Getting Started with PowerApp Portals & Dataverse Part 1: Setting up the Environment and Database

[Dave Upton]

For this series, I will walk through the creation of a Power Apps Portal that uses Dataverse for data storage.  I will review at a high level the steps required to create a basic portal app including forms and views based on the underlying database. 

Part 1:  We will look at setting up the PowerApps Environment, creating the database entities, and creating a view and form for a table.

[Edited 1/24: Flipped Parts 2/3, Portal is required to setup Part 3]
Part 2:  Creating the Power Apps Portal, creating a new page, setting up the form to capture new rec...

Part 3:  Configuring a Dataverse field that will store the Created By Contact. This field will auto ...

It all starts here:
https://make.powerapps.com/

Getting Started with Dataverse:

1. Create a PowerApp Environment w/ Database (if you don’t already have one) so that you can get access to Dataverse entities.
1. Open Power Platform Admin Center (https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com/environments)
   
   
   
   
2. Create a New Environment.

1. Create or alter Dataverse Entities.
   
   
1. Create New Table
   Create a custom table (contains video) - Power Apps | Microsoft Docs
   
   
   
   
2. Adding Columns to table. 
   
   Open an existing Table from the table list by clicking on its Name.  The following tabs will be used to add columns, views, forms and to look at data that exist in the table.
   
   Views: Model-driven apps use views to define how a list of rows for a specific table are displayed in the application.
   Forms: Provide the user interface that people use to interact with the data they need to do their work.
   
   
   
   Note: Column Data Type cannot be altered after creation.  If a change is needed, delete the field, and create a new field with the correct Data Type.  If you have already captured data in the existing field you may want to rename it, in place of deleting.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Create a new View that will be used by the application to display records on the portal page.
   Create or edit a model-driven app view in Power Apps - Power Apps | Microsoft Docs
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Create a new Form that will be used by your application to capture new data.
   Create and design model-driven app forms - Power Apps | Microsoft Docs
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Summary:

At this point we now have a PowerApps Environment, Dataverse database, one or more database tables, and at least one view and one form. 

Stay tuned for Part 2

If you have questions or any topics you want to see in the future, please use the comments area below.  Thank you.