The proposed help desk solution requires the following recipes to be addressed in sequence to build a complete model-driven solution.

The complete version of this application is available from our GitHub repository at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Microsoft-Power-Apps-Cookbook-Second-Edition/tree/main/Chapter02

Licensing requirements

When building model-driven solutions, there are some specific licensing requirements. Please refer to the Preface section of this book to get more information about the licensing model of this platform.

When we talk about the data model for model-driven apps, we mean Dataverse. The data gets stored in tables just like regular databases. The difference between a traditional database and Dataverse lies in the rich set of business-oriented features:

• Use a set of standard business tables out of the box with the ability to add your own custom tables
• Create a table, and the platform will automatically add all columns to address the underlying process requirements, such as owner info, tracking, status, versioning, and the like
• Structure your data with various column data types, which helps in complex data modeling scenarios
• Design relationships and define keys for standard and custom tables to ensure data integrity across the service
• Enforce security on roles, records, and column levels, giving you complete flexibility when setting up data access
• Add business features right from the table configuration: data consumption through...

When you configure a Dataverse database for the first time, it will create a set of business-centric tables, such as Accounts and Contacts. Starting from them, you would only need to add custom tables that your processes might need to achieve their goal. In this recipe, we will start creating the building blocks of an application to handle a help desk service.

Getting ready

To build our solution, we will start by setting up a new environment and use it as our development area. Then, we can pack our solution and deploy it wherever it is needed.

How to do it…

1. Go to the Power Apps admin center by visiting https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com, or https://aka.ms/ppac for short. You can also navigate from the Power Apps maker portal by clicking on the upper-right gear icon and selecting Admin center.
2. Once in the admin center, select Environments in the left pane and click on New. This action will open a panel where you...

If environments serve as containers for all our Power Platform components, then a solution is the container for each development we build using those components. A solution creates a package to store all the pieces that compose your application, which aids in deployment, distribution, and management. More information on this subject can be found here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/model-driven-apps/distribute-model-driven-app

Getting ready

To build our solution, we will start by setting up the publisher, which defines the solution’s developer and also specifies the prefix for all your custom tables and columns.

How to do it…

1. From the Power Apps maker portal, select Solutions from the left menu, and then click on New Solution.
2. Before describing the solution, click on New publisher and enter the Display name and Name. Enter a meaningful two-to-eight letters Prefix for all the elements you...

For our help desk solution, we will use related tables as our data source. We will design a base column template to keep track of all the information needed. You can customize it to your own needs.

Getting ready

The following tables will make up our solution’s data structure with the main focus on the Ticket table, to which all the tables will be related. Let’s start with this one and then move on to the rest.

Ticket

This table will hold the base information of the help desk ticket and will be our data model’s primary object. The column structure is as follows:

Creating a low-code application entails a different methodology for the application-building process. When using other technologies, you might need to choose the language, infrastructure, database system, and more. For model-driven applications, the essential principle is to create everything from the data structure and then build the components from there.

Getting ready

As per our example, the help desk solution will package all elements required for our application, such as tables, dashboards, and the like. All components can be exported in just one package and then imported into the destination environment.

We will use the Modern app designer to build the application. This designer allows more rapid application development, although it doesn’t have the complete list of features that the classic designer has. However, there is always a Switch to classic button to fall back to the classic designer when needed.

How to do it…...

For every business process, there is always a step-by-step procedure that defines every requirement, objective, and resolution from start to end. Companies build on and improve these procedures depending on the business needs and even create departments to work exclusively on this.

Getting ready

Model-driven apps help set up these rules by providing several tools to define business logic at various platform levels. You can incorporate data validation rules, structured data flows to guide the end-user, and even trigger workflows for specific events in your processes. These are just some examples of what you can achieve with this platform.

Let’s improve our help desk application by adding business logic in two ways:

• Hiding or making a column visible depending on the ticket status, by using a business rule. In our case, there is no reason for the Ticket Validation column to be visible unless the case is in a Resolved state...

When working with business processes that deal with data, one of the main goals for organizations is to gain insights. Knowing where your operations are failing or where there is a market opportunity is vital, so having an easy way to interact with data is very important.

Dashboards are a feature in Dataverse that allow you to display a mix of graphs, grids of data, and web resources in one place. For example, web resources can include iframe objects, which can be used to display content from another website inside a model-driven application.

Building on the example used throughout this chapter, let’s add more value to the help desk solution by including a ticket dashboard.

How to do it…

1. Let’s create the charts that we will use in our dashboard. Starting from our solution, expand the Ticket table and click on Charts. From the toolbar, click on New chart. This action will open a new tab to define the...

One of the best features present in canvas apps is the ability to access multiple external connectors from the same app. We can use this strength by embedding a canvas app as a component.

These are some scenarios in which this can be very helpful:

• A canvas application that is already in use by the organization and we want to integrate into our model-driven solution.
• A canvas app that connects to a legacy system using the on-premises data gateway.
• An employee tracking system that gives us information about which of our customer locations our support staff is working at any given moment. This data could be helpful to see whether we already have someone from support at the customer’s location when a new ticket arrives.

Now let’s see how we can integrate a canvas into our model-driven solution.

How to do it…

1. From the solution, expand the Project table and click on Forms...

Model-driven apps offer many capabilities focused on data-driven solutions. These solutions use the features available from Dataverse, but what if you need to go beyond what model-driven apps provide?

The Power Apps roadmap hints about a convergence model in which model-driven apps and canvas apps use the same designer to build solutions. This feature offers the ability to unite the excellent capabilities available in canvas apps within model-driven applications. More information on this subject is available here: https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/custom-pages-for-converging-model-driven-apps-and-canvas-apps/

With this recipe, we will use canvas apps to make use of a device’s native capabilities – in this case, the Global Positioning System (GPS).

Getting ready

Building on this chapter’s solution, we will improve the data handling of the Ticket Operations table. Before we begin, go to the table...