Presentation slides from the New Zealand Digital Workplace Conference 2017. Introducing of Microsoft Office 365 PowerApps and Flow. #DWCNZ

1. Building Your Own Solution
with Power Apps and Flow
Steve Knutson
2017

2. About me
Managing Director of Stratos Technology Partners
Microsoft MVP for Office Servers & Services
25+ years IT industry experience
Mountain biker and climber
One-eyed Cantabrian
@nztechtweet
www.stp.co.nz

3. Agenda
 Overview of Flow
 Security and Policies
 Flow Demo
 Overview of PowerApps
 PowerApps Demo
 Advanced features
 Coming soon
 Q&A

4. Forms and Workflow
 SharePoint Designer 2013 &
InfoPath 2013
 Supported until 2026, but no
new versions will be released
 Poor mobile support
 Limited integration
 Still has some life left…
• Microsoft PowerApps, Flow
and Office 365
• Cloud and mobile first
• Extensive Integration
• Not just for SharePoint
• Not just Microsoft
• New capabilities coming (fast)

5. Office 365

6. Microsoft Flow

7. Connector Trigger Action

8. Service Connectors

9. Security
 All actions are performed in the context of the logged in user
 Users can only see items they already have permission to see in
SharePoint (security trimmed)
 Permissions are managed by the system being integrated with
e.g. SharePoint, Dynamics 365, Facebook, Wordpress etc
[?] Question: Can you use impersonation (like SPD)?

10. Policies
 Policies can be added to control where your data flows to.
 You can configure ‘compliance boundaries’. For example:
‒ Prevent users creating Flows that Tweet, Instagram or Facebook 
‒ Prevent updates to Slack (but allow Teams)
 Managed via the Flow and PowerApps Admin Portals in Office
365
[#] TIP: Check the default policy makes sense!

11. Building a Tweet Catcher

12. Document Email Notifications

13. Dynamics 365 to SharePoint
When a new record is created in
Dynamics 365 (CRM), create a new
item in a SharePoint list and
populate with fields from the new
record

14. Flow possibilities (a few examples)
 Generate a PDF version of a document
 Pull timesheet data from Harvest into a SharePoint list for project
management
 Capture Twitter data to listen to the community
 Copy files from OneDrive or Dropbox to SharePoint (or vice versa)
 Send an email when new items are added to a list
 Create a SharePoint list item when a new entity is created in CRM
 Create a SharePoint list item when someone subscribes to Mailchimp
[#] TIP: Check the SharePoint Templates list for new actions
• Generate a PDF version of a document
• Capture Twitter data to listen to the community
• Copy files from OneDrive or Dropbox to SharePoint (or vice versa)
• Create a SharePoint list item when a new entity is created in
Dynamics 365
• Create a SharePoint list item when someone subscribes to Mailchimp
• Pull timesheet data from Harvest into a SharePoint list
• Draft blog posts in SharePoint and post to Wordpress
• FTP documents to a web site
• Approvals

15. PowerApps turn your expertise
into custom applications

16. Use PowerApps when
 You have time consuming manual processes
 You can’t find off the shelf apps or services to meet you needs
 You don’t have the budget to develop a custom mobile app
 You have a short timeframe to create a solution

17. PowerApps help you solve your unique business problem, without
needing a huge developer budget and long lead times.
PowerApps and SharePoint
 Connect to your data:
‒ SharePoint Lists
‒ Dynamics 365
‒ SQL
‒ Excel
‒ And more…
 Build Apps for the Web and Mobile devices.
 Use your devices features including camera and GPS
 No Code Required!

18. Building a simple mobile app with PowerApps

19. Demo app
Create a list Create an app

20. PowerApp Designer
From here you can
• Change field order and
properties
• Add controls
• Add images
• Add data sources
• etc

21. Advanced
feature:
Sometime you do need a
rocket scientist

22. Advanced capabilities
 Common Data Service
‒ A prebuild data model and service provided by Microsoft
‒ Saves time and provides consistency
‒ Supported by PowerApps, Flow and PowerBI
 Entity Control Form (preview)
‒ View, navigate and edit relational data from the Common Data Service
 Azure Functions for Common Data Service (preview)
‒ Combine data across services
‒ Add more advanced logic
‒ Pay as you go usage

24. SharePoint Virtual Summit Announcements
 Rich Forms embedded in SharePoint lists
‒ Conditional field display
‒ Display additional info from other data sources e.g. maps, weather,
Dynamics365, etc
‒ Different control types e.g. sliders, drop downs
‒ Connect Flows to buttons (actions)
 Embed PowerApps in SharePoint pages
‒ Provide seamless access to your PowerApps
‒ Mix with other web-parts and page content (Modern pages)

26. Bringing it all together

27. Feature Pack 2 for SharePoint 2016 includes
support for Flow and PowerApps
Available later this year

28. Summary
 InfoPath and SharePoint Designer are now legacy technologies
 Flow and PowerApps are the next generation
 Build integrated web and mobile without code
 SharePoint integration for cloud and on-premise
 Policies and security trimming are baked in
 You’ll need to think different
 New features coming. Fast!

29. Questions and Answers
 Steve Knutson
 Microsoft MVP for Office Servers and Services
 SharePoint Consultant
 @nztechtweet
 steve@stp.co.nz
 www.stp.co.nz

30. Resources
 https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/build-advanced-flows/
 https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/guided-
learning/learning-common-data-service/
 https://powerapps.microsoft.com/hr-hr/blog/preview-of-azure-
functions-for-the-common-data-service/
 https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/new-entity-form-
control-experimental-feature-for-common-data-service/

31. Thank
you
to our
sponsors!