{"id":13298,"date":"2016-09-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-29T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/post\/office-365-powerapps-part-1\/"},"modified":"2021-12-15T00:13:19","modified_gmt":"2021-12-15T05:13:19","slug":"office-365-powerapps-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/blog\/office-365-powerapps-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Office 365 PowerApps Deep(ish) Dive \u2013 Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"
Instead of listing the functionalities, we help you build a PowerApp.<\/p>\n
Part one of a series<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Even though PowerApps is still in “Preview,” it continues to evolve at a rapid pace. A recent addition to the product: the ability to create PowerApps through the browser interface. While each version brings better functionality, I thought this would be a great time to do a bit of a deeper dive into some of the technical features of the product. I could certainly list out those functionalities, and provide a description, but that is completely boring. Just building a PowerApp would be much more fun!<\/p>\n So, let\u2019s jump right in with the following completely hypothetical<\/strong> requirements:<\/p>\n So,\u00a0let\u2019s say I have decided to quit technology altogether and open a chain of restaurants across the United States. I plan to offer decent food at ridiculously low prices, but also allow each restaurant to create their own menus based on a specific set of food items. However, each restaurant will use a new Menu Management PowerApp<\/em> to create and submit their menus to me for approval.<\/p>\n To store my data for the new Menu Management PowerApp, I\u2019m going to leverage SharePoint lists to store the data. Why use SharePoint for this?<\/p>\n So, with that, I have created a site in my SharePoint Online Tenant that will hold the lists I will use for this new PowerApp. I will initially create three lists that will house the data necessary for users to submit new menus for approval:<\/p>\n This list will contain necessary data for each Menu item that will be available for the users to select for their menu in the Menu Management PowerApp.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n I have added the following columns to my custom list:<\/p>\n This list will contain all of the captured values from the PowerApp for the submitted menu, as well as status information on the request.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n I have added the following custom items to my list:<\/p>\n I have populated these lists with some sample data as well. But enough with SharePoint for now, let\u2019s make a PowerApp!<\/p>\n So, as I prefaced at the beginning of the article, Microsoft is now offering an additional way to create PowerApps: through a browser-based GUI. From my current experience with both tools (browser and desktop), the functionality is extremely close as far as <\/a>the admin experience goes.<\/p>\n The desktop client does offer more out-of-the-box templates as of today, but that will change as the browser version matures. I\u2019m going to use the Universal App to create my PowerApp, but feel free to use whichever version you are more comfortable with, or the version that is compatible with your Operating system.<\/p>\n For this App, I am going to create a \u2018Blank App\u2019 with the \u2018Tablet Layout\u2019. Provides a little more real estate to help demonstrate functionality, also I use a Surface so it\u2019s easier to see and interact with when using Touch:<\/p>\n By default, you start a new PowerApp with a blank screen called \u2018Screen 1.’ Change the Screen name to \u2018Home\u2019 by clicking on the \u2018Screen1\u2019 button on the ribbon,\u00a0and then renaming it to \u2018Home.’<\/p>\n Since this will be the first screen that appears when the PowerApp is started, I\u2019m going to add a background\u00a0image, and some navigation buttons. As we add new screens, we\u2019ll wire up each button to allow navigation to occur when clicked.<\/p>\n To change the background image of this screen, just click the \u2018Screen\u2019 tab at the top of the ribbon, and then click background image -> add an\u00a0image file.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n I chose a picture that will help give our \u2018Menu Management\u2019 some flair. Also, I changed the image position\u00a0to \u2018Fill\u2019 to ensure the background covers the entire screen. (NOTE: Make sure your image files size is small and web optimized. This will help with load times.):<\/p>\nSharePoint Integration<\/h2>\n
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Menu Items<\/h2>\n
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Menu Form<\/h2>\n
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Create a new\u00a0PowerApp<\/h2>\n
Home Screen<\/h2>\n