Month: November 2018

PowerBI Connector – CDS for Apps

Recently they added a new connector for PowerBI – and you may want to use it in place of your Dynamics 365 connector!

Here are some of the key benefits:

Improved performance

Data load and refresh times will be decreased. This was a big pain point with the D365 connector when working with large datasets.

Sorting the entities by custom and system entities

When you decide to bring in tables, you can see which entities are system and which are custom from the data table selector.

Friendly option set values

Options sets will show up as their friendly values. Before, you would have to build a table with the Value and Name and merge it with the entity table to get the friendly values.

Alphabetical order of column names in tables

This was one of my biggest pain points because the columns seemed to show up in no particular order using the D365 connector. With the CDS Connector, the columns will be in alphabetical order when you need to edit the queries.

Key Features of the New Dynamics Integration with Teams

Chatbot

Talk to the Dynamics 365 Bot to search, update and post to records.

The bot will prompt you with some example questions, and from there you can imagine this comes in handy when you want information quickly without having to go to Dynamics.

Add record as a tab

Add records to a Teams channel to get easy access to any record. Such as the Account, Contact, Opportunity or Project.

This is great for managing Projects. Put the Project record right in the Teams channel you are using to collaborate with your other project team members and you can quickly pull up the project estimates, as well as key information you are using to keep track of it in Dynamics.

Conversations

Get and keep conversations going about the record you have created a tab for.

View your dashboards

Gain quick insights into your data with the dashboards embedded right into Teams. Whether they are Dynamics Dashboards, or PowerBI dashboards that you have embedded into D365, get the quick insights you may need at your fingertips.

 

In summary, this new Teams integration with Dynamics will allow your users to perform most of their work in Teams. They won’t necessarily have to go to Dynamics 365 every time they need to perform an action on a record or get insights on a report/dashboard.

Add a Bing Maps Control to you PowerApp

Adding a Map control to your PowerApp can be very helpful to end users, but it is not available out of the box (unless you continue to keep voting here). There are many use cases such as displaying a map based upon an Accounts address or displaying the location of a Work Order.

Here’s a quick way to add the map to your screen by using an Image control and a Bing Maps Key. Please follow the steps here for getting your own Bing Maps Key.

After you have gotten your key, time to go into your PowerApp.

Step 1: This step is as simple as adding a Text Input box to your screen and renaming it to “txtInput.” (Or in case you are linking the map to an already existing address, make sure that field or data card is on the screen).

Step 2: Add a Label control to the screen and rename it “BingMapsKey.” Take the key you got from following the steps in the above link and put it as the Text property of the label. Now that you have the Key and Label on the screen, set the Visible property to false, this way users cannot see the map key.

Step 3: Add an Image control to the screen and rename it “MapControl.” Make sure to size and position the map based upon the other controls, forms or galleries on the screen. Now set the Image property to “https://dev.virtualearth.net/REST/V1/Imagery/Map/Road/” & EncodeUrl(txtInput.Text) & “?mapSize=600,” & 300 & “&key=”&BingMapsKey.Text. The numbers I highlighted in Red help size the map accordingly, so you may need to play around with these numbers depending on the size of the control you created.

It’s as simple as that! Test out your map by “playing” the app and typing an address into the txtInput control.

Bring your forms to life with PowerApps

With Microsoft Office 365 and PowerApps, there is no longer a reason to make your employees fill out a paper, PDF, or email template form.

There are 4 main reasons you should use PowerApps for filling out forms:

User Interface: In today’s day and age, users expect an attractive and engaging user interface with every system they use. Your forms should be no different. PowerApps allows you to create a custom branded application that will allow your employees to fill out and submit forms with ease. Using a PowerPoint-esque interface, you can drag and drop icons, buttons and forms exactly where you want them to be. With the right touch, you can design the PowerApp to guide the user through the process with ease.

sharepoint-welcomes-powerapps-and-microsoft-flow-1Mobile: All your forms will inherently be mobile! With Microsoft’s mobile-first mindset, your employees will be able to access the PowerApps from any device, including their phones. Build one application that works across all devices.

Connectors: PowerApps allows you to connect to a database, no matter where it is. So, you can store the information collected in your forms in SharePoint, Dynamics, CDS, Oracle, SAP or any other system that has an API connection!  From there, you can easily analyze the data collected in your forms without having to cull all of the information.

Control: You have complete control over all of the controls, fields, actions, patching data sources, look-ups and workflow (hopefully with Microsoft Flow).

There is no limit to opportunities to use PowerApps forms such as a leave request form for HR, the maintenance shop work order request, or capital expenditure approvals. Your users will be thanking you for never having to go into a SharePoint list or submitting a PDF form again – and your administration staff will never have to enter data from paper forms, scan and save employee requests or maintain paper files!

If you need a simple form solution for your company, PowerApps is a no brainer. Chances are, you already have access to it with your Office 365 licensing! Start leveraging the power of Office 365 and PowerApps today and look like a rockstar to your colleagues!