PL-100 Microsoft Power Platform App Maker

PL-100: Microsoft Power Platform App Maker @NanddeepNachan | @SmitaNachan
PL-100
Microsoft Power Platform
App Maker

NanddeepNachan@gmail.com
/in/nanddeepnachan
@NanddeepNachan
Consultant - SharePoint, Office 365, MS Azure
Speaker | Author | Blogger
https://www.nanddeepnachan
blogs.com
Nanddeep Nachan

Smita Nachan
Smita.Nachan@gmail.com
/in/SmitaNachan
@SmitaNachan
Lead Software Engineer, TietoEVRY
Speaker | Author
Smita Nachan

Agenda

Exam Overview

• Create a canvas app in Power Apps
• Introduction to Power Apps
• Create and customize an app
• Manage and distribute it
• Use the UI and controls in a canvas app in Power Apps
• Provide the best app navigation
• Build the best UI using themes, icons, images, personalization, different form factors, and controls.
• Create a model-driven application in Power Apps
• Create a model-driven app in Power Apps that uses Common Data Service.
• Automate a business process using Power Automate
• Build and administer workflows.
• Create and use analytics reports with Power BI
• Introduction to Power BI, including its building blocks and how they work together.
• AI Builder
• Build an AI model and use it in your business without writing a single line of code.
PL-100 Outline

Types of questions
• Single choice
• Multiple choice
• Drag and drop
• Scenario based Yes / No
• Case Study
Best way to prepare
Microsoft Learn Modules:
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/pl-100
• Presentation content is based on above MS Learn modules

Image source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/data-platform/data-platform-intro
The low-code platform that spans Office 365, Azure, Dynamics 365, and standalone applications

Create a canvas app
in Power Apps

• Rapid low code development environment for building custom apps
• Enables the creation of web and mobile applications that run on all devices.
• Business users or pro developers can build custom apps, when out of the box
solutions do not meet exact business needs.
Introduction to Power Apps
Image source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/get-started-with-powerapps/1-powerapps-introduction

• Power Apps Home Page
• Start building Apps from data, a sample app, or a blank screen.
• Power Apps Studio
• Develop your apps further by connecting to data, adding and arranging user interface (UI)
elements (known as controls), and building formulas.
• Power Apps Mobile
• Run your apps on Microsoft Windows, Apple iOS, and Google Android devices.
• Power Apps Admin Center
• Manage Power Apps environments and other components.
Power Apps building blocks

Demo
Create your first
app in Power Apps

• Create an app from a template
• Create an app from a data source
• Special data source (SharePoint)
• Build from a blank canvas
Ways to build Power Apps

Data sources, connections, and gateways
Image source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/get-started-with-powerapps/3-powerapps-related-technologies

Microsoft Dataverse
Store and manage data within a set of tables.
Benefits of using Microsoft Dataverse:
• Simple to manage
• Secure data
• Access data from Dynamics 365
• Rich metadata
• Logic and validation
• Productivity tools

Designing a Power Apps app
Design process:
• Business requirements
• Data Model
• User Experience (UX)
• User Interface (UI)

Summary
• Use Power Apps Studio (make.powerapps.com) to create and share your Apps.
• Use Power Apps Admin Center to administer your apps
• Connect to related technologies - Microsoft Dataverse, Power Automate,
Microsoft SharePoint, and other data sources.
• Create an app by using several different methods (from template, data source,
or blank canvas)

Use the UI and controls in a
canvas app in Power Apps

Navigation
• Why navigation?
• Navigate function
• Navigate(Screen, ScreenTransition [, UpdateContextRecord ])
• Back function
• Hidden screens
Name of screen to display
Visual transition (optional) updates context
variables of the new screen

Demo
Create navigation
and back functions

Build the UI in a canvas app
in Power Apps

Themes
Image source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/how-to-build-ui-canvas-app/1-use-themes

Branding a control
• Typical properties
• BorderColor
• BorderStyle
• Color
• Fill
• Disabled properties
• DisabledColor
• DisabledFill
• Hover properties
• HoverColor
• HoverFill

Icons
Image source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/how-to-build-ui-canvas-app/3-icons

Personalization
• User() function
• User().Email
• User().FullName
• User().Image
Image source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/how-to-build-ui-canvas-app/5-personalization

Demo
Create UI for a new
canvas app

Controls in a canvas app
in Power Apps

Introduction to controls
• Galleries
• Data table
• Forms
• Media
• Charts
• Icons

Demo
Create a canvas app
with unique controls

Document and test your
Power Apps application

Test Plans
Image source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/document-test-powerapps-app/01-create-test-plans

Imperative development
techniques for canvas
apps in Power Apps

Imperative versus declarative development
Imperative
Function Create Sandwich
{ Go to kitchen;
Get ingredients;
Remove tomato;
Assemble sandwich;}
Function Send Sandwich
{ Destination Mouth;}
Declarative
GetSandwich(Kitchen, Mouth)
GetSandwich(Kitchen, Mouth, {Tomato: false})

• Global variables
• Set(varUserDisplayName, User().FullName)
• Context variables
• UpdateContext({varShowPopUp: true})
• Collections
• Collect(collectProjects, Projects)
• Dynamic Collections
• Collect(collectColors, {Name: "Shane", FavoriteColor: "Orange"}, {Name: "Mary",
FavoriteColor: "Blue"})
Variables in Power Apps

Demo
Using the variables
and collections

Performance of an app

• Data sources
• Too many refreshes
• Too many lookups
• Storing data in the wrong data source
Most common performance bottleneck

• Use collections to cache data
• Delegation
• Concurrent function to load multiple data sources
Improve performance with data sources

Demo
Using the Concurrent
function to test performance

Create a model-driven
application in Power Apps

• Foundational data source of Microsoft Power Platform
• Data is stored in tables
Benefits:
• Simple to manage
• Helps secure your data
• Access your Dynamics 365 data
• Rich metadata
• Logic and validation
• Productivity tools
Introduction to Microsoft Dataverse

• Component-focused approach
Benefits:
• Rich component-focused, no-code design environments
• An ability to create complex responsive apps with a similar UI across a
variety of devices from desktop to mobile
• Robust design capability
• Apps can be distributed as a solution
Introduction to model-driven apps

• Tables from Microsoft Dataverse as your building blocks
• Modeling business data
• Defining business processes
• Composing the app
Microsoft Dataverse and model-driven apps

Create tables in Dataverse

• When to use standard / custom tables
• Table relationships
• One-to-many relationships (1:N)
• Many-to-many relationships (N:N)
• N:1 => 1:N
• Table owners
• User or team owned
• Organization-owned
• Business Rules
Table characteristics

Demo
Create a custom table
and import data

Model-driven apps in
Power Apps

• Model your business data
• Define your business processes
• Build the app
Design Phases

• Data
• Table
• Column
• Relationship
• Choice column
• Logic
• Business process flow
• Workflow
• Actions
• Business rule
• Flows
Building blocks
• User Interface
• App
• Site map
• Form
• View
• Visualization
• Chart
• Dashboard
• Embedded Microsoft
Power BI

Demo
Create a
model-driven app

• Create a custom security role.
• Assign users to the custom security role.
• Assign the security role to an app.
Control security when sharing model-driven apps

Get started with
Power Automate

Introduction to Power Automate
Image source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/get-started-flows/1-introduction

A brief tour of Power Automate

Demo
Create your first
flow

Power Automate Desktop flow

Software installation

Explore Power Automate Desktop
Image source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/build-first-desktop-flow/3-get-familiar-power-automate-desktop

Demo
Create your first Power
Automate Desktop flow

Use the Admin center to manage
environments and data policies
in Power Automate

Export and import flows

Use AI Builder in
Power Automate

AI Builder usage in Power Automate
Image source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/ai-builder-power-automate/1-introduction

• Invoice processing
• Analyze email sentiment
Use Cases

Demo
Use AI Builder actions
in Power Automate

Bring AI to your
business with AI Builder

• Improve your business performance by automating processes and
predicting outcomes.
• With AI Builder, you can:
• Analyze text for classification, key phrases, language, and sentiment.
• Predict whether something will happen.
• Process business card information.
• Process text from images.
• Read and save information from standard documents.
• Recognize and count items in images.
AI Builder Overview

Demo
- Category classification
- Object detection
- Business card reader
- Receipt processing
- Text Recognition

Power BI

Introduction to Power BI
Image source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/get-started-with-power-bi/1-introduction

The parts of Power BI
Image source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/get-started-with-power-bi/1-introduction

• Visualizations
• Datasets
• Reports
• Dashboards
• Tiles
Building blocks of Power BI

Get data with
Power BI Desktop

Power BI Desktop
Image source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/get-data-power-bi/1-overview-power-bi-desktop
Download the Financial Sample Excel workbook for Power BI
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/create-reports/sample-financial-download

Report building environment
Image source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/get-data-power-bi/2-getting-started-power-bi-desktop

Connect to data
Image source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/get-data-power-bi/3-connect-data-sources-power-bi-desktop

Demo
Create Power BI
Report

Introduction to Power BI service
Image source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/explore-data-power-bi/1-introduction-power-bi-service

Workspaces
Image source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/publish-share-power-bi/1-introduction-content-packs

Secure and govern
environments

Microsoft Power Platform environments
Image source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/security-governance-intro/2-environments

Data Loss Prevention policies
Image source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/security-governance-intro/3-data-loss-prevention

Demo
Create an Microsoft 365
environment-specific
Data Loss Prevention policy

Center of Excellence

Building blocks
Core components
Governance components
Nurture components

Standalone add-ons
Theming components
Application lifecycle management components
Innovation Backlog components

Demo
CoE Starter Kit

• Certification
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/pl-100
• Microsoft Learn Path
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/paths/power-plat-fundamentals/
References

Thank You!
@NanddeepNachan
/in/NanddeepNachan
Nanddeep Nachan
@SmitaNachan
/in/SmitaNachan
Smita Nachan

PL-100 Microsoft Power Platform App Maker

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