Introduction To PowerApp

 Introduction

 

In this article we will explain about what PowerApp is, and its basic concepts. This will give just a basic understanding about what, how and why to use PowerApp.

 

What is PowerApp ?

 

PowerApp is the collection of Apps, Connectors, Services and data sources. It provides a platform to develop a custom application which can be used to create and develop quickly. Using this App we can build custom business applications that connect to business data either stored  in underlying data such as Common Data Services or in various online and on-premises data sources such as SharePoint, Excel, Office 365, Dynamics 365, SQL Server and So on.

 

To start with PowerApp we need to Click here.

 

Using PowerApp we can create Canvas Apps and Model Driven Apps.

 

What are the benefits of PowerApp?

 

PowerApp has many great features like:

1. Easy to Develop
   Using PowerApp, we can easily develop an App with basic functionalities.
   
   
2. Ready for Mobile and Tablet
   We can easily develop applicatons that can be veiwed with ease in Mobile or Tablet devices. 
   
   
3. We can integrate Azure with Microsoft Azure functions
   It allows us to execute small code snippets  on the cloud without managing any containers or servers.
   
   
4. Effieciency
   Using PowerApp we can develop an App very quick and it also provides many reusable components which can save time and effort
   
   
5. Standard Connectors
   PowerApp provides multiple standard connectors to be used
   
   
6. Integration with Microsoft flow
   PowerApp can be integrated with flow easily to do something depend on any task or to trigger actions.

Types of Apps created using PowerApp

 

In PowerApp we can create 2 types of apps: 

1. Canvas App
2. Model Driven App 

In this article we are going to learn about creating Canvas App in PowerApp.

 

Demo 

 

To create a Canvas App you will go to the PowerApp link: Click here 

 

On the first screen you can see there are 3 options: Canvas App, Model Driven and Portal.

 

 

Click on Canvas App 

 

 

It will create an app as below,

 

 

Now we will create a simple Add, Edit default form provided by PowerApp,

 

 

 

On clicking Edit  it will add an Edit form with blank data source.

 

 

 

Now i will add Datasource to the Edit Form of SharePoint list, 

 

 

After selecting connector as SharePoint from Data Source it will ask you the url of your site of which list you want to add in PowerApps

 

 

After selecting the site , there is an option to select the list - just select the list and click connect

 

 

 

Now you can see we have fields based on the list we have

 

 

Now let's add a button on the screen and in its OnSelect method add SubmitForm (<FormName>)

 

 

And now change DefaultMode of your form to New instead of Edit

 

 

 

Now Click on file menu from where you can set Icon, Name of App along with extra settings

 

 

Click Screen Size, Orientation and other Advanced Settings as well

 

 

After saving changes you will be redirected to the view where it will notify you that changes are saved. 

 

 

After clicking on See All version button, you will be redirected to the below link which will display all details of your App,

 

 

After clicking on Web link you will be redirected to the below link which contains a demo of your App.

 

 

Add data on the form and click on Submit button 

 

 

After clicking on Submit button, you can check that list data will be inserted.

So we can see that with just few clicks we can perform CRUD very easily.

 

Summary

 

In this article we have reviewed about the concepts of PowerApp and its usage. Through PowerApp we can create Canvas App and Model driven app which provide easy accessibility and usability to organization-level Apps. Now in the next article we can review the complete CRUD with gallery operations.