Create apps without the help of coding or developer. It lets you create apps quickly and then scale them on-demand to improve workflow.
Table of Content:
- Introduction
- What is PowerApps?
- Types of PowerApps
- Canvas Apps
- Model-Driven Apps
- Portal App
- PowerApp Features
- Conclusion
Introduction
We won’t lie to you now. Using PowerApps can sometimes take time to understand. It has positive aspects, but some people may find it difficult to comprehend. This article aims to provide you with some background information about PowerApps and assist you in becoming familiar with its operation. Before diving into some useful PowerApps features that will make you smile, let’s first look at what PowerApps is.
What is PowerApps?
PowerApps is a drag-and-drop formula-based app with an intuitive visual builder that lets you build useful and powerful apps without traditional coding or developers. PowerApps can easily read and write data from different sources, including Excel, SharePoint, Azure SQL, and Outlook. You can begin by modifying an existing app template, developing simple apps based on data, or starting from scratch. You can be a professional with PowerApps creations!
How to Get your PowerApps? Microsoft 360 offers free trials on its website, which includes access to basic PowerApps. They also provide premium services for other enterprise-grade services. You can check out the PowerApps Pricing page for further details if you want something more specific.
Candidates willing to have a career can in Programming & Frameworks go through Power Apps Training.
Types of PowerApps
There are three types of PowerApps:
- Canvas Apps:
It’s a blank canvas on which you can add components by dragging and dropping them to get the look you want. You can have a lot of control over how users interact with the app’s features and data. Canvas applications are best for when you need to have however much power as could reasonably be expected around the client experience, when you need to expand SharePoint, or when you’re hoping to interface with various information sources. Because Canvas apps are adaptable and offer a wide range of connections, you can use them to connect almost any kind of data source—from complex databases like SQL or Dataverse to SharePoint for data access.
- Model-Driven Apps:
Model-driven development is all about defining the tables and entities in Dataverse with the right forms, dashboards, and charts, then presenting them to the user through a model-driven app with specific navigation and interactions. Again, one of the most important things to remember is that Dataverse is the backbone of everything, and this kind of Power App requires a license to access Dataverse. However, you won’t be able to drag and drop as much as you would with a canvas app. You will still be able to configure entities and reuse those configurations for forms or views across multiple pages or model-driven applications without having to reconfigure them each time.
- Portal Apps:
Canvas and model-driven apps are mostly for your internal staff, but portals are for customers or partners outside your company. They will be able to interact with a portal in a manner that is very similar to accessing a website using a standard URL and viewing it from the perspective of any other public-facing websites that they might log on to access data. Because the data are all Dataverse data, working with a portal will be very similar to what your internal staff has done with Dynamics or a model-driven application. When you set up a form, view, or dashboard in a traditional CMS, you can use those settings in a portal and static website content.
In a Nutshell:
- Canvas Apps if you want to have complete control over what to develop
- If you want to work with data in Dataverse, consider using Model-Driven Apps
- Lastly, if you engage with external users, business partners, or customers, Portal Apps is your right choice.
You can share your app with coworkers and staff members once it has been created. Access the newly developed app by opening the PowerApp app on your phone, then share.
You don’t have to make separate apps for each mobile operating system with the PowerApp mobile app. It can be built once and run on any phone, browser, or operating system that supports it (including Windows, Linux, and Mac). If necessary, you can also add custom business logic to your PowerApps by utilizing the REST API.
PowerApp Features
We want to offer some pointers to users on taking their PowerApps applications to the next level in light of the most recent PowerApps updates. Organizations can now use the most recent PowerApps features to support business objectives and performance. These features include incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) into an application through AI Builder, access to external users through the PowerApps portal, and data integration through the Common Data Service.
Latest PowerApps features:
- Building an app without coding:
You don’t need to be a coding expert using PowerApps to create a simple app. With drag-and-drop, the interface is simple to use. Bring all of your app’s components together in one location, and that’s it! Your app is ready.
- Easily Connectable to Other Microsoft Services:
The ease with which PowerApps connects to other Microsoft services like Excel, OneDrive, and SharePoint is another reason to use it. You can even connect non-Microsoft services like SalesForce and on-premise systems to it.
- Common Data Service:
With Common Data Service (CDS) for Apps, data used by business applications can be securely stored and managed. The data in CDS for Apps is contained within a collection of entities. An entity is a collection of records used to store data, just like a table does in a database. Most common scenarios are covered by the base set of legal entities included in CDS for Apps. Power Query, on the other hand, can also be used to create custom entities for your business and fill them with data. Developers can use this data to create rich applications with PowerApps.
- Apps for Canvas:
Microsoft Power Apps lets you create a business app from a canvas without writing code in a traditional programming language like C#. Drag and drop elements onto a canvas to design the app, similar to how PowerPoint slides are designed. Expressions that look like Excel can be used to specify logic and manipulate data.
- Model-Driven Software:
Model-driven application configuration is a component-focused way to deal with application improvement. Model-driven app design doesn’t require programming, and you can make apps that are either very simple or very sophisticated. In contrast to canvas app development, in which the app’s designer has complete control over the layout, model-driven apps are largely determined by the components you add to the app.
- Friendly User Interface:
The interface of PowerApps is user-friendly and simple to use. Even if you have yet to gain prior development experience, this Platform makes it simple to create a business app.
- Integration with the Cloud:
Connecting PowerApps to cloud services like SQL, Google Drive, and DropBox is simple and easy. You can also connect it to MS CDS.
- Sharing:
Don’t worry if you created an app on PowerApps and want to share it with your coworkers. It is simple to share with anyone (within the same organization).
- Reasonable prices:
One of a company’s most costly expenditures is software or app development. Start using this fantastic tool immediately if you want simple business applications but need help to afford developers.
- Portals:
Power Apps and Dynamics 365 developers can create a new app called Portals to develop a website for users outside your organization. These users can sign in using a variety of identities or even browse the content anonymously. You can create responsive, low-code websites with portals that let users interact with the Common Data Service’s data.
Conclusion
Power Apps continue to add support for more scenarios, such as the ability to generate formulas to alter a label’s content, change a label’s visibility and color based on conditions, and support for filtering by lookup columns.
PowerApps-based apps can convert your manual business processes into digital, automated processes thanks to their extensive business logic and workflow capabilities. Additionally, PowerApps-built applications are responsive and can run seamlessly in a browser or on mobile devices (phones and tablets). By allowing users to build feature-rich custom business apps without writing code, PowerApps “democratizes” the app-building experience.
Power Apps comes up with fresh concepts each year to fine-tune the design and enhance its AI model to make its ideas work better for developers.
Microsoft is constantly improving the model to comprehend natural language queries and provide accurate suggestions. Power Platform will become handier and more user-friendly due to its focus on enhancing ideas’ discoverability and usability.
Leaders are presented with a convincing business case by PowerApps. The tool’s accessibility is one of its best features. Employees across your organization will find it simpler as a result to contribute to the achievement of business goals and to increase automation and optimization.
Author Bio:
I am Korra Shailaja, Working as a Digital Marketing professional & Content writer in MindMajix Online Training. I Have good experience in handling technical content writing and aspire to learn new things to grow professionally. I am an expert in delivering content on the market demanding technologies like Mulesoft Training, Dell Boomi Tutorial, Elasticsearch Course, Fortinet Course, PostgreSQL Training, Splunk, Success Factor, Denodo, etc.
