What this book covers
Chapter 1, Understanding Requirements and Project Planning, introduces the overall concept of planning your overall Power App development. Proper planning is an integral part of ensuring a successful outcome.
Chapter 2, Working with Solutions, discusses the concept of creating and using solutions within the Power Platform. Solutions are crucial for managing, packaging, and deploying changes across different environments.
Chapter 3, Power Platform Environments, explores Power Platform environments, how they are created, and how they can be effectively deployed. Understanding how environments are used is also important in overall app governance and security which are covered in Chapter 13.
Chapter 4, Choosing the Right Tool – Navigating Canvas Apps, Power Pages, and Model-Driven Apps, discusses the different types of apps within Power Apps including canvas apps, model-driven apps, and Power Pages. In this chapter, we explore the different uses of each type.
Chapter 5, Data Connections, explores different data connections that be used as you build out your Power Apps. We cover three of the most popular data connections including Excel, SharePoint, and Dataverse.
Chapter 6, Variables, Collections, and Data Filtering, discusses three fundamental areas within Power Apps. Variables and collections are used to temporarily store data and are essential in building more complex apps. Furthermore, we’ll discuss data filtering to refine the data.
Chapter 7, Canvas App Formulas, continues discussing key functions within Power Apps. In this chapter, we cover important functions around form submission and app navigation. In addition, we cover how to connect a form to a Dataverse table.
Chapter 8, Conditional Formatting and URL Deep Linking, discusses two common capabilities that enrich user interaction. First, we cover how to use and apply conditional formatting within your app. We then cover URL deep linking which allows you to create hyperlinks taking users directly to your app. Both concepts can enhance the overall user experience and the user interface.
Chapter 9, Integration with Power Automate/Teams/Outlook, shows how Power Apps can be integrated with Power Automate, Teams, and Outlook to add additional functionality. We cover sending Outlook emails and calendar invites using Power Automate. In addition, we show how you can also use Power Automate to send Teams notifications using adaptive cards.
Chapter 10, Integration with Power BI, shows how you can integrate Power BI dashboards and reports into your Power Apps. In addition, we show how you can integrate a Power App into a Power BI report.
Chapter 11, Integrating Power Apps with SharePoint, shows how you can integrate Power BI with SharePoint. This includes embedding Power Apps into a SharePoint site, creating custom SharePoint list forms, and also covering the SharePointIntegration component.
Chapter 12, Integration with Power Virtual Agents/CoPilot, introduces Microsoft Copilot Studio and Copilot which allows you to integrate AI. Microsoft Copilot Studio allows you to create virtual chatbots while Copilot leverages AI to assist in app creation.
Chapter 13, Governance, Security, and Application Life Cycle Management, covers key areas important to the Power Apps area. We discuss how to establish a Power Platform environment strategy, discuss the use of service accounts, and how to set up data policies to support Data Loss Prevention (DLP). Finally, we will introduce the concept of Application Lifecycle Management (ALM).
Chapter 14, Error Handling, discusses approaches to handling errors within your app. This includes understanding an overview of error handling, using built-in functions in your app, using the OnError app property, and creating custom error messages.
Chapter 15, Registering a Power App in Azure, closes out the book by showing how you register an app in Azure. This includes understanding the importance of registering an app in Azure, how to register your app, and finally when to add the Azure app ID, client ID, and secret ID within Power Apps.
