In this video, you will generate a Canvas app with a data source, is a Microsoft Excel
workbook that is stored in Microsoft
OneDrive for business. You are a developer,
Contoso manufacturing, and your manager
has provided you an Excel workbook that is a table of different buildings owned by Contoso manufacturing. A link to the shared workbook
is currently emailed between people as
they traveled to different locations
to make updates. You know that by
using a Power Apps, Canvas app, they will be able to view the building directly
from their phones. In addition, they will
also be able to edit information and even
add new buildings. You are using an Excel
document in this task. But keep in mind that
you can use data from many other sources, including
Microsoft Dataverse, Microsoft SharePoint, Cloud
services like Salesforce, and On-premises sources
like Microsoft SQL Server. This gives you the
flexibility to build your app from your data
no matter where it lives. You can also combine data
sources within Power Apps to easily create associations between different data sources. If you do not have a
Power Apps available, you can sign up for free
Power Apps Community Plan. This will allow you to learn and explore Power Apps in
your own environment. For more information
and to sign up, go to powerapps.microsoft.com/community
plan. The basic Power Apps
creator journey will look something like this. Identify a business need that could be filled by Power Apps. Connect to any necessary
data in your Power Apps. Design the app using controls, buttons and an
easy-to-use interface for your end-user to interact with the data to accomplish
the business need, save and publish the app,
and test functionality. Once satisfied,
share the app with end-users to give them a
better business process. Now let's take a look at how
to connect to a data source. First, you need to download the Microsoft Excel workbook and the associated image files that Power Apps will use to
construct your Canvas app. You can download the Contoso
site tracking zip file using the link in this lesson's additional
resources section. Next, you will need to
extract all the files and then save them to your
OneDrive for business account. Now go to make.powerapps.com and sign in with your
organizational account. On the Power Apps homepage, select Create from the
menu pane on the left. You will now see some
start from options. Scroll down to select
more data sources. Under Connections, choose OneDrive for Business or New connection if you don't
have a connection available. Next you need to choose
your Excel file. For this example, select the
Contoso site tracking file. Now you need to select an
appropriate table within the Excel file that can be
used to construct the app. Click the "SiteInspector"
table, and then "Connect". Wait a few seconds while Power Apps prepares
and assembles your Canvas app
using the data from the Excel table.
There you have it. A preview of your app is now visible in the Power
Apps workspace, where you can start configuring
and editing your app. If you'd like to see how
your app runs in mobile, install the Power Apps
mobile app on your phone. Whenever you're building an app, you should test it in the
same format as your users. To do this, you should download Power Apps mobile
from the App Store, from the platform
that you want to use. Sign in by using your
username and password. On your phone or tablet, run the Contoso site tracking
app in Power Apps mobile. If you do not want
to install the app, you can run it in a browser. If the app you're
creating will be used on a mobile device, then it's a good idea to check how the Power
Apps looks and runs on mobile so you can give your users the
best experience.