Power Apps is a new service for building and using custom business apps that connect to your data. It also works across the web and mobile - without the time and expense of custom software development. Today's blog will walk you through the process of generating an app using a trial version of Dynamics 365 online.

Let's start off with a little background. Power Apps connects to existing data sources and services including Dynamics 365, OneDrive, Microsoft Azure, SharePoint, Salesforce, Excel, Google Drive, and Dropbox, to automatically generate a meaningful business app for your business. You can instantly publish apps via web and mobile including laptops, tablets, and phones (Android, iOS, and Windows). It also allows you to work in a visual designer to customize a fully-functional app and build apps that use device capabilities including cameras, GPS, and pen control. And the best part is that you get all of this without having to code!

Power Apps Works for Employees and Developers

Perks for employees:

• Quickly create apps that work on any device using templates to get started quickly and a visual designer to automate workflows
• Use built-in connections or ones customized by your company to connect Power Apps to cloud services such as Office 365, Dynamics CRM, Salesforce, Dropbox, OneDrive, and on-premises systems including SharePoint, SQL Server, Oracle databases, SAP and more
• Share Power Apps like documents. It's as simple as typing an email address and your coworkers can take advantage of an app you created

Perks for developers and IT professionals:

• Power Apps includes Azure App Service for employee-facing apps so native web and mobile apps get into employee hands faster than ever
• Build additional data connections and APIs to any existing business systems, thus empowering any users in your organization to create the apps they need
• Data security and privacy controls are respected by PowerApps, so you can manage data access and maintain corporate policies.

Generating an App Automatically

You can quickly generate apps using data sources such as:

• Common Data Model
• Dynamics CRM Online
• OneDrive for Business
• Salesforce
• SharePoint

Generating an App Using a Trial Version of Dynamics 365 Online:

Select Dynamics 365

Select Power Objects (Note: this will connect to the Dynamics CRM Instance associated with you Power Apps login) Displays all entities for the CRM instance

Select an Entity & select Connect (Note: for this blog, I have chosen the contacts entity)

Building the Phone App Templates

Screen Configurations Power Apps OOB display 3 Screen templates Browse Screen Detail Screen Edit Screen Each Template will have multiple corresponding Screen Layouts. Browse Items, One line Description Browse Items, One line Description, Rating Browse Items, Thumbnail image, Header and Description Browse Items, Header and Description Browse Items, Header, Sub Header and Description Browse Items, Header, Sub Header, Description and Footer Browse Items, Header, Description and Link Browse Items, Grid with Pictures Browse Items, Header, Pictures, Description and Footer

Layout Configuration Fields can be added to the Detail Screen layout by drag and drop Entity Fields Individual Fields can be formatted You can add any control in a variety of categories by clicking the Insert tab of the toolbar and selecting any of the following categories.

You can add a variety of controls to your app, and configure their properties directly, from the toolbar, or in the formula bar. You can also add any control in a variety of categories by clicking the Insert tab of the toolbar and selecting any of the following categories. Text Box Button Text Controls Gallery Forms Media Charts Icons Add a screen Add a data connection Show a list of items Add a form Show the current user Add a list control Add a chart Add multimedia Scan a barcode Add a flow Add a scrolling screen Build a global app And there you have it! For more information on PowerApps, check out the Microsoft resources below.

• Introduction to Microsoft PowerApps
  
• Power Apps Download
  
• Getting Started with Power Apps Tutorial
  
• Guided Learning
  

Happy CRM'ing!