Microsoft Power Apps Cookbook: Become a pro Power Apps maker by applying practical use cases to solve ever-evolving business challenges

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To my wife, Pili, the strongest woman who ever lived, and to my daughter, Amanda, the spark of my life.

Without their love and support, nothing would make sense.

– Eickhel Mendoza

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Contributors

About the author

Eickhel Mendoza is a Microsoft Business Applications MVP with many years of experience from various roles in project management, Microsoft Azure development and operations, and, most recently, in Microsoft Power Platform technologies.

He is a team lead of the Business Apps department and oversees all projects related to Microsoft 365, Power Platform, and web development.

He has contributed to significant community events, such as the Power Platform World Tour, Global Azure Bootcamp, Microsoft 365 Developer Bootcamp, and Dynamics 365 Saturdays in recent years.

Eickhel also coordinates the TenerifeDev and Power Platform Canarias user groups with a group of like-minded developers eager to share their knowledge in different technologies.

I want to thank all the people who have helped shape my love of technology: my parents, my school teachers, and my co-workers, who always challenge me to create great things.

About the reviewer

Rebekka Aalbers-deJong started her career as a regular business but switched to work in IT over 10 years ago, first as an IT administrator, later as a technology consultant. She is an active contributor to the Microsoft Power Platform community as a speaker, blogger, and organizer of a local user group. She received the Microsoft MVP award for Business Applications for her contributions to the technical community in 2019.

Rebekka works as a technology consultant at Dutch Microsoft Partner Macaw, where she combines her experience as a non-IT business user, IT administrator, and software consultant to help companies implement Power Platform and build Power Platform solutions.

Rebekka lives in the Netherlands together with her husband and their two cats.

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Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter 1: Building pixel-perfect solutions with Canvas Power Apps

Discovering best practices when building canvas apps

Variable naming

Control usage

Coding methodology

Creating an incident tracking solution – Setting up the data source

Explanation and overview

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

Creating an incident tracking solution – Building the user interface

Explanation and overview

How to do it…

How it works…

Embedding an expense tracking list with SharePoint list Power Apps

Explanation and overview

How to do it…

How it works…

See also

Creating a Power App from existing data

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Chapter 2: Building from data with model-driven apps

Technical requirements

Licensing requirements

Exploring Dataverse

Building a help desk solution

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

Defining data structures

Explanation and overview

How to do it…

How it works…

Building the model-driven app

Explanation and overview

How to do it…

How it works…

Setting up business process logic

Explanation and overview

How to do it…

How it works…

Designing dashboards to visualize data

How to do it…

How it works…

Integrating canvas apps inside model-driven apps

How to do it…

How it works…

Chapter 3: Choosing the right data source for your applications

Technical requirements

Data sources and the licensing model

Power Apps/Power Automate for Microsoft 365

Reducing your application complexity by using Azure SQL database views

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Choosing the right data source – real-world tests

Getting ready

How it works…

How it works…

There's more…

Integrating on-premises data with the data source flexibility of canvas apps

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

Improving application speed and responsiveness by using static data

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

Consuming external data by using Dataflows

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Chapter 4: Automating processes with Power Automate

Technical requirements

Paid plans

The different types of flows

Automated

Instant

Scheduled

Business process

UI

Creating a sales survey solution with Power Automate and Microsoft Forms

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

Building a file processing automation for SharePoint document libraries

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

Overcoming Power Apps delegation with Power Automate

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Creating a modular solution with Power Automate

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Chapter 5: Extending the Platform

Technical requirements

User interface guidelines

Setting up your first canvas Power Apps component

Getting ready

How to do it

How it works

There's more

Building a floating action button component

Getting ready

How to do it

How it works

Creating a vertical navigation component

Getting ready

How to do it

How it works

Developing template fields using components

Getting ready

How to do it

How it works

Using the Power Apps component library

Getting ready

How to do it

How it works

Expanding communications with custom connectors

Getting ready

How to do it

How it works

There's more

Chapter 6: Improving User Experience

Technical requirements

Enhancing application interfaces

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

Building a responsive password manager in Power Apps – setting up the Azure Key Vault service

Explanation and overview

How to do it…

How it works…

Building a responsive password manager in Power Apps – designing an adaptive application

Explanation and overview

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

Chapter 7: Power Apps Everywhere

Technical requirements

Discovering Power Apps Mobile and the Windows desktop player

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Leveraging modern browsers for Power Apps

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Improving SharePoint document libraries with Power Apps

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Embedding Power Apps in SharePoint pages

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Making Power BI reports interactive with embedded Power Apps

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

Working with Power Apps in Microsoft Teams channels

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Automating the integration of Power Apps inside Teams

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

Building apps with Dataverse for Teams

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Chapter 8: Empowering your applications with no code Artificial Intelligence

Technical requirements

Creating a customer success solution using sentiment analysis

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

Building a text recognition system using canvas apps

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

Using Power Automate to create an invoice classification system

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Chapter 9: Discovering the Power Platform admin center

Technical requirements

Managing Power Platform environments

How to do it…

How it works…

Gathering Power Platform analytics

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Synchronizing data using data integration

Getting ready

How to do it…

How to do it…

There's more…

Managing connectors through data policies

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

Chapter 10: Tips, Tricks, and Troubleshooting

Technical requirements

Sharing OneDrive data between tenants

Getting ready

How to do it

How it works

Playing with vectors – SVGs in canvas apps

Getting ready

How to do it

How it works

There's more

Transferring SharePoint List Power Apps from one site to another

Getting ready

How to do it

How it works

Troubleshooting using the Power Apps canvas Monitor

Getting ready

How to do it

How it works

There's more

Extending screen real estate using the canvas control

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works

Handling image resources in components

Getting ready

How to do it

How it works

There's more...

Changing Azure SQL Server connections in Power Apps with ease

Getting ready

How to do it

How it works

Renaming files in SharePoint document libraries

Getting ready

How to do it

How it works

Chapter 11: Advanced Techniques with Power Apps Component Framework

Technical requirements

Setting up your environments

Getting ready

How to do it

How it works

There's more

Configuring Font Awesome

How to do it

How it works

Creating the project

Explanation and overview

How to do it

How it works

Building the application logic

How to do it

How it works

Deploying the solution

How to do it

How it works

Testing the component on a canvas app

How to do it

How it works

There's more

Other Books You May Enjoy

Preface

Power Apps is a low-code platform to build applications from Microsoft. With this platform, you can create solutions to solve your business needs while integrating with other components of the Power Platform, such as Power Automate or Power BI.

Quite different from the complete documentation that exists online, you will find that this is not your regular reference book. Instead, this book deals with real-world scenarios and experiences to help you get a headstart in your Power Apps projects.

Using a curated set of chapters, you will discover different aspects of Power Apps, from building canvas apps, designing model-driven solutions, extending with custom connectors, and integrating with other platforms to moving to the pro-developer side using Power Apps Component Framework.

Who this book is for

Since we are covering practical use cases, basic knowledge of building applications using Power Apps is required to take advantage of the solutions explored in this book. You will get a step-by-step tutorial on building the recipes crafted for each chapter.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Building pixel-perfect Solutions with Canvas Power Apps, starts with the best practices for building canvas apps and continues with building solutions, including coverage of data source setup.

Chapter 2, Building from data with Model-Driven Apps, continues our journey by following a collection of recipes joined together to create an all-around help desk solution.

Chapter 3, Choosing the right Data Source for your applications, will help you to make a sound decision when determining the data source of your applications. This chapter also explains the importance of the licensing model on this platform.

Chapter 4, Automating Processes with Power Automate, focuses on several use cases to improve business processes using this component of the Power Platform.

Chapter 5, Extending the Platform, builds upon the concept of enhancing the application building process by using components. We will also learn how to extend the platform by creating custom connectors.

Chapter 6, Improving User Experience, looks at how to enrich your user interfaces to make your applications more appealing to end users. This chapter will also cover how to create a responsive application using the latest techniques available in Power Apps.

Chapter 7, Power Apps Everywhere, explains all the possible ways to use and integrate Power Apps on many platforms, from mobile device consumption to embedding scenarios on SharePoint and Power BI, without forgetting the latest on Microsoft Teams development, including Dataverse for Teams.

Chapter 8, Empowering Your Applications with no code Artificial Intelligence, focuses on using AI Builder solutions to improve our applications and processes by bringing artificial intelligence into the mix.

Chapter 9, Discovering the Power Platform admin center, is about learning how to manage the Power Platform using the tools and settings available in this admin center.

Chapter 10, Tips, Tricks, and Troubleshooting, offers a collection of hints from the application building experience in Power Apps with a set of topics that will help solve or improve a wide variety of scenarios.

Chapter 11, Advanced Techniques with Power Apps Component Framework, tackles the pro-developer side of things by building a Power Apps Component Framework component from scratch. We will look at setting up our development environment and deploying the component to an application.

To get the most out of this book

Before diving into building solutions with Power Apps, you are going to need a Microsoft 365 subscription. You might have one already from your work organization, but if you want to have a playground to build apps, I'm going to give you two suggestions.

Microsoft 365 Developer Program

This program allows you to have a Microsoft 365 subscription with many features available: 25 E5 user licenses, apps such as SharePoint and Microsoft Teams, learning resources, and more. It's the perfect sandbox environment to create your apps, not only to build Power Apps but also to learn other technologies from the whole Microsoft 365 ecosystem. This subscription renews automatically every 3 months as long as you are actively using it.

To get more information, please refer to https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/dev-program

Power Apps Community Plan

This option is the ideal choice if you want a more focused approach to the Power Platform. It offers a free environment for individual use with the same advantages of a paid plan, including premium connectors. However, there are some restrictions, such as app sharing, the need for a Microsoft organizational account, and the ability to use dataflows.

This subscription has no renewal process; it's perpetual. For more information, please visit https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/communityplan.

Power Apps paid plans

The licensing model on this platform depends on the type of connector needed for your data sources. Standard connectors such as the one used for SharePoint don't require an additional license besides Microsoft 365, but premium or custom connectors do require a Power Apps license:

Per app: Allows building and using two apps (canvas or model-driven) plus one Power Apps portal

Per user: Allows building and using unlimited apps (within service limits)

To get more insight into the licensing model, please visit https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/.

If you are using the digital version of this book, we advise you to type the code yourself or access the code via the GitHub repository (link available in the next section). Doing so will help you avoid any potential errors related to the copying and pasting of code.

Download the example code files

You can download the example code files for this book from GitHub at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Microsoft-Power-Apps-Cookbook. In case there's an update to the code, it will be updated on the existing GitHub repository.

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://static.packt-cdn.com/downloads/9781800569553_ColorImages.pdf

Conventions used

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

Code in text: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: Mount the downloaded WebStorm-10*.dmg disk image file as another disk in your system.

A block of code is set as follows:

html, body, #map {

height: 100%;

margin: 0;

padding: 0

}

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

[default]

exten => s,1,Dial(Zap/1|30)

exten => s,2,Voicemail(u100)

exten => s,102,Voicemail(b100)

exten => i,1,Voicemail(s0)

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

$ mkdir css

$ cd css

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: Select System info from the Administration panel.

Tips or important notes

Appear like this.

Get in touch

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Chapter 1: Building pixel-perfect solutions with Canvas Power Apps

Power Apps is the platform of choice for building business solutions using a low-code method. This approach enables the rise of the citizen developer, a being inside every organization who is keen on learning technology, which also brings the expertise of the business process to which this person belongs.

One of its versions, canvas Power Apps, allows the creation of pixel-perfect implementations of user interfaces. As its name suggests, it brings a variety of tools to build any imaginable design into your applications. Whether it's a critical business application or a mobile tracking system, canvas apps gives you all the tools required to design your app.

During this chapter, we will discover how to create a sample of real-life applications that will give you an insight into different approaches when building canvas applications: standalone and embedded Power Apps. We will also learn how to set up different types of data sources for our applications.

This chapter consists of the following recipes:

Discovering best practices when building canvas apps

Creating an incident tracking solution – Setting up the data source

Creating an incident tracking solution – Building the user interface

Embedding an expense tracking list with SharePoint list Power Apps

Creating a Power App from existing data

Discovering best practices when building canvas apps

Setting up data sources, defining business process flows, creating user interfaces; all these tasks are pieces of an application building process. These pieces come together to accomplish the main goal: to build a solution that solves a specific need.

One of the things that you need to consider is the maintainability of your app. Whether you are in charge of fixing bugs or adding new features in the future, using best practices is always a good idea. No matter the technology you are using, well-documented code is easier to maintain.

Even though Power Apps is a low-code platform, you need to consider certain things before you start building applications. Like any other developer team, you need to establish code standards. These standards allow your team to be more productive by setting predefined patterns for variable naming, control usage, and coding methodology.

Variable naming

Proper naming gives your developers instant insight into the scope of your variables. For example, if a variable name prefix starts with lcl (short for local), it means it's value will only be available on the current screen. On the other hand, using gbl (short for global) means that this variable is accessible across the whole application.

These examples might seem trivial, but if another