Welcome everyone to the.
Most dangerous session of the day, it's the session after lunch, but I will do my best and if anyone of you gets a little bit of tired. Maybe we do some exercises in between. Let's see if we have to stand up, but it's not planned now my name is Wolfgang. I come from Austria and I'm a bike.
Doing mainly power BI stuff and more and more doing power platform stuff, so not to forget. There are 2 things today in the evening. We have to party and after the session. It would be great. If you can fill out the feedback forms and handle it to the.
Guys after the at the entrance in the Orange. Shirts feedback is really, really necessary, so even if it's good or bad just give us the feedback and it can only improve plus that's 1 thing I would like to do now. Please if you have your mobile phone or whatever your mobile browse.
Laptop over there could you please fill out that small form I will need it and it's part of one of my demos so I will leave the current code over there for a few seconds.
The power platform, it's quite a new term and it was introduced during the last year by one of D.
Yeah, most changing CEOs of Microsoft by Satya Nadella and the question in the beginning was what is dead power platform So what is really that thing called power platform? Is it really one thing or is it a combination of different things and it's.
A quite simple formula it contains of 4 different pieces, which are well. The power platform. Its power by maybe you've heard about it. Its flow Microsoft flow. Its power reps plus the common data service to com.
And what I would like to do in the next. I think 45 minutes is to explain to you. What is that power platform and what are the different pieces and how they work together and where you can already use them today in a quite fast and simple way so the power platform itself made it'SAP.
During let's say one year ago and Satya Nadella announced it or mentioned it in one of their earning calls where he mentioned the power platform is one of the things that is really coming up and challenging the market in a different way and.
There's 1 thing that changed in Microsoft during the last years when we remember maybe SQL Server 20052. Thousand 1214 16. We had to release this every 2 years and we had almost no information? What is really planned for the next release?
In the next release and that one is really, really different now with indie power platform. The business applications product group. They are publishing their release. Notes they are publishing their planned features for the next 6 months and if you go to that a KS.
This business applications release nodes you get to a page where you get the planned features for the next 6 months, so starting with April until September. We have the business applications release. Nodes April 2019 and that is a PDF I think 250 pages.
Or the web page, which is I think one time per month. Updated so we have changes in that feature release plans and at the team sometimes moves out. Some features but they are also introducing and adding new features. But if you want to learn more about the plant feed.
Power BI power reps and flow in the next 6 month that is your starting point and as we can see here. The business applications group. They are responsible for the power platform below that line and the dynamics 365 product or product.
That way and dynamics those products they really need and work together or base to work on the power platform, so first of all let's have a look did anybody had the chance to fill out that form some of you so let's see.
If.
Yeah, that's good so.
What I asked you is about your current feelings and I see OK we have 5 of you that feel really, really good and the most important part here is the upper part because the 14 attendees that answered the questionnaire. They already know power BI so I don't really have.
Playing power BI or is that anyone in the audience that is not familiar with power BI.
OK so I will skip the power BI explanation part which is good that power. BI is already known in the community for the flow. We have 5050 and 4 power apps. We have the maturity that do not know power apps. The power platform itself OK. Majority doesn't know the power platform. I think that's 1 of the reasons.
Yeah, today so.
Good.
Let's go back here power by nothing more to add it's a platform for doing interactive reporting Microsoft. It's a new product. It's a very H Island fast moving product and that's it for power BI.
Power apps is the second part of the power platform and power apps is the answer. Coming from Microsoft for building business applications. In a way that can be seen as simple and fast, moving so it's not that real part.
Or did the real technology for building highly sophisticated customized business applications where you need to work with huge volumes of data where you have to build huge matrixes for entering data or whatever, but it's a tool where you can build business applications in a fat.
And Optimized for starting for the web so it's a web based product, but you can also publish your power apps on mobile devices. So if it's an iPhone and Android phone or whatever. There are native power BI or sorry power apps.
Entering on the device itself and the.
Let's say term that is not new to power apps. It's the rapid application development. So it's an easy way to start your business applications and how does it look and feel I will change to the web page and there are some URLs you have to remember?
For the power platform.
Its power BI dotmicrosoft.com it's power apps dotmicrosoft.com and its flow dotmicrosoft.com and those other 3 URLs you have to remember and then you are in the power platform that is the starting point of power apps when I'm locked into power.
And start and creating a new application and there are 2 types of application. You can build with power apps the first one, is a?
Canvas app that one is an application where you start with your let's call it the dialogue and you start with the dialogue and you fill it with controls you fill it with the text boxes you fill it with combo boxes and you bind those controls to your data sources.
The other type of application is or I called model driven applications and those are based on the common data model and common data service. I will explain to you later. What it really is. But that is the second part how you can build power reps and that one is.
Already existing model containing entities relationships and business rules, but let's start with a new power app and what you can see here. I just need to enter an application name and then I have to decide what is my?
Let's say size of my application if I want to optimize it for a tablet or if I would like to build a phone application and in that part I just want to create SQL bits and I switched to the phone format.
And then the web based.
Application designer starts and what we can see afterwards is.
We get our designer.
And we have in the middle. We have our let's say formula designer where we build our dialogue on the left side. We have our controls on the dialogue and on the right side. We have our property screen at the configuration screen we can add here and.
What we can do now? Is we can connect to data and?
That is one of the parts that really makes the power platform. Powerful is they are sharing many, many pieces between those different technologies, so power. BI has connect us to. I don't know 150, 180 different source systems and also power apps.
We will see later they also sharing those connectors. They are also introducing many, many different connections to that system so we have let's say the similarities and the sharing of technologies, So what we can do here is we can add a new.
Connection and the list is really, really long so we have database connectivity. We can also connect to on premise its data sources like SQL server using the same gateway with power. BI it shared. It's the on premises data gateway that can be used by power by logic.
And also power apps and what we can do now is we can search for example, SQL server, and we can connect directly if it's.
SQL server in the cloud SQL Azure Database or SQL data warehouse or we can use the on premises data gateway.
And what we can do is we can add controls to our application. For example, we can add a text input box. We can add what we have here combo boxes. Whatever so we can build our application within.
Environment and when we're done with the application. It's just a small step. We have to or we can define some application settings and then it's the part of saving that application.
And sharing that application because when I build a power app. It's only available for myself. And I have to share it to my colleagues. When I'm done with the development. I have to share it. And I have to provide the information, which user groups or which users are allowed to work with that.
So that is a really, really short introduction into power apps. They are much, much more powerful and I will show you some examples in let's say real life or real demos are there any questions now for the power apps part?
I know it's after lunch, but if there are any questions. There are still some sweets left so yeah, it works, it works.
The question is will power apps be a substitution for access because yeah, you can compare it to access in former times. Access application started small and grouping and are now there in companies doing all the work.
I'm not quite sure if it's the plan to replace access because was Microsoft has seen with access applications is.
They are powerful, but they are not easy to remove afterwards so II see it a little bit into the direction replacement of access. But I think that Microsoft will stop it a little bit to not grow that big like access so that.
Yeah, let's say not not directly in that area, I've put it here. You have to grab it afterwards. What is A plus con compared to access is you can define who is able to work with it, you can define the versioning and all that stuff, so it's a little bit.
It's like a simple access application.
Microsoft flow, it's the third part of the power platform.
As the name implies workflows. I think everybody working in the company has to deal with workflows either directly or somehow hidden in the in the background somewhere and workflows can be challenging and workflow do have some.
Yeah, they RIT thinks they can be complex. They have to do whatever things and what Microsoft flow does it gives the power to everyone to build its own flows and that is really, really, really simple because you also have a web based editor for.
Low and it really makes it easy to create a new flow be cause you have. I don't know 200 different connectors that are able to connect to different systems, either databases or Twitter or share point or excel or whatever and then you build actions and it's a very.
And it's based on a formula language, but that one is easy to learn because you have those kind of hints in your web environment and it makes it really easy to build a workflow so everything in the power platform has the direction of giving more.
Did end users to the key users there's 1 marketing term. I put it here. The cities and integrators so everybody should be able to build its own work flowed everybody should be able to integrate 2 different or more different systems and it gives more energy and possibilities to not.
Department, but also moves that kind of workflow creation possibilities to key users to advanced users like those access users that we're building those integrations or did applications in the past.
And now it's the fourth part of the power platform. It's the common data model is there anyone that knows the common data model or has heard about the common data model OK. Some is there anyone that hasn't heard about the common data.
Yeah, it's a It's a term when you're working in the dynamics environment in the dynamics field. I think you've heard about it, but the common data model is a data schema. Imagine you're building business applications and imagine you are building.
One business application and in 2 or 3 months, you're building the next business application and business applications share somehow. Let's say the entities or the data. They're working with so we have contexts. We have customers. We have products we have whatever entities that are really working in the business area.
And you can build those business applications. In 2 ways either. You are inventing the wheel. For every business application. So you are creating your own product entity in business application. One you're creating another product entity for business application 2 or you re you.
You're already created data models and that is the part where Microsoft has done the work for us, so they have worked on a data model. The common data model that is a standardized so they looked what are those entities in our business applications and they build a list of?
180 entities and they group them into different areas, so we have put it a little bit bigger here, we have a group of sales entities here.
We have a group for CRM entities and we have a core.
Let's say entity group and within that core entity group. We have for example, a contact entity or an email entity and that is the part where Microsoft engineers have done the work and they thought OK, which are the entities contact.
Or what are the DD attributes the contact entity needs? What are the attributes product entity needs and they build the data model so they created a data model and we can use the data model and that common data model exists of the entities to contact email.
Customer whatever entities and those entities have attributes and we can define relationships between those entities. So we have an order and we have order details and order details reference product and the order itself references a customer.
And what we can also do within the common data model. We can define some business logic in there, so we can define OK. If we have a zip code in Austria. It's 4 digits. I don't know how the UK. Zip codes are handled but I think it's not 4 digits only and so.
Some business logic based on the data itself and.
If you are interested in the common data model so I change it to that one. There is a beautiful website.
Maybe you can remember those websites built in the beginning of the.
1990s something like this and that one is the common data model browser and with that. I have to load it. Sorry with that browser. You can browse through the entities that I find the attributes and all the other information and it's really.
Yeah, the content is nice, the user interface. Maybe it's not that nice or could be better, but it's really interesting. Maybe we are looking for the task entity and we have the list of attributes in there and if I look for the owning team, we have all the entries.
Or not the entities the settings that are defined 4 dead. Specific attribute in the common data model entity definition and that is just the start because the common data model itself. It only defines the data model and it doesn't define how the date.
Or entities in the shape of the common data model an in Office 365 in dynamics 365. We have the common data service and that one relies on the common data model and it stores the data in common data model.
Shape let's call it that way. And there are 2 different shapes for the common data service. There are or there is a common data service for apps for applications. Let's compare it to we have transactional based application or application.
I asked for apps that is where we store our orders that is where we store our context. Where are our customers are stored and the CDs for apps can be used by dynamics 365 or using power apps and there is a web based BR.
Where we can have a look at the entity definition? What you can see here. I just zoom in a little bit. It's a little bit more compared to a normal database table because here we have text entity.
And we have a multi line data type so the common data service provides a little bit more sophisticated data types and also we can define those business rules like zip code validation or whatever that is all built into or provide.
Common data service.
Yeah.
Yeah, the question is there are 2 of them CDs. Apps CDs for apps, but can they share information. And yes, they can share So what you can do with the CDs for dynamics for example, you can write a power Rep that reads and writes entities within.
So you can access that one so it's really a combination. Where can work on the same data definition?
Yeah, the The The thing the hint was when you're already working with dynamics and now you're moving into power apps or the other way around. You don't have to create another CDs instance. It's called the CDs database where you're working with that, so you can share that one, I'm not really deep.
Mix 365, so I'm not really sure if you can do it like a one click thing. If you already have a power reps CDs. But I think it's more or less a smooth way of migrating into that thing.
Is it OK? Thank you so we have a yes? It is and now we have the transactional CDs? Is to one part CDs for reps and now we have a transactional move when we moving into reporting into business intelligence, we are.
Very often, changing the layout of our data storage and we also have a common data service that can be used within the power BI context has anybody heard about the power BI data flows.
Or is anyone there in the audience that hasn't heard about power be. I data flows.
Power BI data flows is a way of doing self service, data integration in the web. So when we are now dealing with power BI datasets. We're building datasets for almost every report and imagine the development story. We're build.
And we are building another data set and we have a common dimension. Let's call it the data mention we want to share between those datasets and as of today, we have to somehow copy and paste that dimension definition between the power BI datasets because there is no way of.
Sharing those tables and now with power BI data flows there's a way of moving that power query logic into the cloud and you can do your data integration within the powerBI.com service and what you're doing is you're fetching data from different data.
Transforming the data using power query, which is power query online and then you are storing.
The results into a data Lake. The Azure Data Lake, but that one is hidden behind the scenes. So you only see entity definition in powerBI.com and where the CDs comes in the entity definition can be based on CDM definitions.
Product entity within the CDs definition, so that's the other approach. Transactional is CDs for apps and here we have the CDs for Analytics, which is now called power BI data flows.
So really good concept, and I think tomorrow is a session, which is done by Chris Webb and he goes into detail about the power. BI data flows so it's really, really powerful it's in preview.
Now, but it's
As with power BI it's getting better and better almost every week. New connectors are added, and all that stuff, but now enough said. Let's go interaction, so that QR code is the same as in the beginning, but I wanted to show you and let's go behind the behind the scenes what you can see on.
Is the the forms the the questionnaire? I provided for you and I used Microsoft forms? It's a very simple way of collecting data from users and what I've done afterwards is I created a Microsoft flow and that flow fetches.
Entries that were added by you by you by you by you and every time there is a new answer ready that flow kicks off and then it transfers the data into my power. BI data set and that is what you've seen it's already displayed in the power BI dashboard and what I owe.
I made a parallel action and I write the data into an Excel file that is stored in SharePoint. Online so how does it look like? Let's go back here? I move here and that is the starting page of Microsoft flow so when you are new into.
Flow dotmicrosoft.com and then your first part should be have a look at the templates. If you really want to see how flow feels and how flow works start with looking into the template gallery so we have the templates list.
And there are many, many different use cases and.
With my experience there's almost for every idea you have already an existing template. So you can start with an existing template and then you can modify it. But what is more important is where is?
That flow.
And I change to my web based editor so again. You don't need to install a flow designer on your computer. You just edit. The flows within the web browser and a flow contains of 2 different types of let's say steps every flow starts with.
A trigger so there needs to be a trigger that really starts that flow that example. You see here. The trigger is when a new responses submitted an STI cone implies. It's based on the Microsoft Forums, Connector every time there's a new answer.
That flow kicks off and what he does afterwards is we have an apply to each loop becaus. There can be somehow.
Sometimes forms cues the answers so not every time a single user submits an answer. Sometimes we get the better of answers. So we have to look through it, and what we do afterwards is we?
Get the response details so we need to fetch it out of the the data flow in it, and then we write it to a data set.
And how does that one look it's the thing you need to do you have to define your connections so a connection contains? What is my connecting system or the system? I want to connect 2 and what are my credentials in that case it's my active directory user?
Used to connect 2 forms and that's it and what I do afterwards. It's getting that's a similar flow. It's not exactly that flow. It's another flow because that's another question there. I've I've here, but it's the same thing we have to configure the connection 2 hours.
And then information is passed on so where we have that part into or an action that is, after the next step. We can connect or use.
Elements that are introduced and added to the data flow So what you can see on the right side is we have.
A data object within our flow that contains the list of response notifications and here when I go here.
I have.
My information on my data object, which is the current item coming from the loop itself and then we can do OK. I want to add that one to that area, or the text box and the last step is I write it too. I want to write it to a power BI data set.
And I have to again connect to my system. I have to define the workspace and the data set. I would like to write my data to and then I just go over here and what do you get here are those?
Entities or those data objects that were added to the dataflow itself, so it's really an easy way. And if the single assignment is not enough. Becaus maybe you want to conquer to Nate. You want to filter. You want to extract parts of that data object you can use.
Open language and it's
Like a start here and you have somehow a good Intellisense and really good documentation in the web available. So it's you can start with a single assignment and you can increase it using the formula language.
So that is in short, we have forms or a form that.
Triggers or the The Workflow itself, the Microsoft flow is triggered by an answer that is entered into our questionnaire and afterwards. We have our data flow that is well, pushing the data into power BI and on the other side, pushing the data into an Excel file.
One of the key parts of the power platform is the integration so we have power BI for doing interactive reporting. We have power reps for doing or creating business applications. We have Microsoft flow for building workflows, but where it really makes it.
Sing the power platform is the integration part and especially the teamwork part so it's not those 3 or 4 technologies that are there. They're really working together and what I've on my next slides are some examples where we can use the power platform and where it's maybe not that.
Yes, that the power platform is available in that area.
That screenshot we would like to.
Create a power app that is used as a front end and every time I save the information in my power apps. That data should be written into a power. BI data set and what you can do is you can add an action to a button in a power app and that action calls.
Microsoft flow and what you get in there, it's hidden here.
You get parameters parameter this that can be passed from the power apps into the flow and that flow can use that kind of content of the text box or whatever, so better to explain it in life sample where.
Sure.
Here we are So what you can see here is we have a power. BI dashboard on the left side. We have an empty data set or an empty visual and on the right side. I've provided and created a power apps and what I do now is.
I want a score myself with 10 points and when I click the submit yours core button. There is an action assigned that triggers a flow that flow gets 2 parameters. The name I've entered and the points.
That 2 pieces of information are past and pulled into the power BI data set and if I add myself 20 additional points. It only takes a few seconds that that data is pushed into the power BI data set.
That is the first part you can do with the power BI and power apps integration or the flow itself because that one is the integration of all 3 technologies. We have a power app that triggers of flow, which writes data into a power. BI data set so it's really the combination of all those 3 and that is the Magic.
Magic in behind be cause. It's only you have to define the parameters and then it's your thing you can do.
Here we have the power BI and power apps integration so you can add a power Rep into your power. BI report or onto your power. BI dashboard and has any one seen or worked with the power reps custom visual in power BI.
It's a simple a simple custom visual you can add to your power. BI report and what you can do is you can data bind your power. BI data set elements into your power app and you can build a report what we've done for a customer is they are.
Slicing monthly sales information and what they want to do is they want to give the Department leaders. The ability to add comments to that monthly figures and what we've built is a power BI data set that is connecting to a tabular.
Running locally, so we are connecting through the The Gateway and we've built a power app that is put onto that report and whenever we have a filter for example, now for March 2019 for let's say sales reach in Austria that information is passed.
So we have the information current filters are March 2019 and Austria and there's a text box where we can enter that information. The key accountant enters the information hit save that data is saved into a relational database using Microsoft.
And In addition, we are processing the data model in behind and what is really now available and I think since end of January. We can write power BI integration dot. Refresh within that power apps and the report itself is refreshed.
But for example, if we want to display the comments in the report. It is automatically automatically refreshed afterwards. So it's a really nice way to have the?
Data integration and data synchronization coming from power BI into your power apps.
The other way round we can build a power reps and we can put dashboard tiles into a dialogue so power apps are not limited to one dialogue. Only we can build multiple dialogues, and for example, we can build one dialogue that contains some visuals in there and that our power.
Yeah, I wish words that can be displayed and add it to the power apps dialogue. Another way share point and power apps. If you're using in that par example. SharePoint online you can.
Customize your edit form using power apps and you can build your own customized. Edit form for your share point list. And that is one part where power apps come into the SharePoint environment so.
The simple SharePoint list. You hit the customize button and then you have all those controls that are available in power reps and you can build your own.
Edit dialogue.
Another way share point and Microsoft flow. Imagine you have a document library and you as the owner of the document library wants to get an information whenever there's a file edit whenever there's a file changed or whatever and what you can do is you just go into the menu and you can create.
And that flow.
Gets some sort of additional triggers so there are triggers for a new item is added to that document list. An item is changed and what you get with that kind of trigger our specific settings and attributes and information pieces like? What is the path of the document that is chain?
Changed it when was the trigger activated and all that stuff, So what you can build is you create a new flow and what I would like to see at the end is I would like to get an email. Hey there was a file added to that document list. There was a file changed or.
So it's quite easy and that one is really based on a template so for flow. Just start with the templates that are already there, and it's very easy to start with it.
Another way, where you can work and combine 2 different Technologies is Excel and flow to be specific. It's Excel online. So what you can do is you can write and create flows that can be applied to any.
Oh, you have within your excel online file and what we can do is if I find the right browser window.
Where is it let's see?
So.
Now we have the information you entered using the forms example and what you can see here is those are the answers to our questions. Those are the current emotions. So I asked you to give a rating and also a text information and what we
Using Excel Online is it's hidden in the data tab.
We can trigger a flow for that selected row. I'm in here and what I've prepared is I've created a flow that.
Executes an queries Azure Cognitive Services and I'm doing text sentiment analyzes and that is a compare it to a function that gets the text as an input and returns a value between zero and one the higher the number, the more positive the number.
The sentiment So what I can do here is I start that flow for happy excited careers and let's see what the cognitive services returns OK quite positive and what you can do. In addition, is I just select or adjust select.
Rose so you can start that flow for multiple rows, not only for one row and what it does. In between or in the background. Is it fetches the sentiment scores from Azure analyzes know analyzes services cognitive services and then returns it here.
That one is Unfortunately only available in Excel online. So if you're using SharePoint online. Then you can use and create your own flows within the installed version of excel. It's not available and I'm not aware if it's coming. Someday in the future but it's a really nice way.
Maybe imagine a list of products that should be ordered with in your office. You can create an Excel online. List where everybody can enter that information and there is a flow that fetches that data and writes it. For example, creates an email and send it to the office or whatever, so.
Very easy way to combine your business data for or coming from the end users with flow and let's say the power of the power platform.
The Web browser is one thing, Yeah II have to hurry up a little bit, but I'm almost at the end.
Pod.
Yep.
The question was share point is it share point only or if I have a data gateway to my local SharePoint. I have to confess. I'm not 100% sure, but I think it's share point only SharePoint online only. But I have to look it up and I can add it to the to the question and answer tab.
Browser is one thing and the power of the power plant from also comes on your mobile phone. So there are applications. Here's a screenshot of my iPhone. There are applications native applications. For every of those, 3 parts and we have the power apps application that one is on the.
We somehow a list of your power apps. You are able to browse you are able to execute and then you can just press on one of those applications and the application. The power wraps itself starts and then you can use it? What you can also do is you can take that one for example, that.
And pin it to your start screen on your mobile phone. So it looks like it's a native iOS app and then you just press it and actually it's starting the power apps in behind the scenes.
The power BI mobile app. Yeah, it's 4 consummation only so you can't create and modify a report within the power BI native app. But you can work with your data. You can filter you can drill down whatever it's the same with power apps it's consuming.
It's not editing not developing power apps on your mobile phone where SD flow. Mobile application is different you can consume your flows you can start your flows and there's 1 thing you can create flow buttons that is a special thing of.
Where you just press a button and a flow start? I've created a sample application mileage tracking whenever I start the trip to my customer when I sit in the in the in the car before I start my journey. I just hit the button. I have to enter the starting mileage and the customer name.
Get an email into my inbox for time tracking information and what you can do on the or within the flow application is you can edit create flows it's possible but for me. It's not really possible be cause. If you compare the size of my fingers with the screen size Italy.
Too small but technically it's possible to create and modify your flows in the mobile application and with that I'm.
At the end of the time I think I'm almost sharp at the end if there are any additional questions. I'm here for today and do not forget to fill out the evaluation forms and if you have some additional questions. The URLs are quite easy and there.
One link on my block page. I've created a power platform link collection where I've added. Yeah, I tried to add every power platform related link in there like documentation blocks videos. Whatever community links events everything around the power platform so.
Have any questions just go over there or contact me now today today in the evening. Maybe tomorrow or if it's after SQL bits. Just sent me an email. I hope you enjoyed it enjoy the rest of the day and thanks for coming and.