Power Automate
Power Automate or formerly known as Flow is a low code solution to automate tasks and processes. You will build your flows using a web based designer. Here you will place action by action to complete your process. Next to data inside your Microsoft 365 tenant you can also connect to Azure services and hundreds of other third-party services as well as standard APIs.
The lingo
To understand everything that follows in Power Automate, you will need an understanding of the phrases used in Power Automate.
Flows | Trigger | Action | Connection | Expressions |
A complete entity. The flow includes a trigger and actions. | The trigger starts the flow. There are three types:
1. Manual
The flow is triggered by a user action like a button in Power Apps or on the flow.
2. Automated
The flow is triggered by actions like a new document in a SharePoint library, a new email or event or Teams messages.
3. Recurring
The flow is simply triggered through a time aspect like weekly or hourly. | The action describes what the flow has to do in that step.
Steps can have an outside impact like sending a Teams message or E-Mail.
They can also have an inside impact like converting a time to another timezone or calculating something inside a loop. | Actions always need to run a context. A teams message or E-Mail always needs a sender or creating an item in SharePoint Lists need a creator.
Depending on your flow type and trigger, actions will run in the creator name or in the name of whoever triggered the flow. | Sometimes you will need simply actions to help achieve a specific result.
Expressions can help you get the current time, transform text or arrays or many more things. |
Power Apps
Power Apps enables you to build low code apps inside a web-based designer. On screens you will place controls that users interact with or connect directly with Dataverse data to streamline app experiences.
The lingo
To understand everything that follows in Power Apps, you will need an understanding of the phrases used in Power Apps.
App | Screen | Control | Control Properties | Data / Connectors |
A complete entity of an app.
Canvas apps are the basic form of the low code apps. You will get a canvas much like a PowerPoint Slide to design your own app.
Model Driven apps already have a readymade look and feel. You will build your model driven app based on your data. This is also a key concept since you will connect your data to Dataverse. | This is what the user will see and interact with.
One app can have multiple screens where you can use buttons or icons to navigate between them. Next to all the navigation actions you will also place other controls that the user can interact with. | Controls provide input or outputs to the user.
Inputs can be text, dropdowns, date selection and many more.
Classic Controls are the “oldest” controls. They have existed basically from the beginning and will provide nearly all capabilities you will need.
Modern Controls are a mix between improved classic controls as well as completely new ones. One really cool thing about those is that they are build to adjust to a global theme instead of designing each control itself. | With the properties you can adjust the look and feel of controls. Next to design questions, which color will the button have, you can configure what happens on click or where a dropdown control gets its selectable data from. | Getting data, saving elements or sending emails and Teams messages always need to run a context.
When a user starts your published app, they will always be asked to authorize all connectors you use in your app with their login user.
Example Connectors are SharePoint Online, Microsoft Teams or Office 365 Users. |
Environments
Power Platform environments provide a dedicated space for building, testing, and deploying your Power Platform solutions. Environments allow you to separate your development, testing, and production environments, ensuring the stability and security of your applications. They provide a controlled space for managing your apps, flows, and data, allowing you to collaborate with your team and control access to different resources. Environments play a crucial role in organizing and managing your Power Platform projects effectively.
Dataverse
Dataverse is a key component of the Power Platform, providing a secure and scalable data storage and management platform. It allows you to create and manage data entities, define relationships between them, and enforce business rules and data validation. With Dataverse, you can easily build and deploy robust business applications that leverage the power of data.
Dataverse provides a rich set of features, including data types, calculated fields, roll-up fields, business process flows, and much more. It also integrates seamlessly with other Power Platform services, such as Power Apps and Power Automate, enabling you to create end-to-end solutions that span across your organization.
By leveraging the capabilities of Dataverse, you can centralize your data, ensure data consistency and integrity, and simplify the development and maintenance of your Power Platform solutions.
Solutions
In Power Platform, solutions are a way to package and organize your apps, flows, and other components into a single deployable unit. Solutions provide a convenient way to manage and distribute your Power Platform assets across different environments.
One powerful feature of solutions is the ability to use environment variables. Environment variables allow you to define and manage settings that can be used within your Power Apps and Power Automate flows. These variables can be used to store configuration values, such as API keys, connection strings, or any other sensitive information that needs to be securely managed.
By utilizing environment variables, you can create flexible and reusable solutions that can be easily configured for different environments. This means you can develop your Power Apps and Power Automate flows once, and then deploy them to multiple environments without the need to modify the underlying code.
Environment variables can be referenced within your Power Apps and Power Automate flows, allowing you to dynamically adjust their behavior based on the specific environment they are running in. This makes it easier to manage and maintain your solutions, as you can update the environment variables without needing to make changes to your app or flow logic.
In summary, environments and variables are key components in Power Platform that enable you to organize and manage your solutions effectively. They provide a way to separate your development, testing, and production environments, while also allowing you to configure and customize your Power Apps and Power Automate flows using environment-specific settings.
