Building Solutions with the Microsoft Power Platform

Building Solutions with the Microsoft Power Platform

by Jason Rivera
Released January 2023
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9781098117542

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Book description

With the accelerating speed of business and the increasing dependence on technology, companies today are significantly changing the way they build in-house business solutions. Many now use low-code and no code technologies to help them deal with specific issues, but that's just the beginning. With this practical guide, power users and developers will discover ways to resolve everyday challenges by building end-to-end solutions with the Microsoft Power Platform.

Author Jason Rivera, who specializes in SharePoint and the Microsoft 365 solution architecture, provides a comprehensive overview of how to use the Power Platform to build end-to-end solutions that address tactical business needs. By learning key components of the platform, including Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power BI, you'll be able to build low-code and no code applications, automate repeatable business processes, and create interactive reports from available data.

  • Learn how the Power Platform apps work together
  • Incorporate AI into the Power Platform without extensive ML or AI knowledge
  • Create end-to-end solutions to solve tactical business needs, including data collection, process automation, and reporting
  • Build AI-based solutions using Power Virtual Agents and AI Builder

Publisher resources

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Table of contents

  1. Preface
    1. Why I Wrote This Book
    2. How the Book Is Organized
    3. Conventions Used in This Book
    4. O’Reilly Online Learning
    5. How to Contact Us
    6. Acknowledgments
  2. 1. Rapid Innovation with the Power Platform
    1. The Rise of Low-Code/No-Code Solutions
    2. The Major Tools in the Power Platform
    3. Setup Before We Get Started
  3. 2. The Core and More
    1. Power Apps
    2. Power Automate
    3. Power BI
    4. Power Virtual Agents
    5. Power Pages
    6. Additional Services, Features, and More on AI
      1. Connectors
      2. Microsoft Dataverse
      3. The AI-Based Services
    7. Conclusion
  4. 3. Getting to Know Power Apps
    1. Getting Familiar with Power Apps
      1. What Types of Apps Can I Build?
      2. Learning and Getting Inspired with Templates
      3. Taking a Tour Around a Canvas App
      4. Power Apps Fundamentals: Screens, Controls, and Functions
      5. Connectors
    2. Microsoft Power Fx
    3. Let’s Get Building!
      1. Creating a Data Source from Excel
      2. Building an App from Data
      3. A Closer Look at How It Works
      4. Making Changes to the App
      5. Let’s See the App in Action
    4. Conclusion
  5. 4. Getting to Know Microsoft Dataverse
    1. Creating an Environment
    2. Creating Tables
      1. Adding Columns and Creating Relationships
      2. Adding Data to the Tables
      3. Editing Forms for Tables
    3. Dataverse and Model-Driven Apps
    4. Let’s Build a Model-Driven App!
    5. Conclusion
  6. 5. Getting to Know Power Automate
    1. Types of Flow
      1. Cloud Flows
      2. Desktop Flow
      3. Business Process Flow
    2. Triggers, Connectors, and Actions
      1. Triggers
      2. Connectors
      3. Actions
    3. Templates
    4. Let’s Build a Flow!
    5. Conclusion
  7. 6. Getting to Know Power BI
    1. Understanding the Basics
      1. Workspaces
      2. Datasets
      3. Dashboards and Reports
      4. Workbooks
      5. Apps
    2. Power BI Desktop
      1. Install Power BI Desktop
    3. Let’s Get Building!
      1. Importing and Managing Datasets
      2. Adding and Configuring Visualizations
      3. Slicing the Data
      4. Publishing from Power BI Desktop
    4. Conclusion
  8. 7. Getting to Know Power Virtual Agents
    1. Understanding Key Concepts
      1. Topics
      2. Entities
      3. Canvas
      4. Test Bot
      5. Channels
    2. Let’s Build a Bot!
    3. Conclusion
  9. 8. Getting to Know AI Builder
    1. Getting Started
    2. A Brief AI Builder Tour
    3. Understanding Models
    4. Let’s Get Building!
    5. Conclusion
  10. 9. Robotic Process Automation with Power Automate for Desktop
    1. Power Automate for Desktop and Desktop Flows
      1. Setup Before We Get Started
      2. Actions and Controls
      3. Variables, UI Elements, and Images
    2. Let’s Build a Web Scraper!
    3. Conclusion
  11. 10. Continuing the Conversation on Chatbots
    1. Using Prebuilt and Custom Entities
    2. Proactive Conversations with Power Automate and Power Virtual Agents
    3. Conclusion
  12. 11. Using AI Builder Models
    1. Integrating AI Builder and Power Apps
    2. Integrating AI Builder and Power Automate
    3. Conclusion
  13. 12. Power Automate and Azure Cognitive Services
    1. General Cognitive Services Setup
    2. Integrating Sentiment Analysis
    3. Integrating the Computer Vision API
    4. Conclusion
  14. 13. Getting to Know Power Pages
    1. Getting Started
    2. A Tour of the Design Studio
      1. Pages and Navigation
      2. Sections, Content, and Components
      3. Styling
      4. Data Workspace
    3. Conclusion
  15. Index
  16. About the Author

Product information

  • Title: Building Solutions with the Microsoft Power Platform
  • Author(s): Jason Rivera
  • Release date: January 2023
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9781098117542