Introduction to PowerApps
Updated: Oct 26, 2022
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Introduction to PowerApps
Power Apps is used to build apps that allow you to act on your data. Power Apps is great for replacing paper forms, legacy solutions, or just that spreadsheet that you and a few coworkers pass around. Using the skills and knowledge you already possess; you can build apps to interact with existing data by using more than 275 connectors.
Once built on the web native Power Apps platform, these apps live in the cloud and can be easily shared and run on a variety of platforms including PCs, laptops, tablets, and mobile phones.
Power Apps is a no-code/low-code platform for building apps that builds off concepts like formulas in an Excel workbook such as SUM and TEXT.
You can use Power Apps to build simple solutions like vehicle inspection forms and status reports or complex business solutions for purchasing processes and inventory management.
If you can envision an app to solve a business problem, then you can use your existing skills to build it. Power Apps offers advanced functionality and the ability for seasoned developers to design complex applications with ease.
Apps built using Power Apps provide rich business logic and workflow capabilities to transform your manual business operations into digital, automated processes. What's more, apps built using Power Apps have a responsive design and can run seamlessly in browser and on mobile devices (phone or tablet). Power Apps "democratizes" the business-app-building experience by enabling users to create feature-rich, custom business apps without writing code. Power Apps also provides an extensible platform that lets pro developers programmatically interact with data and metadata, apply business logic, create custom connectors, and integrate with external data.
Do you have inefficient or legacy business processes that you would like to modernize?
Are you still moving information around using paper or even a shared Excel workbook?
Do you want to be able to perform these business processes from different devices like PCs or mobile phones? Then you need Power Apps.
Work with your data where it lives
When modernizing a paper-based process, there are likely systems in your organization with data you can leverage.
With over 275 connectors you can easily connect to data, using the underlying data service and app platform, Microsoft Dataverse, or a multitude of online and on-premises data sources.
Some common data sources include:
a) Dataverse
b) SharePoint
c) Dynamics 365
d) SQL Server and Azure SQL
e) Office 365
You don't have to choose just one data source. Power Apps easily supports multiple data connections allowing you to bring data together from many platforms into a single app.
Different type of PowerApps for different scenarios
Canvas Apps
Canvas apps are a great option when you want to build an app from a blank canvas.
You start by choosing the screen size: tablet or mobile, then you have a blank screen from which to build.
You can interact with data in your app by adding data sources.
Drag and drop various controls and add the desired functionality by writing Excel style formulas.
Canvas apps provide you complete flexibility when building your apps.
Model driven Apps
Model-driven apps build from data in Microsoft Dataverse.
Power Apps will build you a great looking, fully functional app to act upon and interact with this data.
With model-driven apps, there is no need to worry about choosing the app size; it is responsive, meaning it works on mobile or tablet with no extra work by you.
You define the relationships, forms, views, business rules, and more at the data layer, inside of the Data verse, giving you enough control to get your business result without writing all the formulas yourself.
PowerApps Portals
Portals bring the power of no-code solutions to building externally facing websites.
Through the Power Apps interface, you can build an anonymous or authenticated website that allows users to interact with data held in Data verse.
The same drag and drop experience you enjoy when building apps is available to build these rich, interactive websites.
