Power Apps have now a great feature that allows you to preview your app on different devices and layouts. This is an incredibly useful tool to allows us to test our apps on multiple platforms and make sure that the user experience is consistent across all of them. With this feature, developers can make sure that their apps look great no matter what device or layout they are viewed on.
Press Preview App (F5)
When you click on option, you can choose Device:
Available Options:
Tablet Device
Mobile Device
Web View
Orientation Switcher
If you don’t find devices you need, you can put custom Width and Height properties.
Enabled Preview
To enable preview, you must enable set authoring version to last one available 3.23053.23 (save and refresh app):
Considerations
I hope these information can help you! If you need more information, you can go here.
If you don’t like standard canvas app control, you can enable this new (experimental) feature to enable a new set of controls , called “Modern Controls”.
NB: This is Experimental Feature, as an experimental feature, do not use it in production apps.
Modern Controls has about 13 new controls wich you can use for your applications:
Modern Controls
Enabled Modern Controls
Firs of all, you must enable set authoring version to last one available 3.23034.5 (save and refresh app):
Enable Named formulas featur
Then, you should find , in experimental features, “Try out the modern controls”:
Save, refresh and you should see new group of controls called “Modern Controls“.
Considerations
I hope these information can help you! I didn’t find much documentation about it at the moment I’m writing this article, I’ll add some information as soon as I find out 🙂
At the time of writing this article, when you add Library Component of Creator Kit, you may find some errors. If you don’t know what Creator Kit is, you can read my article here.
Add control to your App
Add one of Library control to your app. If you didn’t have installed Creator Kit in your environment, you can read this article to do it.
Add Panel Component
Add Control To App
Let’s see how to use this control.
Errors
As you can see, now you have 10 errors on your app. All errors are relative to our Panel Control:
Our control should look like this:
Panel
How to fix it
To fix, you should follow these step:
Create a local copy of your control
Fix errors
Use copied control
Let’s start to create local copy. Click on Edit and then Create Copy:
Edit component
Create copy
Now you have local copy and you can fix errors:
Control to fix
In this case (But the errors will change depending on the control you have), I fixed:
Today , we’re introducing one of the “Surface” controls group of Creator Kit: “Panel Control“. Let’s see What is it and how it works. If you don’t know what Creator Kit is, you can read my article here.
Add control to your App
Before use it, you should add it to your app. If you didn’t have installed Creator Kit in your environment, you can read this article to do it.
Add Control to your App
Add Panel Component
Let’s see how to use this control.
Panel Control
This control is usefull to create complex creation, edit, or management experiences of items or settings. Let’s understand how can we use it. When you add it on your app, you should see something this:
Position– (Default Right”) You can write “Left” if you want left panel
Visible– True or False, to show or hide panel. I usually use a local variable to show or Hide it
Buttons– Table to define buttons of your panel
OnButtonSelect– Event to manage select event of your button
Theme : Property to set Json theme on controls, as you can see also in others controls of creator Kit. I usually set it when my application starts, and set it on all controls of Creator Kit who support it. You can create your theme here.
Today , I want to explain a really cool feature, in order to improve performance of your app and make it “code” more tidier.
NB: This is Experimental Feature, as an experimental feature, do not use named formulas in production apps.
We can use App.OnStart to inizializiate variables, load data and do some operations. These actions my be cause slow starting of your application. Sometimes we use , for example hidden button to write “reusable” code.
Now , we can write formulas and reuse it in any part of our application.
Enabled Named Formulas
Firs of all, you must enable experimental feature. Click on “Settings” and enable it:
Enable Named formulas featur
Use it
Now, you should see new property of your app, called “Formulas”. Here you can add your formula!
Formulas
Here you can add your formulas. For example:
ParamID = Param("ID");
UserEmail = User().Email;
But, of course, you can add more complex formula.
Advantages
Why we should use named formulas? let’s see some advantages:
The formula’s value is always available. There is no timing dependency, no event likes App.OnStart should be executed.
Formulas can be calculated in parallel.
The formula’s value is always up to date.
The formula’s definition is immutable. As opposed to variables, the definition in App.Formulas is the only “source of truth” and the value can’t be changed somewhere else in the app.
Calculated when needed. Value are calculated when app need it so this can improve app load time.
Considerations
I hope these information can help you! Here link with additional informations.
Today , we’re introducing one of the menu & nav controls group of Creator Kit: “Nav Control“. Let’s see What is it and how it works. If you don’t know what Creator Kit is, you can read my article here.
Add control to your App
Before use it, you should add it to your app. If you didn’t have installed Creator Kit in your environment, you can read this article to do it.
Add Control to your App
Add Fluent Nav Control
Let’s see how to use this control.
Nav Control
You can use this control to create a navigation menu in your app. Let’s understand how can we use it. When you add it on your app, you should see something this:
Nav Control
We should set some properties:
Items
Create Table with these attributes:
ItemDisplayName – The Display Name of the menu item
ItemKey – The key of item (must be unique)
ItemEnabled – (Default true) Set to false to disabled
ItemVisible – (Default true) Set to false to hide
You can use OnSelect to get selected item and do some actions like change page. As usual, Just to understand , I show selected item display name in a label:
NavMenu.Selected.ItemDisplayName
Results:
Nav Menu
Others useful properties are:
Theme : Property to set Json theme on controls, as you can see also in others controls of creator Kit. I usually set it when my application starts, and set it on all controls of Creator Kit who support it. You can create your theme here.
CollapseByDefault: You can set to True or False. Nav remain collapsed or expanded respectively. Individual Item level expand property is respected.
Let’s see what news are introduced with november update of creator kit. If you don’t know what Creator Kit is, you can read my article here.
New Features
Have been introduced 2 new (in preview) components, SubwayNav and SpinButton:
SubwayNav Control
SpinButton Control
Let’s see a basic introduction to use these controls.
SubwayNav
You can use this control to show a wizard steps in our application. Let’s understand how can we use it. When you add it on your app, you should see something this:
SubwayNav control
We should set some properties:
Items
Set a Table , with these attributes:
ItemKey: Key of item
ItemLabel: A Display Name of item
ItemState: Icon of the step, it could be one of: “Current”, “Completed”, “Unsaved”, “ViewedNotCompleted”, “Error” , “WizardComplete”
Accourding to source code, try to put this on Items propertie:
If you don’t want specify ItemState , you can set empty string (ItemState: “”) , and you’ll see an empty white dot.
OnSelect
You can use OnSelect to get selected item and change page to show next step of your wizard. Just to understand , in this case I saved selected step on variable (Is just an example, you can use Controlname.Selected insted):
UpdateContext({SeletectStep: Self.Selected})
And on label:
SeletectStep.ItemLabel
Results:
Other useful properties are:
Theme : Property to set Json theme on controls, as you can see also in others controls of creator Kit. I usually set it when my application starts, and set it on all controls of Creator Kit who support it.
Subway Nav State: Property to set state on entire controls. You can choose from: “None”, “Errors”, “WizardComplete”
Example of set Subway Nave state property to “WizardComplete”
SpinButton
A spin button is control to allow to add number in small steps. When you add control you should see this:
Today, we’re going to speak about Creator Kit. With this fantastic tool, we have possibility to create Canvas App, with professional look & feel with “Microsoft 365” Style.
What is “Cretor Kit” ?
According to Microsoft , Creator Kit consist in a series of controls , utility and templates , created to increase developer productivity.
Today, we’re going to speak about Environment. Where people starting to create App or Flow, usually, use Default Environment. But in order to have correct governance or our Power Platform solutions, a good idea (but is not only the one) is create more then one Environment. For Example Dev, Quality and Prod.
What is an “Environment” ?
According to Microsoft , and Environment is a a space to store and share data, app , flows. You can image it as a “Container”.
Each environment can have a single Dataverse DB (but you can create environment withoud it)
Default environment is Shared by all users, in my opinion you shouldn’t use it to develop critical app.
Environment types
Basically we can create 4 kinds of environment.
Sandbox: used for non-production environment but for developing and test. It can be reset or copy.
Production: used for permanent work. You need Power Apps license to create and manage it. It will provided with 1 GB database capacity.
Trial: used for short term testing. It will be cleaned automatically after 30 days. I usually use it to try new features. It can be create also as subscription based, and it can be conferted as production environment.
Hello, I’m very happy to annunce my first contribute to PNP community. I created and share source of my “Tic Tac Toe game” app , created with Power Apps.
Hello, Today I want to explain how to improve performance of yours Canvas App. Any comments, integrations or suggestions are welcome 🙂
Cache local data
Does your data chanche during session of your app? If you reply “No”, you should store your data into local variable and get record from it, instead always ask to database.
SQL Server Delefation formulaSql Server Delegation Formula
Use Indexes Column
Simple, but people sometimes forgot to set indexes on column. For SQL Server and SharePoint, check wich columns you’re using to filter, and set Index on these columns.
When you want to create new record in your table you , tipically you use Default() function. When you use it, there is a call to your datasource …
Defaults(Projects_1)
And Idea is store result of this function on variable, and use it instead call Default() every time:
Set(
newProject,
Defaults(Projects_1)
);
Debug – Monitoring Time
If you want to understand what happens “behind the scenes”, you should start a debugging session. From Power Apps portal, select your app and click Monitor:
Monitoring…
Now you can understand durations and respons size of your function to prevent performance issue.
Considerations
Check this official link for other tips .I hope this post was usefull for you.Leave me comment if you has appreciate it.
Hello, new Post Today. We’re going to understand how to use Patch function with SharePoint list. For this Example I used a “Task List” who contains text , choose , lookup and numeric columns.
That’s all! If we want to update an existing record? You must get it and pass to patch function instead Defaults(). In this case, I used Lookup function to retrieve record to update:
Let’s learn how can we passing parameter to our Canvas Apps.
QUERY STRING PARAMETER
In this Example, I built a simple app to write a ticket in SharePoint List. In this case , I need to pass (from “external”) a parameter to our App, to set Ticket Type. My choose are:
Infrastructure
Software
Services
To achievement this, we should use “Query String” and Param Function. Query String is part of url , used to passing data to application.
Step 1 – Get query string from App
To get query string, I used param function in OnVisible event of my Screen to get date and store it on local variable. I can’t use “On Start” event of app because UpdateContext is only available while you are currently on a screen. When the OnStart code is executed no screen has loaded yet.
In my Example, I used a Form with SharePooint list as Datasource . My field “Ticket Type” is Choose field. To set value as default, I set Default property of datacard, only if the form is in “insert mode”. Why? because if we are in view or in edit, we need to see data of item, not our parameter. So:
New usefull feature! One of Power Apps limitation was we unable to build app more than people a time. Now, we can work togheter!
Enable Co-Authoring
So how can we do that? Really simple, as I usually write into my blog… “One” minute 🙂 I suppose you’re know what is source control and you know github or Azure DevOps. In this case, I’ll you Git repo on my Azure DevOps account. If you don’t know where terms, please read here.
Let’s start!
Create news project on Azure DevOps or git repo. Create or open you existing App , and go to settings, Upcoming Features and go to Experimental tab:
Then, enable “Show the Git version control setting”. Then you can see a new Section “Git version control” , click on Connect.
And configure settings:
Then, it ask you your credentials. Keep mind, if you’re using DevOps, in password sections, you don’t put password, but you must put your personal access token. Now it create folder for you on your git repo and push your source:
Now you can build app with your collegue! It’s experimental but cool!
Microsoft introduce new way to pay for Power Apps and related services: Pay as you go. From 2/11/21 , you can use your Azure Subcription to cover Power Apps and Dataverse cost, based on usage. In my opionion is very good feature, to allow you to try services with low risk.
Don’t worry, in the most of case you can recover it. Let’s see how, with simple powershell command. As I usually write, if you know what you do , the script is:
Hi! let’s see a simple way to show name of day of week. There isn’t “built in function” get name, but we can use Weekday(Date) function to get numer of day and use it to show name:
There are two ways to build an app with Power Apps. “Canvas App” (My favourite) and “Model-driven app”. In this article , let’s see how we can build an app in less then ten minutes with Canvas App, starting from data.
The fastest way
1. Start from data
We should start from data using one of connectors available, such as Excel, SQL Server, Dataverse or SharePoint.
For this article, I created a SharePoint list , starting from template “Travel requests”. The Idea is create a mobile app to allow users create travel requests.
2. Build App
Let’s build 🙂 Go to https://make.powerapps.com/ , login with our account, on “Start on data”, click on “SharePoint”:
Then, choose “Connect Directly” (In my case , I use a list on SharePoint Online):
Click on “Create” button, and put url of SPO Site who host our list:
Click “Go” , then choose the list, click “connect” and wait….
Now? we have our app , ready to use or customize!
Our App, is ready to use with Add, edit, delete and search functions.
I spent more time to write this article then create app 🙂
In my opinion, this is the fastest way to create a Power Apps, If you don’t like it, you can use it as starting point to learn how to build and app, or to create a poc for your users or customer.
Customer’s often ask me: “What is Power Apps? What can I do with it?“
“Official” reply is : “Power Apps is a suite of apps, services, connectors and data platform that provides a rapid application development environment to build custom apps for your business needs. Using Power Apps, you can quickly build custom business apps that connect to your business data….” (Here official link)
In order to make it easier to understand, my reply is:
“With Power Apps, you can build applications without being developers, integrated with different services, usable through browsers, tablets and Android or iOS Smartphones.”
Does It appear cool? Yes it do 🙂
There are many other things you can do… for example the features of Mixed Reality, or AI Builder that allows you to take advantage of artificial intelligence to extract text from an image, perform sentiment analysis, process receipts etc…
I’ll write a series of tutorials that will bring you closer to this world with very little effort.
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