Integrate with Microsoft Planner

In this article, we'll learn how to integrate Power Apps with Planner to create and assign tasks to users within the organization.

Power Apps in Microsoft Teams enables collaboration between people and groups. Employees already use Teams to work, communicate, and collaborate. Apps in Teams have deep integration with other Teams capabilities. For example, in Teams, you can assign tasks to team members using Planner in your Teams channel. Apps that require follow-up by others in your team, such as to address issues reported in the Issue Reporting app, can leverage Planner in the Teams channel and create Tasks where users already manage their tasks.

Watch this video to learn how to integrate Power Apps with Planner:

Prerequisites

To complete this lesson, we'd need the ability to create apps within Teams that will be available as part of select Microsoft 365 subscriptions. We'll also need the ability to connect to Planner.

Login into Teams

Login into Teams using either the Desktop app or the web app.

Create a new Team

In this section, we'll create a new Teams team and then create an app within that team. Skip this section if you already have a team that you want to use instead.

1. To create a new team, select the Teams tab > select Join or create a team > select Create Team > select From Scratch > select Public, and give the team a name such as "Planner Integration". And then, select Create.

2. Select and add any members in your organization that you'd like to add to the team for testing purposes, and select Add.

3. Select Close.

   The new team gets created and is listed under the Teams tab.

Create a new app

We'll create an app with five fields capturing details that will be used to create a Task in Planner.

1. Open Teams.

2. Select Power Apps from the left-pane.

3. Select + New app under Recent apps.

4. Select the team created earlier, and select Create to open Power Apps Studio.

5. Enter a name for the app, such as "Integrate with Planner", and select Save.

   The app shows a default gallery

6. Select the database option from the left-pane to connect to the Planner.

7. Select + Add data, and then select Connectors.

8. Enter "Planner" in the search box to look for the Planner connector.

9. Select Planner.

10. If prompted, sign in.

    Planner gets added as a data connection to the app

11. Select to open the Tree view.

12. Select + New screen > Blank layout.

13. Add the following controls.

    1. Title (text input)

       Property	Value
       Name	Title
       Type	Text box
       X	Screen2.Width/2
       Y	135
       Width	320
       Height	35

    2. From Date (date picker)

       Property	Value
       Name	FromDate
       Type	Date picker
       X	Screen2.Width/2
       Y	235
       Width	320
       Height	35

    3. Due Date (date picker)

       Property	Value
       Name	DueDate
       Type	Date picker
       X	Screen2.Width/2
       Y	335
       Width	320
       Height	35

    4. Assigned To (combo box)

       Property	Value
       Name	AssignedTo
       Type	Combo box
       X	Screen2.Width/2
       Y	435
       Width	320
       Height	35

    5. Planner ID (combo box)

       Property	Value
       Name	PlannerID
       Type	Combo box
       Items	Planner.ListGroupPlans(Param("groupID")).value
       X	Screen2.Width/2
       Y	535
       Width	320
       Height	35

14. Add the following labels.

    1. Title

       Property	Value
       Name	Label_Title
       X	365
       Y	135
       Width	320
       Height	35

    2. From Date

       Property	Value
       Name	Label_FromDate
       X	365
       Y	235
       Width	320
       Height	35

    3. Due Date

       Property	Value
       Name	Label_DueDate
       X	365
       Y	335
       Width	320
       Height	35

    4. Assigned To

       Property	Value
       Name	Label_AssignedTo
       X	365
       Y	435
       Width	320
       Height	35

    5. Planner ID

       Property	Value
       Name	Label_PlannerID
       X	365
       Y	535
       Width	320
       Height	35

15. Add a button to the bottom of the screen with the following properties.

    Property	Value
    Name	Button_CreateTask
    X	526
    Y	635
    Width	320
    Height	35

16. Copy the following formula in the OnSelect property of Button_CreateTask.

    Planner.CreateTaskV3(
        Param("groupId"),
        PlannerID.Selected.id,
        Title.Value,
        {
            startDateTime: FromDate.Value,
            dueDateTime: DueDate.Value,
            assignments: AssignedTo.Selected.'User Name'
        }
    )
    

    Note

    Upon selecting the Create Task button, it'll use the parameters provided in the formula to figure out the team for which the task is being created, the planner within the team the task is to be created, the Title from the text box captured on the screen, and the From and Due dates captured on the screen.

17. Move Screen2 up above Screen1. If you want, you can also delete Screen1 instead.

Save and publish the app

1. Select Save on the top-right side of the screen to save the app.

2. Select Publish.

3. Select Next.

4. Under Add to Channel, make sure the channel under which the app should be shown is listed and shows as at least "1 active tab(s)" and not "0 active tab(s)".

   

5. Select Save and Close.

Test the app

1. Open the team under which the app is created.

2. Select + Add a tab.

3. Search for tasks by Planner to add a planner tab to the team.

4. Enter tab name under Create a new plan, for example "Tasks Integration". And then, select Save.

   The tab gets added to the Team

   

5. Run the app in preview mode or from within the team.

6. Populate the columns with appropriate values.

   

7. Select Create Task.

8. Go to the Planner tab for which the task is being created—in our example, "Tasks Integration Planner".

   A new task with the details should be added to the list.

   

See Planner integration in action

To see an example of Planner integration, check out the Issue Reporting sample app template for Teams. Issue Reporting makes it easy for users to report issues. These issues are created in Planner and assigned for follow-up.

This integration can be easily extended to add logic to automatically assign the Planner Tasks or provide notifications for issue tasks.