Blog - Recent Posts

Data - How to create bulk test/dummy records with random values

When building apps, it's useful to be able to populate tables with dummy or test records so that we can test and see how our app behaves. This post demonstrates formula to generate multiple records with random values, and how to add those records to a table.

Bug - Excel Online (Business) connector fails to search or to filter against columns with a space in the name

When we attempt to Filter, Search, or to LookUp records based on criteria that references column names with spaces, Power Apps returns an error. This post describes this behaviour in more detail.

Charting - If you want to add Gantt chart capabilities to a canvas app, you should check this out

At today's community call (16 June 21), Terho Antila gave a great demonstration of his gantt chart app. If you want to add gnatt chart capabilities to a canvas app, I highly recommend that you take a look at this.

Data - Why is Dataverse so fast?

One reason why Datavese performs so quickly, compared to other data sources (such as SQL Server, SharePoint, and Excel), is because Power Apps can connect to Dataverse in a more direct way. This post describes this behaviour in more detail.

What languages does Power Apps support, and how to start Power Apps in a different langauge?

This post summarises the languages that Power Apps supports and describes an easy way to run Power Apps Studio in the language of our choice.

Controls - How to submit a form (or to run formula) when a user presses enter/return on the keyboard

There is often the requirement to submit a form or to carry out an action when a user clicks the enter or return key on the keyboard. This post describes a technqiue we can use to carry out this task.

Teams - A summary of the demonstration/sample Power Apps that are available in Teams

A great feature of Power Apps for Microsoft Teams is that it offers 5 built in apps - inspections, milestones, bulletins, issue reporting, and employee ideas. We can use these apps straight away, or we can adapt them to better suit our needs. This post summarises what these apps are capable of.

SQL - Caution - the Distinct function may not return the records that you expect!

One thing that can catch out app builders is that the Distinct function is not delegable. This post illustrates this problem through an example that shows how the distinct function may not return all records that we expect.

Dataverse - How to create and use Dataverse views in Canvas Apps

Dataverse views enable us to define queries and filters in a way that is re-usable across multiple canvas apps and model driven apps. This post describes how to display data from Dataverse views in canvas apps, and how to refer to those views in formula.

New model driven app designer - a first look

A new, much improved model driven app designer is now available in preview! This post takes a first look at this designer, including how to access the designer, and a high level overview of the new features.

Dataverse - How to filter Dataverse choice columns

With Dataverse, the syntax to filter a table based on a choice column may not be entirely intuitive. This post describes the methods we can use to filter tables based on choice values.

Code - The new easier way to pack and unpack canvas app source code

If you're building canvas apps from source code, there's now a much easier way to unpack the source from a source MSAPP file, thanks to the "Power Platform VS Code Extension" for Visual Studio Code. This post describes this new feature.

PVA - 6 Power Virtual Agents videos you should watch

If you want to learn about Power Virtual Agents, particularly around the topics of architecture, integration, and best practices, I recommend the following 6 videos from the Power CAT team.

Learn Power Apps and Dataverse with the free, online 'app in a day' training course

The 'app in day' course provides a great introduction to Power Apps, and is up to date (as of May 2021). Read this post to find out more, including where to download the course content.

SQL - How to lookup/display related details with SQL Server Views

In cases where we need to join tables and to display details from related tables, the most efficient way to perform this task is to use a view. This post provides an introduction on how to display related data on a gallery control, and how to configure an app to update a record that a users selects through a gallery control that is connected to a view.