Author Archives: Rory Neary

live build : make a mars rover Power app using dataverse for Teams : 17th March 6pm

Mars Rover Perseverence

The Mars Rover “Perseverence” landed on Mars on 18th February 2021 and in the live session coming up we’re going to use Power Platform tech to create a slideshow of images to music.

Build from Blank

We going to build an app from blank which will allow us to create a cool slideshow to music, all about the Mars Rover.  
If you have teams you can do all the things we cover whilst we are together
During the session we will
– Create a Team
– Create a data table
– Create a Power App
– Create a Cloud Flow
– Populate a table using audiene submissions in Microsoft Forms

Registration

When : 17 March 2021 Wednesday, 5:55 PM GMT

Register for the site here
https://powerplatformlearn.newzenler.com/register

Then book a spot here

https://powerplatformlearn.newzenler.com/live-class/mars-rover-app/register

Hope to see you there,

Rory Neary MVP MCT ACA

Twitter: @azurerory
LinkedIn – leave a message if you would like to connect: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roryneary/  

https://www.powerplatformlearn.academy

What is Microsoft Power Fx? An easy 10 minute Guide

Microsoft Power FX

Power FX has been around for longer than you think. Since Canvas Apps were first introduced in 2016, it has been possible to create them using the in built expression language. Everyone creating them learned the language simply by investigating the functionality, referring to the Microsoft Documentation and the various YouTube channels, Courses and Blogs that sprung up on the back of it.

At that time Power Automate was called Flow, Power Virtual Agents didn’t exists and Power BI was still in it’s infancy.

What’s different now and why is it important?

The expression language now has been given a name, and the name is Power FX. This is important among other things because content will be a little easier to find, but also because of what it means for the plaform. The future of Power FX is that wherever there exists a part of the Power Platform that doesn’t already have a native language then Power FX will become the go-to language of choice.

What this fundamentally means is that learning this language will become essential to learning the Power Platform.

Power FX is a Part of the Power Platform
Power FX is a Part of the Power Platform
The video version of Events

If you’re into videos, as I am then you may wish to take a look at this as I’ll take you through the same guide, only you don’t have to do quite so much reading!

Learn more about Power FX here!
Closely Related to Excel

The structure of the way in which you work with functions in Power FX is very similar to the way in which you would work with excel. Let’s take a basic If statement in both languages.

Excel:-
=IF(B3="Apples",1,2)
Power Apps:-
if(myDropdown.Selected.Value = "Apples",1,2)

As you can see from a structure perspective there is very little difference between the two of them. In the first instance in Excel we look at cell B3 and if it contains the word “Apples” then we will return a 1, otherwise it’s a 2.

In PowerApps, we’re doing something similar, only we are looking at the selected item in a dropdown. In this case if it reads “Apples” then a 1 is returned, otherwise a 2 will be returned.

As well as the above the ideas around working with text is very similar

Excel:-
="Hello " & "World" returns Hello World

Power FX
"Hello " & "World" returns Hello World

If you look for the functions around text they are almost identical.


No compiling required

There are lots of reasons why Excel is successful, and one of them is because there is no “compile” operation. You enter the formula and then you get an immediate response. Power FX is the same, and this is great as if you make a mistake you get to find out about it straight away.

In the case of Power FX you’ll also have the ability to navigate directly to the error that you’ve made.


Declarative Logic

The concept of declarative Logic and no compiling are closely linked – when you want to find out why an object is of a certain color, or has a particular piece of text showing all you need to do is to go to the object itself, find the relevant property and this will tell you.


Imperative Logic

It is the Imperative Logic in Power Apps and Power FX that really makes it special – essentially this means that we can click on a button and tell it to do something. Examples of Imperative functions are:-

  • Navigate – to move between screens
  • Reset – to reset a control
  • Refresh – to refresh a data source
  • Collect – to push data into an in memory table
  • SubmitForm – to submit a form
  • Patch – to send data to a data source

Dot notation

The dot notation allows us to navigate through the properties of an object. This could be as simple as

Button1.Fill

Which returns to us a color property, which we might want to use elsewhere. But we can extract many many propertties from our objects, and these depend on the object themselves.

Here are some more examples

  • Gallery1.Selected – returns an entire record
  • Gallery1.Selected.Title – returns the value in the Title field
  • TextBox1.Text – returns the text entered into a text box, and this is important as if we wish to make use of it in a patch statement to create a new record then this is the expression that we would need.

Coming to the Power Platform

This is the really BIG news. Power FX won’t be residing only in Power Apps for much longer and the intention of Microsoft is for it to fill areas of the Power Platform where the language is less well developed. At this stage we’re aware that it will be coming to :-

  • Dynamics/Dataverse calculated columns
  • Power Virtual Agents
  • Power Automate
  • Portals
Other languages remain

There are other languages in the Power Platform ecosystem and these are likely to remain as they are. These are

  • DAX – Data Analysis Expressions used in Power BI
  • M, or Power Query – Used for Extract Transform and Load activities
How to Learn More

Aside from going through Microsoft Documentation, the Microsoft Announcement and the various YouTube channels you can dive into this free course. If you already know Power Apps that just fine – you can head to the Module on Objects, or Functions. Roughly 150 of the 200 demos build from blank and have a Power FX element to them.


So what’s next?

We’re now in the watch this space moment and we’ll get more details on how this will roll out. I would expect that the programme in total will be measured in years, however we may see some changes inthe coming months. Overall the message is this – If you want to be successful with the Power Platform then Power FX needs to be in your kitbag.

Good luck!

Power Apps Patch is easy – Day 6 Person fields

Today’s learning on Patch is important as it relates to Person fields which are more similar than you might think. They are highly relevant to Patching to Sharepoint lists as they help us to maintain the ties to related lists.

Structure for Patching to a Person Field

The basic structure for patching to a person field is as follows – where cmbOwner is a combo box where a user is selected:-

Patch(
    List, 
    Defaults(List),
    {
      Title: "New Title Value",  
      Person: {
            Claims: cmbOwner.Selected.Claims,
            Department: cmbOwner.Selected.Department,
            DisplayName: cmbOwner.Selected.DisplayName,
            Email: cmbOwner.Selected.Email,
            JobTitle: cmbOwner.Selected.JobTitle,
            Picture: cmbOwner.Selected.Picture
        }
   }
)
How to use a person field in Power Apps
How to get to the course content

If you’ve signed up for the course you can head directly to the video here.

https://www.powerplatformlearn.academy/courses/microsoft-power-apps-from-zero-to-hero/contents/6015776063330

Check out this post to confirm how to sign up for the course.

https://powerplatformlearn.com/2021/02/14/7-days-of-power-apps-patch/

Check out the other posts in this series
Lookup and choice fields


https://powerplatformlearn.com/2021/02/24/7-days-of-power-apps-patch-day-5-lookup-and-choice-fields/


Date and time fields


https://powerplatformlearn.com/2021/02/19/7-days-of-power-apps-patch-day-4/

Power Automate and Yes/No fields


https://powerplatformlearn.com/2021/02/17/7-days-of-power-apps-patch-day-3/

Editing Items and working with Text and Numeric fields


https://powerplatformlearn.com/2021/02/16/7-days-of-power-apps-patch-day-2/

Introduction, JSON and Patching your first Item


https://powerplatformlearn.com/2021/02/16/7-days-of-power-apps-patch-day-1/

Scottish Summit 2021 – Getting the most out of it

Scottish Summit is just around the corner. But how do you get the most out of the 365 sessions that will be on? Here’s a little guide.

Signing up for the event
Signing up to the Scottish Summit

From the home page at https://scottishsummit.com/ you need to head to “Watch Live”

Scottish Summit Home Page

You’ll then be prompted to choose a password if you’ve not done so already. You’re now in the hub of the event.

Signing up for a session
  • Head to the Schedule
  • Go to the Gallery view
  • Select the date you are interested in
  • Hit the filter buttons
  • DESELECT Show All
  • Select the track you are interested in – I chose Power Apps
  • Select the session
  • Add to your schedule

I’m presenting with Pieter Veenstra at 11:00 am in Prestwick on PowerApps4Kids.com Lessons Learned from Teaching Children. A direct link to the session can be found here https://eventmobi.com/ss2021/agenda/021f9132-738f-4b5e-b7f2-8ad6d993abb6/ce3a59fd-9b11-4698-acc5-75d3ec409b3b

If you would like to learn more about Power Apps – why not head to the Free courses at www.powerplatformlearn.academy – we have courses for children and for adults. Hope to see you there some time.

App Download

Android App

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.community.emss2021&hl=en

IOS App

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/scottish-summit-2021/id1526867435

7 Days of Power Apps Patch – Day 5 Lookup and Choice fields

Today’s learning on Patch is important as it relates to Lookup and Choice fields which are more similar than you might think. They are highly relevant to Patching to Sharepoint lists as they help us to maintain the ties to related lists.

How to Patch to PowerApps Lookup and Choice fields

If you’ve signed up for the course you can head directly to the first video here.

https://www.powerplatformlearn.academy/courses/microsoft-power-apps-from-zero-to-hero/contents/601681be6af32

Check out this post to confirm how to sign up for the course.

https://powerplatformlearn.com/2021/02/14/7-days-of-power-apps-patch/

In other news I’ve been getting back into looking at Urban Sketching – this isn’t one of mine, but maybe one day I’ll get back to it. You can head here for more content like this https://www.facebook.com/groups/urbansketchers/

Check out the other posts in this series


https://powerplatformlearn.com/2021/02/19/7-days-of-power-apps-patch-day-4/
https://powerplatformlearn.com/2021/02/17/7-days-of-power-apps-patch-day-3/
https://powerplatformlearn.com/2021/02/16/7-days-of-power-apps-patch-day-2/
https://powerplatformlearn.com/2021/02/16/7-days-of-power-apps-patch-day-1/

7 Days of Power Apps Patch – Day 4

Today’s learning on Patch is really great – super simple – we will be using it to cover the using Patch to create Date and Time fields entries

This is a picture of some daffodils – spring is thankfully coming in the UK at the end of a long COVID lockdown. Looking forward to 2021!

Image result for spring budsuk daffodils

You can head directly to the first video here.

https://powerplatformlearn.newzenler.com/courses/microsoft-power-apps-from-zero-to-hero/contents/60157720e7f96

Check out this post to confirm how to sign up for the course.

https://powerplatformlearn.com/2021/02/14/7-days-of-power-apps-patch/

7 Days of Power Apps Patch – Day 3

Today’s learning on Patch is really great – super simple – we will be using it to cover the following:

  • Power Apps Pro Tip – Getting JSON from your Cloud Flows
  • Working with Yes/No fields

And this is a picture my dog. He’s not called Patch he’s called Kylo.

You can head directly to the first video here.

https://powerplatformlearn.newzenler.com/courses/microsoft-power-apps-from-zero-to-hero/contents/6015733ee8d56

Check out this post to confirm how to sign up for the course.

https://powerplatformlearn.com/2021/02/14/7-days-of-power-apps-patch/

7 Days of Power Apps Patch – Day 2

My goodness! we’re now over 1700 students strong, and this means that we’ll be able to have some super community events in the future.

Today we will be using PowerApps Patch to cover the following:

  • Editing items
  • Working with text and numeric fields

You can head directly to the first video here.

https://powerplatformlearn.newzenler.com/courses/microsoft-power-apps-from-zero-to-hero/contents/601571d1ef2ac

Check out this post to confirm how to sign up for the course.

https://powerplatformlearn.com/2021/02/14/7-days-of-power-apps-patch/

7 Days of Power Apps Patch – Day 1

Wow – this has come around sooner than expected. I set a target of 1687 students in my last post (Original post below) and we’re there!

Today we will be covering the following:

  • Introduction to Power Apps Patch
  • JSON and how it works
  • How to create your first item

You can head directly to the first video here.

https://www.powerplatformlearn.academy/courses/microsoft-power-apps-from-zero-to-hero/contents/6015715412dde

Check out this post to confirm how to sign up for the course.

https://powerplatformlearn.com/2021/02/14/7-days-of-power-apps-patch/

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