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PowerApps Tidbit - PowerApps templates and how they can help you speed up deployment

Hello All,

Hopefully by now you know the power of using PowerApps for building solutions for your business, but did you know that we have created numerous templates (…and growing) to help you create solutions even faster!  Not to mention the benefit of making PowerApps more accessible to your citizen developers.

Some of the advantages to using these templates are:

  • Pre-built layouts and color schemes for different app screens that you can directly use or clone.
  • Learn how controls are being configured for common actions, such as how to submit data from a form by clicking on a button, how to transition from one app screen to the other, how to show a list of items from my data, etc.
  • Learn how data flows in and out of your app and how to wire up your data source to your app.
  • Learn how camera or GPS are being integrated into your app.

You can check out this article for detailed steps on how to create your solution but here is a quick tutorial to get you started

  1. Install PowerApps Studio from the Windows Store, and login with your work or school account.
  2. On New, select a 'Phone layout' or 'Tablet layout' option under 'App templates'. Note that whether you choose phone or tablet layout, your app will always run in a web browser.
  3. Select one of the templates (e.g., 'Budget Tracker', 'Site Inspector', ‘Cost Estimator’ or ‘Service Desk’). Note that you can preview the screens of each template before using it. I encourage you to browse through the list of templates and look through different screens to determine which one best fits your needs.
  4. Configure a connection if you haven’t done so, or switch to use a different connection by clicking on ‘Change’. This is the connection to a storage account such as Dropbox, One Drive, or Google Drive, where you will give us the access to place an Excel file. The Excel file contains sample data that the template uses.
  5. Once you establish a connection and select a template, click 'Use'. PowerApps will copy an Excel file to your selected storage account and generate the app from the template you have chosen.
  6. Run the app, customize it to your needs, save it and share with your team or organization.

If you have more questions about templates after reading this you can post a question or join a conversation at the PowerApps community.  Find out more at the PowerApps learning center.  In that community if you want you can provide any of the following information to help suggest the right template for your needs or provide your idea for new templates:

  • What is your app for?
  • What are the most important features you are looking for?
  • Do you want an image heavy app?
  • If your focus on form, text, images, videos, or others?
  • Any example of other apps you are using for inspiration?

Pax