Weston / Martín Learn Microsoft Power Apps

The definitive handbook for building solutions with Power Apps to solve your business needs
2. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-1-80107-143-7
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 702 Seiten

Microsoft Power Apps provides a modern approach to building low-code business applications for mobiles, tablets, browsers, and Microsoft Teams. The second edition of Learn Microsoft Power Apps will guide you in creating well designed and secure apps that transform old processes and workflows.
Learn Microsoft Power Apps starts with an introduction to Power Apps to help you feel comfortable with the creation experience. Using screenshots from the latest UI, you will be guided through how to create an app, building your confidence to start developing further. This book will help you design, set up, and configure your first application by writing simple formulas. You'll learn about the different types of apps you can build in Power Apps and which one applies best to your requirements.
In addition to this, you'll learn how to identify the right data storage system for you, with new chapters covering how to integrate apps with SharePoint or Dataverse. As you advance, you'll be able to use various controls, connectors, and data sources to create a powerful, interactive app. For example, this book will help you understand how Power Apps can use Microsoft Power Automate, Power BI, and Azure functionalities to improve your applications. Finally, you will be introduced to the emerging Power Apps Copilot tool, which uses artificial intelligence to accelerate the app building process.
By the end of this Power Apps book, you'll be ready to confidently develop lightweight business applications with minimal code.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Weston, Matthew

Martín, Elisa Bárcena

Fachgebiete

• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Programmierung | Softwareentwicklung Webprogrammierung
• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Business Application Unternehmenssoftware
• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Programmierung | Softwareentwicklung Software Engineering

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Table of Contents - Introducing Power Apps
- Creating Your First Canvas Power App
- Creating Apps in SharePoint
- Publishing and Leveraging in Power Apps
- Exploring Controls
- Exploring Formulas
- Exploring Reusable Controls
- Working With Data
- Introducing Connectors
- Using GPS in Power Apps
- Working with Images and Barcodes
- Securing Your PowerApps
- Working Offline
- Using Power Automate with Power Apps
- Using Azure with Power Apps
- Visualizing Data
- Introducing Artificial Intelligence
- Introducing Microsoft Dataverse
- Introducing Model-Driven Apps
- Creating Model-Driven Apps
- Exploring Environments and Data Policies
- Introducing the Future of Power Apps
- Good Practices for Creating Power Apps
- Appendix

Leseproben

Preface

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for choosing this book, and to welcome you to a learning journey within Power Apps and the Power Platform. With , you will learn how to build solutions in the Power Platform by utilizing canvas apps and model-driven apps, both key parts of the Power Apps service. Throughout the book, you will not only learn the theory behind the components and what they do, but also put them into practice by incrementally building an app through several labs.

The book introduces new topics in each chapter, gradually introducing more and more functionality from Power Apps to help you understand how you can continually improve your apps to build something just as powerful as a custom developed application.

Updates to Power Apps

Power Apps receives frequent updates from Microsoft. As a result of this, there may be times when the illustrations or explanations within this book appear out of date. This is purely a consequence of working within an evergreen platform, so please don’t let this stop you from following through and building the examples. While the interfaces may change, the techniques and thought processes that we introduce in the book are likely to remain the same regardless of what else comes along in the world of Power Apps.

We hope that you enjoy the book and find it useful, and wish you the very best in creating some rich, powerful, and enjoyable Power Apps.

Who this book is for

This book is intended for business analysts, IT professionals, and both developers and non-developers alike. If you want to meet business needs by creating purpose-built apps, this book is for you. To get the most out of this book, it is recommended that you have a basic understanding of Microsoft 365 as you will interact with various elements of it while developing apps.

What this book covers

, , gives a high-level overview of Power Apps, what it is, how it is licensed, and how to get started.

, , is where we take our first steps into creating a canvas app. We will explore the types of canvas app that we can create, look at various use cases, and explore the options that we have available to us.

, , explores the relationship between Microsoft SharePoint and Power Apps, exploring how we can create apps from SharePoint data or even change the list forms using a canvas app.

, , looks at how we can leverage our apps across multiple platforms. We will explore how we can use our apps on mobile devices, SharePoint, and Microsoft Teams.

, , focuses on understanding the building blocks of our apps and how they can be used to create an engaging user interface. We will look at some of the use cases for the different controls as well as highlighting key properties to be aware of.

, , introduces how we start to build logic within our apps by using formulas to create functions and their properties.

, , introduces a way of being able to reduce the development time of your apps by creating reusable combinations of controls from both a local app level and also across an entire environment.

, , investigates how we can store and interact with data within our Power Apps, focusing on the functionality provided by collections and variables as well as introducing forms.

, , covers the way that we can connect our apps to services, both services within Microsoft 365 and services provided by other vendors. We will also look at the difference between standard and premium connectors, as well as creating our own custom connectors.

, , looks at how we can start to use the GPS functionality afforded to us by mobile devices to track location data and use it within our app.

, , looks at another functionality of mobile devices, using the camera, to add the ability to capture images and scan barcode data to our apps.

, , explores how various elements of security can be applied and what the impact is on the app itself. We will start from the data source and then consider how we can apply security to the various screens within the app itself.

, , allows us to provide our app the capability to still function even when we lose connection to a data source.

, , introduces how we can build leverage by using other parts of the Power Platform, in this case Power Automate. We will look at how we can offload the heavy processing to Power Automate as well as building some other basic automations.

, , allows us to begin to integrate services provided by Microsoft Azure into our Power Apps by exploring some of the commonly used services and the connectors that allow us to utilize them.

, , introduces another part of the Power Platform, Power BI. We will investigate how we can visualize data using the chart controls in Power Apps, and then expand that to how we can utilize Power BI visuals.

, , investigates how we can implement artificial intelligence to help an app’s users use the app more effectively, whether that is through processing images or forms, or through custom built models.

, , opens the door to the built-in relational database, Dataverse. We will see how Dataverse can be used to store data directly within the Power Platform. As introductory topics for understanding Dataverse in relation to Power Apps, we will investigate environments, solutions, and data migrations.

, , takes us into data modeling within Dataverse and how key elements such as tables, columns, and relationships are created and managed. We will also explore a new way of modeling data from natural language with Power Apps AI Copilot.

, , builds on Dataverse to create a model-driven app that allows us to directly interact with the database and provide interfaces for the user with views, forms, charts, and dashboards.

, , investigates how different environments can be used within your tenancy. This will not only introduce the segregation of assets, but also start to investigate Power Platform governance.

, gives us a look into the future of Power Apps and how artificial intelligence will help us to increase the speed at which we can create apps.

shares some professional experiences and learnings, which focus on the mindset rather than just the technical “how-to.”

, , contains the answers to the self-assessment questions that are located at the end of every chapter.

To get the most out of this book

• To get the most out of this book, it is recommended that you have a basic understanding of Microsoft 365 as you will interact with various elements of it while developing apps.
• To follow along with the labs, you will need an active Power Apps subscription. This will be covered in the first chapter. Some services, such as Azure, SharePoint, and Dataverse, may also require a subscription.
• For some functionalities, you may need premium connectors. Additionally, some instructions will require a mobile phone. In any case, it will be made clear where this applies.

Download the example code files

The code bundle for the book is hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Learn-Microsoft-Power-Apps-2E/. We also have other code bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out!

Download the color images

We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://packt.link/kXggB.

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. For example: “We can use the formula to shape our collection by wrapping it.”

A block of code is set as follows:

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

Über Autor(innen)

Weston Matthew:
Matthew is a Microsoft 365 & SharePoint specialist from the Midlands in the United Kingdom. He has spent several years working in various Consultancy roles. Matthew is the Managing Director of Vantage 365, which fuels his love of working on projects surrounding Microsoft 365, especially those that involve SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Power Apps, and Power Automate. This could be helping businesses find solutions for their problems or offering training to help people use these technologies better. Matthew leads the Black Country Power Apps & Power Automate user group, and the Office 365 & SharePoint User Group in the West Midlands. Matt is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional in the field of Business Applications.Martín Elisa Bárcena:
Elisa Bárcena Martín is currently a project leader at LogiRAIL, having previously worked as a business apps specialist at Intelequia and a project analyst at GlaxoSmithKline. As a Power Platform enthusiast with more than 3 years of experience with the Power Platform, she has steadily grown from her initial role as a developer into her project leader position. She is a scientist and teacher by vocation, loving process optimization and believing in continuous improvement and learning.