Introductory Guide to Using & Maximizing Microsoft Power Apps

Summarized Blog Content

The blog post by Timo Pertilä is an insightful discussion about some common patterns seen in first and second Power Apps made by developers. These are tips and tricks one learns from examining others' work, often revealing new methods, and strategies of accomplishing tasks better in Power Apps.

• The author talks about the misuse of LookUp commands, where developers often unnecessarily repeat the LookUp function giving redundancy in the code.

• Next, he discusses the redundant use of variables to check whether a line on the form is being viewed, edited or created. The form status can be directly checked from the form itself.

• The article then moves on to the topic of variables in Power Apps, highlighting the differences and use-cases of global and local variables. Global variables, while easy to use, are performance-heavy and should be used only when necessary.

• You shouldn't group controls due to the problems that it can cause when trying to modify them. Instead, Pertilä recommends using containers for easier management.

• Another discussed issue is the repetition of control, especially in navigation. Navigation is best implemented as a gallery, and if used on several screens, should be implemented as a component.

• The author then talks about redundancies in code due to duplications in multiple places without a significant reason.

• Lastly, the blog post discussed the issues with dependencies between screens, which can complicate optimization and potentially causing unusual situations.

Main Takeaways

Understanding the potential pitfalls and inefficient design choices is crucial in creating high-quality Power Apps. Efficient use of LookUp commands, smart management of variables, effective usage of groups and containers, reducing repetition of controls and unnecessary code, and cautious management of dependencies between screens are the key areas to focus on. More efficient, maintainable and elegant solutions lie in the adoption of recommended practices, contributing to a better user experience and performance of the apps.

Read the full article That very first Power Apps

Learn about That very first Power Apps

The blog reviews the usage of Power Apps, focusing on the frequent implementation mistakes identified in many beginner's first and second Power Apps. These common errors are not due to stupidity but inefficiency, which could be rectified to make Power Apps usage more effective and elegant.

One such inefficiency highlighted is the unnecessary use of LookUp commands. Developers often use the LookUp function to fetch already available customer data, which is inefficient and quite redundant. Instead of using a formula such as LookUp(Accounts, 'Account Name' = galAccounts.Selected.'Account Name').'Account Number', the author recommends using simpler references like galAccounts.Selected.'Account Number'.

• The author suggests that developers need to understand that all the data in the gallery row is easily referenced, and repeated fetching of the same is wasteful. Problems occur when a gallery or variable doesn’t have a value for all fields in the row, leading developers to fetch the data again.
• The reason why there may be missing values in the rows is usually the optimization performed by the platform. It reads that the field, not required, is thus not included while fetching information. In such cases, the advisable action would be to adjust optimization settings so that all fields are always included in the result set.
• In addition to this, the author points out that unnecessary LookUp functions can also be eliminated using the With function. This function can streamline data requests by reducing redundant lookups.

To learn more about this topic, readers are advised to explore more Power Apps exercises and practice projects to fully understand common mistakes and the most efficient solutions.

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Keywords

Microsoft specialist, Microsoft certified professional, Microsoft certified expert, Microsoft solutions expert, Microsoft technology expert