PL-900 Study Guide

basic definition of Power BI

- Power BI (Business Intelligence) - a collection of software services, apps, and connectors that work together to turn your unrelated sources of data into coherent, visually immersive, and interactive insights

template apps in Power BI

- Power BI template apps enable Power BI partners to build Power BI apps with little or no coding and deploy them to any Power BI customer - You can build template apps that allow your customers to connect within their own accounts

microsoft dataverse categories

- Security: Dataverse handles authentication with Microsoft Entra ID to allow for conditional access and multi-factor authentication. It supports authorization down to the row and column level and provides rich auditing capabilities. - Logic: Dataverse allows you to easily apply business logic at the data level. Regardless of how a user interacts with the data, the same rules apply. These rules could be related to duplicate detection, business rules, workflows, or more. - Data: Dataverse offers you the control to shape your data, allowing you to discover, model, validate, and report on your data. This control ensures your data looks the way you want regardless of how it is used. - Storage: Dataverse stores your physical data in the Azure cloud. This cloud-based storage removes the burden of worrying about where your data lives or how it scales. These concerns are all handled for you. - Integration: Dataverse connects in different ways to support your business needs. APIs, webhooks, eventing, and data exports give you flexibility to get data in and out.

Power BI dashboards

- a single canvas that contains zero or more tiles and widgets - Each tile pinned from a report or from Q&A displays a single visualization that was created from a semantic model and pinned to the dashboard - Entire report pages can also be pinned to a dashboard as a single tile - why create dashboards: 1. to see all information needed to make decisions in one glance 2. to monitor the most important information about your business 3. to ensure all colleagues are on the same page, viewing and using the same information 4. to monitor the health of a business, product, business unit, or marketing campaign, etc. 5. to create a personalized view of a larger dashboard and show all the metrics that matter to them - listed under the Dashboards tab in a workspace - If you own the dashboard, you will also have edit access to the underlying semantic model(s) and reports - If the dashboard was shared with you, you will be able to interact with the dashboard and any underlying reports but will not be able to save any changes

model-driven applications in Power Apps

- app maker has control over the data sources, screen layout, and overall user experience, model-driven apps are always built from data in Microsoft Dataverse - data first design, where app design focuses on adding components such as forms, views, charts, and dashboards to tables using an app designer tool - responsive, which means that they work and display appropriately whether being accessed through a browser, a mobile phone, or tablet - used as management applications - efine the relationships, forms, views, business rules, and more at the data layer inside of the Dataverse. These definitions give you enough control to achieve the business result you're looking for without needing to write all the formulas yourself

Power BI

- business analytics services that delivers insights for analyzing data and shares insights through data visualizations (i.e. analysis and insights service)

approval in Power Automate

- can automate sign-off requests and combine human decision making into workflows - When you submit an approval in a flow, approvers are notified and can review and act on the request. - ex.1: Approving vacation time requests: Employees can submit a vacation request via a dedicated application, or by filling out a vacation request form. The request is sent to a manager who can approve or deny the request - ex.2: Approving documents that need sign off: Documents that require approval or signing off can be easily sent to the appropriate person to be signed off on. Once approved, a confirmation or copy of the signed document could be sent to all parties to confirm it was completed - ex.3: Approving expense reports: After filling out an expense report, a Power Automate flow can identify the person's manager, and send them the report for their approval

semantic models

- collection of data that you import or connect to - Power BI lets you connect to and import all sorts of semantic models and bring together in one place - can source data from dataflows - associated with workspaces and a single semantic model can be part of many workspaces - each listed model represents a collection of data - when added by one workspace member, available to other members with an admin, member, or contributor role

example of interaction between Power Platform and Microsoft 365

setup: During any given day, a typical end user can receive more than 100 emails. problem: Many of those incoming emails have attachments that need to be saved somewhere, such as a SharePoint site or a OneDrive for Business folder. solution: With Power Platform, a user could easily create a Power Automate flow that monitors their inbox for incoming emails with attachments. When attachments are detected, the flow could locate the appropriate customer folders in SharePoint and automatically save the attachments there

Insights in Power BI

pane shows three types of insights: 1. Anomalies: Represents something that is out of the ordinary from what is expected 2. Trends: Represents a pattern that is found in time-series semantic models. 3. Key Performance Indicator (KPI) analysis: Helps you evaluate the current value against a defined target

Microsoft Dataverse

scalable data service and app platform which lets users securely store and manage data from multiple sources and integrate that data in business applications using a common data model to ensure ease and consistency to users - enables components of Power Platform to work together

business logic in Microsoft Dataverse

(many organizations have business logic that impacts how they work with data) - can build this logic using business rules - business rules: allow you to apply and maintain business logic at the data layer instead of the app layer (i.e. when you create business rules in Microsoft Dataverse, those rules are in effect regardless of where users interact with the data) - ex: business rules can be used in canvas and model-driven apps to set or clear values in one or many columns in a table. They can also be used to validate stored data or show error messages. Model-driven apps can use business rules to show or hide columns, enable, or disable columns, as well as create recommendations based on business intelligence. - benefits: enforce rules, set values, or validate data regardless of the form that is used to input data; effective in helping to increase the accuracy of data, simplify application development, and streamline the forms presented to end users

Notifications and Power BI

(part of Insights capabilities in Power BI) - As you're working on Power BI elements such as reports, Power BI automatically runs insights analysis. When Power BI identifies insights, you're presented with a notification - can view or ignore it - proactively interact with suggested insights to ensure that you're not missing anything important

triggers and actions used together in a flow example

(purchase order approval) - Using Microsoft Power Apps, an organization can easily create a purchase request app. Users who need to purchase something would initiate the purchase order process by going into the Purchase Order Power App creating a purchase order (PO) request. In those instances, the trigger would be the user selecting a submit button on the power app. Once the request is submitted, the information is sent to a Power Automate flow. - This is where the actions come in. The flow's first action is to identify the manager of the user who initiated the PO request. In this case, the flow is using a Microsoft 365 connector to retrieve the user's manager automatically from Microsoft Entra ID. Next it creates an approval request in Microsoft Teams. The approval request is assigned to the manager who was identified in the Get manager action.

canvas applications in Power Apps

- A key advantage to canvas apps is that they interact with data from multiple data sources. This means that you can integrate business data from a wide variety of Microsoft and third-party data sources into a single application - can drag/drop various different controls into their application and then add the desired functionality by writing Power FX formulas - can be easily shared and embedded into SharePoint sites, Power BI reports, model-driven app, or Teams

anomalies in Power BI insights

- An anomaly is an abnormality in time-series data, such as unexpected spikes and dips in the data. - An algorithm computes a boundary around what is considered a normal or expected value. Any value found outside this boundary is marked as an anomaly. - 3 types: 1. Significant anomaly: high score; score indicates how far the point is from the expected range 2. Recent anomaly: the most recent anomaly in the measure 3. Anomaly summary: this insight type summarizes multiple anomalies in the measure - when an anomaly in your data is flagged, Power BI runs an analysis across different dimensions in your semantic model to look for spikes or dips in the measure that correlates to the anomaly. they're shown as possible explanations ranked by strength

KPI analysis in Power BI insights

- KPI analysis with a target looks at the variance of the current value to its target. - considered significant if the variance is high or low compared to other segments. - KPI analysis without a target looks at the value itself and flags ones that are high or low compared to other segments. - For KPI analysis explanations, Power BI looks for and identifies the categories that have higher or lower than anticipated values. - For KPI analysis with target, possible explanations are ranked based on Z-scores of the difference of the value from the target - Whereas for KPI analysis without a target, possible explanations are ranked based on the Z-scores of the value itself.

Build a Desktop flow

- desktop flows run on a local machine (app installed on your computer) -Once created, desktop flows can be triggered manually or by cloud flows -multiple desktop flow templates that you can use to help get started building desktop flows. These templates are available in the Examples section - designer is laid out as follows: 1. toolbar: contains basic operations for use with actions, such as Save, Undo, Copy, etc. Also contains buttons to start the UI/Web recorders and to control the process execution 2. Sub flows: allows you to create sub flows under your main flow 3. actions pane: contains all Power Automate Desktop Actions and includes a search bar that helps find specific actions by matching the action name to the text string 4. workspace: contains all the actions added to the process so far; functions are separated into tabs 5. input/output variables: contains all the variables you created in the process 6. flow variables: list variables created by the process - this flow assists a user in opening files; it opens a file dialog box where the user can select a specific file to open -You can add more actions by expanding an action category, selecting the action you want and then dragging the action into the workspace - can also add actions through the recorder: lets you record the steps that you execute inside websites, on the desktop, or inside applications -can test your flow at any time by selecting the Run button

Power Automate desktop capabilities

- enable you to automate all repetitive desktop processes - designer contains prebuilt drag-and-drop actions that can be easily inserted into a flow - Desktop flows are addressed to essentially everyone who is performing simple or complex rule-based tasks on their workstations - flows interact with everyday tools like email and Excel, or work with modern and legacy applications examples: 1. quicky organize your documents using dedicated files and folders actions 2. accurately extract data from websites and store them in Excel files using web and excel automation 3. apply desktop automation capabilities to put your work on autopilot

Power Virtual Agents

- enables anyone to create powerful chatbots using a guided, no-code graphical interface, without the need for data scientists or developers. - users can enable chatbots to perform and action by calling on a Power Automate flow

Using flows with Microsoft Forms

- ex.1: A real-estate organization might use Microsoft Forms for new clients to provide details about themselves and the types of properties they are interested in. With a Power Automate flow, after a potential client completes the form, an email notification could be sent to an agent in their area - There are multiple templates available to assist flow creators in building flow to support different Microsoft Forms scenarios, such as starting an approval process based on a form submission or tracking Microsoft Forms responses in Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Outlook and Power Automate

- ex.1: a real estate agent might create and store customer contracts in popular document services such as Dropbox, OneDrive, or SharePoint. Once a customer contract is created, a Power Automate flow could automatically create an email to the customer and attach the newly created contracts as attachments - Outlook.com connector used for personal email scenarios - Office 364 Outlook connector used for business scenarios

Power BI reports

- is one or more pages of visualizations such as line charts, maps, and other elements - can be created from scratch, imported with dashboards that colleagues share with you, or Power BI can create them when you connect to semantic models from Excel, Power BI Desktop, databases, and SaaS applications - 2 modes to view/interact with reports: 1. reading view: when a report is opened by a user, it is displayed in reading view 2. editing view: for individuals that have edit permissions, editing view is used to modify the different elements on the report and how they are presented - listed under the Reports tab - each listed report represents one or more pages of visualizations based on only one of the underlying semantic models

Power Automate Flows

- it works by creating flows that are then used to do things such as interact with different systems, guide users through process, or make users more productive by automating daily tasks 3 primary types of flows: 1. business process flows: used in model-driven apps to help people get work done. they provide a streamlines user experience that leads people through the processes their organization has defined for interactions that need to be advanced to a conclusion of some kind 2. cloud flows: most used; begin with a trigger (ex: email from someone) and then include one or more action (ex: creating a record in different system or sending approval) 3. desktop flows: RPA flows that allow you to record yourself performing actions on your desktop or within a web browser. you can trigger a flow to perform that process for you. you can pass data in or get data our of the process, letting you automate even "manual" business processes

Power Automate Portal

- left navigation is broken down into three sections: 1. creating and managing your Power Automate flows: - home: this screen provides you with quick access to many of the different Power Automate components in your tenant - create: where you can create new Power Automate flows - learn: provides access to multiple resources that you can use to help improve your Power Automate skills - my flows: provides access to all the flows you have created 2. access to different Power Automate elements that you can use (i.e. AI Builder, Process Advisor, Connections) - approvals: provides access to any approvals that have been sent or received by you - connectors: used to connect to different sources that you want involved in the Automation you're creating - data: provides access to the data that's supporting your flows such as Dataverse tables, gateways, and customer connectors - monitor: provides analytics around the different flows - AI Builders: provides access to AI Builder tools that can be used as part of a Power Automate solution - Process Advisor: provides tools that organizations can use to analyze organizational process to identify scenarios where automation could be used to support an organization - solutions: provides access to different solutions that have been deployed to your environment 3. provides easy access to other Power Platform sites that can be useful. available items include: - Power Platform admin center - Power Apps maker portal - Power Pages maker portal - Power Virtual Agent portal - Power BI

Power Automate

- lets users create automated workflows between applications and services - repetitive business processes automated such as communication, data collections, and decision approvals

cloud flows

- most common - use connectors to interact with different services 3 main types: 1. automated flows: automatically triggered by an event (ex: arrival of an email from specific person); most common in cloud flows 2. instant flows: started automatically and are done with the click of a button; can automate for repetitive tasks from your desktop/mobile devices (ex: to instantly send a reminder to the team with button push on phone) 3. scheduled: run on a defined schedule (ex: might be used to fire off daily data uploads to SharePoint or database) common scenarios: 1. Approvals: They can be used to automate approval processes such as invoice approval, time off requests, project sign off, and more 2. Application integration: They can be used to allow an application to interact with another application. For example, a technician in the field might use a dedicated app to request a part. A Power Automate flow could automatically order the part in the company's inventory system 3. Improve productivity: End users might create personal Power Automate flows to automatically do things such as saving attachments received via email to specific locations like SharePoint or OneDrive for business

Business process flows

- mostly used in model-driven applications to help users get work done - represent a process that a user follows through to completion - provide streamlines user experience to provide them with the best way to advance to a conclusion of some kind - during each stage of a flow, there is information that may need to be logged. Based on the info, the stages of the flow might change common scenarios: 1. sales process: Organizations can create sales focused business process flows that guide sellers through the entire sales process ensuring that they are following the organization proven sales procedures for maximizing their chance of winning the deal 2. case resolution: Support centers might create service centered business process flows that guide agents through the process of creating a case, troubleshooting the case, and ultimately resolving the case 3. Event Planning: An event planning company might use a business process flows to ensure that they are not missing a step when they are planning an event. Stages in the process can exist for booking the venue, planning the meal, defining entertainment details and more 4. Selling a home: A real estate company might use a business process flow to assist their agents in getting a home ready for an open house. This might include having stages for capturing inspection details, staging the property, and coordinating with staff to ensure someone is available at the time

trends in Power BI insights

- occurs when there's a prolonged increase or decrease in time-series data. - steps of the Power BI algorithm uses to find trends: 1. performs data smoothening, interpolation, and time-series sampling 2. trends are then identified for statistical significance based on the slope and length of a change in value 3. The algorithm removes noise like seasonality and outliers - 4 main trends flagged: 1. Long trend: The trend is significant and is the longest trend within a single series or across multiple series in a visual. 2. Steep trend: The trend is significant and is the steepest trend within a single series or across multiple series in a visual. 3. Recent trend: The trend is significant and is the most recent trend within a single series or across multiple series in a visual. 4. Trend reversal: Recent trend in a single series or across multiple series in a visual where the reversal is significant, compared to the previous trend segment. -When a trend in your data is flagged, Power BI looks for and identifies the categories that most influenced the increase or decrease in the identified trend. Possible explanations are ranked based on the relative contributions from different categories to the increase or decrease in trend.

Power Apps

- provides a rapid low code development environment for building custom apps for business needs. - ability to interact with cloud and on premises data sources

Power Automate mobile capabilities

- run instant flows - manage activities - create new flows - manage exisiting flows

Power Pages

- secure, enterprise-grade, low-code software as a service (SaaS) platform for creating, hosting, and administering modern external-facing business websites

Build a basic Power Automate cloud flow

- select the + Create button - decide whether you apply one of the many different templates available to create your flow or build your own from scratch. - can select one of the predefined filters, or you can search by a specific word or phrase like "Outlook." - enter details to ensure the flow operates as intended. (ex: if you want to store email attachments in different OneDrive folders based on who sent you the email, you need to configure the condition accordingly) -Everything is done with a point and click interface -designers can show Power Automate an example of a value that you want to format and the desired output, and Power Automate suggests the appropriate expression to use

get insights on reports and visuals

- there are also many scenarios where you may just be able to get insights as you walk through some of the different elements - as you're working with Power BI reports and visuals, you can select Get insights to open the Insights pane. - the pane only shows insights about the current report page, and it updates when you select a different page on the report - As you work with individual visualizations, you can select More options (...) in the upper-right corner of a visual, and then Get insights to see insights about just that visual

relationships in Microsoft Dataverse

- to make efficient and scalable solution, you'll need to split up data into different containers (tables) - ex: need to create system to manage sales orders. the major components include customers, products, invoices, and line items --> create 4 tables and relate them to one another -- benefits: you will not have to store repetitive data or support huge rows with large amounts of blank data and easier reporting - 2 most common relationships: 1. one to many 2. many to many

desktop flows

- used to simulate user interaction with an application or website - often referred to as Robotic Automation (RPA) - Think of it as a computer playing back tasks and steps that are otherwise done by an individual - A cloud flow performs an action based on API calls, whereas a desktop flow is like a macro as it is playing back previously recorded steps in order common scenarios: 1. Improve employee productivity: A desktop flow can be created to replicate the actions of an end user who performs repetitive tasks. An example would be interacting with a specific website such as an interest rate site, and then entering that information into another application like an Excel Spreadsheet 2. Interacting with a legacy system: Many organizations are still using home built legacy applications that do not have modern APIs available that could be used by a cloud flow. In these instances, you can still automate the interaction with the legacy application without needing to rebuild the application from the ground up 3. Automating website interaction: Many users need to interact with specific websites daily to enter details or capture information. For security reasons, many companies don't provide access to their APIs to allow you to do direct automation with their platform. A Desktop flow is a great way to mimic the user interaction and provide an automated solution 4. Automate working with terminal emulation software: Many organizations use terminal emulation software such as Citrix to reduce hardware cost. Users log into simulated desktops. Many of these uses perform repetitive tasks. Desktop flows can be used to mimic user keystrokes and automate activity

SharePoint and Power Automate

-SharePoint: allows organizations to create sites where users can share documents and information with colleagues, partners, and customers - ex.1: Managing approval flows: With the content approval feature in SharePoint, you can put a simple approval process for documents in a specific document library. Using this content approval process, documents pending approval will not be visible to users until they are approved. This prevents documents that do not meet organizational standards accidentally being used which could result in financial losses. - ex.2: Working with files and lists: help manage permissions of an individual item in a list or a file that is stored in a document library. For example, a flow could be used to grant access or provide approval for when an item is created or added to a specific folder. When an item is created, an approval request is created. Once the request is received, the flow will send the request to a manager who could approve the request

3 Power Platform Tools

1. AI Builder 2. Microsoft Dataverse 3. Connectors

controls in Power Apps

1. Galleries - These controls are layout containers that hold a set of controls that show rows from a data source. These are commonly used when you want to display multiple records at a single time. 2. Forms - These controls show details about your data and let you create and edit records. 3. Media - These controls let you add background images, include a camera button (so that users can take pictures from the app), a barcode reader for quickly capturing identification information, and more. 4. Charts - These controls let you add charts so that users can perform instant analysis while they're on the road.

5 Power Platform Products

1. Power Apps 2. Power Automate 3. Power BI 4. Power Virtual Agents 5. Power Pages

Power Apps common elements

1. Power Apps Studio: web interface used to build Power Apps 2. App format: choose between Mobile or Tablet format; can be used interchangeably on mobile device, tablet, or computer; has defaults around sizing and controls; can't change once selected 3. Connectors: connect app to data; over 900 prebuilt connectors available 4. Galleries: when you need to display a list of records on a screen; done with Gallery control; it displays rows from a table of data; defined by a template; allows you to control which columns are shown and how they are formatted; then applied automatically to every row in your data 5. Forms: focused on working with a specific record, often based on a selection from a gallery; browse gallery to find and select the desired row to view the details on the form; enable a user to view detailed info, save new records, and edit existing ones; controlled by form modes 6. Input Controls: allow max flexibility in customization; can be added to galleries, forms, and screens to build functional and aesthetic experiences; All inputs have a multitude of settings for default data, formatting, and actions; Ex: text inputs, buttons, dropdowns, toggles, date pickers, and sliders 7. intelligent Controls: hardware-backed controls (i.e. access to camera, bar code scanner, GPS); service-backed controls (i.e. business card reader or object detector) 8. Functions: binds all these controls, inputs, and data sources together; create formulas; used for actions such as sending data to a data source, formatting info, creating animations;

3 Power Automate applications

1. Power Automate Portal: the maker portal provides a single access point for makers where they can easily create, manage, and monitor the different Power Automate flows they have created 2. Power Automate Mobile: provides access to Power Automate functionality while on the go 3. Power Automate for Desktop: used to create robotic process automation flows

the parts of Power BI

1. Power BI Desktop 2. Power BI Service: an online SaaS (Software as a Service) 3. Power BI Mobile - mobile apps

user interface components of a model-driven app

1. app: determine the app fundamentals like components, properties, the client type, and the URL 2. site map: specifies the navigation for your app 3. form: include a set of data entry columns for a given table; can be used to create a new data row or edit an existing one 4. view: define how a list of rows for a specific table appears in your app; defines the columns shown, the width of each column, the sorting behavior, the default filters

Power Automate common scenarios and capabilities

1. automating repetitive tasks such as moving data from one system to another 2. guiding a user through a process so they can complete the different stages (ex: sales organization might want to guide sellers through the process of selling products to customers) 3. automating desktop based and website processes with robotic process automation (RPA) capabilities (ex: bank employee needs to update exchange rates daily they would utilize RPA to log into the website with rates, save them to desktop, and update on company spreadsheet)

Which type of Power Automate flow would an end user be most likely to use for the following scenario? They're trying to automate the process of capturing information from a website and entering it into an Excel spreadsheet. a. cloud flow b. business process flow c. desktop flow

c. desktop flow - Desktop flows are often used for user interface automation. They can be used to record steps such as entering data into a website, and then copying data from the site and entering it into an Excel spreadsheet

Business climate changes: new factors impacting businesses

1. changing workforce expectations: deliver more custom, streamlined, and collaborative digital experiences for millennials and Gen Z entering workforce 2. Increased costs for custom application development: also need to factor in cost for maintaining apps 3. Need to become more agile: historically took months to build out, now businesses need change rapidly and build solutions on those changing needs 4. Need to scale development efficiently: orgs needs to change how they develop solutions. Enabling citizen developers (power users) as part of the development process, can create hybrid development teams

basics of building a canvas app

1. identify a business need that can be addressed by Power Apps 2. connect to any necessary data in your Power Apps 3. design the app using controls, buttons, and an easy-to-use interface (your end user can interact with the data to accomplish the business need) 4.save and publish the app and test functionality 5. share the app with end users to give them a better business process

building a Power BI dashboard

1. prepare your data: ensures that it's in a format that Power BI can easily consume - upload the data to the Power BI service: attach an Excel file to a semantic model and Power BI will create a blank dashboard where you'll be able to place visuals later 2. build a report: the report contains the visuals that you want to include in your dashboard (can be built in Power BI Desktop or Power BI Service) - can add different types of visualizations here 3. pin the report visuals to a dashboard: dashboards are the primary element that users use for viewing data. they can include data from multiple reports as needed 4. share a link to the dashboard: any users with the link and the necessary permissions are easily able to view and interact with the data

data components of a model-driven app

1. table: items with properties that you track (ex: contacts and accounts) 2. column: properties that are associated with a table and help define that table; defined by a data type which determines the type of data that can be entered/selected; typically used in forms, views, and searches (ex: text, number, date, time) 3. relationships: define how tables can be related to each other; 1:N (one to many) N:1 (many to one) and N:N (many to many); (ex: adding lookup column to a table creates a new 1:N relationship between two tables) 4. choice: type of column shows a control that lets the user select among predefined options. Each option has a number value and a label. Choice columns can require either a single value or multiple values

two components of cloud flows

1. trigger: determine what starts the flow 2. actions: determine what the flow does

connectors' data sources

2 types: 1. tabular data: returns data in a structured table format. Power Apps can directly read and display these tables through galleries, forms, and other controls. If the data source supports it, Power Apps can create, edit, and delete data from these data sources (ex: Microsoft Dataverse, SharePoint, and SQL Server) 2. function-based data: uses functions to interact with the data source. These functions can be used to return a table of data but offer more extensive action such as the ability to send an email, update permissions, or create a calendar event. (Ex: Office 365 Users, Project Online, and Azure Blob Storage)

using flows with Microsoft Teams

3 scenarios: 1. trigger flows from Teams messages: In this scenario, you can create flows that are triggered when someone selects a Teams message 2. use flows with adaptive cards: adaptive cards can be used as the trigger for flows 3. create flows from within the Power Apps app in Teams: Use the Power Apps app in Teams to create flows that use Dataverse for Teams. Dataverse for Teams is a built-in, low-code data platform for Teams that empowers users to build custom apps and workflows within Teams by using Power Apps and Power Automate

power platforms admin center (cont.)

7. Help + Support: This section is where you can create new support requests and manage any existing requests that have been previously submitted. 8. Data integration: This section lets you create or add predefined connections and monitor these connections between Microsoft Dataverse and other data stores like Salesforce or SQL Server. 9. Data: This section is where you can manage the different data sources, on-premises data gateways, and virtual network data gateways associated with this tenant. 10. Policies: This section is where you can manage some of the different data security policies and other security features, such as the Customer Lockbox and tenant isolation. 11. Admin Centers: Provides access to the different admin centers that can impact Microsoft Power Platform solutions such as the Microsoft 365 admin center, Azure active directory and more.

exercise: build a canvas app

BrowseScreen1: 1. BrowseGallery1 - This Gallery control takes up most of the screen and shows data from your data source. 2. NextArrow1 - When this Icon control is selected, it opens the details screen. 3. IconNewItem1 - Another Icon control that When selected, opens the edit/create screen. DetailScreen1 1. DetailForm1 - This control contains other controls and contains a data card for each column of the row that is being displayed. 2. Address_DataCard1 - This is a card control. Each card represents a single column of the row. In this case, it shows the Address from the Site Inspector table, as shown in the previous unit. 3. IconEdit1 - When this control is selected, it opens the edit/create screen so that the user can edit the current item. EditScreen1 1. EditForm1 - This control contains other controls and contains a data card for each column of the row that is being edited. 2. Address_DataCard2 - This is a card control that shows the address from the Site Inspector table, as shown in the previous unit. 3. IconAccept1 - When this control is selected, it saves the user's changes.

How can data sources be used with Power Apps canvas apps? a. Power Apps can only use its internal data sources. b. Power Apps uses only external data sources and doesn't have an internal data source. c. Power Apps can use multiple internal and external data sources in the same app.

c. Power Apps can use multiple internal and external data sources in the same app. - Power Apps allows you complete control of which data sources you use in your app. There are over 600 data connectors available, and the ability to build a custom connector if one doesn't exist.

Data Connectors v. Microsoft Dataverse

Data Connectors: make it easy to connect to data across different services - bridge between data sources and your app/workflow - Power Platform has more than 900 connectors available to various data sources - include a series of actions that simplify the process of working with those data sources Microsoft Dataverse: business database that not only stores business data, but also includes other built-in features such as security and more. - data stores in tables: set of rows/columns, each column stores specific types of data (i.e. names, locations). - includes other elements that help with securing data, data validation, and productivity - each Dataverse instance includes a base set of standard tables that cover typical business scenarios (i.e. accounts, contacts) - can create custom tables

Microsoft copilot and Power Platform

Microsoft's Copilot uses AI to allow individuals to communicate their needs using natural language and be provided with relevant assistance based on the details they provide - tasks such as building applications, are as simple as just describing what you need the application to do through multiple steps of conversation. - Users can use Copilot inside applications to help them locate and analyze data, and streamline how they perform daily tasks. - in Power Apps: By embedding the Copilot control inside canvas and model-driven applications, you can provide your users with an AI-powered experience that helps them gain insights about the data in their apps - in Power Automate: Using the cloud flows designer with Copilot allows you to create automations that help streamline your workflow through quick and easy natural language expressions - in Power Virtual Agents: Power Virtual Agents lets you create and iterate topics by describing what you want and having AI build it for you, significantly decreasing the time it takes to create and update bot topics

clean/transform data with Power BI

Power BI Desktop application has three views: 1. report view: you can create queries to build compelling visualizations that you can share with others. you can arrange them as you want them to appear 2. data view: see the data in your report in semantic model format, where you can add measures, create new columns, and manage friendships 3. model view: get a graphical representation of the relationships that are established in your semantic model and manage or modify them as needed - Power Query Editor tool in Power BI Desktop can help you shape and transform data so that it's ready for your models and visualizations. steps include: 1. select Edit from the Navigator window to launch OR from Power BI Desktop by using the Transform Data button on the Home ribbon - transforming data: process of putting data into a format that is useable in your reports - cleaning data: visualization/modeling tools work best with columnar data; you might combine rows into a single item to better format the data to fit your needs or you may have a series of numeric data that would need to be aggregated to display better (Power Query has tools to help with this)

interaction between Power Platform and Dynamics 365

Power BI: business analytics capabilities provided by Power BI are often used to connect to Dynamics 365 applications and provide important insight into an organization Power Automate: Items called business process flows are the primary component in Dynamics 365 customer engagement apps. They help provide a guide for people to get work done Power Virtual Agents: Dynamics 365 Customer Service can provide support across multiple channels to easily direct incoming phone calls, SMS, or Facebook messages to Power Virtual Agent bots first Power Pages: Many organizations provide customers with self-support options where customers can access a portal and find answers to questions, engage with support, or even open new support tickets

interaction between Power Platform and Microsoft Teams

Power BI: tab allows users to share interactive Power BI content and collaborate with others Power Apps: provides an integrated experience for app makers to create and edit apps and workflows within Teams. They can quickly publish and share the apps to team members Power Automate: create flows to automate repetitive work tasks directly within the Teams environment with the Power Automate app in Teams. You can trigger a flow from any message in Microsoft Teams and use Adaptive Cards within Power Automate Power Virtual Agents: create, manage, and publish conversational chatbots Dataverse: empowers users to build custom apps, bots, and flows directly in Microsoft Teams using Power Apps, Power Virtual Agents, and Power Automate Virtual Assistant for Teams: Microsoft open-source template that enables you to create a robust conversational solution while maintaining full control of user experience, organizational branding, and necessary data

example of how Microsoft Power Platform apps work together

Set up: business that has IT equipment for general use Problem: equipment check-out is conducted by visiting the IT office, checking if the product is available, then writing your name with the equipment type in a notebook Solution: Power Apps allows us to build an app that has all equipment listed, the status of that equipment, and even important details such as use instructions. Power Automate can read when equipment needs to be returned and send reminder emails to the employees. Power BI can take all the data generated from the app and analyze it to help your IT leaders understand what equipment is used most often and by whom

Example of combination of citizen developers and professional developers

Setup: technicians in the field might encounter scenarios in which they need a mechanical part to execute a job, such as inventory. Problem: the technicians would need to first submit a request. This delay means waiting for the person in charge of the inventory to get back to them, only to find out later that the part isn't in stock. Solution: building a dedicated app using Power Apps. By being able to check inventory levels while onsite, technicians don't have to spend time waiting to determine if the part is available. Not only can they see the inventory, but they can also easily request any part as needed. Since the technicians best understand what they need to complete the job at hand, they can use their first-hand knowledge to build out a prototype of the application using Power Apps. Takeaways: minimizes the amount of time that development resources spend working on items like screens, automations, and more. This efficiency frees them up to focus on the more advanced portions of the solution where their skills are more appropriately used

logic components of a model-driven app

The logic components determine what business processes, rules, and automation the app has: 1. business process flow: walk users through a standard business process (ex: if you want everyone to handle customer service requests the same way) 2. business rule: apply rules or recommendation logic to a form to set field requirements, hide or show fields, validate data, and more; App designers use a simple interface to implement and maintain fast-changing and commonly used rules. 3. flows: Power Automate is a cloud-based service that lets you create automated workflows between apps and services to get notifications, sync files, collect data, and more

visualization components of a model-driven app

The visualization components determine what type of data and reporting the app shows and which designer is used to create or edit that component: 1. chart: individual graphical visualizations that can appear in a view or a form or that can be added to a dashboard 2. dashboard: show one or more graphical visualizations in one place that provide an overview of actionable business data 3. embedded Microsoft Power BI: Power BI adds embedded Power BI tiles and dashboards to your app. Power BI is a cloud-based service that provides business intelligence (BI) insight

scalability of microsoft dataverse

a database can support large data sets and complex data models - tables can hold millions of items and can extend the storage in each instance of a Microsoft Dataverse database to four terabytes per instance - amount of data available depends on number and type of licenses that are associated with it - Data storage is pooled between all licensed users, so you can allocate storage as needed for each solution that you build

Your sales team is in desperate need of a mobile application that can display rows living in a SharePoint list. When displaying the records, multiple pieces of information about each record need to be visible to the user. Which of the following Power Apps tools would you use when designing your app to achieve this functionality? a. Create a gallery to display the sales rows. b. Create a form to display the sales rows. c. Create an input control to display the sales rows.

a. Create a gallery to display the sales rows. - Galleries are used to display tables of data from your data source. They're highly customizable, so you can show whatever information about a particular row that is necessary. You could then use a form to edit individual records, if desired.

How can data sources be used with Power Automate? a. Power Automate can only connect to Microsoft data sources such as Office 365 and Azure. b. Power Automate requires you to build custom connectors to access external data. c. Power Automate can connect to data sources using one of the hundreds of prebuilt connectors or by building your own custom connector.

c. Power Automate can connect to data sources using one of the hundreds of prebuilt connectors or by building your own custom connector - Power Automate allows you to automate business processes where your data lives.

power platforms admin center

admin portal allows administrators to manage their environments and configure many of the primary settings for Power Apps, Power Automate, and customer engagement apps for Dynamics 365 categories: 1. home: Provides overall information, such as if there are any services disruptions, etc. Different cards can be added to better personalize this screen based on your needs. 2. Environments: This section lists all the environments in this tenant. This includes Microsoft Dataverse environments and other environments such as Dataverse for Teams environments. 3. Analytics: This section provides analytical details about Microsoft Power Platform such as Dataverse analytics, Power Automate Flow Statistics, and Power Apps details. 4. billing: the billing center contains details related to user licenses 5. Settings: This section lets you review and manage settings at a tenet level, such as being able to control who can create and manage the different types of environments available. 6. Resources: This section is where you can view capacity statistics for your tenant and manage and install features related to Dynamics 365 applications.

AI Builder

allows users and developers to add AI capabilities to the workflows and Power Apps they create and use

what are Microsoft Azure services?

azure cloud platform provides services such as data storage services to virtual machines, to artificial intelligence services, and you can build, run, and manage applications across multiple clouds, on-premises, and at the edge. - Azure services can be used with Power Platform to help modernize legacy systems, automate processes, and create advanced analytical solutions example: Employ Azure API management and Azure Functions to connect custom APIs, which tap into your legacy systems. By using Azure-managed databases and a low-code approach to automate tasks, you can lower the overall solution costs. You can quickly build apps that are real-time, resilient, and scalable.

Someone asks you to describe a connector. How would you respond? a. Connectors hold a series of functions available for developers. b. Connectors connect your data source to your app, workflow, or dashboard. c. Connectors are a cloud-based service that makes it practical and simple for line-of-business users to build workflows that automate time-consuming business tasks and processes across applications and services.

b. Connectors connect your data source to your app, workflow, or dashboard. - Connectors allow functions and information to pass from your data source to your app or workflow.

Where do you find flow templates? a. You have to build and save templates yourself; there are no prebuilt templates. b. Directly from the Power Automate builder website. c. You need to download the template pack from the Microsoft Learn website.

b. Directly from the Power Automate builder website - When you create a flow, you can choose to start from a template. There you can browse for templates or use search to find just the right template to begin your project.

A client likes the idea of implementing a Microsoft Power Platform solution but is concerned about the ability to interact with a custom API. How should you respond? a. Microsoft Power Platform has over 900 connectors to use in these situations. b. Microsoft Power Platform offers the ability to create custom connectors, which allow you to connect to Power Apps and Power Automate. c. Microsoft Power Platform uses connectors that hold a series of functions available for developers.

b. Microsoft Power Platform offers the ability to create custom connectors, which allow you to connect to Power Apps and Power Automate. - You can build out a custom connector to bridge your app or workflow to the API.

You want to build a mobile app that allows you complete control over the user experience and design. What type of Power Apps app should you build? a. A model-driven app b. A portal app c. A canvas app

c. A canvas app - With canvas apps, you start with a blank canvas choosing your type of mobile or tablet. Then you can design the app to meet your "pixel perfect" design.

What can Power BI do to help you effectively use your data? a. Analyze sales data to better allocate resources and place orders, optimizing operations. b. Analyze customer data to better target and promote specific items to specific customers. c. All of the above.

c. All of the above - Power BI can analyze all types of data you may have to help your business efficiency and decision making efficacy.

Power BI helps with which of the following business processes? a. Notifying users when a SharePoint list item has changed. b. Generating an approval. c. Analyzing and displaying data.

c. Analyzing and displaying data - Power BI empowers business users to make beneficial decisions By analyzing and displaying your data.

canvas apps vs model-driven apps

canvas: not dataverse driven, task or screen focused, custom UI, device integration, easily embeddable model-driven: dataverse driven, back office/process focused, responsive/consistent UI, user personalization, data relationship navigation, security trimming of UI ex: real estate company needs app to manage agents in field and help new sellers. - from seller standpoint: best is canvas as it can connect to dataverse data and other sources such as Google Calendar; can also create custom user interface; can use easily on phone to take picture due to integration abilities - from real estate manager standpoint: best is model-driven as it helps them support sellers and manage daily operations; Items like business rules and business process flows can be used to help guide sellers through the various processes - a canvas application can be used to help compliment the data in the model-driven application. In this case, we have an embedded canvas application on the Real Estate Property form

microsoft dataverse

cloud-based solution that easily structures various data and business logic to support interconnected applications and processes in a secure and compliant manner - available globally but deployed geographically to comply with your potential data residency - incorporates security, logic, data, and storage into a central point - designed to be central repository for business data - can create one or many cloud-based instances of a standardized database. it includes predefined tables/columns to store data that can be customized. - can connect to Dataverse using connectors APIs

Power BI app

collection of dashboards and reports built to deliver key metrics to the Power BI consumers in your organization; they are interactive but consumers cannot edit them

columns in Microsoft Dataverse

columns: store a discrete piece of information within a row in a table (similar to column in Excel) - have data types - can store data of a certain type in a column that matches that data type - ex: if you have a solution that requires dates, such as capturing the date of an event or when something occurred, then you store the date in a column with the type Date - every database starts with a standard set of tables and columns

Power Platform connectors

connectors: bridge from your data source to your app/workflow; allows information to be conveyed back and forth; allows you to extend your business solutions across platforms and add functionality for your users - more than 900 available - divided into 2 types: 1. standard: SharePoint, Outlook, Youtube 2. premium: require additional licensing for your app and/or users; ex: SQL Server, Survey Monkey, and Mail Chimp - connectors can provide input and output between the data source and Power Platform, which can accelerate the delivery of Microsoft Power Platform business solutions

capacities

core Power BI concept representing a set of resources used to host and deliver your Power BI content. 1. shared capacity: is shared with other Microsoft customers; by default workspaces are created on a shared capacity 2. dedicated capacity: is fully committed to a single customer; require a subscription

dataflows in Microsoft Dataverse

dataflows: are self-service, cloud-based, data preparation technology - used to ingest, transform, and load data into Microsoft Dataverse environments, Power BI workspaces, or your organization's Azure Data Lake Storage account - are authored by using Power Query, a unified data connectivity and preparation experience already featured in many Microsoft products, including Excel and Power BI - customers can trigger dataflows to run either on demand or automatically on a schedule, data is always kept up to date - other services can interact with the data produced by dataflows since dataflow stores in cloud-based storage - ex: Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Virtual Agents, and Dynamics 365 applications can get the data produced by the dataflow by connecting to Dataverse, a Power Platform dataflow connector, or directly through the lake, depending on the destination configured at dataflow creation time. - benefits: 1. dataflow decouples the data transformation layer from the modeling and visualization layer in the Power BI solution 2. the data transformation code can reside in a central location, a dataflow, rather than be spread out among multiple artifacts 3. a dataflow creator only needs Power Query skills. In an environment with multiple creators, the dataflow creator can be part of a team that together builds the entire BI solution or operational application 4. a dataflow is product agnostic. it's not a component of Power BI only, as you can get its data in other tools/services 5. dataflows take advantage of Power Query, a powerful, graphical, self-service data transformation experience 6. dataflows run entirely in the cloud. no additional infrastructure is required 7. You have multiple options for starting to work with dataflows, using licenses for Power Apps, Power BI, and Customer Insights.

Connectors

enable you to connect apps, data, and devices in the cloud - i.e. bridge across which information and commands travel - Ex: Salesforce, Office 365, Google Services

power platform environments

environments: used to store, manage, and share an organization's business data, apps, and flows. - each environment allows you to provision one Microsoft Dataverse database for use within that environment - you can manage user access, security settings, and storage - each is created under a Microsoft Entra ID tenant, which resources can only be access by users within that tenant. - bound to a geographic location: items created (i.e. connections, gateways, flows on Power Automate) are bound to location/datacenters there. - can create more than one environment to manage solution development and data storage (i.e. one environment per task)

building a model-driven app

ex: an app called "Fundraiser" - two Dataverse tables: Donation and Fundraiser - need to define the visual elements that are used to present the data to users and specify the following: 1. forms: defines how users see and interact with individual records 2. views: defines how lists of rows are presented for each table (can specify which specific forms or views to include for a table by selecting either the table form or view and choosing either Manage forms or Manage Views) - It's possible to include multiple forms and views per table - when adding new content, there are several options to choose from: 1. table based form and view: Display records of table in a full-page list view. Forms associated with that table are also included. 2. Dashboard: Displays charts and tables from multiple entities to visualize data on a single page. Multiple dashboards can be added to a model application. 3. URL: Allows to add a URL to the application navigation. Web resource: Displays a web resource inside a page. Web resources are files created by developers that extend the functionality of an app. 4. Custom: Allows you to design and build the type of page you want by dragging interactive components into the canvas.

Power BI and AI

features include: - Insights for reports: Analyzes data and finds anomalies and trends in your data as you interact with reports. - Insights for individual visuals: Analyzes and explains the fluctuations of data points in visuals. - Insights for dashboard tiles: Looks at the data being used to render that tile and presents them in interactive visuals. - Quick Insights for semantic models: Automatically generate data insights on a semantic model in the Power BI service. - AI Insights for semantic models in Power Query: Provide access to pretrained machine learning models from Azure Cognitive Services.

power platform governance and security

governed by the Microsoft Online Services Terms and the Microsoft Enterprise Privacy Statement - Power Platform service follows the Security Development Lifecycle (SDL): a set of strict practices that support security assurance and compliance requirements - Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies act as guardrails to help prevent users from unintentionally exposing organizational data. DLP policies can be defined at the environment or tenant level -connectors can be classified as follows: 1. business: connectors that host business-use data 2. non-business: connectors that host personal-use data 3. blocked: connectors that you want to restrict usage across one or more environments when a new policy is created, all connectors are defaulted to the non-business group and can be moved to business or blocked based on preference - data protection: connections between customers and microsoft datacenters are encrypted and all public endpoints are secured using industry-standard TLS. -TLS effectively establishes a security-enhanced browser to server connection to ensure data confidentiality and integrity between desktops and datacenters. API access from the customer endpoint to the server is also similarly protected

what are Microsoft Dynamics 365 apps

intelligent business applications that help organizations run their business and deliver results through AI; has a variety of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer engagement applications; - model-driven applications: built using Power Apps and are based on a data model store within Microsoft Dataverse; components include forms, views, charts, and dashboards are used to present data to end users.

types of connectors

standard: Standard tier connectors are connectors that are included in your standard Microsoft 365 subscription. Standard connectors cover many of the most used data sources such as SharePoint, OneDrive, and Power BI as well as third-party data sources such as Google Drive, Twitter, GitHub, and more. premium: While standard connectors are available with a standard Microsoft 365 subscription, premium connectors are only available when you have the appropriate standalone plans such as Power Apps per user plan, or a Power Automate per user plan. The main advantage of premium connectors is that they allow you to connect to a larger number of services. Most premium connectors cover external applications such as Salesforce, DocuSign, Survey Monkey, Amazon, and so on. There are several Microsoft applications that use premium connectors such as Dynamics 365. Premium connectors are identified by the premium stamp. custom: Custom connectors allow you to extend your app by calling a publicly available API, or a custom API you are hosting in a cloud provider, such as Azure (API: Application Programming Interface - holds a series of functions available for developers). Connectors work by sending information back and forth across these APIs and gathering available functions into Power Apps or Power Automate. Because these connections are function-based, they call specific functions in the underlying service of the API to return the corresponding data - benefit: they can be used in different platforms such as Power Apps, Power Automate, and Azure Logic Apps - 3 approaches to create customer connectors: 1. using a blank custom connector 2. from an OpenAPI definition 3. from a Postman collection

Microsoft Dataverse structure and benefits

structure is based on the definitions and schema in the Common Data Model - benefit of using the Common Data Model: simplifies the integration of solutions that use a Common Data Model schema - standard tables of the solution are the same - can take advantage of a rich ecosystem of solutions that vendors have built from using the Common Data Model - no limit to how far you can extend a Microsoft Dataverse database

tables in Microsoft Dataverse

table: logical structure containing rows and columns that represents a set of data. there are 3 types: 1. standard: also known as "out of box" tables; account, business unit, contact, task, and user tables are examples; can be customized 2. managed: tables that are not customizable and have been imported into the environment as part of a managed solution 3. customer: unmanaged tables that are either imported from an unmanaged solution or are new tables created directly in the Dataverse environment

items in power apps maker portal

tables: Allows you to manage the Microsoft Dataverse tables deployed in this environment. You can easily create new tables and perform tasks such as modifying the different forms, views, and relationships in the Dataverse instance. Connections: Allows you to manage the connections being used by apps in this environment. Flows: Provides access to any flows that have been created for this environment. Chatbots: Provides access to any chatbots that have been created for this environment. AI Models: Provides access to AI builder models for this environment. Solutions: Provides access to any Solutions that have been deployed to this environment. Cards: Provides access to Cards created in this environment. Choices: Allows you to manage the choice columns in this environment. Connections: Allows you to manage the connectors that are being used in this environment. Dataflows: Provides access to Dataflows being used in this environment. Power Platform: Provides access to other Power Platform Maker portals.

triggers

the starting action for a flow; a flow only has one trigger - different types of triggers: 1. when something changes: runs when data is changes (ex: it could be a new item created in SharePoint); most used 2. on a schedule: triggered at a certain time of day and with a reoccurrence (ex: checking every day at 8AM to see if there are new account renewals pending and sending an email to the necessary people) 3. on a button press: can be when a flow virtual button is run through the mobile app and a physical button is clicked with third party options OR can be when a button is pressed inside of Power Apps; gives you and/or the users control to "run" a flow on demand

Power BI elements

to create Power BI solutions, there are several major building blocks. these elements help not only what data is being presented but also how it will appear to those consuming it. - those elements are semantic models, reports, and dashboards - all elements are organized into workspaces, and they are created on capacities

Someone adds an item in SharePoint, which prompts a flow to run in Power Automate. What type of operation was used to start your flow? a. trigger b. action c. function-based

trigger - is an operation that tells a workflow to begin or prompts some type of action.

triggers and actions for connectors

triggers: are only used in Power Automate and prompt a flow to begin. Triggers can be time based, such as a Power Automate flow that begins every day at 8:00 am. They could be based off an action like creating a new row in a table or receiving an email. You always need a trigger to tell your workflow when to run actions: are used in Power Automate and Power Apps. Actions are prompted by the user or a trigger and allow interaction with your data source by some function. For example, an action would be sending an email in your workflow or app writing a new line to a data source

actions

what you want to happen when a trigger is invoked; a typical flow has multiple

workspaces

workspaces are containers for dashboards, reports, semantic models, and dataflows in Power BI. 2 types: 1. My workspace: the personal workspace for any Power BI customer to work with your own content; only you have access; can share dashboards and reports from here; if you want to collaborate on dashboards/reports, then need to create in a workspace 2. Workspaces: used to collaborate and share content with colleagues; all workspace members need Power BI Pro licenses (i.e. staging areas and containers for the content that will make up a Power BI app)