Previous

Next

Exercise - Create a Microsoft Dataverse table

Completed

In this unit, you create a table and then customize key components. You learn how to:

• Create a custom table.

• Add custom columns to your table.

• Customize a view.

• Customize a form.

The tutorial follows the Contoso company, which is a pet grooming business that grooms dogs and cats. Contoso needs an app for client and pet tracking that employees can use on various devices.

Create a custom table

Follow these steps to create a new custom table.

1. Sign in to the Power Apps maker portal.

2. In the left navigation pane, select Tables, select the New table dropdown, and then select Set advanced properties.

   

3. In the Properties table of the New table pane, enter the following values:

   • Display name: Pet

   • Description: Track pets for pet grooming

   

4. Select the Primary Column tab and enter the following values:

   • Display name: Pet Name

   

5. At the bottom of the pane, select Save.

Add and customize columns

1. When the table is finished creating, your display shows the table properties and your blank table in the section called Pet columns and data. Note here that Pet Name is the only column on display and next to that is +18 more and next to that is + to add a new column. There's also an Edit button in the upper-right corner of this section that also allows you to edit, but in this case, we do the editing within this window.

   

2. Within the Pet columns and data, select the + (New column) button to create a new column and observe a pop-up New column pane on the right side of the screen.

3. In the New column pane, enter the following values:

   • Display name: Species
   • Data type: Choice

   

4. Create the choice values:

   1. Select New choice and you see the New choice pane appears.

   2. In the Display name field, enter Species.

   3. Under Choices you see two entry fields titled Label and Value. Enter Dog under the label. Power Apps assigns a value automatically, but you can change it. In this case, we change this value to a 1.

   4. Select New choice under the Dog entry and make Cat the new entry for Label and 2 for Value.

   5. Select Save.

   

5. To make the Species choices that you just created the designated choices for this column, search for and select Species from the drop-down list under Sync this choice with and then select Save.

   

6. Let's add another column in the columns and data pane; again select the + (New column) button to add a new column.

7. In the New column pane, enter the following values, and then select Save:

   • Display name: Breed

   • Data type: Single line of text (this value is the default)

8. Add one more column by selecting the + button again in the columns and data pane.

9. In the New column pane, enter the following values, and then select Save:

   • Display name: Appointment date

   • Data type: Date and Time

Customize a view

1. Navigate to Views by selecting Views under Data experiences.

   

   The list of views for the Pet table is displayed.

   

2. Select Active Pets to open the view designer.

3. In the view designer, you can select the columns you want to display in your view by clicking on the column name under the Table columns list. Simply selecting the column adds it to the right of the Created On column. Alternatively, you can select View Column to the right of the Created On column and select the columns you wish to display. Add the following columns to your table:

   • Appointment date

   • Breed

   • Species (you need to scroll down or search for this column)

   

4. You can remove columns from your view by selecting the column name from the view table. Select the Created On column, select Remove.

5. To arrange the columns, drag them in the order you want them (or you can select the column to move, and then select Move Left or Move Right) until your view looks similar to this screenshot.

   

6. On the view designer toolbar, select Save and publish.

7. Navigate back to the Tables screen by pressing the Back button at the top left of the screen to return to the Views list, then select Pets (from Tables > Pets > Views) to exit the Views table and return to the Pets table viewer.

Customize the main form

1. Navigate to Forms by selecting Forms from the Data Experiences pane.

   The list of forms for the Pet table is displayed.

   

2. Select Information next to the Main form type to open the form editor for the main form.

3. In the form editor, select Table columns from the menu on the far-left side of the window, and select or drag the Species, Breed, and Appointment date columns from under the Table columns pane to the General section of the form canvas. If you make a mistake, notice the Delete button on the command bar. Deleting that field merely removes it from the form and places that column back under the Table Columns list. When your form is complete, it should resemble this screenshot.

   

4. Select Save and publish.

5. Close the form designer and navigate back to the list of forms by selecting the Back button at the upper-left of the screen.

6. Navigate to the Pet table by selecting Pet in Tables > Pet > Forms.

7. At this point, it's possible to add data directly to your table. Under Pet columns and data, you can begin entering as many rows as you want. It's good practice to include some test data to be able to view how it appears in your views/forms.

It's also possible to import data into your table. We'll show you how to do that in the next exercise.

Continue