PowerApps and Flow, one year later

SharePoint Saturday Belgium 2017 • October 21 • Brussels Track: Everything | Level: 000

PowerApps and Flow, one year later

Adis Jugo

SharePoint Saturday Belgium 2017 • October 21 • Brussels Track: Everything | Level: 000

PowerApps and Flow, one year later

Adis Jugo

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Slide 4

Adis Jugo

Microsoft MVP Office Development

Microsoft MVP Office Servers and Services

In IT for way too long (first money earned with development in 91)

Still dreaming of a Ćevapi restaurant or a vineyard

Director of Product Technology at skybow AG

Born in Sarajevo, B&H, living in Bingen, Germany

Blogger, speaker, author. adisjugo.com

Slide 5

SharePoint Saturday Belgium 2017 • October 21 • Brussels

What is new?In PowerApps…

• Environments and data policies

• Common data model

• Relational data in apps

• Notifications

• Column formatters

• Apps on SharePoint list

In Flow…

• Modern Approval Workflows

• Team Flows

• API building enhancements


PowerAppsSubtitle


Environments


Data Policies


Common Data Service


Common Data Service



Relational Data


Notifications



PowerApps and SharePoint touch-points

• SharePoint data via connector

• SharePoint list embedded forms

• PowerApps apps from a SharePoint list

• PowerApps web part in SharePoint modern pages


Embedded in SharePointSmooth transition between platforms

• In SharePoint

• In PowerApps


Column Formatting – Scenario Patterns

Conditional Formatting Action Links Flow Buttons Data Visualizations

Apply styling to a field, depending on that field’s value

or range of values

Create a hyperlink to another page or Web

address, based on the value in the field

Create a button that kicks off a Flow on the corresponding item

Use icons and CSS to decorate fields with visual indications of

trends and progress


PowerApps web part


Custom forms with PowerApps

• Built-in browser basedcustomization experience

• Integrated to “modern”SharePoint UX

• Easy to customize


Easily publish and share PowerApps

within an organization

Embed PowerApps in Microsoft

Teams

Embed PowerApps in Power BI

dashboards

PowerApps everywhere


Complexity of solution

Co

mp

lexi

ty o

f cr

eati

on

Embedded forms

Stand-alone apps

Extending PowerApps

PowerApps use cases and scenarios


PowerApps roadmap - highlights

H2 Calendar 2017 Calendar 2018

o Create and use embedded PowerApps as custom list forms

in SharePoint Online

o Utilize attachments, multi-select fields, and images in your

SharePoint Online driven PowerApps

o Easily embed PowerApps in SharePoint Online pages with

web parts and within Power BI reports

o Use the Rules explorer for easier expression authoring

o Tenant-wide admin resource management, app usage

analytics, and package export/import across environments

o Easily connect to Azure App Services & APIM

o Use server-side business logic for validation

rules and easy defaulting

o Create model-driven apps

o Support for GDPR compliance

o Government cloud deployment

o SQL - Support for stored procs and views

o Enhanced application lifecycle management

with sandbox environments


FlowSubtitle


Integration in modern lists and libraries

• You can create a flow for a list or a library directly from SharePoint:

• Flows that run in the background

• Flows that run on a selected item

• Up next:

• Flow launch panel

• Out of box send for review flow

• Content publishing


Flow launch panel

• Create flows that prompt for information

• Run as the user starting the flow

• Integrated into modern lists and libraries in SharePoint


Out of box “Send for review” flow• Available in all lists and

libraries, no set up required

• Uses the Flow launch panel and prompts for approver and message

• Tracks the status in a new column on the library: “Review status”


“Modern” Approvals in Flow

• Streamline business processes for data in SharePoint, Dynamics 365, Forms, SQL, etc.

• View sent and received requests in a unified approvals center

• Do approvals on the go - from your phone or directly from your inbox

• Customize to fit your business process:• Sequential or hierarchical approvals

• Parallel approvals

• All Assigned Must Approve


“Modern” Approvals


• Approval processes are an integral part of all businesses

• HR request forms – vacation requests, travel authorization, travel expense, mileage reimbursement, equipment rental, equipment inspections, etc.

• Document approvals – contracts, specs, designs, sales quotes

• Issue tracking• Lead generation

• Flow is the successor to SharePoint designer workflows and approvals were the most common workflow scenario in SPD


SEQUENTIAL APPROVALS


PARALLEL APPROVALS


APPROVALS WITH REMINDERS



Microsoft Flow roadmap - highlights

H2 Calendar 2017 Calendar 2018

o Export/import Flows across environments

o “In-the-box” review Flows for SharePoint Online

o Use Flow for Content Publishing approvals for

SharePoint Online Publishing sites

o Utilize people, choice, attachment and multi-values

in your Flows for SharePoint Online

o In-context Flow support in Dynamics 365, OneDrive

and Teams

o Usage analytics for Flows

o Flow activity included in Office 365 audit logs

o Use a HTML rich text editor to build emails

o Guides for debugging actions and conditions

o Government cloud deployment

o ALM – Sandbox environments

o ALM – Move or copy across environments

o Support for GDPR compliance

o Leverage device signals (e.g. Location) with Flows on

mobile devices

o Include Flows in AppSource

o Azure functions integration


WrapupSubtitle


Use PowerApps & Flow


Major ssues / drawbacks with PowerApps

• Limited SharePoint integration• No DocLibs, limited support for some field types

• Integration via iFrame (DOM and context issues)

• No complex forms• Master-detail very difficult to implement

• Very basic form designer

• Limited field validation and calculation• Due to the limited expression language

• No validation controls/helpers

• Not context aware• User context and SharePoint context missing

• Process management only through Flow

• Premium Flow plans

• Only partially replacement for event handlers and timer jobs

• Fallback to custom code

• Extensibility

• Custom Functions and API Apps for any extension

• Manageability and operations

• Rollout issues

• No ALM story at all


How does Solution Studio relate to PowerApps?

Feature PowerApps skybow Rich Forms / Solution Studio Online

SharePoint Integration Incomplete. No support for document libraries and certain field types.

Full integration, forms on SharePoint Lists.

Data modelling and Complex forms No Master-detail forms on lists, repeating tables, cross-field and cross-list totals

Form design Very basic Precise positioning, tabs, groups and tables, master-detail, sub-forms and dynamic display

Fields validation and calculation Very basic, context-unaware Advanced validation. SharePoint data, context and user-context aware

Process management Triggering Microsoft Flows Native Action Links for basic processes. Triggering Flow and SharePoint workflows.

Extensibility Limited, SharePoint-unaware expression language.

JavaScript-based, SharePoint data and context aware expression language

Background Processing No. Partially through Flow. Automatic aggregations, scheduled and conditional actions.

Mobile support Yes, native app In progress (coming soon)

Manageability and operations No deployment and ALM features Packaging and deployment. Full support for ALM cycle


Flow-> SP Workflow gapsSharePoint Workflow Flow

Out-of-box send for review Limited Q4CY2017

Reassignment of approvals Yes Q4CY2017

Approval reminders Yes Q4CY2017

Custom input forms for approvers Yes Q4CY2017

Document library CI-CO, approve Yes Future

Approver impersonation Via permission elevation Future

Site level actions Yes Future

Set permissions on an item Yes Future


What now?

• Plan wisely, expect unexpected

• Don’t overpromise

• Remember the “InfoPath trap”

• Consider alternatives (3rd party platforms)


What are you aiming for?

CREATE LIST FORMS

Simple Complex

Form logic

Validations

Calculations

Code behind

PowerApps skybow

CREATE PROCESSES

StateflowsAdvanced Workflows

State machine

Long running

Automation

Advanced analytics

Flow BPM

State visualization

Simple approvals

External data connectors

Simple layouts

Conditional formatting

Replace InfoPath and SPD

Simple Complex

1:1 feature parity

Complex master/detail

Form logic

Code behind

PowerApps

skybow

No forms logic

No code behind

No forms Actions

Replace Access Services,create business apps on SP

Data modelling

Advanced UI

Process management

Background actions and triggers

Reporting

Flow

BPM

Data-CentricProcess centric

SOLUTION TYPE

Simple workflows

skybow

Branching

Advanced approvals

Standard Workflows

Actions and Conditions

Sending emails


Thank You!

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