Hi All,

Today, new topic, new fun 🙂

I am learning PowerApps so thought to share as well. Get the inputs, feedback and keep exploring the PowerApps.

What is PowerApps: 

1. PowerApps is part of Office 365 (that means PowerApps is Software as a Service from Microsoft) allows us (developers as well non-technical users) to create business apps (apps for mobile devices as well desktop devices.
2. These apps run on almost all devices – Android, iOS, Windows as well web – with any browser)
3. Apps can be developed very quickly without writing a single line of code. These apps can be then distributed to all our O365 users.
4. PowerApps apps can be deployed to SharePoint, Dynamics 365, Teams, PowerBI, Web or any mobile device
5. PowerApps not only used with Office 365 but can be connected to other cloud services as well like Dynamics, SharePoint on-premises, databases like SQL Server, Oracle, Salesforce.
6. PowerApps enable power users (users who are not technical or not developers) to create apps very quickly since it won’t require coding
7. PowerApps mostly (Not fully) replaces InfoPath, Access forms

History:

1. Project Siena was the initial name of PowerApps.
2. In 2015, PowerApps first time released

How to start with PowerApps:

• PowerApps development can be done in
  • PowerApps studio – downloadable client application
  • Directly from the browser
• We can start from anywhere either from PowerApps studio or browser since both has almost the same features
• To start in browser, follow the following steps:
  • Navigate to – https://www.office.com/?auth=2&home=1
  • Here you will see all the available Apps like

Figure 1 : Microsoft 365 – PowerApps – Navigating to PowerApps app

• If you couldn’t see “PowerApps” app there, click on “Explore all your apps ->” link
• Select app “PowerApps”.
• OR we can directly navigate to the URL in browser – https://web.powerapps.com

Figure 2: Microsoft 365 – PowerApps – creating Apps using PowerApps from browser

• As in above fig 2, Web shows default 4 options and then we can click on “All templates ->” link to explore more templates.
• Lots of OOB templates are available to get started as

Figure 3 : Microsoft 365 : PowerApps : OOB templates available to create apps

• In left navigation there is “Learn” link which redirect to page which have multiple very good learning options and updates for PowerApps as

Figure 4 : Microsoft 365 : PowerApps : PowerApps learning options on https://make.powerapps.com/

Are PowerApps free?

1. If organizations have Office 365 Enterprise E1 or above PowerApps are available
2. PowerApps is licensed on a per user basis, this means each user needs a separate license to run apps
3. PowerApps also comes with two standalone plans
   • PowerApps plan1 – With this plan users can write PowerApps apps which access to common data services to store and manage data like users can
     • Create canvas and model-driven apps
     • Run canvas apps
     • Connect to Office 365 data
     • Connect data using standard connectors, premium connectors
     • Access on-premises data using an on-premises gateway and so on. 
   • PowerApps plan2 – Allows users to run model-driven apps with code plugin and real-time workflows
4. For more details on pricing model – please visit: PowerApps pricing page – Here very detailed comparison given between above both the plans

References:

1. Apps that mean business
2. PowerApps Licensing overview
3. https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/
4. https://in.create.powerapps.com/studio/

What Next: In next article we will start with actual basic App development. We will discuss different types of Apps. We will have lots of fun coming with PowerApps so stay tuned 😊

Thanks for reading 🙂

Keep reading, share your thoughts, experiences. Feel free to contact us to discuss more.

If you have any suggestion / feedback / doubt, you are most welcome.