Minimum Path to Awesomeness

Power Platform is a low-code platform that enables you to create solutions that automate workflows, build apps, analyze data, and create bots. Power Platform consists of four main tools: Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, and Power Virtual Agents. Power Platform can help you improve your productivity, efficiency, and innovation by enabling you to build solutions that suit your specific needs and scenarios. However, to get the most out of Power Platform, you need to have a strategy for adopting and supporting it in your organization. This is where Power Platform COE comes in. Power Platform COE, or Center of Excellence, is a collection of tools and templates that are designed to help you develop a strategy for adopting and supporting Power Platform in your organization. Power Platform COE helps you plan, govern, and nurture Power Platform adoption and innovation, while maintaining standards, consistency, and governance. Power Platform COE can help you achieve the following benefits:

But did you know that there are two types of apps you can create with Power Apps? They are called canvas apps and model-driven apps, and they have different strengths and limitations. In this blog, we will compare and contrast these two types of apps and help you decide which one is best for your scenario. What are canvas apps? Canvas apps are apps that start with a blank canvas, like an artist’s canvas, and you can design the user interface by dragging and dropping controls, such as buttons, labels, galleries, forms, and charts. You can connect to various data sources, such as SharePoint, Excel, SQL Server, or Microsoft Dataverse, using connectors. You can also add logic and expressions to make your app interactive and dynamic. Canvas apps are good for creating pixel-perfect, customized user experiences that work across different devices, such as phones, tablets, and PCs. What are model-driven apps? Model-driven apps are apps that are based on the data model and business logic defined

Power Apps, with its ability to seamlessly create custom business solutions, has revolutionized the way businesses operate. However, like all tools, there might be instances where an app doesn't function as expected. Enter Power Apps Monitor—a tool to save the day! Coupled with the Trace function, it becomes a formidable duo in troubleshooting issues in Power Apps. Here's how to wield this combination effectively. Power Apps Monitor: A Quick Overview Power Apps Monitor is your go-to tool for real-time insights into the workings of your app. It displays events such as network calls, variable tweaks, and control interactions, making it simpler to pinpoint where things might be going awry. Introducing Trace: Your Custom Logger The Trace function is essentially a custom messaging system that feeds into the Power Apps Monitor. By strategically placing this function in your app, you can monitor the app's flow and easily spot problematic areas. Step-by-Step Troubleshooting with Po

Welcome back, fellow Power Apps enthusiasts and developers! Today we're diving deep into the fascinating world of Power Apps and exploring some of its key components: variables, named formulas, and collections. Each of these tools plays a crucial role in creating dynamic, intuitive apps - but the key to unlocking their potential lies in understanding when and how to use them.  A Crash Course on Variables, Named Formulas, and Collections Before we discuss when to use these tools, let's briefly define what each of them does. Variables are the simplest of the three. They're essentially containers that store a single value. These values could be anything - a number, a string of text, or a Boolean value (true/false). Variables are extremely useful for storing temporary data, like the number of times a user has interacted with a button or the result of a specific calculation.  Named formula s are the next level up. They're an advanced form of variables, with the capability

In the Power Platform universe, both SharePoint and Dataverse are significant players when it comes to data storage and management. But when should you use each of these as your data source? Let's delve into their pros and cons to get a clear picture. SharePoint Pros SharePoint is an excellent choice for document management and collaboration. It is already integrated with other Office 365 services, providing seamless interoperability. It's easier to set up and manage compared to Dataverse. It offers a user-friendly and intuitive interface for non-technical users. Cons SharePoint isn't designed for large-scale relational data storage. It may not provide the best performance for complex or large data scenarios. Its querying capabilities are limited compared to Dataverse.

If you're a Power Apps user, you've likely encountered situations where you needed to manage large data sets or complex data operations. To ensure smooth and efficient performance, Power Apps relies heavily on the concept of delegation. Although delegation can seem daunting initially, understanding and managing it effectively can significantly improve your app performance and user experience. Understanding Delegation in Power Apps Before diving into how to handle delegation, it's crucial to comprehend what it means in the context of Power Apps. Delegation is the method Power Apps employs to retrieve and manage data. Instead of fetching all the data at once and operating on it locally, Power Apps instructs the data source to perform operations such as filtering, sorting, or aggregation. The data source then sends back only the relevant data. The primary reason for this approach is to efficiently handle large amounts of data, keeping the app responsive and performing well. Wi

Since I blog about this, I need to tell you how to do this right; otherwise, you might end up facing the same hiccups that I initially did. Today, I will guide you on how to set up Azure Application Insights with Power Apps, Microsoft's fantastic low-code platform for building business applications.  Step 1: Create Your Azure Application Insights Resource  Before we can integrate Power Apps with Azure Application Insights, we first need an Application Insights resource to connect to. 1. Sign in to the Azure portal : Navigate to  https://portal.azure.com/ and sign in with your Microsoft account. 2. Create a new Application Insights resource : In the Azure portal, select "Create a resource" from the left-hand navigation. In the "New" window, search for "Application Insights". Click on it and then select "Create". 3. Configure your Application Insights resource : In the "Create Application Insights" window, enter the details for your

Choosing the best platform for your business process needs can be daunting, especially when there are so many good options. Microsoft has revolutionized the way organizations streamline their processes with powerful platforms like SharePoint and Power Apps. In this blog post, we are going to delve into the key differences between SharePoint Custom Forms and Power Apps and shed some light on when it would be appropriate to use one over the other. What is SharePoint Custom Form? SharePoint is a robust and comprehensive collaboration platform that allows businesses to create, manage and share content effectively. A crucial feature of SharePoint is its ability to create custom forms. SharePoint Custom Forms allow users to design, build, and manage web-based forms on their SharePoint site. These forms can be used to capture and manage data within the SharePoint environment. The forms can be customized using SharePoint Designer or third-party tools like InfoPath (please note that Microsoft s

Power Apps have become a ubiquitous tool in the world of app development, empowering anyone to build user-friendly applications with little to no coding experience. But as the adage goes, with great power comes great responsibility, and that responsibility is ensuring your Power Apps perform optimally for all users. This is where Azure Application Insights comes in. Azure Application Insights, part of the Azure Monitor suite, is an extensible application performance management (APM) service for developers and DevOps professionals. It offers real-time, actionable insights into how your Power App is performing and where it can be optimized for a better user experience.  Pinpoint and Diagnose Issues Quickly Having issues with your Power App but not sure where they're coming from? Azure Application Insights has you covered. The platform provides automatic collection and detailed analysis of application telemetry data. In plain English, it monitors your app around the clock, instantly a

Hello, world! Welcome to the inaugural post of our new Power Platform blog, your ultimate resource for everything concerning Microsoft's Power Platform. As the world revolves around an evolving digital sphere, the role of technology as a catalyst to transform businesses is more paramount than ever. This blog is dedicated to exploring and celebrating that power, specifically via Microsoft's Power Platform. What is Power Platform? For the uninitiated, Microsoft's Power Platform is a suite of business applications that allows individuals, teams, and organizations to analyze data, build solutions, automate processes, and create virtual agents. It encompasses Power BI for data analytics, Power Apps for app development, Power Automate for process automation, and Power Virtual Agents for creating chatbots. In essence, it's an amalgamation of tools designed to empower everyone, from the non-technical business user to the professional developer, to work more effectively. Why a P