Power App canvas apps are "low-code" business apps. And because they're low-code, app makers don't need iOS or Android app development experience. Even so, creating any app from scratch can feel daunting. Why? Because makers often look to other published apps for inspiration. Inherently, this isn't bad, but keep in mind that these apps are … Continue reading Power Apps: Deconstructing… LinkedIn
Power Apps
Power App: Consistent Screens (w/ Components)
Power App canvas apps aren't built like native mobile apps. Even so, these business apps can still be built to follow some common software engineering best practices. Likely one of the more popular development practices is reusability. Where possible, build with modularization in mind. Applying this approach to canvas apps, app makers can create consistent … Continue reading Power App: Consistent Screens (w/ Components)
Power Apps: Design | Nested Galleries
Power App canvas apps are extremely customizable. As makers build their business apps, they can connect to data from dozens of sources and output data records dynamically. An easy way to list these records, bind the data source to a gallery control: "A control that contains other controls and shows a set of data… A … Continue reading Power Apps: Design | Nested Galleries
Power Apps: Design | Hover Menu
Power App canvas app makers often need to build menus for their apps. To create a hover menu, without using a component, just add the necessary menu controls, then select and group them. Grouped elements have properties similar to every other screen control: Figure 1 - Power Apps screen with several controls. Figure 2 - … Continue reading Power Apps: Design | Hover Menu
Power Apps: Build a Game… !JeOpArDy
The Power Apps platform is great for building business solutions. Even so, does it have to be all for work? Luckily, it doesn't. Just as business apps are created, developers could build simple games, too. For instance, designing a "Jeopardy"-esque game... Getting started, this example uses Microsoft Excel as it's data source. The Excel file … Continue reading Power Apps: Build a Game… !JeOpArDy
Power Apps: Name Randomizer
The gift giving season is here. Keeping with the festivities, many organizations are hosting virtual raffles. There are plenty of online name randomizers available, but building and personalizing a Power App is also an option... The raffle names can pull from almost any data source, or sources, but for testing, these names are manually entered … Continue reading Power Apps: Name Randomizer
Power Apps: What If… Fusion Teams?
Many have forecasted a developer deficit for some time now. Whether or not the numbers are exaggerated, companies are looking for more and more qualified developers. This has become even more evident as every company is gradually becoming a tech company. Essentially, the specialized skills of computer scientists, software engineers, programmers, etc. are being outpaced … Continue reading Power Apps: What If… Fusion Teams?
Power Apps: Recreating… Twitter
At last, closing out the Power App recreation series. Kicking things off, the first app mocked up Instagram. Nothing fancy, but the app used two galleries populated from two Excel data sources. The second app roughly recreated Netflix and again, used two galleries and two Excel data sources. However, app #2 used the Filter() function … Continue reading Power Apps: Recreating… Twitter
Power Apps: Recreating… OneDrive Photos
As the series continues, there is a common element among the apps. At their core, many popular apps have gallery experiences. Even the OneDrive app could be created using a vertical gallery for its photo grid... Setting the app foundation, count the total number of images in the data source. The app displays three images … Continue reading Power Apps: Recreating… OneDrive Photos
Power Apps: Recreating… Office App
User-centered design should really be at the core of all app development. Functionality is essential, but a poorly designed interface can sink any app. With this in mind, more time should be invested in designing Power Apps... Next in the series, recreating the Office App with SharePoint Online as a data source: Figure 1 - … Continue reading Power Apps: Recreating… Office App
Power Apps: Recreating… Netflix
Second entry of this series, a rough mock-up for another Power App. The first recreation was an Intagram-esque app created using two galleries. Likely an oversimplification, but Netflix is also two galleries at its core; although the galleries are used differently. For this Power App, the horizontal gallery is nested within the vertical gallery: Figure … Continue reading Power Apps: Recreating… Netflix
Power Apps: Recreating… Instagram
Software Engineering is more than writing efficient and reusable code. An underutilized discipline of the field is user-centered design. This area of Software Engineering focuses more on building beautiful and intuitive interfaces. Unfortunately, I don't often see Power Apps with clear investments into their UIs. Though, with a bit of effort, Power Apps could easily … Continue reading Power Apps: Recreating… Instagram
Xamarin: Prototype w/ Power Apps
There are a LOT of Android and iOS apps. Probably fair to say that they are bountiful. But there is a toolset difference... Android apps are typically built using Java while iOS apps are typically written using Swift (or Objective-C). Because of this, distinct apps need to be created for their respective app stores. Unless … Continue reading Xamarin: Prototype w/ Power Apps
Power Platform x SharePoint – Approval Requests: Part II (Power Apps)
The Power Platform is a Microsoft offering of tools to help organizations meet challenges effectively. Among these tools, there are some notable standouts... Power Automate – Create automated business processes.Power Apps – Create custom forms and portals.Power BI – Create rich charts, graphs, etc. With their powers combined, one could easily build in-house solutions using … Continue reading Power Platform x SharePoint – Approval Requests: Part II (Power Apps)
Power Apps: SPO People Picker Properties
Migrating to [Azure Active Directory] has companies correcting their local [Active Directory] structures. Considering AD was so forgiving, best practices weren't always adhered to. But an enterprise offering like AAD enforces better practices. Silver lining, this is great for custom solutions because user properties are now more consistent... How it Started... I created an overly … Continue reading Power Apps: SPO People Picker Properties
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