Asynchronous Session 14

Irwan Sulistyo – DAI-004

[email protected]

In this session, we will learn the building blocks of model-driven apps, learn how to
create and design model-driven apps, learn about model-driven app design, learn basic
elements of Power Apps and build a canvas app

1. How to build a model-driven app

Model-driven app design is a component-focused approach to app development.
Model-driven app design does not require code, and the apps you make can be simple or very
complex. Unlike canvas app development, where the designer has complete control over app
layout, much of the layout is determined for you with model-driven apps and largely designated
by the components you add to the app.
Model-driven design uses metadata-driven architecture so that designers can customize
apps without writing code. To model business data, you determine what data the app will need
and how that data will relate to other data. Defining and enforcing consistent business processes
is a key aspect of model-driven app design. Consistent processes help ensure that your app
users can focus on their work and not worry about having to remember to perform a set of
manual steps. A model-driven app consists of several components that you select by using the
App Designer. The components and component properties become the metadata.
 By selecting the Play button in the top right, the app is put into Play mode. You can see
it then looks completely different and shows the data based on the choices made in the design
process.
Model-driven apps are created using the App Designer. You will choose the entities,
dashboards, business process flows, forms, and other components that you want to make
available in your app, and then the app will be created for you. This means you will need to
spend more time understanding what your user needs than how it is going to look. With
Business Rules, you will define behaviors at the data layer. This is great for setting conditions
for when a field is required, setting a default value, or even showing or hiding a field based on
criteria. Business process flows are used to guide users through using your app. These
workflows can provide visuals on next steps based on the status of the data and facilitate other
actions that you want to occur as the user uses the app. Business Process Flows let you bring
automation to your app and make it more of a guided experience than just a place to enter data.
A common output need for apps is to visualize the data. For this requirement, you can
implement dashboards with custom filters and visual graphics to tie all this data together right
in your app. When creating your dashboards, make sure they are simple for your users to
consume without overwhelming them with all the data. Provide high-level snapshots of your
data and allow them to use filters to dive deeper into the data if needed.

Microsoft Power Apps use role-based security for sharing. A security role includes
privileges that define a set of actions that can be performed in the app. All app users must be
assigned to one or more predefined or custom security roles. Roles can be assigned to
individual users or to teams. When a user or a team is assigned to a role, that user or all members
of that team are granted the set of privileges associated with the role. To share an app, you must
have the Environment Admin or System Admin role.

2. Get started with model-driven apps in Power Apps

Model-driven app design is an approach that focuses on adding dashboards, forms,
views, and charts to your apps. With little or no code, you can build apps that are simple or
very complex. In canvas apps, the app maker has total control over the app layout. In model-
driven apps, on the other hand, much of the layout is determined by the components you add.
The emphasis is more on quickly viewing your business data and making decisions instead of
on intricate app design.
Model-driven design uses metadata-driven architecture so that designers can customize
apps without writing code. To model business data, you determine what data the app will need
and how that data will relate to other data. Metadata means data about data and it defines the
structure of the data stored in Microsoft Dataverse. Defining and enforcing consistent business
processes is a key aspect of model-driven app design. Consistent processes help ensure that
your app users can focus on their work and not worry about having to remember to perform a
set of manual steps. Processes can be simple or complex, and they often change over time.
After modeling data and defining processes, you build your app by selecting and setting up the
components you need in the App Designer.
The first step in the process is to understand your business requirements. Work with the
app stakeholders to consider your security, accessibility, data, and design needs. For security,
the Dataverse has a robust security model. You will want to consider how securing your app’s
data affects your app and what security model best supports your business needs. There are lots
of options available, including hierarchy security, row-level security, to name a few. You will
need to confirm your data is secured to meet your needs, and then your app will honor that
security.
 You can help ensure that people enter data consistently and follow the same steps every
time they work with a customer by creating a business process flow. Business process flows
provide a guide for people to get work done. They provide a streamlined user experience that
leads people through the processes their organization has defined for interactions that need to
be advanced to a conclusion of some kind. This user experience can be tailored so that people
with different security roles can have an experience that best suits the work they do. Business
process flows reduce the need for training because new users don’t have to focus on which
table they should be using. They can let the process guide them. You can configure business
process flows to support common sales methodologies that can help your sales groups achieve
better results.

3. How to build a canvas app

The first step in creating your app is to choose the format of your app: Mobile or Tablet.
While both formats can be used interchangeably on a mobile device, a tablet, or a computer,
each has different defaults around sizing of the screens and controls. The Gallery control is
used to display rows from a table of data. The display of a row is then defined by a template,
which you can customize to meet your needs. This allows you to control which columns are
shown and how they are formatted. Power Apps will then apply this template automatically to
every row in your data.
Forms are focused on working with a specific record, often based on a selection from a
gallery. In this experience, a user browses a gallery to find and select the desired row to view
the details on the form. Forms enable a user to not only view detailed information, but to save
new records and edit existing ones. To allow you maximum flexibility in customizing your
apps, Power Apps has a large selection of Input controls. Text inputs, buttons, dropdowns,
toggles, date pickers, and sliders are a few examples. You can add these controls to galleries,
forms, and screens to build a functional and aesthetic experience for your app. In addition to
common inputs as covered above, Power Apps also provides a rich set of controls for more
advanced operations. There are hardware-based controls which allow access to the camera, bar
code scanner, GPS, and more hardware features. Functions are the glue that binds all these
controls, inputs, and data sources together. You can use one or more functions to create
formulas in your apps. These formulas are similar to the language you use in Excel and can be
used for actions such as sending data to a data source, formatting information, creating
animations, and more.
To build a canvas app, use the following procedure:
1. Download the Contoso-Site-Tracking.zip file, extract all of the files, and save them to
your OneDrive for Business.
2. Go to https://make.powerapps.com and sign in with your organizational account.
3. In the left pane, select Create.
4. In the Start from data section, select Other data sources.
5. Under Connections, choose OneDrive for Business. If you don't have the connection
available, click New connection to create one.
6. For Choose an Excel file on the right select the Contoso Site Tracking.xlsx file.
7. For Choose a table click SiteInspector and click Connect.