Microsoft has introduced this PowerApps tool to create mobile apps with no code. There are various connectors available for fetching the data from different sources and displaying it in mobile or tablet view. Also, it provides pre-defined layouts for both mobile and tablet. We can also design our own layout from the scratch. There are two studios (Development Environment) available to build our own app in PowerApps - Desktop Studio and Web Studio.
Once our app is created and published, it will be available in PowerApps list of apps and can be shared across our organization or to particular group of users. One should have PowerApps installed in their devices to view our app. PowerApps are available for Windows, Android and iOS.
In this article, I have given the easy steps to create apps of our own using existing features of PowerApps. Here is the PowerApps link.
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Sign Up for free in PowerApps. If you have any Microsoft related login (MSDN, Microsoft, Skype, Office 365 etc.,), you can login with it.
Once you have logged in, you will see the below screen in the browser. It has a few apps listed and a few options for creation of new apps.
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On clicking the New App from the left navigation, you will see the below popup window for selecting the studio version to make / edit the app. In this case, I have used "PowerApps studio for Web".
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Here are the connection options for the data source and the layouts available for them.
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In this case, I have selected the Data source as SharePoint as mentioned earlier and it will ask for the URL of the SharePoint site. Necessary credentials are required to access the data source (list or library).
For other connections like Google Drive, Box or OneDrive, same things are followed.
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Here is the list of other connections available.
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Once you have established the connections, it will be displayed in the connections section. Click "Connections" link from the left navigation, as shown below.
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Here is the list of connections.
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Below screen will be displayed after selecting the data source. It is the actual place where you design your own app. There are some pre-defined layouts available, but still you can change the layout as per your wish. There are options to change the color, image, and text for the layout.
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Next thing is Data Sources. You can also add data sources from the right hand side menu, as shown below.
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Once you are done with design part, you can click on the "Run" icon at the top menu, to see the "Output".
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Finally, you need to "Save" your application with the "App Name, Preview Icon, and Background Color". Now, you are able to see the new app under "My apps" section of PowerApps home.
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You can select the app from home page and start sharing it with your friends and colleagues.