Blog - Recent Posts

Search - Filter records using A-Z control on a Canvas app

To make it easier for users to navigate the records from a data source, this post describes how to add an A-Z control to a gallery screen that's based on an SharePoint data source. This control will enable users to view all records that begin with the selected letter.

Dates - How to convert dates to Islamic Hijri format

Where we need to convert Gregorian date to Islamic Hijri dates, a quick and simple way to carry out this task is to import a static table of lookup values. This post walks through how to apply this technique.

Email - Sending messages with SMTP connector

The SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), is the industry standard protocol that supports the delivery of email messages. From Power Apps, we can use the SMTP connector to send email, and this post describes how to carry out common tasks, such as how to send messages to multiple recipients, add BCC/CC recipients, and how to add attachments.

Learn more about Dynamics 365 implementations with this free Microsoft book

"Success by Design" is a comprehensive, strategic book on how to successfully implement new software solutions, and focuses on Dyanmics 365. We can download this from the Microsoft site.

How you can help improve the Power Apps service reporting page

To help improve the reporting of service interruptions and outages, you can vote for my idea in the ideas forum.

How app design will become much easier with the new converged/integrated canvas and model driven app designer

Developing apps will become much easier with the new integrated designer. This post takes a first look at how this looks.

How to hide the purple Power Apps navigation bar at runtime

There are cases where it's preferable to hide the Power Apps navigation bar when a user runs an app, especially in cases where we embed the app within iframes. This post describes how we can accomplish this by adding the hidenavbar parameter to the web address.

Email - How to save multiple email addresses in a field, and configure the selection and display of addresses through a combo box

There are cases where we want to build a data entry screen where users can store multiple email addresses in a field. This post describes how to store a semi-colon separated list of email addresses in a SharePoint list, and configure a combo box control to allow the entry and display of the email addresses.

Data - How to apply customize sort sequences with SQL and Power Apps

In cases where we need to display non English data, there can be the requirement to sort data using langauge specific sort sequences. With SQL Server data sources, we apply custom sort sequences through collation settings, and this post describes how to apply this technique to a Power App.

Forms - How to hide fields that are blank, or have not been completed

Screens that display many fields can look messy when many of the values are incomplete or empty. We can tidy up the appearance of these screens by hiding empty fields, and this post describes how to carry out this task.

Data - How to filter records by a specific date, today's date, or range of dates

A common requirement to filter a list of records by date. This post describes the formula to carry out three common tasks - how to filter records by a specific date, today's date, or a range of dates. We also cover the formula to return all dates, if the user does not select a date.

Configuration - How to set the SharePoint address of a data source with a variable

When we build SharePoint based apps that we need to move between environments or tenants, a best practice is to store the list addresses in variables. This enables us to easily update the target data source when we move the app to a different location. This post walks through how to carry out this task.

Data - A walkthrough of how to migrate the data source of an app from Excel to Sharepoint

How easy is it to migrate the data source of an app from from Excel to SharePoint? This post describes the steps that are needed to carry out a data migration, and provides a demonstration by walking through the steps to migrate the sample Service Desk app from Excel to SharePoint.

How to dial a phone number from an app

On screens that display telephone numbers, we can open the dialler when the user clicks the number. This post walks through how to add this feature to an app

Email - How to open a new Outlook mail message and pre-populate the subject and message

In cases where we want create a new Outlook mail message and to pre-populate the recipient, subject and email body, we can accomplish this by calling the Launch function and specifying a "mailto" URL. This post describes this technqiue in more detail.