Introduction
The growth of Microsoft Power Apps has led many traditional developers to take a look at Power Apps. When they do, they step into an app development model that is like other development environments, but not quite the same. Power Apps has been built to allow all people to achieve more by building apps, but it can also be a valuable tool for traditional developers looking to create apps quickly, iterate through testing, and get those apps in front of users on tablets, phones, and on the web faster than ever before.
This module will help bridge the gap between your existing traditional development knowledge and how Power Apps works including app logic, user interface creation, and data flow.
Setting the scene
You work as part of a new Fusion Development Team at VanArsdel Heating and Air Conditioning. In a Fusion Development Team, business users develop applications with Power Apps in order to scale how quickly applications can be built. In addition to the built-in capabilities, Power Apps applications may use data and logic provided by the internal IT organization in the form of web APIs. This allows business users to get their needs met faster without overloading their IT organization.
Let's meet your teammates and learn about the business problem you'll solve.
Kiana is a full-stack developer and software architect specializing in C# and .NET. They have written and designed many of VanArsdel's applications but is getting stretched thin by all the new requests. Kiana has heard of Power Apps, and would like to learn what it can do on its own before using her full-stack skills to add more capabilities to the platform.
Kiana has been supporting a long-running forms-over-data app written in ASP.NET years ago, which people in the office use to check inventory and order parts if necessary. They have been asked to create a mobile version of the inventory app for use by field workers, and thinks that it would be a good use case to try out Power Apps.
Maria works in inventory management and makes sure VanArsdel runs like a well-oiled machine. They verify the warehouse has enough materials on hand and if not orders more using a legacy system that Kiana wrote. But more than that—they perform audits on the inventory, checks with vendors for the best prices, and other inventory supply management tasks.
Maria has been studying up on Power Apps in her spare time. They believe that Power Apps excels at enabling business professionals develop applications that are easy to create and deploy. They will provide Kiana with requirements for the new app, and do some work on the Power Apps mobile app with them as well.
Learning objectives
After completing this module, you will be able to:
- Understand what "low code" is
- How Power Apps low code works in terms that map to other traditional software development stacks
- How data flows into and out of the apps you can create in Power Apps