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Learn to work with SharePoint Choice columns in Power Apps. We cover everything! Single and multi-choice columns because they are wildly different in Power Apps. We talk about displaying them in a gallery and then filtering that gallery by them. Then we take a peek at how they are easy with Forms. Boring. Then we jump into Patch where we really get into the nuance of this column type. Records vs. tables and how that affects Patch, Dropdowns, Combo boxes, and more. This video goes from simple to complex and everything in between. Click the video below to get started! Click the link below to view Shane Young's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/ShaneYoungCloud/videos Key Timestamps: 0:00 Get Started 2:24 Looking at the different types of SharePoint Choice columns. Drop-down Menu, Radio Buttons, and Checkboxes to allow multiple selections 4:00 Displaying a SharePoint Choice column in a Power Apps Gallery 6:18 Using the Concat function to display a multiple selection choices field Concat is a function that takes a table of data and turns it into text 7:39 Filtering by a SharePoint Choices column in Power Apps 8:47 Filtering by a multiple selection choice column using the In operator Learn how to filter when you are allowing multiple selections in a choice column. 11:07 Using a Form to create and edit a SharePoint Choices column When using Forms, Power Apps does the work for you to make it easier 13:13 Using Patch with the Choices column Manual creating the Record and Table 15:35 Patchin a value that doesn't exist in the list of choices 16:18 Using Patch to update a multiple selection column Demonstration using the Table function 17:54 Using the Choices function in a dropdown 19:45 Using the Choices function in a Combobox for your multi-selection column 21:51 Setting the Default value for the Dropdown and Comboboxes Additional Learning: Power Platform University Are you looking for full, personalized Power Platform training? Do you want a mentor to help guide you on your journey? Do you prefer real world content instead of academic concepts? Then Power Platform University from PowerApps911 is for you. Learn more here .

Do you have Power Apps and Power Automate? Then you need the CoE Toolkit. The Center of Excellence (CoE) toolkit for Power Platform is a set of resources and best practices designed to help organizations effectively adopt and manage the Power Platform. The toolkit includes templates, guides, and other assets that can be used to establish governance, manage deployment, nurture growth, and ensure compliance with industry standards. One of the key benefits of deploying the CoE toolkit is that it can help organizations maximize the value of their Power Platform investment. By establishing a standardized approach to development and deployment, organizations can ensure that their Power Platform solutions are secure, scalable, and compliant with industry standards. Additionally, the toolkit can help organizations to more effectively manage and govern their Power Platform solutions, reducing the risk of errors and ensuring that solutions are aligned with business goals. Another important benefit of the CoE toolkit is that it can help organizations to more effectively collaborate and share knowledge across teams. By providing a centralized repository of best practices and resources, the toolkit can help to promote collaboration and knowledge sharing, making it easier for teams to work together to achieve common goals. One thing to keep in mind is that the CoE isn’t an install it and you are done solution, it is a toolkit. Yes, installing it gets you reporting and insights but to truly see the benefits of CoE you will need to have a plan and update and configure the various resources to meet your business needs. If you're interested in learning more about the Center of Excellence toolkit for Power Platform, we recommend watching this YouTube video: Power Platform COE Kit where Manuela Pichler from Microsoft and I really get into what the CoE is and why you need it. Or if you're ready to roll out the toolkit in your environment, then we would be happy to help with our CoE Toolkit package .

As your skills evolve with Power Apps you are more likely to migrate away from Forms and to using the Patch function. While Patch is easy to use with simple SharePoint columns, such as Text, Numbers, or Dates it can be very difficult with columns like Choice, LookUp, People, or worse yet any multi-select field. This blog is companion content to the YouTube video Patch Complex SharePoint Columns with Power Apps. Below you will find all of the fields covered two ways. Using Controls and using static values. This will help you break down each field type and understand what is going on. Watching the video and then referencing this post will give you the optimal learning. Patch Static Fields If you want to Patch static values to these fields, then it is about shaping your data correctly. For most of these fields that means either as a record or as a table. Not only do you need to get your syntax correct, but you must also include the correct fields. Text columns including Title, Single line of text, and multiline of text need you to pass a Text value, often entered with a " around it. Though you could get the text from a control, a variable, or a formula. Example: MyTextColumns: "Buddy likes to bark!" MyTextColumns: TextInput1.Text Number columns including number and currency columns need a number. The key here is if you are entering a number then you will type 32 not "32". The second is text 3 and 2, the first is the number thirty-two. Be careful when getting numbers from some controls, like a text input. That will return the text "32" not 32. So you will need to wrap it in a Value function. Examples: MyNumberColumn: 32 MyNumberColumn: Value(TextInput1.Text) MyNumberColumn: Slider1.Value MyNumberColumn: 12+5 Date columns including Date Only and Date Time columns need a date time object passed to them. You can use a Date Picker, a function, or a refence to a date time object like a variable. Examples: MyDateColumn: Today() MyDateColumn: Now() MyDateColumn: DatePicker1.SelectedDate MyDateColumn: DateValue("12/25/2023") MyDateColumn: DateTimeValue("12/25/2023 1:15 PM") Complex Single Record Columns including Choice column, LookUp column, and Person or Group column need a record provided to them. The record will be in the form of {ColumnName: ValueColumnWants}. Different columns will have different fields in the record and will have different required fields. The video does go into greater detail and demos other scenarios. You will need to replace things like Id and TermGuid with the correct values for your data. Examples: MyChoiceColumn: {Value: "Blue"} MyLookUpColumn: { Id: 1, Value: "Nicola" } MyPersonColumn: { DisplayName: "", Claims: "Chewy@powerapps911.com", Department: "", Email: "", JobTitle: "", Picture: "" } MyManagedMetadataColumn: { Label: "Term 1", Path: "", TermGuid: "4ce373ea-d525-4975-9d44-367f1eedfa68", Value: "", WssId: 0 } Complex Table columns including columns such as Multiple Choice column, Multiple Person or Group column, Multiple LookUp column, and Multiple Metadata column. For each of these you will need to create a table of data. Take the record you created above and wrap it in a Table function. Examples: MyMultiChoiceColumn: Table({Value: "Blue"},{Value: "Pink"}) MyLookUpColumn: Table( { Id: 1, Value: "Nicola" }, { Id: 2, Value: "Chewy" }) MyPersonColumn: Table( { DisplayName: "", Claims: "Timmy@powerapps911.com", Department: "", Email: "", JobTitle: "", Picture: "" }, { DisplayName: "", Claims: "Bud@powerapps911.com", Department: "", Email: "", JobTitle: "", Picture: "" }) MyManagedMetadataColumn: Table( { Label: "Term 1", Path: "", TermGuid: "4ce373ea-d525-4975-9d44-367f1eedfa68", Value: "", WssId: 0 }, { Label: "Term 2", Path: "", TermGuid: "2ce373ea-d525-4975-9d44-367f1eedfa71", Value: "", WssId: 0 }) Image columns require you to pass an image. The easiest way to do this is reference an Image control. Example: MyImageControl: Image1.Image Yes No columns require you to pass a Boolean value aka true or false. Example: MyYesNoColumn: true Hyperlink columns only allow you to set the URL not the description. And cannot be patched when set to Picture mode. Pass the URL as text. Example: MyHyperlinkColumn: "https://training.PowerApps911.com" Below is the full Patch statement from the video. Patch( 'Complex Columns', Defaults('Complex Columns'), { //If you want to get rid of this column set it to not required. You can't delete it, but you can ignore it. Title: "Item #" & varItemNumber, //Multiline of text is exactly the same, just supports more text MyTextColumn: "Text is super easy", //Number and Currency work the same. Just give it a number MyNumberColumn: 32, //Pass a date or a date time. It doesn't care. //Today(), Now(), or DateValue("12/25/2023") are common values MyDateTimeColumn: Today(), //Choice columns even let you send a choice that isn't in the list MyChoiceColumn: {Value: "Blue"}, MyMultiChoiceColumn: Table( {Value: "Blue"}, {Value: "Red"} ), MyLookUpColumn: { Id: 1, Value: "Nicola" }, //Only Claims field is required MyPersonColumn: { DisplayName: "", Claims: "Chewy@powerapps911.com", Department: "", Email: "", JobTitle: "", Picture: "" }, MyMultiPersonColumn: Table( { DisplayName: "", Claims: "Nicola@powerapps911.com", Department: "", Email: "", JobTitle: "", Picture: "" }, { DisplayName: "", Claims: "shane@powerapps911.com", Department: "", Email: "", JobTitle: "", Picture: "" } ), MyImageColumn: Image2.Image, //Label and TermGuid required MyManagedMetadataColumn: { Label: "Term 1", Path: "", TermGuid: "4ce373ea-d525-4975-9d44-367f1eedfa68", Value: "", WssId: 0 }, MyYesNoColumn: true, //There is no way to set Alternative Text/Description MyHyperlinkColumn: "https://Training.PowerApps911.com" } ) Patch from Controls When using a control to provide the values for your SharePoint item they will do most of the work. The key challenge is understanding which control you want to use. Dropdowns - You will primarily use these for fields that are single select. Choice column LookUp column Managed Metadata column You will set the Items property of the dropdown to be Choices(YourListName.YourColumnName) Then when you patch those fields your column will look like: Because you used the Choices function it shaped the record the way you needed. Combo boxes - These controls are typically used with: Multiple Choice column Person or Group column Multiple Person or Group column Multiple LookUp column Multiple Managed Metadata column This is because combo boxes allow for multiple selection and output as a table. You will notice also that Person or Group column, even multiple select, must use a Combo Box. That is because of how Choices works with that column. Just like with a dropdown; you will set the Items property of the dropdown to be Choices(YourListName.YourColumnName) To patch a Multiple select field from a combo box you will use SelectedItems to get a table or Selected to get a single record. Once again, thanks to the Choices column and you selecting the correct control and output, you don't have to do any extra work. The other field types are shown below in the full Patch statement. Patch( 'Complex Columns', Defaults('Complex Columns'), { //If you want to get rid of this column set it to not required. You can't delete it, but you can ignore it. Title: "Item #" & inpTitle.Text, //Multiline of text is exactly the same, just supports more text MyTextColumn: inpText.Text, //Number and Currency work the same. Just give it a number //Make sure you are using Value function to convert text to number if needed MyNumberColumn: Value(inpNumber.Text), MyDateTimeColumn: dpDateTime.SelectedDate, MyChoiceColumn: ddChoice.Selected, MyMultiChoiceColumn: cbChoices.SelectedItems, MyLookUpColumn: ddLookUp.Selected, MyPersonColumn: cbPerson.Selected, MyMultiPersonColumn: cbPersons.SelectedItems, MyImageColumn: UploadedImage1.Image, MyManagedMetadataColumn: ddManagedMetadata.Selected, MyYesNoColumn: tglYesNo.Value, //There is no way to set Alternative Text/Description MyHyperlinkColumn: inpHyperLink.Text } ); As you can see. Patching is pretty awesome stuff. Sometimes you can just get a little overwhelmed with all of the different ways it can be used and how every complex column is slightly different. If you want to get help with your Patch or other Power Apps challenges check out the services we offer here at PowerApps911. Including mentoring and ad hoc, where we hop on a screenshare with you and just fix your challenge. You can buy as little as 30 minutes. Fill out the contact us form on the home page and someone will get back to lickity split. 😎 Also, if you prefer to learn on your own, there is a downloadable app and code snippet included with this video in our YouTube training library for only $15/month!

A Power App that imports data from an Excel file to a SharePoint list (or any data source) can be a game changer for a business. This integration not only streamlines the data entry process but also allows for better data management and organization. By automating the process with Power Automate, businesses can save time and resources while improving the accuracy and reliability of its data. Additionally, the data can be easily accessible and updated from anywhere, making it easier for teams to collaborate and make informed decisions based on real-time data. In this post we will go through the Shane’s video where he shows you how to use Power Apps to import an Excel file to your SharePoint List or other data source. As always, Shane breaks it down and reveals how to handle a few gotchas because of dates and using dynamic data from the Excel file. Click the video below to get started! Click the link below to view more of Shane Young's videos: https://www.youtube.com/@ShanesCows Key Timestamps: 0:00 Power Apps import Excel to SharePoint list or any data source 0:59 Demo of the Excel xlsx file import to SharePoint list with a Power Automate flow 2:18 A demo and explanation of the Power Automate flow 8:25 Create the flow, connect it to Power Apps, and Create file in SharePoint 9:48 Excel Online Business Get Tables 11:17 List Rows Present in a Table and the ISO 8601 date format 12:00 Create Item in SharePoint using the dynamic content we imported 14:03 Updating the flow to make the IDs dynamic 14:46 Using the First expression in Power Automate Copying the Excel file up to SharePoint The first step in the process is to generate an Excel file and store it in a SharePoint document library. From there we will be able to use flow to open and read the data we want to import into our SharePoint list. Refer to Shane’s video on How to upload files to SharePoint with Power Apps and Automate for a full explanation on uploading files. Using dynamic content when working with Excel files When using Excel files in Power Automate, we need to reference the column names when working with the data. However, this can become challenging when trying to build a flow using dynamic content from a step that doesn't involve an actual Excel file. This is because Power Automate cannot determine the available columns without reference to a specific Excel file. For example, if you have an Excel file with the following data in Table1: Now try building your flow using dynamic content using List rows present in a table . Actions that we use later in the flow will not have the columns under dynamic content. Next, build the flow directly pointing to our sample Excel file. When we look at the dynamic content, we can see all the column names. Using this method, we can build the rest of the flow and use the columns names. Remember to go back and change the Excel file refences to use dynamic content once you are finished with the flow. Working with Dates between Excel and SharePoint Excel stores data in a different format than SharePoint Lists can understand as a date. In order to make them the same, use advanced options in the List rows present in a table action. Select Show advanced options in List rows present in a table action Click to see the selection for DateTime Format Select ISO 8601 Writing the Excel to the SharePoint List When writing data to your SharePoint List (or other data sources), Power Automate tries to present only dynamic content that matches the content type that the column can exist. So you may have a SharePoint list column that can only accept numbers, but you won’t be able to select the Excel column from dynamic content. If this happens, just type in the name of the column to search and it will appear. Deleting the Excel File Once the data has been written to the SharePoint List, you will want to delete the Excel file you created earlier from SharePoint. This not only prevents unnecessary duplication of the Excel file, but it also allows the Flow to process another Excel file with the same name. The issue is that SharePoint places a “lock” on a file when it is first created which will prevent you from deleting it right away. Instead of waiting for the lock status to clear on its own, use the following SharePoint Rest API to release the lock as documented from www.cleverworkarounds.com . _api/web/Lists/GetByTitle('< DocumentLibrary >')/GetItemById(< DocumentID >)/recycle Conclusion Incorporating a Power App that imports data from Excel to a SharePoint list (or any data source) with Power Automate improves data management, accuracy, and accessibility. The steps outlined in this blog post provide a guide to help businesses implement this integration. With the power of Power Apps and Power Automate, businesses can now easily streamline their data entry processes and take their data management to the next level. Links How to upload files to SharePoint with Power Apps and Automate How to clear annoying Excel file locks in Power Automate – CleverWorkarounds Additional Learning: Power Platform University Are you looking for full, personalized Power Platform training? Do you want a mentor to help guide you on your journey? Do you prefer real world content instead of academic concepts? Then Power Platform University from PowerApps911 is for you. Learn more here . If you prefer to learn on your own, there is a downloadable app included with this video in our YouTube Training Library for only $15/month!

Are you tired of your users getting errors in PowerApps? Then check how you can use the OnError property to deal with all of those unhandled errrors. Error messages from bad inputs, functions missing data, or even a Patch function gone wrong can all be dealt with without breaking a sweat. You will learn about OnError, IfError, Error, IsBlankOrError, Left, If, Filter and more. If you have errors in your Power Apps you need this video. Click the video below to get started! Click the link below to view Shane Young's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ShanesCows Key Timestamps: 0:00 Get Started Power Apps OnError is a property on your app which lets you capture all your unhandled errors 1:51 PowerApps IfError and Handled Errors Shane explains what IfErrors and Handled Errors are in Power Apps 2:28 Unhandled Errors in Power Apps Shane explains what Unhandled Errors are in Power Apps Unhandled errors occur when Power Apps is not sure what to perform and it shows the error back to the user 3:06 PowerApps App OnError property The OnError property gives you the ability to put in code that run every time you encounter an error 5:35 Logging all of your Power Apps errors to a SharePoint data source Make a list of your Power Apps errors 9:08 Suppressing Power Apps error messages Shane explains how to use an If logic to suppress error messages 11:33 AllErrors Occasionally you may run into errors where you are getting multiples and you need to check the table - AllErrors is that table 12:44 Using Left to deal with an error message over 255 character limit When having a character limit issue, you are able to patch only the first 255 to meet the limit and stop receiving errors 14:13 Patch Errors handled vs. unhandled and what to do with them 15:50 Using the Error function to create your own Error Record Additional Learning: Power Platform University Are you looking for full, personalized Power Platform training? Do you want a mentor to help guide you on your journey? Do you prefer real world content instead of academic concepts? Then Power Platform University from PowerApps911 is for you. Learn more here .

Moving your Power Apps apps and flows between environments or tenants doesn’t need to be painful! Microsoft has built in an effective method of doing this in the form of Solutions. Using Solutions in combination with Environment Variables is an efficient way of making your creations portable while at the same time removing a lot of the hassle that usually tags along when you’ve got SharePoint lists involved. Click the video below to get started! Click the link below to see more of Shane Young's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/ShaneYoungCloud/videos Defining Power Platform solutions and environment variables ( 1:20 ) A Power Apps Solution is an object in the Power Platform that allows you to bundle together the various components of your Power Platform project. Solutions can contain Apps (both Canvas and Model-Driven), Power Automate flows (both Cloud and Desktop), PowerBI Dashboards, Dataverse tables, Component Libraries, plus a whole lot more. Nearly anything related to the construction of your solution can go into the aptly named “Solution” for easy transport. As you may have noticed, missing from the list was SharePoint Lists. Unfortunately, you can’t package up a SharePoint list to move around like you can those other elements. What you can do, however, is use an Environment Variable. You’ll link your app to the environment variable, and that variable will be configured in each environment to point at the corresponding SharePoint list. So while you can’t include the SharePoint list in your Solution, involving environment variables is the next best thing, and through the rest of this article (which follows Shane’s video on the subject) you’ll learn how to do just that! Let’s get started! Create a solution ( 3:39 ) Go to https://make.powerapps.com Using the Environment selector in the top-right corner of the screen, switch to your Development environment. (If you don’t have a developer environment yet, pause what you’re doing, and follow these instructions from Microsoft on setting one up, it’s free! Don’t worry, we’ll wait…) In the menu on the left, click on Solutions . If you don’t see Solutions, you might need to click … More and you’ll find it in there! On the Solutions screen, click + New solution Give the Solution a descriptive Display name. The Name field will follow suit, but just remove any unacceptable characters from the Display name, like spaces, hyphens, etc. Next you’ll need to select a Publisher. Automatically, there will be a default publisher available. The Publisher basically drives what the prefix of all the objects in the Solution will use in their naming. This is especially important in Solutions involving Dataverse, where calling the objects by their system names (including that prefix) comes into play. Since we aren’t doing that in today’s example, sticking with the default publisher is fine, but if you will be building Solutions in the future, setting up a custom publisher with a friendlier prefix will be helpful. You can leave everything else at its default setting and click Create . Once your Solution is created, you’ll be sitting at the screen showing your brand new, empty solution. Here you want to click + New , hover over Apps and let’s add a Canvas app . Give your app a name and choose its format. For our purposes, we’ll choose a Tablet app. And click Create . Make sure you save your app. Once the initial save operation has completed, click Settings . On the General page, scroll down and find the setting “ Automatically create environment variables when adding data sources. ” Toggle this setting to ‘ On ’. Save your app again. When the save completes, click the Back button in the Power Apps toolbar , click Leave on the dialog box. This will exit out of the app. When you land back in the view of objects in your solution, click the 3 dots to the right of your app name and choose Edit to get back into the Studio to continue building your app. Before we get back into building the app, first let’s open a new tab and go to your tenant’s SharePoint. Go to a SharePoint site where you have the ability to create a new list. (If you don’t have access permissions to create lists, send a request to whoever handles List creation for your tenant and include the details in steps 18-20 to have them build the List you need.) On the landing page for the SharePoint site, click the Gear icon in the top-right and choose Site contents . Click + New and choose List and choose Blank list . Give the list a name and optionally a description, uncheck the “ Show in site navigate ” box and finally click Create . On SharePoint List naming : Always remember that you only get to name your SharePoint List once. You can edit the name, but this is a cosmetic change only, deep down the list’s name never changes. Since the list name becomes part of the URL to the list, SharePoint will automatically replace special characters and spaces in the list name with URL-friendly codes. If you put a space in your list’s name, for example, “List Name”, SharePoint will create a list with the name: List%20Name. You should always, always, always name your SharePoint List with no spaces or special characters. You can then go back into the List Settings later and rename the list with spaces and special characters so it displays how you prefer, but the underlying list name will be that simple name with no spaces and special characters, which makes for a much better experience when working with the list in the Power Platform. In your list, add 2 columns : A number column named MyNumber A choice column named MyChoice using the default options of Choice 1, Choice 2 and Choice 3 . Add some sample data to the list: Title: Item 1, MyNumber: 1, MyChoice: Choice 1 Title: Item 2, MyNumber: 2, MyChoice: Choice 2 Title: Item 3, MyNumber: 3, MyChoice: Choice 3 Back in your app, click the Data icon in the left-side navigation bar and choose Add Data . Search for SharePoint and choose the SharePoint result (not the SharePoint Sites Dataverse result). If you’ve connected to SharePoint in this environment previously, choose the connection you already have set up, otherwise, click Connect directly (cloud services) and click Connect . Choose the site containing the SharePoint List. Finally choose the List you created and click Save . Because we enabled the setting to automatically create environment variables for new data sources, Power Apps is going to create 2 environment variables. An environment variable for the SharePoint Site that houses the list An environment variable for the SharePoint List itself. NOTE: If you’ve gone through this process before in this environment with the automatic environment variable creation setting toggled on, Power Apps will recognize that there is already an environment variable for the site and ask if you’d like to use the one that already exists or if you want it to create a new one. Otherwise, Power Apps will connect the site and list and you’ll get a banner at the top of the screen that environment variables were created. At this point, add a gallery (Gallery1) to the app and set its data source to the SharePoint List. Add a form (Form1) and set its data source to the SharePoint list and its Item property to Gallery1.Selected. Add a button (Button1) and set its OnSelect property to SubmitForm(Form1). Save your app and Publish it. Now Leave the app by clicking the Back button on the Power Apps toolbar and then clicking Leave in the dialog box. When you load back to the Solution screen, you’ll see you now have 3 elements inside your solution: the app and 2 Environment Variables. Add a flow to your solution ( 12:25 ) In your solution view, click the + New button and hover over Automation , then hover over Cloud flow , and click Instant . Give the flow a descriptive name and choose Manually trigger a flow . Then click Create . Click +New step . Search for and click the SharePoint Get items action. In the Get items action step, we would normally click the dropdown arrow and find our SharePoint site that houses the List we created, but we want to take advantage of our environment variables. So instead, click the dropdown arrow next to the box for Site Address and scroll to the bottom where it says Enter custom value and click that. At the top of your dynamic content box, you’ll find all your Environment variables. Click on the environment variable for the Site containing our List . For the List Name, do the same thing, click the dropdown arrow and choose Enter custom value and select the Environment Variable for the List we created . Click + New step and search for then click Compose . Click in the Inputs box and in the Dynamic content box, click Expression . For the expression, type: length() and put your cursor inside the parentheses. Then click back on the Dynamic content tab and choose the value property from the Get items step. Now click OK . Save your flow and do a Test run of it. The results of the Compose step should be 3, or the number of items you added to the site. Click the Back arrow in the top-left of the flow designer to go back to your Solution screen. Now you’ll notice your solution has 5 elements in it. There are the 3 that were there before (the app and 2 environment variables). Then there’s the flow we just added. And finally there is a Connection Reference object for our flow to recognize there is a connection to SharePoint. If your solution lacks that Connection Reference element, click the 3 dots next to your flow, hover over Advanced and click Add required objects . Prepare the environment variables for transport ( 16:30 ) So our environment variables are connected and functional in this environment, and we’re now ready to move the solution to a new environment, right? Wrong. Before we can move the solution, we need to make the environment variables ready to work in the new environment by removing their default values. So click on the environment variable for your SharePoint List. In the pane that loads, find the setting for “ Current list ”. It should currently be showing the name of your SharePoint list. Click the 3 dots next to this dropdown and choose Remove from this solution . This step removes the mapping of the environment variable to the specific list name. The reason we need to remove this is so that we will be required to specify the new mapping during the import of our solution in the new environment. Click Show default value and verify Default list value has nothing in the box. As long as Current list value and Default list value have nothing showing, we can click save because this variable is ready to move. Now let’s do the variable for the Site. So click on that object in your solution. In the pane on the right, next to the dropdown for the Current site value, click the 3 dots and choose Remove from this solution . Double check that Default site value also displays nothing and now this variable is prepared for the move as well. Export the solution ( 18:09 ) On the Solution screen, click the Overview button in the left-side navigation. Click the Export button in the top bar above the Solution overview. You will be presented with some options to run before your export your solution. While it is not a requirement, Shane prefers to click Publish each time, just to satisfy himself that there are no unpublished changes. This is not a requirement, but is a good safety tip. Also not a requirement is the option to Run the solution checker to verify there are no errors or other issues that might cause your Solution to have problems. Run this if you want, otherwise click Next . On the next pane, you can set the version number, or just accept the auto-incremented number. Then you need to choose between Managed or Unmanaged for your Solution type. So what do these solution types mean? Essentially, Managed means the solution can only be edited from this environment. Whichever environment or tenant that we export this solution to will only be able to run the apps and flows in the solution, they won’t be able to modify them. A great example for when Managed is useful is if you’re currently in your Dev environment and you will be exporting the solution to a Test or Production environment. On the flipside, Unmanaged means the apps and flows in the solution can be edited from the environment or tenant that we import this solution into. A great example for when Unmanaged is useful is if you’re wanting to provide a copy of your app/flow to a different environment/tenant and they need the ability on that end to modify or peek under the hood of those elements. For our purposes, we’re going to choose Unmanaged . Then click Export . The wheel will spin and then the pane will disappear, and it will look like nothing is happening except right above the Overview , a bar will show up that says “ Currently exporting solution ”. Once that banner turns green, click the Download button on the right side of it to download the package file for your solution. Import solution into new environment/tenant ( 21:46 ) Now switch to the destination environment. This can be done by clicking the Environment switcher in the top-right corner of the Power Apps screen and choosing a different environment or by logging out and logging in to a different tenant. Regardless of which route you’re taking, once you’re into the new environment, click on Solutions in the left-hand navigation bar. Before we can import the solution, we need to create a copy of the SharePoint list for this version of the solution to use as a data source, because remember, the original SharePoint list doesn’t get included in the Solution, the environment variable does. Open a new tab and go to SharePoint for the destination tenant. Create a new list. The list can be named anything you want. The primary concern here is that the list contains the same column structure as the original list. Add some sample data to the list. For sanity’s sake, use different values and even a different number of items than you created on the original list, just so you can easily see if you’re talking to the correct list or not. Once this has been created, we’re ready to jump back to our tab where we’re sitting at the Solutions view on the new tenant/environment. Click Import solution Click Browse . Find the solution file you downloaded earlier and click it then click Open . Click Next . Click Next on the Import overview screen. On the Connections screen, the importer is going to ask you to map the SharePoint connection reference to a SharePoint connection on the new tenant/environment. If you don’t have a connection already established in this environment, you’ll need to use the dropdown to create a new one. If you already have a connection, choose that and click Next . If you have trouble using an existing connection, make sure the token on that connection hasn’t timed out. You might need to refresh that connection’s authentication before it will work properly with the solution. The next screen will show the Environment variables, and it will state that 1 or 2 of them needs updated. If you already had an environment variable for the site, it will not be flagged as needing updated. For the Environment variables, choose the SharePoint site for this tenant/environment from the drop-down that houses the SharePoint list you created in step 4 of this section. Then for the List variable, choose the list you created in step 4 of this section. Click Import The banner at the top of the Solutions view will read “ Currently importing solution ” Wait for this banner to turn green indicating a successful import. You can now drill into the imported solution and see all the components. If you open the app, you’ll see that the data has seamlessly switched to that from the new list. Note: at the time of this recording, if you go to the Data view in Power Apps Studio, it will show your SharePoint connection to the original list, and if you click the 3 dots and choose to Edit Data, it takes you to the original SharePoint list. This issue has been reported to Microsoft. If you go back to the solutions view and then open the flow, you can run a test without changing anything and you’ll see that it is in fact looking at the new list. Deleting part or all of the solution ( 29:21 ) There is a little bit of nuance to deleting solutions from environments. If you go to the main Solutions view and select the solution and click delete, you will receive a warning indicating that when you delete the solution, you are only deleting the package that contains all the elements of the solution. Those elements (the app, flow, variables, etc.) will still remain in your environment. To truly purge everything that was imported, you need to click into the solution to see the list of elements, and from there select each element, click Remove and choose “Delete from environment”. Then once those have been removed, you can delete the solution package itself. Additional learning: Power Platform University Are you looking for full, personalized Power Platform training? Do you want a mentor to help guide you on your journey? Do you prefer real world content instead of academic concepts? Then Power Platform University from PowerApps911 is for you. Learn more here .

Are you tired of your users getting errors in PowerApps? Then check how you can use the OnError property to deal with all of those unhandled errrors. Error messages from bad inputs, functions missing data, or even a Patch function gone wrong can all be dealt with without breaking a sweat. You will learn about OnError, IfError, Error, IsBlankOrError, Left, If, Filter and more. If you have errors in your Power Apps you need this video. Click the video below to get started! Click the link below to view more videos from Shane Young: https://www.youtube.com/@ShanesCows Key Timestamps: 0:00 Power Apps OnError 1:51 PowerApps IfError and Handled Errors 2:28 Unhandled Errors in Power Apps 3:06 PowerApps App OnError property 5:35 Logging all of your Power Apps errors to a SharePoint data source 9:08 Suppressing Power Apps error messages 11:33 AllErrors 12:44 Using Left to deal with an error message over 255 character limit 14:13 Patch Errors handled vs. unhandled and what to do with them. 15:50 Using the Error function to create your own Error Record Differences between handled and unhandled errors Handled errors are those that we anticipate and have logic to deal. Unhandled errors are those that we did not expect and so we don’t have logic ready to handle them. For example, let’s say your app has the user enter in a number to divide by. If they enter in a zero, Power Apps will throw an error at the top of the screen, “Invalid operation: division by zero”. This is an unhandled error. To turn this into a handled error, we need a way to anticipate the user entering in zero. Using IfError() we can do just that: IfError(Text(1/Value(TextInput1.Text)), “You cannot divide by zero”) Now if the user types in a zero the app will show a message inside the app and won’t throw the invalid operation error. OnError, FirstError, and AllErrors Many times you cannot anticipate every error that could happen with your app. Perhaps you are trying to connect to Dataverse and a column was deleted, or there was a network timeout when writing a file. Using the App.OnError property gives you a way to run code each time an unhandled error happens. To retrieve information about the error we can use the AllErrors table or the FirstError record. Generally, the FirstError record will provide us with the information we are looking for. Using FirstError will always give us the same information as using First(AllErrors). Use Patch for logging errors Sometimes you might want to capture all the errors that an app is having when troubleshooting an issue. Using the App.Error property and the FirstError record we can use Patch() to write the information into a log. An example would be: Patch(‘Error Log’, Defaults(‘Error Log’), {Error: FirstError.Message, ControlName: FirstError.Source}) Stopping error messages There are conditions when you might want to suppress errors. An example from Shane’s video is trying to lookup a user’s profile in Office 365. By using an If() statement in App.OnError , we can choose to ignore any messages related to UserProfile. In the example below, only those errors that don't have the word "UserProfile" will get processed. If(Not(“UserProfile” in FirstError.Message), Notify(“You got the error: ” & FirstError.Message)) Creating your own error You can create your own custom errors for conditions that may not throw a technical error. For example, an app should error if users enter a ship date that is before the order date. Using the Error() function we can trigger the code in the App.Error property: If(ShipDate < OrderDate, Error({Message: “Cannot ship an order before it was ordered”, Kind: ErrorKind.Validation})) Additional Learning: IfError + Patch a blank value with Formula-level error management - YouTube Power Platform University Are you looking for full, personalized Power Platform training? Do you want a mentor to help guide you on your journey? Do you prefer real world content instead of academic concepts? Then Power Platform University from PowerApps911 is for you. Learn more here .

Every week as part of Power Platform University I have to do follow-up after our live sessions. I send notes on what we covered, links to recordings, and information about the next meeting. To create a better student experience, I wanted to also include an Outlook Calendar Invite with a link to the Teams meeting. This way there would be no confusion or reasons to miss. The challenge is each student needs their own invite. So not 1 invite with 50 people but 50 invites with 1 person. 🤯 Power Apps app for Input So I decided to use Power Apps and Power Automate to solve my challenge. Power Apps for me to provide all of the inputs like date and time, mentor recipients, and then the HTML body for the invites. Easy peazy for Power Apps Canvas Apps. Two challenges with the App. 1 - Saving the previous week's Message to SharePoint so each week I pick up where I left off. 2 - Setting the DefaultSelectedItems for the Combobox of mentors. I ended up making up a new technique for this. Both challenges and how to overcome them are detailed in the video. Power Automate cloud flow the work The Power Automate cloud flow was a bit trickier. The list of University students is only available via an API to ThinkIfIc, the 3rd party provider of our training platform. So the first thing the flow has to do is get the current students from the API. Then we use Parse JSON action to turn the JSON into dynamic content we can use in the flow. In this section we also talked about inputs that could be Null and how to avoid them crashing your flow. Now because the Table of students includes internal and external people, I wanted to filter out the PowerApps911 email addresses. I did this with a Filter Array action. Now we have the table of the people we want to send to we use Apply to each action to loop through the results. This allows us to create one invite per student and send it to them. Here you can see we used the inputs passed in from Power Apps and a hard coded Teams online meeting link. Perfect. Finally, we send an email with the meeting details to the internal mentors just so they know the invites went out. Boom! This App and Flow saves me about an hour a week of work and makes for a better experience for the students. If you want the gritty details of how we built the flow and app then check out this video. Meeting Follow Ups and Invites with Power Apps and Automate

Are you looking to take your app development skills to the next level? Do you want to explore the pros and cons of Model-driven and Canvas apps and learn how to build apps using both technologies? Then look no further than our 10-part series on Power Apps! Our Model-driven and Canvas app development experts walk you through building the same app in each technology, providing in-depth guidance and tips along the way. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced app developer, this series provides valuable insights into the differences between Model-driven and Canvas apps and can help you make informed decisions about which one to use. Here's a breakdown of the topics covered in each episode: Episode 1: Overview and Creating the Solution In the first episode of our series, our experts provide an overview of the series and demonstrate how to create the solution for the app using Dataverse as the data source. Watch the episode here: https://youtu.be/SKSfgyWP2jc Episode 2: Creating the Dataverse Tables In the second episode, our experts show you how to create two Dataverse tables with relationships for the app using a simple design. Watch the episode here: https://youtu.be/7jsNlcFtCo4 Episode 3: Making a Model-driven App Our third episode demonstrates how to customize Dataverse forms and views and create a model-driven app from the tables created in episode 2. Watch the episode here: https://youtu.be/_BPOMjB3f8s Episode 4: Build a Canvas App with Canva and Container In this episode, our experts switch gears and create a canvas app from scratch, starting with a blank tablet app and using Canva designs to create the home screen. Watch the episode here: https://youtu.be/Xe1DanaJ2wQ Episode 5: Add a Gallery to your app Next up, our experts demonstrate how to add galleries for each data source, explore polymorphic lookups to the related data, and set the template fill to make the selected item stand out. Watch the episode here: https://youtu.be/lvXRITZMKU4 Episode 6: Using Forms to View, Edit and Create Data in Canvas Apps In episode six, our experts show you how to add form controls and buttons to change the state of the forms, including ViewForm, NewForm, EditForm, and SubmitForm. Watch the episode here: https://youtu.be/_LbteL8oi5I Episode 7: Better Filtering of Galleries For our seventh episode, our experts demonstrate how to get related records like we saw in the Model-driven app, add a dropdown, and use a filter function to check if the value matches or if the dropdown is blank. Watch the episode here: https://youtu.be/Fstk03c9dcg Episode 8: Security Roles and Solution Export Our experts show you how to create a Dataverse security role, assign it access to the app's entities, and export the solution as managed or unmanaged. Watch the episode here: https://youtu.be/7Qv1Qtsb5ew Episode 9: Import Your Solution, Environments, and Sharing Your App In this episode, our experts demonstrate how to import a managed solution into a new environment, add a test user to the imported security role, and share the canvas and model-driven apps with the user. Watch the episode here: https://youtu.be/PkQQKWd2H-U Episode 10: Dare 2 Compare the Two Apps! In the final episode of the series, our experts compare the two completed apps and discuss some of the pros and cons of each type of app. Watch the episode here: https://youtu.be/Njg6PaTrN2c Don't forget to check out our live Q&A session with Model-driven and Canvas app development experts, where we answer questions from our audience about app development, licensing, and more. Watch the session here: https://youtu.be/raPpNREf9EE Whether you're new to Power Apps or an experienced developer, our 10-part series on Model-driven and Canvas apps provides valuable insights and practical tips that can help you build better apps. So what are you waiting for? Check out the series today and power up your app development skills! If you need help implementing this solution or have any questions about the Power Platform, please check out our Services  or fill out the contact form below. We can assist you with everything from fixing one small problem to taking on full-scale projects. We even offer mentoring and Power Platform Training  if learning is your top priority. So don't hesitate to reach out and let us help you make the most of your Power Apps experience! If you prefer to learn on your own, there is a downloadable app included with this video in our YouTube training library for only $15/month!

Do you want to learn how to paste screenshots into your Power Apps and then save them as files or SharePoint Rich Text? Then this video has you covered. Learn how to paste the image and then save it as a file. Once you have it as a file then you can use your text manipulation functions like Replace to automatically create the link as Rich text. Click the video below to get started! Click the link to view Shane Young's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ShanesCows/featured Key Timestamps: 0:00 Get Started Paste a screenshot into SharePoint Rich Text with Power Apps This video covers: RichTextEditor Control, Power Automate Flow, Base64, Replace, Mid, Find, Split, Patch, If, CountRows, and With functions 1:09 Explain the SharePoint column 3:08 Demo the power App Shane demos the Power App he created and is using in this video 6:15 Show the image upload flow Shane shows the flow he created, which has a Power Apps trigger to make upload easier 7:06 Look at the formula for saving the image to the SharePoint Rich Text field 8:22 Breaking down the problem further 17:34 Talking about limitations and how to think about the harder problems Additional Learning: Power Platform University Are you looking for full, personalized Power Platform training? Do you want a mentor to help guide you on your journey? Do you prefer real world content instead of academic concepts? Then Power Platform University from PowerApps911 is for you. Learn more here . If you prefer to learn on your own, there is a downloadable app included with this video in our YouTube Resource Library for only $15/month!

Hey there, app enthusiasts! Get ready to revolutionize the way you build and interact with software applications, as Microsoft has just announced their next-generation AI copilot for Power Apps! This groundbreaking innovation combines the magic of large language models and low-code development, enabling you to build applications through natural language authoring. Let's dive into the fascinating world of AI-powered app development and explore the incredible features of Copilot in Power Apps. What is Copilot for Power Apps? Microsoft's Copilot in Power Apps is actually two things, at least the way I think about it. First you have Copilot for Makers that allows you to create and modify a table using Natural Language. It can also add real sample data. Once you are happy you then click Create and it builds you an app to view and manipulate that data. Then you have App Copilot. This is a control in the Power Apps app that users can use to interact with their data. The same way you can ask ChatGPT or Bing Chat about a topic you can ask the tool. The only difference is the answer are coming from your table data you pointed it at. This opens up a new world of possibilities, empowering your users to be more productive with their own data. Building Applications with Copilot: A Step-by-Step Guide Are you ready to experience the magic of Copilot in Power Apps? Let me walk you through the process of building an app and interacting with it in new ways using this incredible tool. Follow along in my step-by-step tech walkthrough to get started! https://youtu.be/EKwR8ln2mC4 Integration of Power Virtual Agents Microsoft has also integrated AI-powered Power Virtual Agents into Power Apps, making it even easier for developers to add next-generation chatbots to their applications. With just a few clicks, you can enhance your app with a cutting-edge AI-powered bot that supports your users and offers an unparalleled experience. Availability If you want to get your hands on the preview, then sign up for the waitlist from here . Like the Bing Chat, they are rolling out slowly. But I promise it will be worth the wait. So get yourself on the list now and cross your fingers they pick you sooner than later. Conclusion Microsoft's Copilot for Power Apps is truly a game-changer in the world of low-code app development. With its user-friendly natural language authoring and AI-powered insights, app development has never been this fast, modern, or intelligent. It's time to join the AI low-code revolution and build incredible apps side-by-side with your AI Copilot in Power Apps. The future of app development starts now! So, what are you waiting for? Imagine it, describe it, and let Power Apps build it. If you want to explore more about Copilot for Power Apps then check out my exclusive interview with Clay Wesener from Microsoft, where he explains the how and why of this game-changing technology. https://youtu.be/Jpz-TasOKyk Pretty awesome conversation! Happy coding, everyone! Don't forget to share your experiences with Copilot for Power Apps in the comments below, and if you find this post helpful, be sure to share it with your friends and fellow developers.

Let's make a pretty Power Apps app and show everything from end to end. 😍 We use Canva and Pixabay to get our imagery right. Then we use Containers to line things up nicely. Add in some conditional formatting and this PowerApps Example is about perfect. Oh, and did I mention we also show a Patching trick we haven't shown before? This video is a touch long but has a bit of everything. Click the video below to get started! Click the link below to view more videos from Shane Young: https://www.youtube.com/@ShanesCows Key Timestamps: 0:00 Power Apps Example using Canva for Design + Full Build 1:16 Power Apps Example Shopping or To-do list 2:27 Create a blank Phone app 2:50 Using Canva to create a Power Apps Screen background image and get some colors for your app 7:30 Create a gallery screen 8:16 Create a new SharePoint list from Excel 10:07 Setting up the app in a Solution with environment variables 12:41 Using Pixabay to grab images for the app and then making them clickable 15:10 Making a soft background image 20:00 Making a screen for viewing and editing the records using vertical containers and horizontal containers 33:26 Making the records editable with varRecord 41:00 Adding a new record using Patch and varRecord with Defaults Additional Learning: Power Platform University Are you looking for full, personalized Power Platform training? Do you want a mentor to help guide you on your journey? Do you prefer real world content instead of academic concepts? Then Power Platform University from PowerApps911 is for you. Learn more here . If you prefer to learn on your own, there is a downloadable app included with this video in our YouTube training library for only $15/month!