Power Apps is an indispensable tool for creating customized business applications without writing code. With its intuitive interface and powerful functionality, Power Apps allows users to transform their ideas into reality, streamlining business processes and improving operational efficiency.
If we are in the world of business computing, we cannot overlook the fundamental role that Microsoft Power Apps plays within Power Platform, the ecosystem created by Microsoft to optimize and simplify business operational processes. This suite includes a series of powerful tools, including Power Automate for automations, Power BI for dynamic reports, and Power Apps for developing customized business applications.
But what makes Power Apps so important and distinctive? Microsoft Power Apps is a complete platform, providing users with a wide range of apps, services, connectors and data, thus offering an integrated and flexible development environment.
One of the most popular features of Power Apps is its extraordinary ease of use. Thanks to an intuitive and user-friendly interface, even those who don't have deep programming knowledge can create customized business apps. THEinterfacing Drag & Drop allows users to select elements from a large library and drag them directly into the work area, allowing them to quickly compose the structure and contents of the applications.
But the ease of use doesn't compromise the power and versatility of Power Apps. Instead, the platform offers seamless integration with a variety of data sources crucial to business operations, such as Microsoft Dataverse, SharePoint, Dynamics 365, and SQL Server. This means that apps created with Power Apps can easily access a wide range of information and data, offering users a unified and interactive display of relevant information.
The possibilities offered by Power Apps are practically limitless. Business applications built with this platform can be used to
In essence, Power Apps allows organizations to create applications tailored to meet their specific needs, offering stakeholders secure and fast access to the information they need.
Another aspect to highlight is the responsive design of the applications created with Power Apps. This means that apps can adapt fluidly to different devices and platforms, allowing users to access them both from browsers and from mobile devices such as phones and tablets. In a nutshell, Microsoft Power Apps represents a turning point in the development of business apps, offering a perfect balance between ease of use, power and flexibility.
Now that we have concluded the product overview, let's see in detail what types of business apps it allows you to create and what sets them apart.
The “canvas” apps (in Italian, canvas) are the business applications that a user builds from scratch. Starting, precisely, from a blank canvas. At the expense of longer development times, canvas apps are preferable to model-based apps when personalization has top priority. Usually, this need stems from the will - or need - to satisfy a company's rather particular processes, thus requiring greater flexibility than that granted by model-based apps. In fact, the user can act on every level of his app, from the interface to the layout and from the functionalities to the underlying data logic.
Speaking of data, canvas apps can connect to more than 200 different sources. For some time now, Power Apps has supported the creation of canvas apps starting from data collections, from a Dataverse source or from AppSource. Since 2019, Integration with Microsoft Teams is also available. You can then create a business app from scratch using the expansion for Teams. Below, we list the steps to follow to do it:
As the name suggests, model-based apps are built starting from a predefined Power Apps template or configured by the user in Dataverse. In the latter case, the data is imported into Microsoft Dataverse, the platform made available together with Power Apps precisely to store information from different sources and use it to create form models, visualizations, business rules and business processes. Whether it's a Power Apps or Dataverse model, the advantage remains that of being able to develop an app in a short time and already tested, given that most of its functionalities are predefined - even if they leave some room for customization-.
Portals are the last category of products that a user can develop in low-code mode with Power Apps. It's about business application extensions, since they allow an organization to extend access to its information to a larger audience, perhaps consisting of customers, partners and suppliers, in addition to employees.
Portals often take the form of websites, protected by Microsoft protocols and equipped with a wide range of functionalities, ranging from data and user management to integration with external work apps (for example Power BI, SharePoint or Microsoft 365 Dynamics applications).
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Operating vertically across the entire Microsoft Power Platform ecosystem, we have developed extensive expertise in Power Apps, which allows us to offer custom-designed and fully integrated solutions within your Microsoft 365 tenant.
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To start building a business app, you must first log in to the Power Apps portal with your Microsoft account (if you don't have one, remember that you can create it in a few seconds and for free).
Once inside the home page, just click on 'Create' and select the type of app you want to start working on layout, content and functionality. You'll notice that Power Apps will send you back to a particular screen to do all this. It's about Power Apps Studio, the platform's integrated development environment (IDE) that allows you to develop business apps in low-code mode and with a process similar to that for creating a presentation on PowerPoint.
In fact, the left panel shows all the commands available to the user, together with the preview of the different screens of the app under construction.
In the central part, there is the work canvas; while from the right panel, you can change the settings related to the layout, properties and data sources.
There are a myriad of commands that can help you create your business app and, among these, the main and most used are:
As mentioned, the list doesn't end there. We therefore invite you to visit Power Apps Studio to find out the rest. For those who would like to know a practical case, perhaps to be reproduced in their company, we will show step by step how to customize a SharePoint form starting from a list of data, values and information.
Customizing a SharePoint form with Power Apps of Microsoft Power Platform can be useful for improving the user experience on a site like the intranet, where requesting and sending data are the daily bread. In fact, Power Apps allows you to create an interface consistent with the brand's style and equipped with fields and controls not only aesthetically pleasing, but also and above all relevant to each specific request.
For example, you could enter:
We will show you here how to insert these elements, taking as a reference point the form of a SharePoint site for thepurchasing Of a product. We will then see how to add the fields:
Obviously, the steps that we will shortly list can be generalized, that is, you can take inspiration from them to create the modules that best suit your needs.
Enter the SharePoint list for which you want to create a customized form and enter in the form of a column the values that will need to be reported in the new fields. In our case, we'll add a column for each of the following items:
After that, you need to select the item”Integra” in the top command bar, followed by”Power Apps” and then”Customize forms”. This will open Power Apps Studio.
Each field shown in the Power Apps Studio interface corresponds to a specific column in your SharePoint list. Take the one with the value 'Availability' and move it to the bottom of the list of fields.
Hover over the 'Attachments' field, click on the three dots and select 'Remove'. In fact, it is not useful for our purposes.
At this point, we must configure the display of the fields of our interest, namely those relating to price, availability and color. This is essential to ensure that each field is responsive to the choice made by the user in the previous field, thus guiding his filling out of the form.
Then go to the left panel of Power Apps Studio, expand the item 'Product Details_DataCard1' and note the number that appears at the end of 'DataCardValue'. For color and price cards, set the 'Visible' property to the 'If (DataCardValue3.value = true, true) 'formula. Hold down the ALT key and click the 'Details' switch twice.
You can now save and publish changes to the form using the icons at the top right.
After publishing the changes, click on”Publish to SharePoint” to make them effective.
Click on 'Back to SharePoint' at the top left to view your initial list and try out the new customized form.
If everything went the right way, you'll notice that the fields will react consistently with your choices. In particular, you should experience a compilation process similar to the one shown below:
Microsoft Power Apps is a low-code platform that allows users to create custom applications for their business needs. It enables the creation of apps without the need for extensive coding knowledge, making it accessible for both developers and non-developers.
With Microsoft Power Apps, you can build a wide variety of applications, including custom forms, workflow automation tools, data-driven apps, and even fully functioning mobile applications that integrate with other Microsoft services and data sources.
Microsoft Power Apps integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft tools such as Power BI, Power Automate, Dynamics 365, and SharePoint. This integration allows users to enhance business processes by connecting data from multiple sources into a single, unified app.
Yes, non-developers can use Microsoft Power Apps. The platform is designed with a low-code approach, which allows users with minimal technical knowledge to build and customize applications using drag-and-drop functionality and pre-built templates.
In Microsoft Power Apps, Canvas Apps allow for pixel-perfect design and customization, letting users build apps from a blank canvas. Model-driven Apps, on the other hand, are built based on data models and follow a more structured approach with built-in layouts and components.
Microsoft Power Apps supports mobile development by allowing users to create responsive applications that can be used on various devices, including smartphones and tablets. These apps automatically adjust to different screen sizes, ensuring a consistent user experience.
Yes, Microsoft Power Apps is built with enterprise-grade security features. It integrates with Azure Active Directory for user authentication, offers role-based access controls, and ensures that data is securely managed and stored within the Microsoft ecosystem.
Yes, you can automate workflows using Microsoft Power Apps in conjunction with Power Automate. This allows users to create automated processes, such as approvals, notifications, and data updates, directly from within their Power Apps applications.
Microsoft Power Apps has an extensive support system that includes official documentation, video tutorials, and a large online community of users and developers. Additionally, Microsoft provides a range of learning paths and certifications for users who want to deepen their knowledge of the platform.
Microsoft Power Apps offers several pricing plans depending on your needs, including a per-app plan and a per-user plan. Additionally, there is a free tier available for users who want to explore the platform with limited features and usage.
The Modern Apps team specializes in development and integration across the entire Microsoft 365 ecosystem. We design native applications for Microsoft and Azure platforms, and implement business processes that integrate with and maximize the investment in Microsoft 365.
