Deep Dive into Power Platform #1 Power Apps
Tags: powerfuldevs, powerplatform
Published: 2020-12-31 12:39:22

Power Apps is a suite of apps, services, connectors and data platform that provides a rapid application development environment to build custom apps for your business needs. With Power Apps, you can quickly build custom business apps that connect to your business data stored either in the underlying data platform (Microsoft Dataverse formerly CDS) or in various online and on-premises data sources like SharePoint, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, SQL Server.

With Power Apps, you can create three types of apps: **Canvas Apps**, **Model-driven Apps**, and **Portals**.

To create an app, you start with [Make.powerapps.com](https://make.powerapps.com/)

**Power Apps Studio** is the app designer used for building canvas apps. The app designer makes creating apps feel more like building a slide deck in Microsoft PowerPoint. 

**App designer** for model-driven apps lets you define the sitemap and add components to build a model-driven app. 

**Power Apps portals Studio**is a WYSIWYG design tool to add and configure web pages, components, forms, and lists. 

**Canvas Apps**
They Provide a visual canvas for one to build and design apps.To create the app, you can drag and drop various elements into your canvas from whatever you require. Throughout, you can format the right conditions and settings that are needed to make the application work.

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/mcajtzh6nkecfg1bsh07.png)

**Model-Driven Apps**
They Provide an interface to build apps with complex business logic. Model apps can run as either a standalone or as the backend to a canvas app. 

One of the core benefits of Model-driven apps is their ability to generate data models. When inputted, the data is defined as a structure which allows the app to conform to your information.
The simple application architecture allows you to customize the app, without creating new code.

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/08lij2oefryawdm5ow7e.jpeg)

* Canvas and Model Driven Apps are quite similar but to their design, the fundamental difference is over user control. When creating a Canvas App, you have full control over every single aspect of the result.

* In contrast, Model Apps are controlled more by the data and information you enter into it. What you input is effectively what decides the outcome. The layout, functionality and general design will be more affected than a Canvas-based application.

* If you want flexibility there’s Canvas, yet if you crave structure, Model-driven apps can provide that. 

**Portal**
A portal provides an experience of an external facing website 
that allow users outside their organizations to sign in with a wide variety of identities, create and view data in Microsoft Dataverse, or even browse content anonymously.


![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/auag9s0pfxsb4en12j69.jpg)


This end-to-end experience  allows portal makers to quickly create a website and customize it with pages, layout, and content. Makers can reuse page designs through templates, add forms and views to display key data from Dataverse, and publish to users.

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/zd1j5wkkm5omtq6ybs9j.gif)

* Create an M365 Developer Account [Here](https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/dev-program)
* Create one of the apps described above and share the app on social media ,Don't forget to tag the power platform community.

For More insights one can check out :
* [Power Apps Documentation](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/)
* [Udacity Power Platform course](https://www.udacity.com/course/microsoft-power-platform--ud091)