Do you need to design an app in Power Apps and don't know how to start? Copilot will help you.
In today's article, we'll learn how to use Copilot to save development time when it comes to creating the data model and the initial build of a modern Power Apps application, so that staff can request any item in stock from the company's warehouse.
This way, the app creation process is much easier, as Copilot will do most of the heavy lifting. We'll give all the instructions in English for optimal results.
Steps to start designing a modern app in Power Apps. Part I
Next, we detail the steps to follow and best practices:
1. Check that Copilot AI is enabled in our environment.
I f you don't see this chat box, you must enable it within the Admin Center.
To do that, go to the Admin Center, select your environment and go to the settings page.
On the settings page you have a product dropdown menu. Click here and then on the features page where you can enable Copilot AI. If you don't manage the environment, you can ask your administrator.
2. Set a "Preferred Solution" to store the components of Copilot
By default, unless you are already in the context of an unmanaged solution, all solution components are stored in the solution named " Common Data Services Default Solution " .
But in most cases we want this to be stored in our own custom solution, so to do that, you must enable the preferred solution feature within the Admin Center.
Once it is enabled on the "Solutions" page, you should have this bar where you can configure your preferred solution, so simply click Manage and select the solution where you want Copilot to store all the components.
In my case, I will create a new solution to store the components of this new application.
To learn how to create a new solution, you can discover it here: Create a solution Power App
3. Ask Copilot to create/suggest the structure of our application.
Prompt: “Create an app for office staff to request replacement office items.”
As we can see, Copilot proposes a table with the specifications we requested . It includes the request ID, who makes it, the item to request , the request date and the status .
4. Ask Copilot to make modifications before creating the application.
If we wanted to add a status, we can give it the following command:
Prompt: “Add a new status options Fullfilled”
Or if we wanted to add a new column with the date of the new status:
Prompt: “Add «FullFillment Date» column.”
To finish our table structure, we will add 10 rows with data and change the table's name.
Prompt: “Add 10 more rows of data”
Prompt: “Rename table to “Item Request”.
Then we click "Create app"
And this is the result:
The result is a completely functional application , with a gallery, form to add or edit data, and the best part is that it is fully responsive , so you can view it in canvas, tablet or mobile mode.
I hope you liked it and learned the first steps to get the most out of your developments with Copilot in Power Apps . We will continue to dive deeper in the following posts .
Also read: Microsoft Power Apps: What types of applications can you create for your business?
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