AEU9: PowerApps for Access Developers (George Hepworth)
This session was led by ex-MVP, George Hepworth (AKA Grover Park George)
Microsoft Access on the desktop and MS Power Apps in the browser can make a powerful team. Access connects to a wide range of data sources, from ACCDB files to SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle and other server based databases, now including Dataverse. PowerApps can connect to them all, and more.
Putting a rich VBA-enabled Access Front End on the desktop and a fast, flexible Power Apps interface in the browser enables developers to provide tools covering both in-house and remote work.
In this presentation, George provided an overview of the hybrid model for an application involving:
a) a “cloud” data source
b) a desktop interface in Access
c) a browser/smart device interface in Access
The nature of this topic meant it provided quite a technical challenge involving the simultaneous use of PowerApps on both desktop PC and a mobile phone during a live session
George also discussed some of the issues you might confront when implementing a PowerApps application, and possible approaches to resolving them.
George has created a related series of about 30 videos called Mike's Mobile Library showing the progress of this project. These are available at / groverparkgeorge
Several files used in this presentation are now available for download from: https://isladogs.co.uk/aeu-9/
TIMES:
0:00 Welcome to Access Europe
0:20 New Access MVP: Juanjo Luna - chair of Access Espana User Group
3:03 Intro to today's presenter - George Hepworth (AKA Grover Park George, MVP from 2007-2019. President of Access Pacific User Group
5:22 Outline of new Northwind specimen databases soon to be released
6:50 Start of main presentation - George Hepworth
7:45 Brief history of 3 types of Access 'web databases' - all now deprecated with Power Apps as a potential replacement
9:43 Purpose of project to combine Access with Power Apps - used here to catalogue a personal book library using data from online sources.
10:15 Link to related video on YouTube by Richard Hanson
11:07 Q: Does anyone here have experience with PowerApps? A: Detailed response by Judith M
13:20 Data storage using SharePoint / SQL Azure or Dataverse - brief discussion
15:00 Outline of deployment methods linkingd Access to external data sources - traditional / hybrid / cloud.
16:40 Advantages of PowerApps including data being accessible anywhere e.g. on mobile phone
18:40 Access data flow (request / response) using Google Books API
19:50 PowerApps data connectors
20:33 DEMO - Design of Access database for use with PowerApps, SQL Azure blob storage and Dataverse connector. Faster & more secure than using SharePoint.
25:30 JSON data downloaded using Google Books API, parsed & imported into Access tables
28:06 Outline of Dataverse table structure
29:48 Dataverse table relationships
32:59 Query with GUID used to define unique records
33:39 Explanation of PowerApps component and switch to phone . . .
34:55 PowerApps on mobile phone - ISBN barcode scan DEMO
38:17 PowerApps - book cover photo capture
39:35 Brief outline of JSON parsing process - use of JSON app (https://isladogs.co.uk/json-analyse-t...) and Regex expressions. Downloaded Google JSON files are often poorly structured and
need a lot of processing
40:39 Explanation of PowerApps code - written in Power FX - similar to Excel expressions
44:07 Discussion of PowerApps pricing - can be expensive for multiple users - see https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-gb...
47:26 Importing downloaded data into Dataverse - use of connectors created for the purpose.
Collection similar to an in-memory temporary table
51:11 Inserted video recorded after the meeting to demonstrate the use of PowerApps connectors to download book info using the Google Books API
51:48 DEMO - create new custom connector
58:42 DEMO - add new connector to PowerApps environment
59:35 DEMO - successful test of new connector generating JSON data for specified book
1:02:06 Return to live session for concluding comments
1:02:23 Series of 30 YouTube videos: Mike's mobile library outlining the progress of this project - available at / groverparkgeorge
1:03:40 Next month - Annotating Google Maps with Access (Colin Riddington)