Issue: 2023 - Vol. 20 - Issue 1 - Power Platform

Charles Lamanna notes that AI will help makers with low-code development in Power Platform, including simplifying, streamlining and democratizing software creation, fostering collaboration across domains of expertise, and empowering everyone to be innovators.

Microsoft is leading a paradigm shift in the industry, where organizations will become AI companies to meet their software needs. Microsoft is using generative AI to enhance Power Platform, and is bringing natural language automation flows, and Copilots, that leverage AI, to simplify and accelerate software development.

Journey to cosmic Azuria and hear the tale of squire Phillip and how he learns the magic of Power Apps to create an app to improve the acquisition and management of snacks for Sir Pow R. Platformius on his great battle steed, Excel’erant.

Angelo explains some key concepts of Power Automate including triggers, actions, and cloud flows. He then shows two examples of how to use Power Automate to automate tasks, such as processing invoices using AI Builder and storing data in a Dataverse table, or using Power Automate Desktop to connect to a business application that doesn’t have a Power Platform connector.

Professional developers should love Power Platform. It’s built on Azure cloud services and has many extensibility points. Use the Power Platform Extension for Visual Studio Code and you don’t have to leave your favorite IDE while you create, build, and deploy Power Platform solutions, packages and Power Pages websites. Apply pro-dev skills for customization, creating connectors and working on teams where citizen developers do a lot of the less interesting work.

John presents seven examples of how to use Power BI with other tools in the Power Platform to use them better together. John's examples include refreshing data on a schedule or on change, creating real-time reports and dashboards, writing back data using Power Apps visual, displaying real-time survey results, alerting with dashboards, and creating data-driven subscriptions.

Mike and Greg describe how Power Fx democratizes the creation of apps, automation flows, virtual agents, and other business solutions in Power Platform. They describe ways to use Power Fx in different scenarios such as evaluating formulas, accessing external data, and using imperative logic. Pro-devs can leverage the Power Fx SDK to build features into their own products.

We are in the era of enablement. Businesses have a challenge in that they cannot find enough software developers. Chris suggests that low-code platforms, such as Microsoft Power Platform, have evolved to empower citizen developers, business technologists and professional developers to collaborate and build solutions that meet business needs.

Toni and Fabio explain and demonstrate the benefits of Power Pages and its features to rapidly prototype and iterate sites, which offers advantages for professional developers. Those pro-devs can focus on building functionality and delivering tailored user experiences, while Power Platform handles underlying infrastructure, security, and complexities.