The ask, rebuild a legacy VB.NET desktop application as a Power Platform solution. The app was written maybe 17 years ago, hasn't been updated, and is a media tracker app, like a personal IMDb. Because it was a personal solution, not an enterprise solution, its data was stored in a Microsoft Access database, so this … Continue reading Solution Rebuild: Part #1 | Database – Access to Dataverse (Extracting + Transforming)
Microsoft Excel
Power BI: Power Query | Import PDF Tables
Power Query is Microsoft's data transformation and presentation engine. Thanks to it, services like Microsoft Power BI can focus on data visualization and let Power Query ETL the disparate data sources instead. Though, highlighting one often overlooked data source, Power Query can actually ETL data from PDFs. Similar to importing data from a CSV, select … Continue reading Power BI: Power Query | Import PDF Tables
Power Query: Overview
The capabilities of the Power Platform wowed many organizations. Especially Power BI and its ability to extract, transform, and load (ETL) datasets from dozens of disparate data sources. At the same time, Microsoft Dataverse, the low-code data storage offering of the Power Platform, also supports ETL of disparate data sources. Though, this isn't unique to … Continue reading Power Query: Overview
Office Scripts: Generate Custom GUID(s)
Office Scripts in Excel is an automation alternative to Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). Macros are still recorded as a series of actions, but now, these steps are performed using TypeScript, which a superset language of JavaScript. Assuming everything is licensed and configured correctly, everyone should see an Automate tab along the top of their … Continue reading Office Scripts: Generate Custom GUID(s)
Programming Concepts: Conditional Logic | If-Then vs Switch
High-code isn't the friendliest to new developers. Still, there are some high-code concepts that even low-code and no-code developers should be aware of. One such concept is conditional logic. Generalizing the idea, conditional logic helps the code determine its next steps based on data input. Conditional logic is universal enough that it's also leveraged in … Continue reading Programming Concepts: Conditional Logic | If-Then vs Switch
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
MS Forms: Bulk Copy/ Paste Options
For today's mission, a request came in to use a Microsoft Form to receive training log submissions. Every team member is responsible for submitting their logs and time is measured in quarter hour increments. The big ask? Can the dropdown values span from 0.25 to 40? Yes, but typing that many options is needlessly time … Continue reading MS Forms: Bulk Copy/ Paste Options
MS Lists: Mail Merge Data Source
Mail merge is still a thing. Why? Because after all these years, it continues to get the job done. But with more businesses using Microsoft Lists, can mail merge still do its job? The short answer, yes. However, Microsoft Word can't connect to Microsoft Lists directly. If we open the mail merge data source dropdown, … Continue reading MS Lists: Mail Merge Data Source
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
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