Create your first Fabric app (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/apps/create-app) | Fabric Apps project structure (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/apps/project-structure) | Define data models for Fabric Apps (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/apps/data-models) | Deploy a Fabric app to Fabric (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/apps/deploy-app) Read more: Read the full post, including the Authentication and Front End sections, on the Fabric Field Notes blog: https://www.fabricfieldnotes.ca/blog/2026/08/18/an-introduction-to-fabric-apps
Microsoft Fabric Reservations: Understanding What They Are and How to Create Them
Overview Over the past year, I’ve had the incredible opportunity to help Microsoft customers unlock the potential of Microsoft Fabric Capacities (FSKUs) by transitioning from Power BI Premium Capacities (PSKUs) or as they embark on their Fabric journey. During these engagements, we’ve tackled not just technical features, architecture design, deployment patterns, capacity planning, but also business considerations such as reservation purchasing strategies and scoping options to demystify how reservations work. Common questions I’ve frequently encountered are how to confidently navigate the reservation purchasing process, understand the scoping flexibility, and calculate consumption units effectively to maximize both value and efficiency. My hope is that this article will make your voyage smoother, offer clarity on these decisions, and empower you to make the most of your reservations when stepping into the world of Microsoft Fabric capacity planning!Rebranding 40 Reports by Hand? Fabric's New Report JSON Functions Fix That
Ever had to open dozens of published reports one by one just to update a company name, a logo reference, or a text box label? Fabric now has official functions to pull a report's layout as JSON, make the change once, and push it back - without opening Power BI Desktop at all. Here's what that looks like with a real example.Governing the Flow: A Beginner’s Guide to Microsoft Fabric
“Governance is not about restricting access; it’s about providing the right access to the right people at the right time, while ensuring the data remains accurate and secure.” In the world of data, speed is often the enemy of stability. Microsoft Fabric is a powerhouse that allows data to move seamlessly from ingestion to AI, but without structure, that speed can quickly turn into “data sprawl.” Governance is the safety net that allows your team to innovate faster without fearing a security breach or a broken pipeline.Tired of Hacking DAX Just to Make a Chart Look Right? Fabric Apps Let You Build the Exact Dashboard
Ever needed a dashboard that looks a very specific way- a big trend number with a mini sparkline, a real-time ticking counter, a layout Power BI's report canvas just won't give you- and ended up stuffing extra measures and workarounds into your semantic model just to fake it? Fabric Apps let you build that exact look as a small custom web app that plugs into your existing model, and an AI coding agent can build most of it for you. Here's what it actually is, in plain terms, with one simple example.Moved Your Power BI Model to a New Fabric Workspace and It Broke? Here's Why, and the New Fix
If you've ever moved a Direct Lake semantic model to a new Fabric workspace and watched your report break with a confusing partition error, you're not alone it's one of the most common questions in the Fabric Community. Here's why it happens in plain terms, and the official fix Microsoft just shipped.Migrating SSIS, SSAS, SSRS to Fabric | Migrando para o Fabric | Migración a Fabric
PT-BR: Guia estratégico para migrar SSIS, SSAS e SSRS para a arquitetura unificada do Microsoft Fabric. EN: Strategic guide for migrating SSIS, SSAS, and SSRS to the unified Microsoft Fabric architecture. ES: Guía estratégica para migrar SSIS, SSAS y SSRS a la arquitectura unificada de Microsoft Fabric.Fabric SDD+AI Series (1/3) | Plan Better, Deliver More [PT/EN/ES]
🇧🇷PT: Começar no Microsoft Fabric pode ser intimidador, mas o segredo do sucesso não está apenas na ferramenta, e sim no planejamento. Descubra como o Spec Driven Development (SDD) transforma o GitHub Copilot em seu assistente mais preciso para projetos de BI. Esta é a Parte 1 de uma trilogia dedicada a tirar você do zero com segurança e IA. 🇺🇸EN: Starting with Microsoft Fabric can be daunting, but the secret to success isn't just the tool—it's the planning. Discover how Spec Driven Development (SDD) turns GitHub Copilot into your most precise assistant for BI projects. This is Part 1 of a trilogy dedicated to getting you from zero to hero safely with AI. 🇪🇸ES: Comenzar en Microsoft Fabric puede ser intimidante, pero el secreto del éxito no está solo en la herramienta, sino en la planificación. Descubra cómo el Spec Driven Development (SDD) transforma a GitHub Copilot en su asistente más preciso para proyectos de BI. Esta es la Parte 1 de una trilogía dedicada a llevarlo de cero a la meta con seguridad e IA.Overcoming Common Challenges in Microsoft Fabric: A Practical Guide
Facing issues with data integration, performance, or governance in Microsoft Fabric? This guide breaks down the most common challenges and offers practical, real-world solutions to help you get the most out of your Fabric environment.
