Build Your First Power Apps Application

Power Apps is, fundamentally, a development platform for mobile and web apps. It allows “citizen developers” to reach capabilities that were once only reserved for high-end development tools by enabling low to no code custom application creation.

Introduction

Microsoft Power Platform is a visionary product from Microsoft to enable workers across industries to create high quality business applications and enhance organization prospects. 

The Power Platform comprises 4 members in its family.  

1. Power Apps  
2. Power Automate  
3. Power BI 
4. Power Virtual Agents. 

But the scope of this blog post is to explore Power Apps and its types in a detailed manner so that even if you are not a hardcore programmer you should attain the skills to develop your own business apps.

With Power Apps, which is a low-code/no-code platform, you can create 3 broad types of Apps: 

• Model-Driven Apps 
• Canvas Apps 
• Portals 

Step-by-Step Guide Canvas Apps: A Bird’s Eye View

Working on Canvas Apps has the following prerequisites: 

1. You want to use any external data source for your app (SharePoint, OneDrive, SQL Server, Azure Storage, etc.) 
2. You want full control over the UI/UX design. 
3. You want to use external connectors that help you connect to applications like Twitter, Facebook, etc. 

Technical Know-How Aspects of Canvas Apps 

Some of the key terms that you can come across while making a canvas app – Screens, Input controls, Labels, Gallery control, Media controls, Buttons, Functions, Properties, components and so on. 

As a starter pack, you have access to a bunch of templates that can be re-used to quickly build a new canvas application with your own data. It is recommended to explore the templates before starting a new app from blank as it can save a lot of time and effort. 

Step-by-Step Guide Working on Canvas Applications

You can follow the steps mentioned below to get started and make your first canvas application. 

Navigate to https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/ and Start a free trial. 

To have an organization/school account, try creating an Office 365 E3 trial account or a D365 trial account. 

Upon successfully signing up, visit https://web.powerapps.com/ 

Click on Settings -> Advance Settings or visit https://admin.powerapps.com/. 

Create a new trial Environment or use an existing environment. 

Click on the +Create option to start creating an app. 

You can choose to start with a Mobile or a Tablet layout. 

You can also explore the templates on this page. 

Follow this link to create your first canvas app. 

Congratulations for successfully creating your first Power Apps!!!