As the {low-code} bus 🚍 continues to take us on our journey towards building capacity for innovation, making us heroes 🦸♀️🦸♂️ and Microsoft 365 Champions🏅, in this episode we look at ways to enhance and customize apps.
Listen to a recording of this post:
Two episodes ago, we built an app using an Excel data table to quickly put together a functional app. That first incarnation of the app was completed with no code. At the end of that build, we had even made some remarkably simple mods, like changing the screen labels that PowerApps had created by default, adding a missing field from our data set that had been missing, and we even rearranged the fields, changing the order and location on the Edit Screen. All of that with zero code, or functions for that matter.
We also recognized that the app, while usable, could use some enhancements to make it more functional and efficient. To do that, the {low-code} bus 🚍 will drive us to the custom shop where we will get to work.
Let us look at the video below and highlight areas of improvement.
After looking at the video, we can see that the app can be made more robust and efficient. One of the aspects of creating and keeping good data sets is to create consistent means of entering data. This helps with searches and filtering of data, increasing the accuracy of our work. For example, if some people enter items as full words (like television) and others as abbreviations (like TV) a search of the assets list will be incomplete if the person searching uses only TV.
We can minimize this problem by creating a way to standardize entries, and we can do that, by using pull-down lists instead of having to type things. In addition, pull-down lists help us enter data more quickly. It also helps avoid typos. What this means is that with a single change we can increase the accuracy, the reliability, and the efficiency of our app. In our case we can easily create pull down lists for hardware types, which we call “Type” in our data table, as well as for “Department” and “Building.” We could “hard code” the list in the app, but every time we would need to add a new building, department, or hardware type, we would need to edit the application. I use the term “hard code” in quotations because, remember, we are not actually writing code here. There is a space that we can change a pull-down list via “hard code” because it is not likely to change, and that is the minutes pull-down for the date and time entry. I am assuming that the accuracy to the minute is not as important as the date, so I will shorten the menu options significantly by just offering “00,” “15,” “30,” and “45” as options. This will translate into something like this:
12:00, 12:15, 12:30, or 12:45, which in my book is sufficiently close.
All right, it is time to get our tools out, organize our parts, and go to https://make.powerapps.com to open our Asset Tracking app.
The first thing we will do is an easy clearing of the search box. We will do this by enabling the clear option in the properties of the “Search Box,” by just flipping a bit. The other thing we can do quickly is reduce the number of options in the minute’s pull-down. We can easily do that by selecting the minutes pull-down, looking at the =fx function for the items in the pull-down and removing all options except for the “00,” “15,” “30,” and “45.” With these simple, no code changes, we already have a more efficient and functional app.
Now, let’s tackle something a bit more complex. We will prepare to add the pull-downs for the building, department, and (hardware) type. For that, we will create corresponding tables in our original Excel Workbook we saved in OneDrive, one per sheet. These tables will hold the options for each of these fields. Check out the video below.
Once we complete our table entries in the Assets Excel workbook, being mindful to name the table with a name we can remember, we can close the workbook.
🎓 Learning note: Remember that we need to name the table, not the sheet in the workbook so we can easily identify it in the PowerApps Studio. I name my lookup tables by appending (look up table) at the end. For example, BuildingsLUT.
This video will walk you through the essentials.
Now that we have our lookup tables ready, you can start creating those pull-downs in the PowerApps Studio. The video below will walk you through the process. It will show you how to add new data sources to the studio so you can tie them to the app. Remember, when we created the app we pointed it to the assets table. That was the only table the app “knew” about. The connection is to the table in the Excel workbook, not to the workbook as a whole. This means that we need to create the connections to the new tables we created above, so we can use their data to populate the pull-downs.
🎓 Learning Note: the video will show you how to add and delete components of the app. In this case, we replace text boxes with pull-downs. Whenever you add a new component, PowerApps will give it a default name, like Pull-down_8. It is hard to keep track of which component does what when you edit or create functions, so it is best to immediately rename it to something that makes sense and is easy to remember. Just like we added LUT to the name of our lookup tables, I have added DD, for drop down (you could use PD for pull-down) to my pull-down lists.
After we complete the work above, our app has improved significantly. From the standard piece that PowerApps delivered to us, we have:
- Added a clear button to the search box in the browse screen
- Relabeled the headers of all screens
- Reorganized the content
- Added new fields
- Created look up tables
- Replaced text fields with pull-down lists
- Renamed components
- Unlocked data cards
- Changed navigation
WOW! That is a lot. You did all this with zero code. Yes, you learned some new functions and properties, but this was orders of magnitude easier than coding. So, what is left? First, we need to do some quality assurance on the mods we created. So, take a look at the video below.
The app is in pretty good shape. I know this episode is missing two pieces we identified in the introduction video, the barcode scanner and the picture functionality. Those two pieces tie the app to mobile device functions and deserve an episode of their own. Stay tuned because that is coming up at the next stop of the {low-code} bus journey 🚍.
Dr. Carlos Solís is Associate Vice President of the Technology Innovation Office.
