Set up tables and data connectors
Power Apps relies heavily on tabular data. Since tables of data are organized structures where you can store your data, the purpose of your app is to allow users to interact with that data.
You can create custom tables using Microsoft Dataverse that can be used on any app. However, Power Apps isn't confined to just Dataverse. It can use data from SharePoint, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Office 365, OneDrive for Business, Salesforce, Microsoft Excel, and many other data sources. You can also use any existing table of data currently used by the Microsoft Power Platform within your organization, without creating a new table. In Microsoft Power Apps, you can create/modify connections to many different data sources.
Power Apps also connect to other types of data sources that aren't tables, such as email, calendars, X (Twitter), and notifications.
By using the Gallery control, Display form, and Edit form controls, you can create an app that reads and writes data from a data source.
Power Apps includes a powerful set of functions for filtering, sorting, and shaping tables of data in a canvas app. Filter, Sort, and AddColumns functions, are a few of these. With functions like these, you can provide your users with focused access to the information that they need. For people who have a database background, using these functions is the equivalent of writing a database query.
An important key to building efficient apps is to minimize the amount of data that must be brought to your device. For example, you might need only a few records from a million, or a single aggregate value can represent thousands of records. Alternatively, you might need only the first set of records to be retrieved, and the rest brought in when the user indicates that they want more. By being focused, you can dramatically reduce the processing power, memory, and network bandwidth that your app needs. As a result, you observe quicker response times for your users, even on mobile phones that are connected through a cellular network.
Delegation is where the expressiveness of Power Apps formulas meets the need to minimize data that moves over the network. Essentially, Power Apps can delegate the processing of data to the data source rather than moving the data to the app for processing locally, if you use the right functions.
Working with large datasets requires you to use data sources and formulas that can be delegated, to keep from overburdening your app.
If the data source that you need to access with your app isn't in the cloud, you can install an on-premises data gateway to transfer data quickly and more securely between your app and your internal data source. You can connect to on-premises data over the connectors that use the data gateway.
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