Microsoft Power Apps - A Getting Started Guide.pdf

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Microsoft
Power Apps
A Getting Started Guide
By Paul Barnett
https://powerappsfornewbies.com/
Contents
Introduction
...................................................................................................... 2
What are Power Apps?
..................................................................................... 3
Create apps in a variety of ways
....................................................................... 4
Data Sources
.................................................................................................. 4
How can you get Power Apps?.......................................................................
4
Does Power Apps work with SharePoint?
..................................................... 5
Excel as a data source
.................................................................................... 5
How good is Power Apps performance?
........................................................... 5
What kind of apps can I create with Power Apps?
........................................... 6
Creating apps
.................................................................................................... 7
Power Apps controls
....................................................................................... 10
Adding greater logic to Power Apps projects
.................................................. 13
Publishing the app
........................................................................................... 14
Let’s create an example app
........................................................................... 15
Modify the data source
................................................................................ 15
Put the data source online
........................................................................... 16
Launching Power Apps
................................................................................. 17
Saving the app
.............................................................................................. 27
Publish the app
............................................................................................... 28
Conclusion
....................................................................................................... 31
1
Introduction
In this ever-changing connected world, more and more organisations are
enjoying the benefits of working on the move. We can work from just about
anywhere that has a wi-fi connection. Gone are the days when we would need
to come into the office each day to do our daily tasks or attend meetings.
With the advent of Office 365 we can now work remotely and collaborate with
other office colleagues without the need to actually be in the office.
Technology is always changing and moving on. Windows desktop apps have
been all the rage for many years. Then things started to evolve as web apps
became popular. Now we are going through a new stage whereby mobile apps
are the new norm. The whole world is using smart phones for a variety of things.
Historically mobile apps have been difficult to create and there is no real
development platform that has taken off. Microsoft have addressed this issue
with Power Apps and have made things a lot easier. The result is a platform that
allows you to create apps with no code. That said, if you want to do something
a little more advanced, they have given the option to write code. It is not the
kind of code you imagine though. Reams and reams of complicated, confusing
statements are not something you will see in Power Apps.
In this book I will cover the basics of Power Apps so that you will be confident to
explore the product further.
With any new I.T product there is going to be a learning curve and Power Apps
is no exception.
I will show you how to create an app and connect to a data source. You will learn
how to create screens, add and update data in your application.
I will explain the basics of creating an app that can save data using no code as
well as with the kind of code to use for something more advanced.
You will also discover how to publish the app so that it will work on your mobile
device
2
What are Power Apps?
Power Apps is a technology from Microsoft that allows you to create apps that
run in a browser on mobile devices such as a smartphone or tablet. You can also
create browser-based applications for laptop and desktop devices. It is possible
to create rich forms, workflows, and custom mobile apps to meet your business
needs as well as streamline processes.
It was billed as a replacement for InfoPath but has now been taken up for mobile
development by organisations globally. Some may find it to be an online version
of Microsoft Access, but there is little similarity. That said, you can use Power
Apps to replace certain Access systems.
Power Apps allows you to create apps in hours—not months—and these apps
will easily connect to data sources. You will be able to use Excel-like expressions
to add logic. The apps you create will run on the web, iOS, and Android devices.
They are suitable for any device that has a browser such as iPhones or Android
phones, tablets, etc.
Power Apps is not without its faults. There are many improvements that could
be made and thankfully Microsoft are listening and continually improving the
product. It would be nice if apps could be shared with the outside world for
example and not just within users of the organization using Office 365. To be
able to create, sell and distribute apps would be another nice feature. When you
create an app in MS Access, it can be copied and passed to different users
anywhere who happen to be running MS Office. Unfortunately, at the time of
writing this is not the case with Power Apps. Hopefully this will be addressed at
some point.
3
Create apps in a variety of ways
Apps can be created in a variety of ways, although it comes down to simple apps
that require little to no coding or more sophisticated apps that require code to
be used. The simple templates are never enough. There is always a need to go
beyond the auto generated apps.
A simple forms-based app can be created very quickly. Simply connect your data
source and generate the app based on this. A simple app enabling you to add,
edit, delete and update data is generated by Power Apps, ready to be used on a
mobile device. The controls such as text boxes, combo boxes, labels, buttons etc
are automatically added to the screen along with the mechanism for saving data.
For a beginner it is a good starting point. Taking the app apart and looking under
the hood at each part will teach you a lot.
You can also create a non-forms application. This is where you manually create
the screens for your app. A good understanding of coding with Power Apps is
needed here as you will need to do a little more than the simple save command
that is used in auto generated form applications.
Data sources
Power Apps allows you to connect to many data sources. Some examples are
SharePoint, SQL Server, Excel. You can even connect to DropBox, Google Drive
or a variety of data sources you may never have heard of. It is possible to create
your own data source also.
How can you get Power Apps?
Power Apps is part of Office 365. Microsoft offers various subscription packages
and your organisation is sure to find something that meets their needs. It is
possible for an individual to purchase an Office 365 subscription also. When you
sign up to Office 365, you will gain access to a multitude of applications including
Power Apps, SharePoint Online and Flow.
4

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