Say you need a Business App to suit the customized requirement of your organization. But you do not have time to get it developed through a customized software development team or you do not have expertise to do hardcore programming. Microsoft Power Apps is a rapid development environment to build customized apps swiftly with no or low-code development experience. It offers user friendly methods to build customized business apps without you having any hardcore programming knowledge. It is a boon to develop quality business applications that can boost your organization’s performance.

This blog post provides readers with an overview of Microsoft Power Platform and its 4 tools. It further explores Power Apps in a detailed way and helps you with a step-by-step guide to build your own Apps.

1. Introduction

   Microsoft Power Platform is a visionary product from Microsoft to enable workers across industries to create high quality business applications and enhance organization prospects. 

   The Power Platform comprises 4 members in its family.  

   • Power Apps  
   • Power Automate  
   • Power BI 
   • Power Virtual Agents. 

   But the scope of this blog post is to explore Power Apps and its types in a detailed manner so that even if you are not a hardcore programmer you should attain the skills to develop your own business apps. 

2. The Power Apps Inside Story

   Let us talk about making business applications that can run on a mobile, desktop or even a tablet as well. And the best part is, you haven’t been a hardcore programmer to develop them!!! 

   With Power Apps, which is a low-code/no-code platform, you can create 3 broad types of Apps: 

   • Model-Driven Apps 
   • Canvas Apps 
   • Portals 
     

     Model Driven Apps: A Bird’s Eye View

     Model Driven Apps are best suitable when you have the following prerequisites met: 

     1. Microsoft Dataverse is the data source for your app 
     2. You want less time-to-market for your product 
     3. User Interface or User Experience (UI/UX) is not your highest priority. 

   With model driven apps, you can use pre-built UI pre-built from Microsoft, and you can create an application within 5 minutes and store user input data in Dataverse. 

   Technical Know-How Aspects of Model-driven Apps 

   Key terminologies you will come across while working with model-driven apps are Tables, columns, forms, views, business rules, business process flows, security roles, etc. 

   Moreover, you do get a bunch of options to customize and configure the out-of-the-box features to add your own custom tables to the existing data model(Dataverse). You even get a handful of security specific settings that enable role-based or task-based application creation. 

   You can follow the steps mentioned below to get started and make your first model-driven application. 

   Step-by-Step Guide Working on Model-driven Apps

   1. Navigate to https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/ and start a free trial. 
   2. To have an organization/school account, try creating an Office 365 E3 trial account or a D365 trial account. 
   3. Upon successfully signing up, visit https://web.powerapps.com/ 
   4. Click on Settings -> Advance Settings or visit https://admin.powerapps.com/. 
   5. Create a new trial Environment that allows you to use Dataverse. 
   6. Follow this link to create your first model driven application. 

   Canvas Apps: A Bird’s Eye View

   Working on Canvas Apps has the following prerequisites: 

   1. You want to use any external data source for your app (SharePoint, OneDrive, SQL Server, Azure Storage, etc.) 
   2. You want full control over the UI/UX design. 
   3. You want to use external connectors that help you connect to applications like Twitter, Facebook, etc. 

   Technical Know-How Aspects of Canvas Apps 

   Some of the key terms that you can come across while making a canvas app – Screens, Input controls, Labels, Gallery control, Media controls, Buttons, Functions, Properties, components and so on. 

   As a starter pack, you have access to a bunch of templates that can be re-used to quickly build a new canvas application with your own data. It is recommended to explore the templates before starting a new app from blank as it can save a lot of time and effort. 

   Step-by-Step Guide Working on Canvas Applications

   You can follow the steps mentioned below to get started and make your first canvas application. 

   1. Navigate to https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/ and Start a free trial. 
   2. To have an organization/school account, try creating an Office 365 E3 trial account or a D365 trial account. 
   3. Upon successfully signing up, visit https://web.powerapps.com/ 
   4. Click on Settings -> Advance Settings or visit https://admin.powerapps.com/. 
   5. Create a new trial Environment or use an existing environment. 
   6. Click on the +Create option to start creating an app. 
   7. You can choose to start with a Mobile or a Tablet layout. 
   8. You can also explore the templates on this page. 
   9. Follow this link to create your first canvas app. 

   Congratulations for successfully creating your first Power Apps!!! 

   The following links can make your app making journey exciting and hassle free… 

3. Key Reference Resources for Power Apps

   Here I have compiled important resources that come in handy while building your own Canvas Apps or Model-driven Apps: 

   Power Apps Formulas 

   Power Apps Licensing 

   Get Started with Power Automate 

   Share a Canvas App 

4. Get Certified with Power Apps

   You can gain mastery over no or low-code development methods and start building your own Apps for mobile and tablets with the Microsoft Power Apps. The best way to gain competency in Power Apps Studio is by earning  The Exam PL 100: Microsoft Power Platform App Maker Associate certification. CloudThat helps you to get trained in this course through industry certified trainers. We being Microsoft Gold Partner are equipped with an industry aligned curriculum to train professionals for Microsoft certification courses.

WRITTEN BY CloudThat