Exam Ref PL-900 MS Power Platform Fund

From the Library of Jose Contreras
Exam Ref PL-900

Microsoft Power
Platform Fundamentals
Craig Zacker
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Exam Ref PL-900 Microsoft Power Platform CREDITS
Fundamentals
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Contents
Introduction ix
Organization of this book ix
Preparing for the exam ix
Microsoft certifications x
Quick access to online references x
Errata, updates, & book support xi
Stay in touch xi
Chapter 1 Describe the business value of Power Platform 1

Skill 1.1: Describe the business value of Power Platform services . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Analyze data using Power BI 3
Act with Power Apps 13
Build solutions that use Common Data Service 15
Create flows by using Power Automate 16
Use connectors to access services and data 20
Create powerful chatbots by using a guided,
no-code graphical interface 22
Skill 1.2: Describe the business value of extending business

solutions by using Power Platform. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Describe how Dynamics 365 apps can accelerate delivery
of Power Platform business solutions 25
Describe how Power Platform business solutions can be used
by Microsoft 365 apps, including Microsoft Teams 27
Describe how Power Platform business solutions can consume
Microsoft 365 services 29
Describe how Power Platform business solutions can consume
Microsoft Azure services 30
Describe how Power Platform business solutions can
consume third-party apps and services 30
iii
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Skill 1.3: Understand Power Platform administration and security. . . . . . . . 31
Describe how Power Platform implements security, including
awareness of Common Data Service security roles and Azure
Identity Services 32
Describe how to manage apps and users 42
Describe environments 45
Describe where to perform specific administrative tasks,
including Power Platform admin center and Microsoft 365
admin center 47
Describe data loss prevention (DLP) policies 49
Describe how the platform supports privacy and accessibility
guidelines 50
Chapter summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Thought experiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Thought experiment answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Chapter 2 Identify the core components of Power Platform 57

Skill 2.1: Describe Common Data Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Describe the Power Apps user experience 58
Describe entities, fields, and relationships 59
Describe use cases for solutions 66
Describe use cases and limitations of business rules 70
Describe the Common Data Model (CDM) 71
Describe how to use common standard entities to
describe people, places, and things 73
Skill 2.2: Describe connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Describe triggers including trigger types and where triggers
are used 75
Describe actions 76
Describe licensing options for connectors including standard
or premium tier 78
Identify use cases for custom connectors 79
Skill 2.3: Describe AI Builder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Identify the business value of AI Builder 83
Describe models including business card reader, detection
model, form processing model, and prediction model 84
iv Contents
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Describe how Power Apps and Power Automate can
consume AI Builder data 90
Chapter summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Thought experiment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Thought experiment answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Chapter 3 Describe the business value of Power BI 93

Skill 3.1: Identify common Power BI components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Identify and describe uses for visualization controls
including pie, bar, donut, and scatter plots and KPIs 94
Describe types of filters 104
Describe the Power BI Desktop Reports, Data, and Model tabs 107
Describe uses for custom visuals including charts or controls 109
Compare and contrast dashboards and workspaces 112
Compare and contrast Power BI Desktop and Power BI service 115
Skill 3.2: Connect to and consume data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Combine multiple data sources 118
Clean and transform data 120
Describe and implement aggregate functions 126
Identify available types of data sources including
Microsoft Excel 128
Describe use cases for shared data sets and template
apps and how to consume each 133
Skill 3.3: Build a basic dashboard using Power BI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Design a Power BI dashboard 136
Design data layout and mapping 139
Publish and share reports and dashboards 141
Chapter summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Thought experiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Thought experiment answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Chapter 4 Demonstrate the capabilities of Power Apps 147

Skill 4.1: Identify common Power Apps components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Describe the differences between canvas apps
and model-driven apps 148
Contents v
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Describe portal apps 152
Identify and describe types of reusable components
including canvas component libraries and Power Apps
Component Framework (PCF) components 154
Describe use cases for formulas 158
Skill 4.2: Build a basic canvas app. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Describe types of data sources 161
Connect to data by using connectors 163
Combine multiple data sources 168
Use controls to design the user experience 168
Describe the customer journey 171
Publish and share an app 172
Skill 4.3: Describe Power Apps portals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Create a portal by using a template 173
Describe common portal customizations 176
Identify differences in portal behavior based
on whether a user is authenticated 179
Apply a theme to a portal 179
Skill 4.4: Build a basic model-driven app. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Add entities to app navigation 181
Modify forms and views 184
Publish and share an app 187
Chapter summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Thought experiment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Chapter 5 Demonstrate the capabilities of Power Automate 191

Skill 5.1: Identify common Power Automate components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Identify flow types 192
Describe use cases for and available templates 195
Describe how Power Automate uses connectors 201
Describe loops and conditions including switch,
do until, and apply to each 205
Describe expressions 208
Describe approvals 211
vi Contents
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Skill 5.2: Build a basic flow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Create a flow by using the button, automated, or
scheduled flow template 213
Modify a flow 218
Use flow controls to perform data operations 222
Run a flow 224
Chapter summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Thought experiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Thought experiment answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Chapter 6 Demonstrate the capabilities of Power

Virtual Agents 229
Skill 6.1: Describe Power Virtual Agents capabilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Describe use cases for Power Virtual Agents 229
Describe where you can publish chatbots 232
Describe topics, entities, and actions 233
Skill 6.2: Build and publish a basic chatbot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Create a chatbot 238
Create a topic 240
Call an action 242
Test a chatbot 243
Publish a chatbot 244
Monitor chatbot usage 247
Monitor chatbot performance 248
Chapter summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Thought experiment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Index 253
Contents vii
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About the author
R AIG Z ACKE R is the author or coauthor of dozens of books, manuals, articles, and websites
C
on computer and networking topics. He has also been an English professor, a technical and
copy editor, a network administrator, a webmaster, a corporate trainer, a technical support
engineer, a minicomputer operator, a literature and philosophy student, a library clerk,
a photographic darkroom technician, a shipping clerk, and a newspaper boy.
viii
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Introduction
T he Microsoft Certified: Power Platform Fundamentals certification is the initial entry point
into a hierarchy of Microsoft Power Platform certifications. The PL-900: Microsoft Power
Platform Fundamentals exam tests the candidate’s knowledge of the components and capa-
bilities of the four Microsoft Power Platform products: Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate,
and Power Virtual Agents, without delving deeply into specific programming and administra-
tion procedures.
With the Power Platform Fundamentals certification in place, candidates can then move
on to the Microsoft Certified: Power Platform App Maker Associate certification (Exam PL-100:
Microsoft Power Platform App Maker) and the Microsoft Certified: Data Analyst Associate
certification (Exam DA-100: Analyzing Data with Microsoft Power BI). These two are special-
ist certifications covering more advanced areas of the Power Apps and Power BI products,
respectively.
This book covers all the skills measured by the PL-900 exam, with each of the main areas
covered in a separate chapter. Each chapter is broken down into individual skill sections, which
cover all the suggested topics for each skill. It is recommended that you access trial versions
of the Power Platform tools as you work your way through this book. Nothing can replace
actual hands-on experience, and Microsoft provides fully functional evaluation platforms of
Power Platform tools, all the components of which are accessible in the cloud and require
no hardware other than a computer with internet access. Microsoft also provides a wealth of
documentation for all the Power Platform tools at docs.microsoft.com. With these tools, as well
as some time and dedication, you can prepare yourself for the PL-900 exam and the first step
toward your certification path.
Organization of this book

This book is organized by the “Skills measured” list published for the exam. The “Skills mea-
sured” list is available for each exam on the Microsoft Learn website: http://microsoft.com/learn.
Each chapter in this book corresponds to a major topic area in the list, and the technical tasks
in each topic area determine a chapter’s organization. If an exam covers six major topic areas,
for example, as this one does, the book will contain six chapters.
Preparing for the exam

Microsoft certification exams are a great way to build your resume and let the world know
about your level of expertise. Certification exams validate your on-the-job experience and
product knowledge. Although there is no substitute for on-the-job experience, preparation
ix
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through study and hands-on practice can help you prepare for the exam. This book is not
designed to teach you new skills.
We recommend that you augment your exam preparation plan by using a combination of
available study materials and courses. For example, you might use the Exam Ref and another
study guide for your ”at home” preparation and take a Microsoft Official Curriculum course for
the classroom experience. Choose the combination that you think works best for you. Learn
more about available classroom training and find free online courses and live events at http://
microsoft.com/learn. Microsoft Official Practice Tests are available for many exams at http://
aka.ms/practicetests.
Note that this Exam Ref is based on publicly available information about the exam and the
author’s experience. To safeguard the integrity of the exam, authors do not have access to the
live exam.
Microsoft certifications
Microsoft certifications distinguish you by proving your command of a broad set of skills and
experience with current Microsoft products and technologies. The exams and corresponding
certifications are developed to validate your mastery of critical competencies as you design
and develop, or implement and support, solutions with Microsoft products and technologies
both on-premises and in the cloud. Certification brings a variety of benefits to the individual
and to employers and organizations.
MORE INFO ALL MICROSOFT CERTIFICATIONS
For information about Microsoft certifications, including a full list of available certifications,
go to http://www.microsoft.com/learn.
Check back often to see what is new!
Quick access to online references

Throughout this book are addresses to webpages that the author has recommended you visit
for more information. Some of these links can be very long and painstaking to type, so we’ve
shortened them for you to make them easier to visit. We’ve also compiled them into a single
list that readers of the print edition can refer to while they read.
Download the list at MicrosoftPressStore.com/ExamRefPL900/downloads
The URLs are organized by chapter and heading. Every time you come across a URL in the
book, find the hyperlink in the list to go directly to the webpage.
x Introduction
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Errata, updates, & book support
We’ve made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this book and its companion content. You
can access updates to this book—in the form of a list of submitted errata and their related
corrections—at:
MicrosoftPressStore.com/ExamRefPL900/errata
If you discover an error that is not already listed, please submit it to us at the same page.
For additional book support and information, please visit https://MicrosoftPressStore.com/
Support.
Please note that product support for Microsoft software and hardware is not offered
through the previous addresses. For help with Microsoft software or hardware, go to http://
support.microsoft.com.
Stay in touch
Let’s keep the conversation going! We’re on Twitter: http://twitter.com/MicrosoftPress.
Introduction xi
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CHAPTER 1
Describe the business value of

Power Platform
The Microsoft Power Platform is a collection of tools that are designed to simplify the process
of gathering, processing, and reporting company data. Although the Power Platform tools
are suitable for professional development efforts—and Microsoft uses them to build their
own Dynamics 365 and Office 365 extensibility functions—they require little or no coding
and are intended for use by people with no formal software development training or experi-
ence, whom Microsoft refers to as citizen developers.
The main Power Platform tools, as shown in Figure 1-1, are designed to provide users with
the ability to perform three key actions on their data: analyze, act, and automate. The tools
that perform these actions are as follows:
■■ Power BI (Business Intelligence)—With this data analytics service, users can discover
and gather data from local and cloud sources and then visualize and share that data.
■■ Power Apps—This development platform allows users to act on their data by creating
web and mobile applications without writing code.
■■ Power Automate (formerly Microsoft Flow)—Users can use this automation service to
trigger complex processes and workflows.
■■ Power Virtual Agents—Users can create chatbots using a graphical interface with no
coding.
1
FIGURE 1-1 Microsoft Power Platform components
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In addition to these components, Power Platform includes the following underlying services
that work together with all the tools:
■ Common Data Service—A cloud-based service that stores and secures data within a set
of units called entities, for use in any of the Power Platform services and Dynamics 365
applications.
■ Common Data Model—A storage schema that defines standardized entities, attributes,
and relationships that enable multiple apps to utilize the same data.
■ Data connectors—Proxy wrappers that enable the Power Platform tools to interact
with other services. Over 200 public connectors are available, and users can also define
custom connectors.
■ AI Builder—A turnkey solution that allows users to enhance their Power Platform apps
and flows by integrating AI functions, such as object detection, text classification, and
form processing.
NEED MORE REVIEW? POWER PLATFORM FUNDAMENTALS

For more information on the Power Platform components, see https://docs.microsoft.com/
en-us/learn/paths/power-plat-fundamentals.
Skills covered in this chapter:

■ 1.1: Describe the business value of Power Platform services
■ 1.2: Describe the business value of extending business solutions by using Power Platform
■ 1.3: Understand Power Platform administration and security
Skill 1.1: Describe the business value of Power Platform

services
The Microsoft Power Platform elements allow businesses to work with their data in more
efficient ways, by analyzing and displaying it with Power BI, modifying and processing it with
Power Apps, and automating its collection with Power Automate.
This skill covers how to:

■ Analyze data by using Power BI
■ Act with Power Apps
■ Build solutions that use Common Data Service
■ Create flows by using Power Automate
■ Use connectors to access services and data
■ Create powerful chatbots by using a guided, no-code graphical interface
2 CHAPTER 1 Describe the business value of Power Platform
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Analyze data using Power BI
Businesses are frequently inundated with data from many sources and in many formats, often
more than users can easily access, interpret, and assimilate. Data in its raw form—basically
tables or lists of numbers—can be difficult for large groups to understand and use effectively.
This is why it has long been a common practice for businesses to convert numerical data into
charts and graphs. Users can see at a glance the relationships between values in a chart that
would be much more obscure in numerical form.
An individual user can easily transform the data in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet into a chart
and share it with other users, but when the data changes, the spreadsheet and chart must be
updated and redistributed. In addition, today’s business environments also frequently store
large amounts of data in a variety of locations and media formats, not just spreadsheets main-
tained by a single user.
Power BI is a tool that can access data from multiple sources, transform it into a variety of
graphical formats, and publish the results in a cloud-based service that users can access from
any location, using virtually any device.
Power BI allows users to access and view their data in ways that are more intuitive and
convenient than traditional tables and lists of numbers. Graphs and charts can provide an
immediate impression of the data’s current values, as opposed to a detailed examination of
the numbers that can take much more time and expertise to interpret. In addition, the Power
BI user interface can allow users to interact with their data, such as by displaying additional
information when they click a data point.
Power BI is a tool that consists of services, applications, and connectors that can access data
from multiple sources and display it in various ways. Power BI does not manipulate or modify
the data in any way. Whether a user is a designer using Power BI Desktop to model data or a
consumer using the Power BI reading view to display the published data, nothing that either
type of user does can possibly modify or delete the underlying data itself.
Power BI consists of two main components:
■■ Power BI service—A cloud service that provides Power BI’s consumer functions by allow-
ing users to access the content that designers have created
■■ Power BI Desktop—A Windows application that designers use to gather data; transform
that data by creating dashboards, reports, and apps; and publish it to the Power BI
service
Consuming Power BI Content

The object of Power BI is to consolidate data from multiple sources and present it in a more
visually compelling manner, using graphical elements such as charts and graphs. The Power
BI service is the consumer end of the tool, which runs in the cloud and allows users to access
the data published by designers. Power BI visuals are accessible from the cloud using any web
browser or a mobile device, as shown in Figure 1-2.
Skill 1.1: Describe the business value of Power Platform services CHAPTER 1 3
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FIGURE 1-2 Visuals published in the Power BI service displayed in browsers and mobile devices
After a designer connects to a data source, creates Power BI content, and publishes it to the
service, the connection to the source remains in place and the published data is updated auto-
matically as the source data changes. Users can thus track information on a continual basis.
As with many of Microsoft’s cloud-based interfaces, the Power BI service displays are composed
of multiple tiles. The Power BI home page, shown in Figure 1-3, contains tiles representing the user’s
favorites and recently accessed elements by default, as well as a navigation menu on the left.
FIGURE 1-3 The Power BI home page
Using combinations of tiles, the Power BI service can display data in three basic formats:
dashboards, reports, and apps, as described in the following sections.
USING DASHBOARDS
The most basic type of display in the Power BI interface is the dashboard. A dashboard (some-
times called a canvas) is a one-page view, as shown in Figure 1-4, containing tiles drawn from
one or more reports that tells a single story.
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FIGURE 1-4 A Power BI dashboard displaying basic human resources information for a firm
After a dashboard is published in the Power BI service, consumers can interact with it in
a variety of ways. For example, clicking a tile opens the report from which the tile was taken.
Hovering the cursor over an element of a graph, as shown in Figure 1-5, displays the actual data
value represented.
FIGURE 1-5 A bar graph from a Power BI dashboard with the value of a single data point displayed
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USING REPORTS
A report is typically a multipage document that provides a more complete picture of a particu-
lar subject. By default, when a user opens a report in the Power BI interface, the main naviga-
tion pane collapses and a Pages pane appears, containing a list of the pages in the report, as
shown in Figure 1-6. When you click a tile in a dashboard, the associated report opens to the
page containing that tile.
FIGURE 1-6 A Power BI report containing four pages of human resources information for a firm
Reports can contain a great deal of information, so Power BI has controls that can refine the
displays that appear. For example, using the Filters pane on the right allows users to configure
the display to contain only data conforming to specified categories, such as dates and loca-
tions. Designers can incorporate bookmarks into reports that provide alternative views of the
same data sets. Consumers can create their own bookmarks also.
USING APPS
In Power BI, an app is a collection of dashboards and/or reports that designers can package as
a single content element for distribution to consumers, as shown in Figure 1-7. The advantage
of app packaging for consumers is that by installing a single app, users can gain access to many
dashboards and reports at once, all of which are available in one place.
Ç NOTE USING APPS

The use of apps with Power BI requires a Power BI Pro license. The basic (free) Power BI license
provides users with limited consumer capabilities. The (subscription-based) Power BI Pro
license, in addition to supporting apps, provides additional capabilities, such as allowing
users to share dashboards and subscribe to dashboards and reports. The Power BI Premium
license is intended for large organizations and provides dedicated service capacity and huge
amounts of storage. As of this writing, the Power BI Pro license is US $9.99 per month and the
Power BI Premium license is US $4,995 per month.
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FIGURE 1-7 A Power BI app containing multiple reports
Interacting with Power BI Content

The basic data sharing paradigm of Power BI is for designers to create content and publish it
to the Power BI service to share it with consumers. Designers can share content in a variety of
ways, including the following:
■■ Publishing—Designers can publish reports and dashboards to the Power BI service and
email links to consumers. When the consumer clicks the link and installs the content, it
appears in the Shared With Me page in the Power BI interface.
■■ Building apps—Designers can package multiple reports and dashboards into an app
and share it with consumers by installing the app in their workspaces, by sending them
an installation link, or by posting the app on a website.
■■ Exporting—Designers and consumers can share Power BI content by printing from a
report or dashboard and by exporting data to an Excel or CSV file or an entire report to
a PowerPoint or PDF file. Consumers can also store Power BI content on OneDrive for
Business.
NOTE POWER BI DESIGNERS AND CONSUMERS
One of the innovative aspects of Power BI is that users can easily function as both designers
and consumers. Creating dashboards, reports, and apps does not require coding or extensive
training, so the process of creating and publishing content is not limited to specialist design-
ers or programmers.
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After consumers have access to published Power BI content, they can interact with it in a
variety of ways. For example, consumers can subscribe to dashboards and report pages using
the interface shown in Figure 1-8, which causes Power BI to send a snapshot of the content to
their mailboxes.
FIGURE 1-8 Power BI subscription interface
Consumers can also create alerts, using the interface shown in Figure 1-9, which cause
Power BI to send an email when the value for a selected data point reaches a specified
threshold.
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FIGURE 1-9 Power BI alert interface
Consumers can also exchange thoughts with colleagues by leaving comments in a dash-
board or report, using the interface shown in Figure 1-10. The comments become part of the
element, and other users can read and respond to them.
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FIGURE 1-10 Power BI comment interface
Using the Power BI Desktop

Power BI Desktop is a free Windows application that designers use to create Power BI content,
which will be published on the Power BI Service for consumers to use. With an interface similar
to that of a Microsoft Office application, as shown in Figure 1-11, the application allows design-
ers to create and publish data visualizations by completing tasks such as the following:
FIGURE 1-11 The Power BI Desktop interface
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■■ Connect to data—Power BI Desktop provides access to more than 200 data sources,
as shown in Figure 1-12, which allow designers to obtain data from the local computer;
network services, such as SQL databases; and cloud-based services, such as SharePoint
and Google Analytics.
FIGURE 1-12 The Get Data dialog box in Power BI Desktop
■■ Transform and clean data—Power BI Desktop allows designers to model their data by
combining sources, removing unneeded columns, and changing data types, using the
Power Query Editor shown in Figure 1-13.
■■ Create a report—With Power BI Desktop, designers can create reports with multiple
pages or single-page dashboards.
■■ Add visuals—Dragging fields onto the report canvas creates visualizations using an
appropriate format for the data type. Designers can then modify the visualization by
changing the type and configuring its properties.
■■ Publish report to the Power BI service—After the report is completed, designers can
publish it to their Power BI services by selecting a specific location using the Publish to
Power BI dialog box, as shown in Figure 1-14.
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FIGURE 1-13 The Power Query Editor in Power BI Desktop
FIGURE 1-14 The Publish to Power BI dialog box in Power BI Desktop
NEED MORE REVIEW? POWER BI INTRODUCTION
For more information on the basics of Power BI, see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/

modules/introduction-power-bi.
BOOK.indb 12 22/10/20 6:35 PM

Act with Power Apps
Power Apps is a collection of apps and services that work with data connectors and data sources
to provide a development environment that allows Power Platform users to create their own
custom business apps without requiring any coding skills. The data used by the apps can be
stored in the Common Data Service that is part of the Power Platform product or in any of the
more than 200 external data sources supported by the connectors included in Power Platform.
Power Apps allows businesses to automate processes that would otherwise be performed
on paper. For example, instead of carrying clipboards into the field to document new informa-
tion or share existing content with colleagues and clients, people can use a tablet or smart-
phone to record data and save it directly to a database or to display live data from a company
source. Apps created with Power Apps can run on any web browser or almost any mobile
device using a Power Apps app for Android or iOS.
While Power Apps is designed to be a simplified application development environment,
it also provides an extensible platform that professional developers can use to create more
elaborate code-based apps.
Power Apps supports the creation of three types of apps, as follows:
■■ Canvas—Apps using a development paradigm in which users start with a blank canvas, drag
and drop visual elements onto it, and manipulate data using functions like those in Excel.
Canvas apps provide developers with complete freedom over the design of the interface.
■■ Model-driven—Apps based on an existing model with a metadata-based architecture,
which users customize by connecting to their own data sources and by selecting and
configuring components, as shown in Figure 1-15. After the designer selects and models
the data, Power Apps generates a user interface that is appropriate for the content.
■■ Portal—Apps realized as external facing websites created using selected pages, layouts,
and content, which allow users outside of the organization to authenticate and then
browse and view company data. Developers can save website projects as templates,
which they can use to create new sites.
FIGURE 1-15 App Designer in Power Apps
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As an example, the configuration page for the sample Cost Estimator app shown in Figure 1-16
allows the designer to select any element in the app (in the left pane) and configure its appear-
ance (in the right pane). The designer can also select the data source for the information dis-
played on the app page.
FIGURE 1-16 Sample app in the Power Apps design interface
An app can have multiple pages, each of which the designer can configure separately. In this
example, shown in Figure 1-17, the app is designed for display on a smartphone-sized screen,
but other form factors are available.
FIGURE 1-17 A Power Apps sample app
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NEED MORE REVIEW? POWER APPS INTRODUCTION
For more information on the basics of Power Apps, see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/

learn/modules/introduction-power-apps.
Build solutions that use Common Data Service

As noted earlier, Power Platform tools, such as Power BI and Power Apps, can access hundreds
of different data sources using the connectors supplied with the product, including local
sources, such as Excel workbooks; network sources, such as database servers; and cloud-based
sources, such as Microsoft SharePoint Online. After a user establishes a connection to one of
these data sources, the connection remains in force as long as the source remains available.
The Common Data Service, as the name implies, is an underlying data storage solution
included in Power Platform and hosted in the cloud by Microsoft Azure, which can function as
an alternative to these outside sources by furnishing data to any of the Power Platform tools, as
shown in Figure 1-18. The Common Data Service is also the default data store for Dynamics 365
applications, such as Dynamics 365 Sales and Dynamics 365 Customer Service.
FIGURE 1-18 Underlying services to the Power Platform tools
The Common Data Service stores data using entities, which are schemas designed to contain
specific types of data. Entities consist of attributes, which contain specific types of data values.
The Common Data Service includes a large collection of standard entities for frequently used
data types, a few of which are shown in Figure 1-19.
The entities provided in the Common Data Service are based on an open standard called
the Common Data Model that Microsoft has published as part of its Open Data Initiative,
developed in partnership with Adobe and SAP. The model consists of predefined entities, such
as application/app, business unit, environment, region, solution, tenant, and user, each of
which have attributes, relationships, and metadata. Designers can also create custom entities
that are specific to the data types required by a particular organization.
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FIGURE 1-19 Partial listing of entities in the Common Data Service
It is common for users of Power Platform tools to access data from multiple sources and
consolidate the data into a single report, app, or flow. As an alternative to maintaining mul-
tiple data source connections, it is possible to integrate the data from the sources into Com-
mon Data Service, which can then function as a single storehouse for all the necessary local,
network, or cloud data, as well as the organization’s Dynamics 365 data. Users can import data
from sources as a one-time event or configure Common Data Service to synchronize with the
outside data sources at scheduled intervals, ensuring that the information in Common Data
Service is always current.
The Common Data Service also includes a flexible, role-based security system that admin-
istrators can use to authorize users with any degree of access they require, down to specific
records and fields.
Create flows by using Power Automate

Power Automate is a tool designed to automate processes involving multiple applications that
users must otherwise complete manually. Formerly called Microsoft Flow, Power Automate
works by creating sequences of events called flows. A flow typically consists of an event (or
trigger) that causes the flow processing to begin and one or more actions that the flow per-
forms as a result of the event.
The primary advantage of Power Automate is that a flow’s events and actions can involve
different applications or services. For example, a user can create a flow that causes Power Auto-
mate to send a text message to the user’s smartphone when the user receives an email from a
specific person.
Many applications include automation capabilities within their own functions, but they typi-
cally cannot automate an action between two or more applications. Power Automate supports
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hundreds of connectors, triggers, and actions for different applications and services, allowing it
to perform complex action sequences that would normally require manual execution. Multi-
step flows can incorporate actions for different applications, as shown in Figure 1-20.
FIGURE 1-20 Events and actions of a multistep flow
The Power Automate portal includes a large selection of flow templates, as shown in Figure 1-21,
which execute common tasks or that can serve as the starting point for customized flows.
FIGURE 1-21 Flow templates in the Power Automate portal
Power Automate supports various types of flows, which you can create from the Power
Automate portal or its mobile app, as shown in Figure 1-22.
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FIGURE 1-22 Creating blank rows in the Power Automate portal
The various flow types supported by Power Automate include the following:
■■ Automated flows—Perform specific actions without prompting when they are triggered
by an event in a specific Microsoft application, such as Outlook, SharePoint, Teams,
Dynamics 365, or OneDrive; a third-party application, such as Adobe Creative Cloud; or
a social media application, such as Twitter
■■ Instant flows (also called button flows)—Perform specific actions when they are trig-
gered manually by a user clicking a button or other control in the Power Automate
portal or the Power Automate mobile app, as shown in Figure 1-23
FIGURE 1-23 Buttons in the Power Automate mobile app
■■ Scheduled flows—Perform specific actions at a specified date and time or on a recurring

schedule, as configured using an interface like that shown in Figure 1-24
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FIGURE 1-24 Recurrence trigger interface for a scheduled flow
■■ Business process flows—Lead users through a prescribed process to complete a task,

that consists of multiple stages, each of which has multiple steps, as shown in Figure 1-25
FIGURE 1-25 Stages and steps of a business process flow
■■ UI flows (currently in previews)—Provide robotic process automation (RPA) for repetitive

tasks requiring mouse clicks and keyboard input, both for applications with API support
and for legacy applications without APIs
Power Automate is a no-code (or low-code) tool. The interfaces for creating flows pro-
vided in the Power Automate portal and in the mobile app are graphical, which means users
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select input from drop-down lists or by using text boxes. However, Power Automate internally
converts flows into code, as shown in Figure 1-26, and users who are so inclined can choose to
work with the code directly instead of using the graphical controls.
FIGURE 1-26 Code view of a Power Automate flow
NEED MORE REVIEW? POWER AUTOMATE INTRODUCTION
For more information on the basics of Power Automate, see https://docs.microsoft.com/

en-us/learn/modules/introduction-power-automate.
Use connectors to access services and data

All of the Power Platform tools depend on outside systems for the data they display or process.
Those outside systems can be local applications, network servers, or cloud-based services.
Power Platform includes hundreds of connectors, which allow the tools to access these outside
resources. Wherever the data is located, the user working with the Power Platform tools must
have the permissions needed to access the data. In some cases, connector configuration can
call for careful management of privileges.
Power BI interoperation
Power BI accesses data on outside systems in order to display it in a different form. Design-
ers of Power BI reports, dashboards, and apps must have the privileges needed to access the
required data sources. However, the consumers of Power BI content have no direct access to
those data sources. They can only view the reports, dashboards, and apps themselves, as well
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as work with them by leaving comments. Consumers cannot modify reports, dashboards, and
apps in other ways, such as by modifying their appearance.
There is no way for a Power BI designer or consumer to modify the original data when creat-
ing Power BI content or working with the published content. The designer is left with the sole
responsibility of determining what data consumers are permitted to view. Power BI includes
controls that allow the designer to share the content they create with selected users, who are
permitted to view the content they create. Designers can also create workspaces that allow
users to function as co-designers of Power BI content.
Power Apps and Power Automate interoperation

Power Apps and Power Automate are both tools that work bidirectionally with data sources,
meaning that it is possible for an app or a flow to add or modify source data, as well as read
and display it. This complicates the process of accessing and using data sources.
Power Apps and Power Automate both use connectors to access external applications,
services, and data sources. Power Platform includes over 300 public connectors, a few of which
are shown in Figure 1-27.
FIGURE 1-27 Some of the connectors available in Power Automate
A connector is a proxy wrapper that the tools use to access an API provided by an applica-
tion or service. Most applications and cloud services include such APIs, and the Power Platform
connectors function as proxies—that is, intermediaries between the outside APIs and the inter-
nal Power Platform tools. The connector, as a proxy, authenticates to the outside application
or service and then provides access to Power Apps and Power Automate (as well as to Azure
Logic Apps).
Each Power Platform connector includes a set of triggers and actions, which are specific
operations that designers can use in their apps and flows. Triggers are notifications generated
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by the outside application or service, indicating that a specific event has occurred. For example,
the creation of a new item in a specific SharePoint site can activate a trigger in the Power
Platform connector for SharePoint, thereby launching a particular flow containing that trigger.
There are two types of triggers in Power Platform connectors:
■■ Polling triggers—Check with the outside application or service at regular intervals for
new data
■■ Push triggers—Listen for an event to occur in an outside application or service
Actions are specific changes made to an outside application or service, usually as a result of
a trigger. For example, when a trigger in a Power Automate flow indicates that a new item has
been created in a specific SharePoint site, the associated actions in the flow can generate noti-
fications and send them to users by email or text message. Apps and flows can include multiple
actions using different connectors, as shown in Figure 1-28.
FIGURE 1-28 List of connectors used by the Request manager approval for a selected item flow
template
Create powerful chatbots by using a guided, no-code

graphical interface
Power Virtual Agents is a recent addition to the Power Platform toolkit that allows citizen
developers to create customer service chatbots and embed them into websites using a simpli-
fied no-code interface. Chatbots, in this instance, are automated, text-based communication
interfaces that use branching logic and artificial intelligence to communicate with online
clients, ascertain their needs, and in some cases satisfy those needs by triggering flows that
perform specific tasks.
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When a developer creates a virtual agent and adds a default greeting, an authoring canvas
appears like the one shown in Figure 1-29. By default, the bot’s standard Greeting topic is con-
figured to respond to any one of 52 trigger phrases representing possible initial statements by
the client with a standard greeting.
FIGURE 1-29 The Power Virtual Agents default greeting
The trigger phrases do not have to match the user’s input exactly. Power Virtual Agents
uses a natural language understanding module to match variants of the trigger phrases with
an appropriate response. The developer can add more trigger phrases and modify the bot’s
greeting as needed.
To extend the conversation, the developer can create additional topics that ask the user
questions, obtain information from the user, and take action based on that information. For
example, Figure 1-30 shows a simple yes or no question and the branching logic that allows
the developer to continue the conversation in different ways, depending on the response
given.
Power Virtual Agents can work together with Power Automate, so developers can create
flows that perform tasks using information gathered from the user and integrate them into
conversations. For example, in the case of a user wanting to check the status of an order,
a topic in the bot’s conversation can prompt the user to specify an order number. Then,
the bot can pass the order number to a flow that performs a database lookup and supplies
information about the order back to the bot, which displays it to the user. For conversa-
tions that are unable to provide what the user needs, a topic can pass the user to a live
agent.
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FIGURE 1-30 A Power Virtual Agents topic with branching logic
Skill 1.2: Describe the business value of extending

business solutions by using Power Platform
Power Platform provides a layer of connectivity for a large number of business environments
by allowing users to analyze their existing data, create apps that process their data, and auto-
mate their data gathering and updating processes. As an underlying collection of tools, Power
Platform can provide additional connectivity both within and among the various applications
and services in Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Azure, and other third-party products,
as shown in Figure 1-31.
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FIGURE 1-31 Power Platform components and connectivity

■ Describe how Dynamics 365 apps can accelerate delivery of Power Platform business
solutions
■ Describe how Power Platform business solutions can be used by Microsoft 365 apps,
including Microsoft Teams
■ Describe how Power Platform business solutions can consume Microsoft 365 services
■ Describe how Power Platform business solutions can consume Microsoft Azure services
■ Describe how Power Platform business solutions can consume third-party apps and
services
Describe how Dynamics 365 apps can accelerate delivery of

Power Platform business solutions
Dynamics 365 is a series of business applications that is intended to digitally transform orga-
nizations by utilizing the data that can be generated by nearly every process essential to pro-
ductivity. The traditional application model of “forms over data” creates new data as a result of
business transactions, whether they are customer relationship interactions or internal resource
management exchanges. The interaction comes first, and data is generated as a result of work-
ers filling out digital forms to document the activity.
Digital transformation is a reversal of this process in which the data comes first, data that
is now produced by virtually every device and business process. Modern business devices,
applications, and services of almost every kind are capable of generating data during their
Skill 1.2: Describe the business value of extending business solutions by using Power Platform CHAPTER 1 25
BOOK.indb 25 22/10/20 6:35 PM

operations and can export it for processing. Virtually all business tools, from environmental
devices, such as thermostats and HVAC systems, to industrial machinery, to customer relation-
ship management (CRM) and enterprise resource management (ERP) systems, are capable of
generating a continuous stream of data as they operate. The Dynamics 365 applications—in
cooperation with the underlying Power Platform tools—can then use this data to track per-
formance and anticipate future incidents and conditions, thus changing a reactive system to a
proactive one.
For example, in the past, a customer experiencing a vital equipment failure would have to
call the manufacturer of the equipment and request a service call. The manufacturer’s cus-
tomer service representative would then create a service request by filling out a form in an
application. Only at this point did data begin to be created. The manufacturer’s support team
would then start the process by which the service request’s urgency was assessed, the problem
investigated, and a service technician dispatched to address the problem. All during this pro-
cess, the equipment was down, and the customer was experiencing lost productivity.
Now, after the digital transformation, the customer’s equipment can generate a constant
stream of data that is relayed directly to the manufacturer. By monitoring and processing the
data, the manufacturer can detect a potential problem before it causes a failure and dispatch a
technician on a maintenance call.
The Dynamics 365 applications and the Power Platform tools provide the analytics needed
to utilize this generated data to connect all aspects of the organization, including the human
elements—employees and customers—and the business elements—products and operations.
This process by which business activities generate data and the Dynamics 365 applications use
that data to facilitate further business activities, as shown in Figure 1-32, is called the digital
feedback loop, in Microsoft parlance.
FIGURE 1-32 The Dynamics 365 digital feedback loop
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Dynamics 365 is a collection of applications that all share the same data and intelligence.
Here are some of the applications:
■■ Sales—Tracks customer accounts and contacts and performs marketing-related tasks
■■ Customer Service—Manages customer relationships
■■ Field Service—Provides scheduling and workflow automation for onsite mobile field
workers
■■ Marketing—Works with the Sales application to create compelling documents and
emails and shares marketing and sales information with internal product teams
■■ Commerce—Provides comprehensive and unified digital, call center, back-office, and
in-store experiences
■■ Finance—Provides real-time performance monitoring and uses artificial intelligence to
predict future financial performance
■■ Human Resources—Provides employee recordkeeping functions and tracks company-
wide statistics on employee retention, training, and performance
■■ Supply Chain Management—Manages planning, inventory, and production and uses
artificial intelligence to predict future needs
■■ Business Central—Provides smaller businesses with automation of sales, finance, manu-
facturing, and other business processes
Microsoft originally designed the Common Data Service as a platform for the Dynamics 365
applications, which use it to store and retrieve their data. Later, Microsoft created the Power
Platform tools to function as a low-code/no-code extensibility platform for Dynamics 365 by
having it use the same Common Data Service. The data generated by the Dynamics 365 appli-
cations is available to all the Power Platform tools, as well as to other applications and services
that store data in the Common Data Service.
Describe how Power Platform business solutions can be

used by Microsoft 365 apps, including Microsoft Teams
Developers can integrate the content they create using the Power Platform tools into various
Microsoft 365 applications and services, including Microsoft Teams. For example, to insert a
Power Apps app into Teams, the developer must use the App ID on the app’s Details screen to
identify the app to Teams. The App ID is a 128-bit globally unique identifier (GUID), notated as
32 hexadecimal digits, as shown in Figure 1-33.
In Microsoft Teams, the developer must first install the Apps Studio application, then create
a new Teams app. Rather than create a new app in Teams, the developer then identifies the
Power Apps app to be embedded by specifying its App ID in the Identification section of the
App Details screen, as shown in Figure 1-34.
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FIGURE 1-33 Details screen of an app in the Power Apps portal
FIGURE 1-34 The App Details screen in Microsoft Teams App Studio
The developer can then complete the process of configuring the new app in Teams App
Studio and distribute it to users in the tenancy. The app then appears as a tile on the Add a
BOOK.indb 28 22/10/20 6:35 PM

tab screen in Teams, enabling the developer to add it as a tab on the General screen for the
selected users.

consume Microsoft 365 services
Microsoft 365 is a suite of applications that includes Windows 10, Office 365, and Enterprise
Mobility + Security. Power Apps and Power Automate are included with all of the Microsoft
365 products, but only the Microsoft 365 Enterprise E5 product includes the Pro version of
Power BI. However, all the Power Platform tools are available as separate products and can be
added to a Microsoft 365 deployment.
EXAM TIP
The original version of Power BI for Office 365 was an add-on product that added visual
functionality to existing Excel Power View reports. There was also a Windows 8 app that
allowed users to access those reports remotely. This version of Power BI was deprecated as
of December 31, 2015 in favor of the new service-based version of Power BI that is part of the
Power Platform today. When preparing for the PL-900 exam, be aware that some outdated
documentation still exists on the internet that refers to this original Power BI version and
not the current one.
As noted earlier, when Microsoft first began rolling out the Power Platform tools several
years ago, they designed them primarily as an extensibility platform for the Dynamics 365 ERP
and CRM applications. This was an obvious direction to take because the Power Platform and
Dynamics 365 products were all designed to use the Common Data Service. However, Micro-
soft has announced their intention to expand that extensibility platform to include Microsoft
365 applications and services as well.
Unlike Dynamics 365, the Microsoft 365 components are not built on the Common Data
Service, so they do not have the same shared data connection with the Power Platform tools.
However, the Power Platform tools include connectors that allow them to access and use the
data generated by the Microsoft 365 applications and services.
For example, citizen developers at an organization running Microsoft 365 can use Power BI
to gather data from branch sites and mobile SharePoint, Exchange, and Teams users as they
roam around the facilities or work in the field. They can then create dashboards or reports to
display a conglomerated picture of the data from those various sources. Power BI allows the
organization to monitor, analyze, and visualize trends in sales, supply, and other aspects of the
business, helping them to anticipate needs before they arise.
Using Power Apps and AI Builder, developers can create applications that use text and
image recognition to collect additional data from users as they work with Microsoft 365
applications and services, rather than requiring them to enter data manually on forms-based
BOOK.indb 29 22/10/20 6:35 PM

interfaces. For example, mobile users can photograph shelves in stores and warehouses; an app
can then scan the photographs, count the number of products on the shelves, and use the data
to update a Power BI dashboard with up-to-the-minute information. This additional data can
then also be stored in the Common Data Service.
With Power Automate, citizen developers can create flows that perform time-consuming
tasks automatically. In the previous example, the automated shelf-counting app can result in
the creation of orders for additional products. When a new order arrives at the supplier’s mail-
box, a flow can read the products requested and check the inventory to see whether they are
available. If the products are available, the flow can trigger a shipment; if they are not, the flow
can branch to a different process that classifies the products as back-ordered and notifies the
requestor. Using the connectors supplied with the Power Platform tools, flows can interact with
various Microsoft 365 applications and services.

consume Microsoft Azure services
Microsoft Azure is Microsoft’s cloud-based architecture for providing hundreds of Software as
a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) products to
customers. The Power Platform tools run on the Azure backbone and are heavily reliant on it
for their cloud presence, data storage, and other resources. The Common Data Service stores
its data in the Azure cloud, and the portals for the various Power Platform tools are all Azure-
based cloud services.
Because it is cloud based, Microsoft Azure makes the Power Platform tools available to users
at any location, using any device. Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power Virtual
Agents all have mobile apps that allow users to function as both designers and consumers
using a smartphone or tablet.

consume third-party apps and services
Aside from their compatibility with Microsoft applications and services, the Power Platform
tools have connectors that allow them to access data sources from third-party applications and
services. Hundreds of public connectors are available that allow users to work with data from
various social media and other commercial products. The data sources accessed using connec-
tors can be combined with Common Data Service data to create composite representations in
Power BI, Power Apps, and Power Automate.
For applications or services with representational state transfer (REST) APIs that are not
supported by the public connectors included in Power Platform, it is possible to create custom
connectors. Administrators can create connectors using definition files based on the OpenAPI
or Postman standard, for APIs that support them, or they can build a custom connector from
scratch by creating a new definition.
BOOK.indb 30 22/10/20 6:35 PM

Skill 1.3: Understand Power Platform administration
and security
As with any other application or service, the Power Platform tools require attention to adminis-
tration and security to configure them properly and prevent them from being misused.
Power Platform itself is not a single service; the name refers to a collection of services that
organizations can use individually or in combination. The Power Platform tools—Power BI,
Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power Virtual Agents, along with their underlying com-
ponents (Common Data Service, data connectors, and AI Builder)—run as individual services,
meaning that they are cloud-based software products that are hosted by Microsoft Azure on
a software as a service (SaaS) basis. Each of the four main tools has its own portal, as shown in
Figure 1-35, in which users can design and consume content.
FIGURE 1-35 A Power Platform tool portal
NOTE POWER BI DESKTOP

The only Power Platform component that is not a cloud-based service is Power BI Desktop,
which is a standalone Windows application that designers can use to establish data con-
nections; create reports, dashboards, and apps; and upload them to the Power BI service in
the cloud, which makes them available to consumers. Power BI Desktop is not an essential
component; designers can create dashboards, reports, and apps in the Power BI Service portal
as well.
Skill 1.3: Understand Power Platform administration and security CHAPTER 1 31
BOOK.indb 31 22/10/20 6:35 PM

Because they are Azure services, the Power Platform tools can take advantage of many of
the advantages that Azure provides, including high availability due to redundant data centers,
localized access using Azure Traffic Manager (ATM), and identity management provided by
Azure Active Directory (AAD).

■ Describe how Power Platform implements security, including awareness of Com-
mon Data Service security roles and Azure Identity Services
■ Describe how to manage apps and users
■ Describe environments
■ Describe where to perform specific administrative tasks, including Power Platform
admin center and Microsoft 365 admin center
■ Describe data loss prevention (DLP) policies
■ Describe how the platform supports privacy and accessibility guidelines
Describe how Power Platform implements security,

including awareness of Common Data Service security roles
and Azure Identity Services
Any development environment—even a no-code/low-code one—is subject to abuse by
unauthorized users, whether intentional or not. However, because the Power Platform tools are
designed for an audience of citizen developers, as well as content consumers, security is a par-
ticularly important aspect of their administration. Code-based development environments are
not understood by most users, which helps to protect them from casual interference, but they
are still subject to deliberate tampering by malicious outsiders. Therefore, the Power Platform
tools require security mechanisms like those of any other cloud-based service.
All of the Power Platform tools rely on the Azure Active Directory identity services for user
accounts and licensing. Administrators therefore use the standard Azure tools, such as Micro-
soft 365 admin center, for user account maintenance and license assignment. Apart from this,
the main Power Platform tools operate independently, so they each have their own security
architecture. The following sections examine the security considerations for each component.
Power BI security
At its most basic, security in Power BI is a matter of sharing content with other users. Devel-
opers control access to their content by sharing dashboards, reports, or apps with specific
consumers using the interface shown in Figure 1-36. However, for users to access Power BI in
the first place, they must first be authenticated and authorized for specific content.
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FIGURE 1-36 Power BI Share Dashboard dialog box
Power BI, as implemented in Microsoft Azure, is a service that consists of two clusters: the
Web Front End (WFE) cluster and the Back-End cluster, as shown in Figure 1-37.
FIGURE 1-37 Power BI clusters architecture
The WFE cluster is responsible for the initial connection by users to the Power BI service and
the authentication of the user account, in a process shown in Figure 1-38.
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FIGURE 1-38 Browser interaction with the Power BI WFE cluster components
When a user directs a browser to Power BI by typing a URL or clicking a hyperlink, the fol-
lowing procedures occur:
1. The Azure Traffic Manager (ATM) examines the user’s DNS record and directs the
browser connection to the WFE cluster in the nearest Microsoft data center.
2. The WFE cluster directs the user connection to the Microsoft Online Services login
page.
3. The user is asked to authenticate against its account in Azure Active Directory (AAD).
When the authentication is successful, the login page directs the connection back to
the WFE cluster.
4. The WFE cluster authorizes the user’s Power BI service subscription with Azure
Active Directory and, if the authorization is successful, obtains an AAD security
token.
5. The WFE cluster consults the Power BI Global Service to determine the location of the
correct Back-End cluster for the tenant to which the user belongs.
6. The WFE cluster directs the user connection to the correct Back-End cluster and
supplies the user’s browser with the AAD security token, the address of the Back-
End cluster obtained from the Global Service, and information about the current
session.
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7. The user’s browser downloads the common files needed to interact with the Power
BI service from the WFE cluster and from the Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN).
The browser maintains these files for the duration of the session with the Power BI
service.
After the authentication and authorization processes are completed successfully by the
WFE cluster and the browser downloads the necessary files, all subsequent Power BI com-
munication takes place between the browser and the Back-End cluster directly, without
further participation of the WFE cluster.
The Back-End cluster hosts a variety of roles, as well as the data storage media where the
Power BI information is stored, as shown in Figure 1-39. The dotted line in the figure repre-
sents the division between the modules that are accessible to users via the public internet
(on the left) and those that are accessible only indirectly (on the right).
FIGURE 1-39 Power BI Back-End cluster components
The Back-End cluster is responsible for all the Power BI operations for authenticated cli-
ents, including the establishment and maintenance of data connections, the creation of the
visualizations in dashboards and reports, and the storage of data. Users communicating with
the Back-End cluster do so through the Gateway Role.
The Gateway Role and Azure API Management are the only modules accessible to users
through the public internet. These modules accept and manage user connections, authorize
users for specific content, and then relay all incoming user requests to the other modules in
the cluster as needed. For example, a typical transaction in which a user attempts to access a
Power BI dashboard, as shown in Figure 1-40, proceeds as follows:
1. The user’s browser accesses the Power BI portal and connects to the WFE cluster.
2. The WFE cluster authenticates the user and authorizes the user’s access to Power BI.
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3. The browser connects to the Back-End cluster.
4. The user generates a request to display a dashboard and sends it to the Gateway Role in
the Back-End cluster.
5. The Gateway Role forwards the request to the Presentation Role, which is responsible for
supplying the data needed to create the visualization of the dashboard in the user’s browser.
6. The Presentation Role sends the requested data to the Gateway Role.
7. The Gateway Role forwards the data to the user’s browser, and the browser displays the
requested dashboard.
1 WFE Cluster 2
AAD
3
Back-End Cluster
4
Browser Gateway Role
7
5 6
Presentation Role
FIGURE 1-40 Power BI transaction
Thus, the Presentation Role (and all of the other non-public roles in the Back-End cluster,
including the Data Role, the Background Job Processing Role, and the Data Movement Role)
are protected from direct internet access by users, both authorized and unauthorized.
NOTE POWER BI PREMIUM
Power BI Premium is a subscription level that provides a tenant with a dedicated Back-End
service cluster, as shown in Figure 1-41, created on virtual machines located in the same data
center as the tenant.
The Premium cluster contains separate instances of roles found in the Back-End cluster,
including the Gateway Role, Azure API Management, Data Role, and Job Processing Role, as
well as a separate Azure SQL Database. All communication with the dedicated Premium clus-
ter goes through the shared Back-End cluster, which relays traffic to and from the Gateway
Role in the Premium cluster.
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FIGURE 1-41 Power BI Premium Back-End cluster architecture
Designers should also be conscious of the security of the data they use to create dashboards
and reports, in addition to the authentication needed to access the Power BI service. When
Power BI designers connect to a data source, they typically have to supply credentials for a
separate authentication to that source. A dashboard or report that contains the data uses the
designer’s credentials to access and update that data. However, when the designer shares the
dashboard or report with consumers, those users are not authenticated to the original data
sources. Therefore, if the data in the Power BI content is sensitive, the designer is solely respon-
sible for making it accessible to the consumers. As noted earlier in this chapter, Power BI users
cannot modify the data used to create dashboards and reports, but in situations where the
data is confidential, designers must control who has access to their Power BI content.
The Back-End cluster contains two forms of data storage: Azure Blob and an Azure SQL
Database instance. Azure Blob is a storage solution that Azure uses for large amounts of
unstructured data. Power BI uses Azure Blob storage for data that designers import from a
source, such as an Excel worksheet. Power BI uses the Azure SQL Database for all other data,
including tenant information, workspaces, dashboards and reports, and metadata.
When designers access data sources, they do so in two possible ways:
■■ Import—Data accessed from a file, such as an Excel worksheet
■■ DirectQuery—Data accessed using a reference to an outside source, such as a Share-
Point site or a database
The Data Role in Power BI reads imported data into an Analysis Services in-memory
database, in which it is retained for up to one hour, and also stored in Azure Blob storage in
encrypted form. Data accessed by DirectQuery is also stored in the Analysis Services data-
base, but only while it is in process—that is, when a procedure occurs that requires access to
the data, such as when a user accesses a data set or modifies a report or dashboard, or when a
data refresh occurs. The Analysis Services database is unencrypted to allow Power BI to access
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the necessary data immediately. When data is at rest, the opposite of in process, it is stored in
either in Azure Blob or the Azure SQL Database, and is always encrypted.
Power Apps Security

As with all the Power Platform tools, Power Apps relies on a layered security model that
includes the following elements:
■■ Azure Active Directory authentication—Power Apps uses Azure Active Directory (Azure
AD) user accounts to control access to its portal and to specific apps. Administrators
with appropriate Azure AD credentials can assign Power Apps licenses to users and
grant them access to specific apps and security roles. Administrators can also use other
Azure tools to regulate access to Power Apps, including conditional access policies and
the mobile application protection policies provided by Microsoft Intune.
■■ Power Apps licensing—Developers and consumers must possess a Power Apps license to
access the portal, create apps, and run apps.
■■ Environment security roles—Each environment has two built-in administrative security
roles, as follows. To assign users to these roles, administrators use the interface shown in
Figure 1-42, found in the Power Apps admin center.
■■ Environment Admin—Can perform all administrative tasks for an environment,
including adding users to the Environment Admin and Environment Maker roles,
creating Common Data Service databases, and managing all other resources in the
environment.
■■ Environment Maker—Can create resources in the environment, including apps, flows,
connections, custom connectors, and gateways, and share apps with other users.
FIGURE 1-42 Assigning the Environment Maker role
■■ App sharing—Developers can choose to share apps with other Azure AD users through
the interface shown in Figure 1-43. By default, the selected sharers are standard users of
the app, but the developer can also designate them as co-owners. A co-owner of an app
can edit it and share it with others but cannot delete the app or change its owner.
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FIGURE 1-43 Power Apps Share dialog box
■■ Environment boundaries—An environment is a container for apps, flows, and data that
is separate from any other environments in the same tenant. A tenancy has a single
environment by default, which is named for the tenant. Administrators can create all
their apps and flows in that default environment, or they can choose to create addi-
tional environments in that tenant to make separate development spaces. For example,
administrators can create separate environments for the various teams or departments
in the organization, use them to separate testing and production versions of apps, or
use them to create spaces with different security requirements. Each environment is cre-
ated in a selected geographic region, and all of the environment’s resources are bound
to that region. If an administrator chooses to create a Common Data Service database
in an environment, that database and the data it contains are only available to apps and
flows created in that same environment.
■■ Connector credentials—The Share dialog box also lists the data connections used by the
app. The administrator must see to it that the selected users also have credentials with
the permissions required to access the data sources the app needs to function. Power
Apps does not provide users with access to data for which they do not already have
permissions.
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■■ Common Data Service user security roles—A Common Data Service database has three
standard security roles, which are sets of permissions that administrators can assign
to users and groups and which determine what operations the users can perform on
database entities. Administrators can also create custom security roles that contain any
combination of the following record-level privileges: create, read, write, delete, append,
append to, assign, and share.
■■ System Customizer—Provides the users with the create, read, write, and delete
permissions for the entities they create and the permission needed to customize the
environment.
■■ Common Data Service User—Allows the users to run apps in the environment and
provides them with the read, create, write, and delete permissions for the records
they own. All users added to the environment receive this role by default.
■■ Delegate—Allows users to impersonate other users and run code on their behalf.
Power Automate Security

When users create a flow in Power Automate (or an app in Power Apps), they must supply
authentication credentials for any connector providing access to a third-party application or
service. For example, when creating a flow that is triggered by the addition of an event to a
Google calendar, the designer must provide the credentials needed to log on to the Google
account containing the calendar to be monitored.
This fact raises a security concern that the designer must consider. Does the designer want
users with whom the flow or app is shared to have access to those credentials? The answer
depends on the circumstances, and designers sometimes have multiple options.
When creating and sharing canvas apps in Power Apps, designers will find that the creden-
tials specified for some connectors are shared with the users receiving the app, whereas other
connectors require the app users to specify their own credentials to gain access to a third-party
application or service.
In the case of flows created with Power Automate, designers can share flows with other
users in the following two ways:
■■ Co-owners—Receive full access to all the connections configured in the flow. Running
the flow as is utilizes the existing connection credentials. Co-owners can also modify the
flow using the existing credentials or reconfigure connections to use different creden-
tials. However, co-owners cannot use the shared credentials to create their own new
flows. Adding a co-owner to a flow causes Power Automate to display a Connections
Used warning like the one shown in Figure 1-44.
■■ Run-only users—An option only in manually triggered flows. When flow creators add
run-only users, they must specify whether the connections in the flow will use the cre-
dentials provided by the creator or the run-only users must specify their own creden-
tials, as shown in Figure 1-45.
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FIGURE 1-44 Connections Used window in Power Automate
FIGURE 1-45 Run-only user permissions
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Describe how to manage apps and users
While the administration of Power BI is relatively simple, because the tool interacts with data
sources on a read-only basis, Power Apps and Power Automate have the ability to modify data
sources, and administrators must be more careful to regulate the privileges allotted to apps
and users.
Managing apps
In the Power Apps portal, the Apps page, shown in Figure 1-46, allows you to select an app
and edit it, run it, configure its settings, share it with other users, export it, add it to Microsoft
Teams, or display its run history.
FIGURE 1-46 The Apps page in the Power Apps portal
Managing users
Because the Power Platform tools are all based on Microsoft Azure, they do not need their own
identity subsystems; they use Azure Active Directory user accounts to control access to the tool
portals and to the resources in each tool.
To create users and manage user account properties, administrators typically use the Micro-
soft 365 admin center, as shown in Figure 1-47.
After creating users, the administrator’s next step in providing them with access to the
Power Platform tools is to assign them the appropriate licenses, using the interface generated
by the Manage product licenses button, as shown in Figure 1-48.
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FIGURE 1-47 The Active users page in the Microsoft 365 admin center
FIGURE 1-48 The Licenses and Apps tab for a selected user
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The licenses available for assignment depend on the product subscriptions purchased
by the tenant. The Power Platform tools have various levels of licensing, some of which are
bundled with other products. For example, the Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 products
include Power Apps and Power Automate (which may still be called Microsoft Flow). However,
the capabilities of those versions are relatively limited, compared with those of the standalone
subscriptions, which must be purchased separately.
After assigning licenses, it might then be necessary for administrators to assign security
roles to users. Security roles are associated with business units and are combinations of access
levels and permissions that allow users to access data—such as data stored in the Common
Data Service—to a specific degree. It is typically users who will be working with model apps for
Dynamics 365 who require security roles.
The interface for the assignment of security roles is found in the Dynamics 365 user man-
agement center, as shown in Figure 1-49. This interface is accessible from the Power Apps
admin center on the Security tab for a selected environment.
FIGURE 1-49 The Manage User Roles dialog box
EXAM TIP
As noted in the Power Apps admin center, the management of security roles has been
moved to the Dynamics 365 user management center. As of this writing, Microsoft is in the
process of moving various administrative functions between the Power Platform admin cen-
ter and the Power Apps admin center. When a function is moved, it is typically replaced by a
notice specifying the new location. When studying for the PL-900 exam, be conscious of the
possible relocation of admin center functions.
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Describe environments
When an administrator creates a tenancy in Azure Active Directory for any of the Power Plat-
form tools or other Microsoft products, the software creates a default environment for that
tenant. This initial environment is named for the tenant. An environment is a container for the
apps and flows created in Power Apps and Power Automate, as well as the data they use. The
Power Apps and Power Automate portals both show the current environment they are using in
the upper right of the screen, as shown in Figure 1-50.
FIGURE 1-50 The environment indicator in the Power Apps portal
Because environments are associated with an Azure AD tenant, only the users in that ten-
ancy can access the environment’s resources. The environment is also bound to the tenant’s
geographical location.
Administrators can create only one Common Data Services database in a given environ-
ment. The data stored within that database is accessible only to apps and flows created in the
same environment.
However, it is also possible for administrators to create additional environments. The Envi-
ronments page in the Power Platform admin center, shown in Figure 1-51, lists all of the current
tenant’s environments.
FIGURE 1-51 The Environments page in the Power Platform admin center
Clicking the +New button opens the New environment dialog, as shown in Figure 1-52, in
which the administrator specifies a name, type, and region for the environment. A second page
contains options to specify the default language and currency values for the environment. In
addition, there is a Create a database for this environment control that causes the tool to create
a Common Data Services database along with the environment.
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FIGURE 1-52 Power Platform New environment dialog box
There are several reasons why administrators might want to create multiple environments
in a particular tenancy. They can create separate environments for the teams, departments, or
locations in an organization, or they might use them to separate app and flow development or
testing projects from those released to production.
When creating an environment, an administrator must choose one of the following types:
■■ Production—Intended for permanent use and deployment; requires a Power Apps
license and one gigabyte of storage space. The default environment created for each
Azure AD tenant is a production environment.
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■■ Sandbox—Intended for nonproduction use, such as for development and testing;
includes functions to copy the contents of the environment to another environment
and reset the environment to its original state by deleting all of its contents and
re-creating it.
■■ Trial—Intended for short-term testing; limited to 30 days and one user.
■■ Developer—Intended for use only by the owner, who must possess a Community Plan
license.
After an administrator has created multiple environments in a tenant, clicking the environ-
ment indicator in the Power Apps and Power Automate portals opens an Environments dialog
that functions as a selector, as shown in Figure 1-53.
FIGURE 1-53 The Environments selector in the Power Apps portal
Describe where to perform specific administrative tasks,

including Power Platform admin center and Microsoft 365
admin center
Microsoft Azure services typically have portals called admin centers that provide access to
configuration settings, resources specific to the service, support topics, and links to other
admin centers. For Microsoft 365 subscribers, the Microsoft 365 admin center is the pri-
mary configuration interface, enabling administrators to create and manage user accounts,
purchase and manage product subscriptions, and access the other available admin centers,
The All admin centers list includes the admin centers for Power Automate, Power Apps, and
Power BI. However, there is also an admin center for Power Platform, which does not appear on
the list. The Power Platform admin center provides administrative access to the tenant’s exist-
ing environments, as shown in Figure 1-55, as well as the ability to create new ones.
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FIGURE 1-54 The All admin centers page in the Microsoft 365 admin center
FIGURE 1-55 Environment Settings page in the Power Platform admin center
The Analytics menu provides real-time statistics for the Power Platform tools, and the
Admin centers menu provides links to the Power Automate, Power Apps, and Power BI admin
centers, plus the Dynamics 365 admin center, if the organization subscribes to it. Microsoft is
gradually migrating other functions from the Power Apps, Power Automate, and Dynamics 365
admin centers to the Power Platform admin center.
Because Power Apps and Power Automate are often used together, with apps triggering
flows as necessary, their admin centers are identical in functionality (as shown in Figure 1-56),
and that functionality is limited by the movement of some controls to other admin centers,
such as those for Power Platform and Dynamics 365. The primary tasks possible in these admin
centers is the management of app and flow sharing.
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FIGURE 1-56 The Power Apps admin center
The Power BI Admin portal, shown in Figure 1-57, has a menu bar with 12 items, several of
which display links to other admin centers. For example, the Users and Audit logs menus both
link to the Microsoft 365 admin center, which is where you manage these elements. Other
menus provide controls for features only available in the Power BI Premium product or that
require the activation of other Microsoft Azure applications.
FIGURE 1-57 The Usage metrics page in the Power BI Admin portal
Describe data loss prevention (DLP) policies

The Power Platform tools are designed to access data from outside sources and, in some cases,
write data back to those sources. Developers can create canvas apps and flows that access mul-
tiple data sources with different sensitivity levels. This process is inherently dangerous because
the Power Platform content will eventually be deployed to consumers, who might or might not
warrant direct access to sensitive data. Power Platform developers and administrators must
exercise control over access to the data sources they use, and one method of doing so is to
create data loss prevention policies.
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Data loss prevention (DLP) policies are rules, created in the Power Platform admin center, that
allow tenant admins and environment admins to classify connectors in three groups, as follows:
■■ Non-business—Intended for connectors that access non-sensitive data. Connectors in
this group cannot share data with connectors in the Business group. A newly created
DLP rule places all connectors in this category by default.
■■ Business—Intended for connectors that access sensitive data. Connectors in this group
can share data with other connectors only in the Business group; they cannot share data
with connectors in the Non-business group.
■■ Blocked—Intended for connectors that are not to be used in the environment at all.
To create DLP policies using the wizard in the Power Platform admin center, administrators
assign the policy a name and use the interface shown in Figure 1-58 to move selected connec-
tors from the Non-business group to the Business or Blocked group.
FIGURE 1-58 The Assign connectors page in the New Policy wizard
Then, using scope options, administrators can apply the new DLP policy to an entire tenancy
or to specific environments within the tenancy.
Describe how the platform supports privacy and

accessibility guidelines
In any service or application that stores data that is potentially sensitive, and especially in
cloud-based applications and services, there might be statutes and standards to which the
organization must comply, whether because of contracted terms, company policies, or govern-
mental requirements.
Microsoft is aware of these compliance issues and has created a central storehouse for
information about them called the Service Trust Portal (STP). STP is a website that is available
to everyone at servicetrust.microsoft.com, although some parts of the site are restricted to
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registered users of Microsoft 365 and other products. Among the many resources on the site
are links to documents in the following categories:
■■ Audit Reports—Provides independent audit and assessment reports of Microsoft’s cloud
services, evaluating their compliance with standards such as those published by the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Service Organization Controls (SOC),
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Federal Risk and Authorization
Management Program (FedRAMP), and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
■■ Documents & Resources—Consists of a large library of documents, including white
papers, FAQs, compliance guides, penetration test reports, Azure security and compli-
ance blueprints, and other data protection resources
■■ Compliance Manager—A risk assessment tool that assesses and scores an organization’s
regulatory compliance, based on multiple published standards
■■ Industries & Regions—Provides documents containing compliance information for spe-
cific industries, such as education, financial services, government, health care, manufac-
turing, and retail, and specific countries, including Australia, Czech Republic, Germany,
Poland, Romania, Spain, and the United Kingdom
■■ Trust Center—Links to the Trust Center site, which provides documentation on the means by
which Microsoft supports security, privacy, compliance, and transparency in its cloud services
Compliance Manager
Compliance Manager is a risk assessment tool that allows an organization to track and record
the activities they undertake to achieve compliance with specific certification standards. An
assessment of an organization’s compliance posture is based on the capabilities of the Micro-
soft cloud services and the ways that the organization makes use of them, as compared to an
existing standard, regulation, or law.
The home page for the Compliance Manager tool contains a dashboard that displays tiles
representing the assessments of the selected components against different standards, as
shown in Figure 1-59. Each tile specifies a cloud service and the specific standard to which it is
being compared. The results of the comparison are stated as a numerical score.
FIGURE 1-59 A Compliance Manager tile
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Selecting a tile displays a list of the cloud services being tested for the assessment, as shown
in Figure 1-60, along with the results for each individual control. The controls are broken down
into those for which Microsoft is responsible and those for which the customer is responsible.
Each control entry contains a reference to a section or article in the standard that corresponds
to the control; information about who tested the control and when; and the results of the test,
expressed as an individual Compliance Score value.
FIGURE 1-60 A cloud service assessment in Compliance Manager
Auditing
Power Platform also supports auditing, which is another way of monitoring compliance with
data access regulations. Auditing captures instances of specific activities and saves them to a
log file, which administrators can review to monitor data access by specific users, modifications
of security roles, changes made to entities and fields, changes made to sharing privileges, and
the time and place of updates.
To allow auditing and access auditing logs, an administrator expands the Audit and logs
heading on an environment’s Settings page in the Power Platform admin center. Selecting
Audit settings opens the Auditing tab on the System Settings page of the Dynamics 365 admin
center, as shown in Figure 1-61.
FIGURE 1-61 The Auditing tab of the System Settings page in the Dynamic 365 admin center
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Other controls on the environment’s Settings page allow administrators to manage the logs
and view individual entries, as shown in Figure 1-62.
FIGURE 1-62 Audit log detail
Chapter summary
■■ The Power Platform tools provide users with the ability to perform three key actions on
their data: analyze, act, and automate.
■■ Power BI is a data analytics service that allows users to discover and gather data from
local and cloud sources and then visualize and share that data.
■■ Power Apps is a development platform that allows users to act on their data by creating
web and mobile applications without writing code.
■■ Power Automate is an automation service that allows users to trigger complex processes
and workflows.
■■ Power Virtual Agents is a service that allows users to create chatbots using a graphical
interface with no coding.
■■ Power Platform provides connectivity both within and among the various applications
and services in Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Azure, and other third-party
products.
■■ The Power Platform tools—Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power Virtual
Agents, along with their underlying components (Common Data Service, Data Con-
nectors, and AI Builder)—run as individual services, meaning that they are cloud-based
software products that are hosted by Microsoft Azure on a software as a service (SaaS)
basis.
■■ All of the Power Platform tools rely on Azure Active Directory for user accounts and
licensing.
■■ The Power Platform admin center provides administrative access to the tenant’s existing
environments, as well as the ability to create new ones.
Chapter summary CHAPTER 1 53
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■■ Compliance Manager is a risk assessment tool that allows an organization to track and
record the activities they undertake to achieve compliance with specific certification
standards.
Thought experiment
In this thought experiment, demonstrate your skills and knowledge of the topics covered in this
chapter. You can find the answer to this thought experiment in the next section.
Ralph is the sole IT administrator for Wingtip Toys, which has six offices in different cities.
The offices have always operated independently, with each one maintaining its own financial
information using Excel workbooks. The company executives are concerned about the security
of their financial data. This is one of the reasons each of the six offices maintains its own Excel
workbooks. Because of this arrangement, creating a picture of the company’s overall finan-
cial health has always been a problem. Each year, an outside accounting firm compiles the
data from the six offices into a comprehensive report, a process that is expensive and time-
consuming and that generates a financial picture that is largely out of date.
Ralph has been asked to devise a solution that will provide the company executives with
an overall financial picture of the entire company that is updated on a continual basis. Having
seen materials on the Power BI service, Ralph thinks that it might help him to accomplish his
task.
Based on Ralph’s requirements and your knowledge of the Power BI service, which of the
following are true statements?
1. Power BI is capable of accessing data from six different Excel workbooks at different
locations and combining the data into a single financial report display that is accessible
from any Internet device.
2. Power BI can access the Excel data from the six sites without any possible danger of the
original files being modified or damaged.
3. Ralph can use Power BI Desktop to create new reports on his Android smartphone and
publish them to the Power BI service.
4. Ralph must manually update the Power BI reports he creates to make sure that the data
displayed is current.
Thought experiment answers

This section contains the solution to the thought experiment. Each answer explains why the
answer choice is correct.
1. True. Power BI provides access to more than 200 data sources that allow designers to
obtain data from Excel workbooks on local network computers, as well as network ser-
vices, such as SQL databases and cloud-based services, such as SharePoint and Google
Analytics.
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2. True. Power BI consists of services, applications, and connectors that can access data
from multiple sources and display it in various ways, but Power BI does not manipulate
or modify the data in any way. Whether a user is a designer using Power BI Desktop to
model data or a consumer using the Power BI reading view to display the published
data, nothing that either type of user does can possibly modify or delete the underlying
data itself.
3. False. Power BI Desktop is a free Windows application that designers can use to create
Power BI content and publish it on the Power BI Service for consumers to use. It cannot
run on an Android smartphone.
4. False. After a designer connects to a data source, creates Power BI content, and pub-
lishes it to the service, the connection to the source remains in place and the published
data is updated automatically as the source data changes. This allows users to track
information on a continual basis.
Thought experiment answers CHAPTER 1 55
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CHAPTER 2
Identify the core components

of Power Platform
Microsoft Power Platform consists of primary applications, such as Power BI, Power Apps,
Power Automate, and Power Virtual Agents. However, there are also underlying technologies
that all the applications can use, including the Common Data Service database, a collection of
data connectors, and the AI Builder automation and intelligence engine, as shown in Figure 2-1.
FIGURE 2-1 Microsoft Power Platform components

■■ 2.1: Describe Common Data Service
■■ 2.2: Describe connectors
■■ 2.3: Describe AI Builder
Skill 2.1: Describe Common Data Service

Common Data Service is a cloud-based data storage solution that all the Power Platform
applications can use to maintain their data in a secure, manageable environment. The Com-
mon Data Service was originally designed for use with Dynamics 365 applications, such
57
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as Sales and Customer Service. Therefore, Power Platform developers can use their existing
Dynamics 365 business data, logic, and rules when creating new content in Power BI, Power
Apps, and Power Automate.

■ Describe the Power Apps user experience
■ Describe entities, fields, and relationships
■ Describe use cases for solutions
■ Describe use cases and limitations of business rules
■ Describe the Common Data Model (CDM)
■ Describe how to use common standard entities to describe people, places, and
things
Describe the Power Apps user experience

Power Apps and the other Power Platform tools require data for developers to work with, and
they are all able to connect directly to many different data sources, including local files, net-
work resources, and cloud-based services.
Storing app data in Common Data Service

Depending on the nature of the app they are building, it is common for developers to have to
connect to multiple data sources to gather the information they need. This can mean access-
ing multiple sites, authenticating with multiple accounts, and updating multiple data points
at frequent intervals. Common Data Service can simplify this data gathering model by allow-
ing developers to store the data from the different sources in a single protected place, in an
integrated form. The data stored in Common Data Service is then available to any of the Power
Platform tools, along with any Dynamics 365 data that is also stored there.
For example, when an organization relies heavily on data stored in many Excel workbooks,
importing them one time into Common Data Service can be more convenient than connect-
ing to each one repeatedly every time an app is revised or updated. When importing data into
Common Data Service, developers can model and transform the data using Power Query, just
as they can when importing data using Power BI.
NEED MORE REVIEW? DATA MODELING AND TRANSFORMATION

For more information on data modeling and transformation, see “Skill 3.2: Connect to and
consume data” in Chapter 3, “Describe the business value of Power BI.”
58 CHAPTER 2 Identify the core components of Power Platform
BOOK.indb 58 22/10/20 6:35 PM

As with direct connections between apps and data sources, Common Data Service can
synchronize with the data sources at regular intervals to keep the stored data updated. The
apps that use the Common Data Service data can then be updated with the latest information
as well.
Using Common Data Service with canvas and model apps

As mentioned in Chapter 1, “Describe the business value of Power Platform,” Power Apps sup-
ports two basic app types for internal users: canvas and model apps. (A third type, portal apps,
is intended to create websites for external users.)
Canvas apps are relatively simple and give the developer a great deal of control over the
user experience the app provides. Power Apps offers canvas apps with standard functions such
as read, write, search, and delete based on the structure of the data used by the app. Develop-
ers can use Power Platform connectors to access data sources directly, or they can use Com-
mon Data Service. It is possible to create more complex canvas apps, but the configuration
process can become time-consuming for the developer.
Model apps are typically more complex than canvas apps, and they always use Common
Data Service as a data source. Model apps also have less flexibility as far as the user experience
is concerned; they use the Dynamics 365 framework. After the developer has created the data
model, Power Apps generates a user interface that is appropriate for it. In fact, some of the
Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement modules are essentially model-driven Power Apps. This
makes it easier for developers to create more complex apps than it would be to manually cre-
ate them from a blank canvas.
Describe entities, fields, and relationships

Common Data Service is a cloud-based data storage solution, which means it is available to any
users with internet access and appropriate credentials. As with most of Microsoft’s cloud-based
products, Common Data Service uses Azure Active Directory (AAD) for user authentication
and authorization. Organizations that are Microsoft 365 subscribers can use their same user
accounts to access Common Data Service data; Dynamics 365 subscribers are already accessing
their Common Data Service data with their AAD user accounts.
Power Platform developers can create multiple Common Data Service database instances to
accommodate the needs of various apps and users. Each database instance can support up to
4 terabytes of storage; additional storage is also available for purchase.
Using entities
When a developer creates a database instance in Common Data Service, it consists of a stan-
dard set of entities, with each entity having a standard set of fields. An entity is the Common
Data Service equivalent of a table in other database management systems. A default Common
Data Service instance has a base set of standard entities, as shown in Figure 2-2, any of which
the developer can select and populate with data from an outside source.
Skill 2.1: Describe Common Data Service CHAPTER 2 59
BOOK.indb 59 22/10/20 6:35 PM

FIGURE 2-2 Standard entities in a Common Data Service instance
In addition to the standard entities created with every Common Data Service instance,
developers can create custom entities to suit the requirements of specific business applications,
assuming that none of the standard entities are suitable. It is possible to rename a standard
entity if that makes it more suitable to the application that will use it.
Creating a custom entity is simply a matter of clicking the +New entity button on the Enti-
ties screen in the Power Apps portal to open the dialog box shown in Figure 2-3, and supplying
a name for the entity. After expanding the More settings header, the developer can specify the
entity type and the ownership option. After the developer has created the new entity in the
Power Apps portal, they can create custom fields within it.
Aside from the Standard entity type, the developer can also choose the Activity entity type,
which is an entity that can manage tasks for which it is possible to create a calendar entry, such
as appointments, phone calls, faxes, and emails.
The other option for the Standard entity type is its ownership, which has the following
options:
■■ User or team—Actions that developers can perform on this entity’s records are con-
trolled at the user level. User or team ownership is the only possible option for Activity
entities.
■■ Organization—Access to the data stored in the entity is controlled at the organization
level.
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FIGURE 2-3 New entity dialog box in the Power Apps portal
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NOTE COMPLEX AND RESTRICTED ENTITIES
Apart from standard and custom entities, Common Data Service also supports two other
types of entities: complex entities and restricted entities. Complex entities include real-time
workflows, plug-ins, or other types of server-side business logic. Restricted entities typically
contain configuration data for specific products. Both of these entity types are typically not
used by Power Apps citizen developers and have licensing requirements that go beyond the
Power Apps/Power Automate Plan 1 license needed for standard and custom entities. For
complex entities, users must have a Power Apps/Power Automate Plan 2 license. For restricted
entities, users must have a license for the specific Dynamics 365 product that uses the entity,
such as Dynamics 365 Sales or Customer Service.
Using fields
Fields are the attributes within an entity that contain specific types of data. If an entity is the
equivalent of a table, then a field is the equivalent of a column in the table, which contains a
particular data point for each record, represented by a row in the table. For example, every
entity has an Address field by default, which is configured with a data type called Multiline
Text, indicating that every value for that field can consist of one or more lines of plain text.
Other fields might have data types such as Whole Number, Date and Time, or Phone.
Just as a standard set of entities exists in every database instance, a standard set of fields
exists in every entity, as shown in Figure 2-4. Depending on the entity, there can be just a few
standard fields or over a hundred.
FIGURE 2-4 Standard fields in a Common Data Service entity
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Developers can often use the standard fields for most purposes, but when they cannot, it
is possible to create customized fields. Clicking the +Add field button on an entity page in the
Power Apps portal opens the Field properties dialog box, as shown in Figure 2-5.
FIGURE 2-5 Field properties dialog box in the Power Apps portal
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EXAM TIP
Common Data Service uses many of the same data structures as other database manage-
ment engines, but it sometimes uses different names for them. For example, what might be
called a table in another database is called an entity in Common Data Service. Candidates
for the PL-900 exam must be conscious of the possibility for variations in terminology in
their study materials.
Understanding relationships
Depending on the nature of the app a developer is creating and the data that it will use, it
might be a good idea to create multiple entities to hold different types of data, rather than
store many different data types in a single entity.
For example, in the case of an order entry app, the developer might need to maintain a list
of incoming invoices and a list of the products ordered on each invoice. The database for this
app would therefore need—at minimum—records for the invoices and records for the prod-
ucts ordered. There would presumably also need to be records for customer information and
records for an inventory of products. Storing all of this information in a single entity (or table)
would be complicated at best.
To better organize the data for the app, it would therefore be preferable to create multiple
entities and establish relationships between them. If the developer creates separate entities for
the invoices and the products ordered, there could be said to be a one-to-many (also called a
parent/child or 1:N) relationship between the two entities. The invoice entity would be the one
(or the parent), and the products entity could contain as many product records (or children) as
are needed for each invoice.
In the same way, the invoice entity can have a many-to-one (N:1) relationship to an entity
containing customer information. Each customer can have many invoices, but each invoice
is associated with only one customer. This type of entity relationship appears as a field type
called a lookup field.
Common Data Service also supports many-to-many (or N:N) relationships between entities,
in which many records in one entity are associated with many records in another entity, in what
are known as peer relationships.
As mentioned earlier, the standard entities provided by Common Data Service are sufficient
for the needs of most developers and their apps, and the relationships between the entities are
already in place. Selecting any entity in the Power Apps portal and selecting the Relationships
tab displays the existing relationships and their types, as shown in Figure 2-6.
From this screen, it is also possible for developers to create new relationships by clicking
the +Add relationship button and choosing Many-to-one, One-to-many, or Many-to-many, to
open a dialog box like the one shown in Figure 2-7.
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FIGURE 2-6 The Relationships tab for the Customers entity in the Power Apps portal
FIGURE 2-7 The One-to-many dialog box in the Power Apps portal
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Describe use cases for solutions
One of the basic design principles of the Common Data Service is the ability to customize the
database to suit specific applications. The extensions that developers create, package, and
deploy to the Common Data Service are called solutions. A solution consists of all the custom-
izations made to the Common Data Service, including any modifications that developers might
make to an existing solution. The entire solution is packaged as a single file that developers can
distribute and import into other environments.
Solutions can contain a variety of components generated by the Power Platform tools,
including Power Apps canvas apps and model-driven apps, Power Automate flows, custom
connectors, and Common Data Service entities. However, solutions do not contain any busi-
ness data.
Developers can create two types of solutions, as follows:
■■ Unmanaged—Intended for development environments in which modifications are
being made to the solution. Developers can export an unmanaged solution as either
a managed or unmanaged solution. After a developer imports an unmanaged solu-
tion, deleting the solution causes the solution file to be deleted, but the customizations
applied to the environment remain in place.
■■ Managed—Intended for nondevelopment situations, such as test and production
environments. Developers cannot export a managed solution or edit the components
in a managed solution directly; they must first add the components to an unmanaged
solution, which is editable. Deleting a managed solution causes all of the customizations
included in the solution to be removed from the environment.
The typical progression is for developers to create and refine an unmanaged solution in a
development environment and then export it as a managed solution for deployment in a test
environment and later a production environment, as shown in Figure 2-8.
FIGURE 2-8 Development progression using unmanaged and managed solutions
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To create a solution, a developer clicks the New solution button on the Solutions page in
the Power Apps portal to open the dialog box shown in Figure 2-9. After the solution is cre-
ated, the developer can then create components or add existing ones. Developers can employ
solutions in a variety of use cases, including application lifecycle management and business
process flows.
FIGURE 2-9 The New solution dialog box in the Power Apps portal
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Describe application lifecycle management
Application lifecycle management (ALM) is a cyclical paradigm for the development, gover-
nance, and maintenance of applications, as illustrated in Figure 2-10. Power Platform supports
an ALM strategy that uses Power Apps, Power Automate, and Common Data Service compo-
nents packaged as a solution.
FIGURE 2-10 The lifecycle of an application
By packaging the components of an ALM strategy as a solution, administrators can import

them into the Common Data Service in other environments. This allows developers in those other
environments to access the ALM components when developing their own apps and flows.
Describe business process flows

Business process flows are tools that allow administrators to ensure that users follow specific
procedures when performing certain tasks. For example, order entry operators working in a
call center might use a business process flow to ensure that they gather all the necessary infor-
mation from the caller and record it in the correct places.
A business process flow organizes a task by breaking it down into a series of stages, with
each stage consisting of multiple steps. When a developer creates a new business process
flow, a working canvas appears like that shown in Figure 2-11. The stages run horizontally
BOOK.indb 68 22/10/20 6:36 PM

across the canvas and the steps vertically beneath each stage. The developer can drag and
drop flow elements from the Components list in the right pane onto the canvas at any appro-
priate location.
FIGURE 2-11 Canvas for creating a business process flow
When users run a business process flow, they see an interface like that shown in Figure 2-12,
in which the flow leads them through its stages, providing text boxes and drop-down lists in
which they can supply the necessary data. The developer can configure the flow to not permit
users to proceed to the next stage until they have completed the present one. This ensures that
all the required elements of the business process are completed.
FIGURE 2-12 Business process flow user interface
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Business process flows, by themselves, do not provide any advanced intelligence. They
are designed to guide users through a series of tasks—typically involving data entry—and
bring them to a specific outcome, such as the completion of an order entry or a customer
interaction.
However, it is possible for developers to use business process flows to apply data supplied
by users to forms that initiate automation using business rules, Common Data Service work-
flows, and form scripts. Business process flows can trigger server events based on the data
supplied by the user, such as the generation of email messages.
On the client side, user input can trigger the appearance or disappearance of fields,
automatic movement to the next stage of the flow, or a shift to a different flow altogether.
For example, when a user indicates in an order entry flow that a customer requires a product
installation, the focus can shift to a scheduling flow. After the scheduling of the installation is
complete, the focus can shift back to the order entry flow for completion.
There are limits to the size and complexity of business process flows, including the following:
■■ A business process flow can have no more than 30 stages.
■■ A single entity can have no more than 10 business process flows activated at one time.
■■ A single business process flow can involve no more than five entities.
Describe use cases and limitations of business rules

Business rules enable developers to implement logic on data stored in Common Data Service.
Because the rules apply to the data, and not to a specific app, they take effect however the
data is used. For example, if the value of the Country field in an entity is entered as Canada,
a business rule can enable a six-digit alphanumeric Postal Code field and hide the five-digit
numeric Zip Code field used for U.S. addresses.
Business rules consist of conditions and actions. Conditions are circumstances that must be
met for the rule to apply, and actions are the procedures taken when the circumstances of the
condition are met. When a developer selects an entity in the Power Apps portal, selects the
Business Rules tab, and clicks Add business rule, a New business rule canvas appears, as shown in
Figure 2-13.
As with a business process flow, developers can drag elements from the Components
pane to the canvas. Selecting an element on the canvas causes the Properties interface for
that element to appear in the right pane. The combination of conditions and actions creates
an IF/THEN logic statement that appears in the Business Rule (Text View) box on the canvas.
For a condition, the developer configures one or more rules specifying when the actions
should occur. In the figure, the condition calls for the Country field to have the value Canada.
When that condition is met, the specified actions occur. The developer can then create actions
that cause the U.S. Zip Code field to be hidden and the Canadian-format Postal Code field to be
shown.
Conditions can be more complex, with multiple rules that use Boolean and/or operators
to specify whether both conditions must be met for the actions to apply or either one of
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the conditions. The rule can also include multiple actions that execute when the condition
is met.
FIGURE 2-13 A New business rule canvas in the Power Apps portal
The most common functions of business rules are to simplify the process of supplying
data for users and verify the accuracy of the data that users supply. To that end, developers
can create rules that set values for fields, clear the values from fields, and validate the data
entered into fields. In model-driven apps (only), business rules can also show, hide, enable,
and disable fields. For example, when users are required to supply their annual income in
a field, a rule can enable additional fields for verification if the income exceeds a specified
amount.
Describe the Common Data Model (CDM)

As discussed earlier in this chapter, Common Data Service can function as a database for the
Power Platform tools, as well as for Dynamics 365. While Common Data Model sounds similar
to Common Data Service, it is not the same thing.
CDM is not a database manager or any sort of data storage technology. Instead, the
Common Data Model (CDM) is a Microsoft initiative that defines a shared data language, con-
sisting of a unified system of schemas and metadata. The objective behind CDM is to create a
standardized format for data sharing and storage that allows applications and services to share
data without the need for custom implementations.
It is common for organizations to have many applications for different purposes, each of
which includes its own database. In some cases, users maintain their own databases that are
not linked to an application, such as a salesperson’s Excel spreadsheet containing contacts
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and leads. Problems arise when there is a need to share or transfer data between these many
databases. Each share or transfer requires a separate procedure to ensure that individual data
points are saved to the correct locations.
As a shared data model, CDM provides a consistent format for data storage. When all of the
organization’s databases are based on the flexible CDM format, then the applications can share
or transfer data freely without any special formatting considerations.
The primary components of the CDM are a metadata system that provides the means to
define data types and a continually updated set of standardized data schemas that define
commonly used types of business data. The schemas include predefined entities and attributes
for many of the data types that organizations use, including sales, service, and finance, as
shown in Figure 2-14.
FIGURE 2-14 Common Data Model schemas
NEED MORE REVIEW? COMMON DATA MODEL DOCUMENTS ON GITHUB
Microsoft maintains and continually updates documents defining the Common Data Model
on their GitHub repository at https://github.com/Microsoft/CDM.
Many of Microsoft’s applications and services store their information in databases that
conform to the CDM standard, including the Common Data Service, as used in Dynam-
ics 365 and Power Platform; dataflows in Power BI and Power Apps; Graph data connect in
Office 365; and Azure Synapse. All these applications and services use CDM as their native
metadata structure and can freely share the data they store in CDM-based storage tech-
nologies. Many other software developers and vendors use the CDM format as the basis for
their products as well.
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These applications and services store their CDM-formatted data in Azure Data Lake Storage
in folders that conform to the standard CDM metadata structures. Folders that contain the fol-
lowing files are Common Data Model folders:
■■ model.json
■■ .cdm.json
■■ *.manifest.cdm.json
Describe how to use common standard entities to

describe people, places, and things
As mentioned earlier in this chapter, creating an instance of Common Data Service in an envi-
ronment automatically populates the database with a collection of standard entities that are
based on the Common Data Model and designed to support the most commonly used types
of business data, including the following:
■■ Account
■■ Address
■■ Appointment
■■ Attachment
■■ Business Unit
■■ Contact
■■ Currency
■■ Email
■■ Feedback
■■ Letter
■■ Mailbox
■■ Organization
■■ Phone call
■■ Position
■■ Task
■■ Team
■■ User
These entities represent people, places, and things, elements that many businesses use on
a daily basis when communicating both internally and outside the organization. Each entity
includes fields appropriate to its subject, as shown in Figure 2-15. The standard entities are
all customizable also, making it possible for developers to add new fields or modify existing
ones as needed.
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FIGURE 2-15 Fields in the Account entity in the Power Apps portal
NEED MORE REVIEW? STANDARD ENTITIES
For more information on standard entities, see “Describe entities, fields, and relationships,”
earlier in this chapter.
Skill 2.2: Describe connectors

Connectors are the Power Platform components that allow Power Apps and Power Auto-
mate to interact with outside applications, services, and data files and utilize their data. Well
over 200 public connectors are available to Power Platform users, and for those applica-
tions and services that are not supported, it is possible for developers to create custom
connectors.
A connector is a proxy wrapper that Power Platform tools use to access an application
programming interface (API) provided by an application or service. Many applications and
cloud services have the necessary APIs, and the Power Platform connectors function as prox-
ies, or intermediaries between the outside APIs and the internal Power Platform tools. The
connector, in its role as a proxy, authenticates to the outside application or service and then
provides Power Apps and Power Automate with access to its data.
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■ Describe triggers including trigger types and where triggers are used
■ Describe actions
■ Describe licensing options for connectors including standard or premium tier
■ Identify use cases for custom connectors
Describe triggers including trigger types and

where triggers are used
Triggers are components in Power Automate that cause a flow to begin running. Some
triggers can be schedule based, so that the flow launches at a specific date and time; event
based, so that the flow launches when a user performs a specific task; or even manual, in
which a user launches a flow by clicking or tapping a button. However, there are also triggers
associated with data connectors, so that changes involving a data source cause a flow to
launch.
For example, the connector for SharePoint includes triggers that can launch a flow when
an item is created, when an item is created or modified, or when a file is created in a folder, as
FIGURE 2-16 The Build an automated flow dialog box from the Power Automate portal
Skill 2.2: Describe connectors CHAPTER 2 75
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When a developer creates an automated flow—that is, a flow that is launched by an outside
event—two types of triggers are available:
■■ Polling triggers—Connect to the outside data source at scheduled intervals to check for
new data, launching the flow using that new data as input when it becomes available
■■ Push triggers—Listen at a server endpoint for notifications that a specific event has
occurred on an outside application or service, launching the flow when the notification
arrives
When developers create instant flows or scheduled flows, they still use triggers, but these
triggers function autonomously. An instant flow uses a trigger that is tied to a button or other
control in an app that requires user interaction to launch the flow. Scheduled flows use a trig-
ger that the developer configures to activate at a specific date and time, using the interface
FIGURE 2-17 The Build a scheduled flow dialog box from the Power Automate portal
Describe actions
Actions are specific modifications made to the data provided by an outside application or
service. In Power Automate, actions are usually the result of a trigger, but developers can
use them in Power Apps as well. For example, when a developer creates a manual trigger in a
Power Automate flow, the next step is to select an action that will be the result of the trigger, as
shown in Figure 2-18. Apps and flows can include multiple actions using different connectors to
perform a sequence of tasks.
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FIGURE 2-18 The Choose an action dialog box in the Power Automate portal
Actions can cause an application or service to perform a task, such as send an email, or
modify the source data in some way. For example, Figure 2-19 contains the interface for an
action that deletes a row from a specific Excel spreadsheet.
FIGURE 2-19 The Delete a row action for Excel in the Power Automate portal
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The developer uses the interface to specify the location of the Excel file, identify the work-
sheet in the file on which the action will be performed, and specify the row to be deleted.
Other actions for the Excel connector make it possible to get data from a worksheet or update
a worksheet with new data supplied by the app or flow. The actions for the many other connec-
tors depend on the capabilities of the application or service.
Describe licensing options for connectors including

standard or premium tier
As mentioned earlier, Power Platform provides connectors for over 200 applications and ser-
vices, and Microsoft is regularly adding new ones. There are two classes of connectors, standard
and premium, access to which are based on the Power Apps or Power Automate license in use.
Standard connectors are available to all licensees of Power Apps and Power Automate,
regardless of the plan or product through which the user obtained the license. The standard
connectors include those for many of the Microsoft 365 and Office 365 applications and ser-
vices, as well as popular social media services, a sampling of which are shown in Figure 2-20.
FIGURE 2-20 Sampling of standard connectors in Power Automate
The connectors designated as premium are available to licensed users of the standalone
versions of Power Apps (both the per user and the per user, per app plans) and Power Auto-
mate (both the per user and per flow plans), as well as Dynamics 365 users. The premium con-
nectors feature those for many commercial Microsoft and third-party services, including SQL
Server and Dynamics 365. A sampling of the premium connectors is shown in Figure 2-21.
Power Apps standalone licenses include Power Automate capabilities, as long as the Power
Automate flows exist in the context of a Power Apps application. These contextual flows are
permitted to use whatever standard and premium connectors are provided with the Power
Apps license. Standalone flows that are not part of a Power Apps application are not supported
by the Power Apps license; a standalone Power Automate license is required.
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FIGURE 2-21 Sampling of premium connectors in Power Automate
Licensed Microsoft 365 and Office 365 users have access to the standard connectors in
Power Apps and Power Automate, but they do not have access to premium connectors. To gain
access to the premium connectors, they need a standalone Power Apps and/or Power Auto-
mate license as well.
EXAM TIP
Candidates for the PL-900 exam should be aware of the fact that, despite their being
referred to by the single name Power Platform, the Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate,
and Power Virtual Agents tools are separate products, each requiring its own license and
with its own licensing terms. For a full description of the licensing terms for Power Apps,
Power Automate, and Power Virtual Agents, see the licensing guide available at
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2085130.
Identify use cases for custom connectors

As mentioned earlier, a connector is a wrapper that surrounds a REST API supplied by the
application or service that will be the data source. Power Platform provides connectors for a
great many applications or services, but certainly not for every one. For developers that require
access to data sources for which there are no public connectors available, it is possible for them
to create their own custom connectors.
When a developer creates a custom connector, it is part of the current working environ-
ment and is usable only by the apps and flows operating in that same environment. It is also
necessary for consumers running apps or flows that use custom connectors to have their own
credentials for authentication to the data source, if the data source requires them. Unlike with
public connectors, there is no way for consumers of a shared app or flow using custom connec-
tors to inherit credentials supplied by the developer.
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Depending on the application or service for which the developer will create a custom
connector, there might or might not be an existing API with which the connector can com-
municate. A third-party application or service might already have an API in place. If not, the
developer might have to discuss with the third party the possibility of their creating one. For an
internally developed application or service without an API, the developer might have to create
one using a tool such as Azure Functions, Azure Web Apps, or Azure API Apps.
There are several ways in which a custom connector can communicate with the API. When a
developer runs the Custom Connector Wizard, the following options are provided:
■■ Create from blank
■■ Create from Azure service
■■ Import an OpenAPI file
■■ Import an OpenAPI from URL
■■ Import a Postman collection
OpenAPI (formerly known as Swagger) and Postman are definition file formats that provide
the communication information the custom connector needs. When creating a custom con-
nector from scratch (using the Create from blank option), the developer is led by the wizard
through four stages:
1. General—Prompts for an icon and color for the connector tile and the host name for the
API, as shown in Figure 2-22
FIGURE 2-22 The General tab of the Custom Connector Wizard
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2. Security—Prompts for the authentication method the connector should use to access
the API: Basic authentication (as shown in Figure 2-23), API Key, or OAuth 2.0
FIGURE 2-23 The Security tab of the Custom Connector Wizard
3. Definition—Provides the interface for creating the connector’s actions, triggers, and
policies, as shown in Figure 2-24
FIGURE 2-24 The Definition tab of the Custom Connector Wizard
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4. Test—Provides a platform for testing specific operations in the custom connector, as
shown in Figure 2-25
FIGURE 2-25 The Test tab of the Custom Connector Wizard
After developers have created custom connectors, they can share them with users inside
their organization. Sharing an app or flow that uses a custom connector makes it accessible to
the recipients of the share. Developers can also share their custom connectors with other users
by selecting Invite other user from the Custom connectors page to display the interface shown
in Figure 2-26.
FIGURE 2-26 The Share tab of a custom connector
To share custom connectors with users outside of the organization, developers must submit
it for certification by Microsoft, which validates the connector’s functionality and content. The
BOOK.indb 82 22/10/20 6:36 PM

connector then undergoes a testing phase in a preview area, and when testing is complete, it is
deployed for public access. Connectors that are certified and published by Microsoft must be
released as open source software.
Skill 2.3: Describe AI Builder

AI Builder is a relatively recent product designed to add intelligence to the apps and flows
created in Power Apps and Power Automate. AI Builder enables apps and flows to perform
interpretive tasks using data stored in the Common Data Service, such as predicting yes/no
outcomes based on historical data patterns, gathering data from forms, classifying text and
applying labels or tags to it, counting and identifying objects depicted in an image file, and
organizing data scanned from business cards.

■ Identify the business value of AI Builder
■ Describe models including business card reader, detection model, form processing
model, and prediction model
■ Describe how Power Apps and Power Automate can consume AI Builder data
Identify the business value of AI Builder

From a business perspective, AI Builder enables organizations to perform large-scale data
gathering activities without manual intervention, eliminating the need for people to perform
repetitive data entry and classification tasks.
For example, an organization can use the object detection model to perform inventory and
stock-taking tasks. By taking photos of warehouse shelves and feeding them to an app con-
taining an AI Builder model, the app can count the number of objects in the photos and also
identify even similar-looking objects, such as containers with different labels. The app can then
tabulate the data and store it in a Common Data Service database.
Retaking the same photos later can then generate revised data and enable the app to
report on the products that have been sold and that need to be reordered. Instead of mul-
tiple workers needing hours or days to count the products on the shelves, one person can
simply take the necessary photographs, and the app containing the AI Builder model does
the rest.
As shown in Figure 2-27, AI Builder includes a number of prebuilt models that developers
can use immediately, such as the Business Card Reader model. It also allows developers to cre-
ate customized versions of AI models, such as the Object Detection model, which they build
and train using their own data. Microsoft is currently in the process of developing, previewing,
Skill 2.3: Describe AI Builder CHAPTER 2 83
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and releasing additional AI Builder components that enhance both its turnkey and custom
capabilities.
FIGURE 2-27 The AI Builder Build screen in the Power Automate portal
Describe models including business card reader,

detection model, form processing model, and
prediction model
To use AI Builder, developers choose from a collection of models that define scenarios in which
an app can apply artificial intelligence to a business task. There are prebuilt model types that
define common tasks and are ready for immediate use, as well as custom model types that
define basic AI functions, which developers can build and train with their own data. The models
included with AI Builder as of this writing are described in the following sections.
Prebuilt models
The prebuilt models included in AI Builder are designed to perform specific tasks common to
many businesses and do not require developers to build and train the model before they can
use it. They appear as tiles in the Build screen in AI Builder in a section called Get straight to
productivity. The prebuilt models currently supplied with AI Builder are as follows:
■■ Business Card Reader—Extracts detailed name, address, and contact information from a
JPEG, BMP, or PNG image of a business card (up to 6 MB in size), regardless of the card’s
print layout. In a flow, the model creates a manual or automatic trigger and two actions,
as shown in Figure 2-28: Predict, in which AI identifies the data appropriate to each of
the 20 fields supported by the model, and Create a new record, which creates a record
in the Contacts entity of the Common Data Service and inserts each identified datum
from the card image into the correct field.
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FIGURE 2-28 AI Builder Business Card Reader model
■■ Category Classification—Accepts textual input from email messages and evaluates the
language to determine the category in which the text should be placed. In the sample
automated flow, as shown in Figure 2-29, incoming emails trigger the flow, convert the
HTML in the email message to plain text, and feed the text to the model. The model
uses AI to select an appropriate category for the text and sends it to a separate case for
that category, which generates an email routed to appropriate recipients. In this prebuilt
model, the two categories supplied are Documentation and Price & Billing, but the
developer can create as many additional categories as needed.
■■ Entity Extraction—Accepts textual input from email messages and evaluates the lan-
guage to identify the entities to which the message refers. In the sample automated
flow, as shown in Figure 2-30, incoming emails trigger the flow, convert the HTML in
the email message to plain text, and feed the text to the model. The model uses AI to
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extract information from the text conforming to any of the 28 specific entities specified
in the model, such as Date and time, City, Email, Weight, and Phone number.
FIGURE 2-29 AI Builder Category Classification model
FIGURE 2-30 AI Builder Entity Extraction model
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■■ Key Phrase Extraction—Accepts textual input from Yammer messages and evaluates the
language to identify the most important phrases and add them to an Excel worksheet. In
the sample automated flow, as shown in Figure 2-31, incoming Yammer messages trigger
the flow and feed the text to the model. The model uses AI to extract the phrases from
the text that are the main elements of the message, and then creates new rows in a speci-
fied Excel worksheet and adds the phrases to them.
FIGURE 2-31 AI Builder Key Phrase Extraction model
■■ Language Detection—Accepts textual input from email messages, identifies its pre-
dominant language, and routes the email to an appropriate recipient. In the sample
automated flow, as shown in Figure 2-32, incoming email messages trigger the flow and
convert the HTML to plain text. The model then uses AI to identify the language of the
text. Then, the flow’s actions determine the correct recipient for the language, assign
the message the correct two-letter language code, and route the email to the recipient.
■■ Sentiment Analysis—Analyzes text to make a determination of whether its sentiment is
positive, negative, or neutral and generates an email or notification informing a recipi-
ent of the result. In one of the three sample automated flows, as shown in Figure 2-33,
new tweets trigger the flow, which uses AI to determine the sentiment of the tweet and,
if the sentiment is negative, generates an email to a specified user.
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FIGURE 2-32 AI Builder Language Detection model
FIGURE 2-33 AI Builder Sentiment Analysis model
■■ Text Recognition—Scans image files for printed or handwritten text. In the sample
instant flow shown in Figure 2-34, the selection of an image file causes the AI to scan the
image for text and assign the resulting text to a variable.
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FIGURE 2-34 AI Text Recognition model
Although most of these prebuilt models are designed to be usable as is in a flow or an app,
developers can also modify them as needed to create additional actions that utilize the infor-
mation produced by the AI functions. For example, the Language Detection model contains
modules for English and French only; developers can add more languages as needed.
Custom models
The Refine a model for your business needs section of the AI Builder’s Build screen contains
tiles that provide access to models that developers can customize for use with their own data
and business needs. Unlike the prebuilt models, which use AI to make determinations based
on standard business practices, developers must build and train the custom models with their
own data and practices. For example, anyone can use the prebuilt Business Card Reader model
without modification of the AI, because the information found on business cards is predictable.
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For custom models, such as Object Detection, the AI must be trained to recognize images of an
organization’s products before it can identify them in images accurately.
The custom models provided by AI Builder include the following:
■■ Category Classification—Analyzes text and assigns tags to it representing categories of
any type
■■ Entity Extraction—Scans incoming text for specific data elements and uses those ele-
ments to categorize the text
■■ Form Processing—Scans forms and extracts the pertinent data for storage or use by the
flow or app
■■ Object Detection—Scans image files for recognized objects and identifies them
■■ Prediction—Uses historical patterns of past results to predict future responses in binary
solution sets, such as yes/no, true/false, and go/no go
The process of building and training one of the custom models requires the developer to
supply training data so that the AI can learn to perform the required task. For example, to
use the Category Classification model, the developer must supply samples of data that has
already been tagged categorically and a minimum of 10 examples for each category tag. Using
this information, the AI can learn what kind of data each tag represents and prepare itself to
duplicate the tagging process on new data supplied to it. In the same way, the developer must
supply multiple samples of the same forms for the Form Processing model and images of the
objects to be identified for the Object Detection model.
Some of the AI Builder models, such as Category Classification and Entity Extraction, are
available both as prebuilt and custom models. The primary difference between the two ver-
sions is that the prebuilt models have AI functions that are already trained with generic data,
whereas the custom models need to be trained with data supplied by the developer. If the
AI function in the prebuilt model is satisfactory for a developer’s particular application, it is
possible to customize the triggers that launch the flow or the actions performed after the AI
process is completed. To modify the functionality of the AI, the developer must use the custom
model and train it with new data.
Describe how Power Apps and Power Automate can

consume AI Builder data
AI Builder models all generate data in some form or another. The Business Card Reader model
generates database records containing the information scanned from the business cards. The
Prediction model generates a single binary result, such as a yes or no. The Language Detection
model generates a two-digit code indicating the language of the input data. Apps and flows
can make use of this generated data in various ways.
In some cases, such as the Business Card Reader and Form Processing models, their primary
function is to scan data from source documents and save it by placing individual data points in
the correct fields of a database record. However, Power Apps and Power Automate developers
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can easily use the data in other ways as well, such as by adding actions that forward the data to
specific users by email or with other messaging applications.
Other AI Builder models are designed to categorize data by extracting key phrases or apply-
ing tags and labels. These processes can make it easier to locate specific types of data at a later
time by searching for specific tags, labels, or phrases. These processes also provide additional
capabilities to apps and flows. However, instead of directing new incoming data to appropri-
ate recipients based on its contents, tagging and labeling makes it possible for apps and flows
to locate specific information in an existing Common Data Service database by performing
searches for key phrases, tags, and labels.
Chapter summary
■■ Common Data Service is a cloud-based data storage solution that the Power Platform
applications can use to maintain their data in a secure, manageable environment.
■■ The Power Platform tools are able to connect directly to many different data sources,
including local files, network resources, and cloud-based services.
■■ An entity is the Common Data Service equivalent of a table in other database manage-
ment systems. A default Common Data Service instance has a base set of standard enti-
ties, which the developer can populate with data from outside sources.
■■ Fields are the attributes within an entity that contain specific types of data. If an entity is
the equivalent of a table, then a field is the equivalent of a column in the table.
■■ An environment is a container for the apps and flows created in Power Apps and Power
Automate, as well as the data they use.
■■ Business process flows are tools that allow administrators to ensure that users follow
specific procedures when performing certain tasks.
■■ Business rules enable developers to implement logic on data stored in Common Data
Service.
■■ Common Data Model (CDM) is a Microsoft initiative that defines a shared data lan-
guage, consisting of a unified system of schemas and metadata. The objective behind
CDM is to create a standardized format for data sharing and storage that allows applica-
tions and services to share data without the need for custom implementations.
■■ Connectors are Power Platform components that allow Power Apps and Power Auto-
mate to interact with outside applications, services, and data files and utilize their data.
■■ Triggers are components in Power Automate that cause a flow to begin running. Actions
are specific modifications made to the data provided by an outside application or
service.
■■ AI Builder adds intelligence to the apps and flows created in Power Apps and Power
Automate.
■■ To use AI Builder, developers choose from a collection of prebuilt and custom models
that define scenarios in which an app can apply artificial intelligence to a business task.
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Thought experiment
chapter. You can find answers to this thought experiment in the next section.
Ralph is exploring the Power Platform tools, and he is having trouble understanding the
differences between the Common Data Model and the Common Data Service. For each of the
following concepts, specify whether Ralph should associate it with the Common Data Model or
the Common Data Service.
1. Functions as a database for the Power Platform tools
2. Consists of a unified system of schemas and metadata
3. Provides a consistent format for data storage

1. Common Data Service. Common Data Service can simplify this Power Platform data
gathering model by allowing developers to store the data from the different sources
in a single protected place, in an integrated form. The data stored in Common Data
Service is then available to any of the Power Platform tools.
2. Common Data Model. The primary components of the CDM are a metadata system that
provides the means to define data types and a continually updated set of standardized
data schemas that define commonly used types of business data. The schemas include
predefined entities and attributes for many of the data types that organizations use,
including sales, service, and finance.
3. The objective behind CDM is to create a standardized format for data sharing and stor-
age that enables applications and services to share data without the need for custom
implementations. When all of the organization’s databases are based on the flexible
CDM format, then the applications can share or transfer data freely without any special
formatting considerations.
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CHAPTER 3
Describe the business value of

Power BI
Microsoft Power BI is a cloud-based tool that allows users without coding skills or experience
to create real-time graphical displays of data from a variety of sources and publish them to
a cloud service that makes them accessible to virtually any desktop or mobile device. The
objective of Power BI is to help users make their data more accessible by displaying it in
graphs of various types, as shown in Figure 3-1, rather than as raw data. The designer of the
display can thus interpret the data to highlight the information that is most important to the
consumer.
FIGURE 3-1 A Power BI dashboard

■■ 3.1: Identify common Power BI components
■■ 3.2: Connect to and consume data
■■ 3.3: Build a basic dashboard using Power BI
93
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Skill 3.1: Identify common Power BI components
The process of creating a simple Power BI dashboard consists of the following basic steps:
1. Connect to data sources
2. Transform the data
3. Create report visualizations
4. Build the dashboard
5. Publish the dashboard
As dashboard designers work through these steps, they encounter the various Power BI
components that can aid them in creating a compelling dashboard design.

■ Identify and describe uses for visualization controls including pie, bar, donut, and
scatter plots and KPIs
■ Describe types of filters
■ Describe the Power BI Desktop Reports, Data, and Model tabs
■ Describe uses for custom visuals including charts or controls
■ Compare and contrast dashboards and workspaces
■ Compare and contrast Power BI Desktop and Power BI Service
Identify and describe uses for visualization controls

including pie, bar, donut, and scatter plots and KPIs
Visualizations are the formats designers can use to display data in a Power BI dashboard or
report. Power BI provides a large selection of visualizations to choose from, including various
types of charts, tables, maps, gauges, apps, and cards.
When creating a Power BI dashboard or report, the designer must first connect to a data
source and, if necessary, transform the data. Once these tasks are done, the designer can select
the visualization that Power BI will use to display the data from the Visualizations pane on the
right side of the workspace, as shown in Figure 3-2.
Microsoft occasionally adds new visualizations to this pane, so it might not appear exactly
as shown here. Some of the visualizations that are currently available for use include the
following.
94 CHAPTER 3 Describe the business value of Power BI
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FIGURE 3-2 The Visualizations pane in the Power BI workspace
Bar and column charts

Bar and column charts display numerical values as adjacent horizontal or vertical shapes, mak-
ing possible the easy comparison of relative values, as shown in Figure 3-3. Typically used for
comparisons of like values, horizontal bars are preferable for qualitative values such as distance
and speed. Vertical columns are commonly used for numerical values representing quantities,
sizes, and costs. However, these definitions are not absolute.
FIGURE 3-3 Bar and column charts in Power BI
Power BI provides visualizations supporting several different types of bar and column
charts, including the following:
■■ Stacked—Charts that combine two or more values in each bar or column, as shown in
Figure 3-4
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FIGURE 3-4 A stacked column chart in Power BI
■■ 100% stacked—Charts that combine two or more percentages to display their values out
of 100 percent, as shown in Figure 3-5
FIGURE 3-5 A 100% stacked column chart in Power BI
■■ Clustered—Charts that display groups of values as adjacent bars or columns, as shown

in Figure 3-6
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FIGURE 3-6 A clustered column chart in Power BI
■■ Funnel—Bar charts that display values in descending numerical order, creating a display
that resembles a funnel, as shown in Figure 3-7
FIGURE 3-7 A funnel chart in Power BI
■■ Waterfall—Column charts that split a single statistic into sequential increments, typi-
cally representing intervals of time or category, as shown in Figure 3-8
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FIGURE 3-8 A waterfall chart in Power BI
Line charts
Line charts display one or more value sequences represented by horizontal lines running from
each value to the next one, as shown in Figure 3-9. Commonly used for the presentation of
values over time, as in financial profit and loss charts, the horizontal (or x) axis traditionally
represents the time interval, such as days, months, or years.
FIGURE 3-9 A line chart in Power BI
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Combo charts
Power BI supports the combination of line and column charts into a composite that overlays line data
onto a series of columns. The combination of the two chart types makes it possible to compare data
sets that share the same x-axis, as in Figure 3-10. In this figure, the line represents the profit margin
for a series of products and the columns represent their manufacturing and sales prices.
FIGURE 3-10 A combo chart in Power BI
Area charts
An area chart is essentially a line chart with the space between each line and the x-axis shaded,
as shown in Figure 3-11. By using translucent shading, the chart can display the overlap
between the two sets of values.
FIGURE 3-11 An area chart in Power BI
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Pie charts
A pie chart consists of a circle resembling a pie divided into two or more slices shaded in dif-
ferent colors to represent numerical values, as shown in Figure 3-12. Designers typically use pie
charts to illustrate percentages, with the entire pie representing 100 percent of the statistic.
FIGURE 3-12 A pie chart in Power BI
Donut charts, a variation of the pie chart, consist of a ring (or annulus) divided into seg-
ments in the same way, as shown in Figure 3-13.
FIGURE 3-13 A donut chart in Power BI
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Scatter plots
Unlike bar, column, and line charts, which usually dedicate the x-axis to a time scale, scatter
charts (or scatter plots) use both axes for numerical data values and indicate data points at the
intersection of two values on the scale, as shown in Figure 3-14.
FIGURE 3-14 A scatter chart in Power BI
A variation on the scatter chart is the bubble chart, which adds a third data value by modify-
ing the size of the data points to represent a third dimension, as shown in Figure 3-15.
FIGURE 3-15 A bubble chart in Power BI
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Key performance indicators
A key performance indicator (KPI) is a chart that indicates the progress of a single data point
toward a specific predetermined goal. A KPI begins as a standard chart with a time interval on
the x-axis, which represents the trend, and a data indicator value on the y-axis. Then the devel-
oper specifies a goal, which is a single value, and the chart appears as shown in Figure 3-16.
FIGURE 3-16 A key performance indicator chart in Power BI
The area chart in the background displays the current trend values, and in the foreground is
the current numerical value and the goal value, plus a percentage that specifies how far off the
current trend value is from the goal.
Cards
In a Power BI dashboard or report, a card is a tile that contains a single number in large, easily
readable type, as shown in Figure 3-17. Designers use a card when there is a single numerical
value important enough to be displayed by itself.
FIGURE 3-17 A Power BI card
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Gauge charts
A radial gauge chart displays a single value and its relationship to a specific goal, using a
semicircular dial with a colored indicator representing the statistic’s current value and a needle
representing its ultimate goal, as shown in Figure 3-18, similar to that of an analog fuel gauge
on an automobile dashboard.
FIGURE 3-18 A gauge chart in Power BI
Key influencers
A key influencers tile allows consumers to explore the factors that affect a specific metric.
When you create the visualization and select fields from the data source, Power BI performs an
analysis and creates a chart like the one shown in Figure 3-19. Selecting one of the factors on
the left modifies the column chart on the right.
FIGURE 3-19 A key influencer tile in Power BI
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Tables
In addition to the many types of charts and graphs available in Power BI, it is possible to
include raw data in a dashboard or report in the form of a table, as shown in
Figure 3-20.
FIGURE 3-20 A table in Power BI
Describe types of filters

Filters are a means by which Power BI designers and consumers can specify what data is
displayed in reports (but not in dashboards, which do not support filtering). For example,
if a data set contains company financial information for 10 years, the report designer can
create a filter that allows consumers to select specific years to be displayed in the report
visualizations.
Any means by which data is categorized in a data set can be used as a filter. If a company
has five branch locations, as long as the data set specifies a branch office for each data point,
the report designer can use that information as a filter that allows consumers to select the
branch office(s) to display in a report.
There are four types of filters that designers can create in a report:
■■ Report—Applies to all the pages in the report
■■ Page—Applies to all the tiles on the current report page
■■ Visual—Applies to a single tile on a report page
■■ Drillthrough—Provides access to additional detail within a specific tile
Power BI reports support two means of selecting the data displayed in them: slicers and
filters, as shown in Figure 3-21. A slicer is a type of visualization that functions as a filtering
mechanism consisting of a list of check boxes like those of the Executive slicer shown on the
left side of the figure. Consumers can select any combination of check boxes to specify which
executives should be represented in the report.
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FIGURE 3-21 Slicers and filters in a Power BI report
The Filters pane, on the right side of the figure, contains the filters created by the report
designer and the default filter values the designer specified. For example, there is a Year filter
for which the designer selected the value 2014 as the default. However, the data set contains
data for other years, which the consumer can display by expanding the Year filter, as shown in
Figure 3-22, and then selecting any or all of the other Year check boxes.
FIGURE 3-22 Power BI report with Year filter expanded
Power BI filters use basic filtering by default, but consumers can switch to an Advanced fil-
tering option, shown in Figure 3-23, which allows the use of Boolean operators to create more
complex filter behaviors.
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FIGURE 3-23 Power BI report with the Year filter configured to use Advanced filtering
When a consumer modifies the filters to display different information in a report, Power BI
saves the changes made in that consumer’s account only. When the consumer opens the same
report again, even on another device, the changes appear as they were saved. The consumer
can then use the Reset button at the upper right of the workspace to return all the filters to
their default settings.
NOTE FILTER MODIFICATIONS

Consumers can modify the settings of a report’s existing filters for use in the current or
future sessions, but they cannot create new filters or delete existing ones. Filter setting
modifications apply only to that consumer; they do not modify the appearance of the
report to other consumers, and as always with Power BI, they do not modify the original
data sources in any way.
In the Editing view used by report designers, the Filters pane contains three sections, as
shown in Figure 3-24, which are labeled as follows:
■ Filters on this visual
■ Filters on this page
■ Filters on all pages
The designer can drag data fields from the Fields pane to each section and then configure
the filter for each field with the default settings that will appear to consumers.
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FIGURE 3-24 The Editing view of a Power BI report with the Filters pane
EXAM TIP
Power BI has introduced a new design for the Filters pane as of April 2020. Newly created
dashboards and reports use the new design automatically. Existing dashboards and reports
appear with the old design, in which the Filters controls appear in the Visualizations pane
and provide the designer with the opportunity to upgrade to the new design. In the new
design, a separate Filters pane adds new functionality, including the ability to format the
Filters pane to match the report, hide all or part of the Filters pane from consumers, and
lock specific filters so that consumers cannot modify them.
Describe the Power BI Desktop Reports, Data, and

Model tabs
The Power BI service interface, shown in Figure 3-25, has a menu on the left side of the work-
space that provides the primary means for users to navigate around the site. The collapsed
menu icon (often called the hamburger button) at the top of the menu toggles between the
full menu and a narrow button bar that clears more room for the workspace.
The tabs on the menu bar provide users with access to the various parts of the interface, as
follows:
■ Home—Displays tiles providing access to the user’s favorite, frequently accessed, and
recently accessed Power BI elements; the user’s workspaces and apps; elements that
have been shared with the user; and recommended apps
■ Favorites—Displays tiles providing access to the Power BI elements that the user has
designated as favorites
■ Recent—Displays a list of Power BI elements that the user has accessed recently, as
shown in Figure 3-26
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FIGURE 3-25 Home tab of the Power BI service interface
FIGURE 3-26 Recent tab of the Power BI service interface
■■ Apps—Displays tiles providing access to the apps the user has added to the interface
■■ Shared with me—Displays a list of reports and dashboards shared with the current user,
divided into categories by the sharing user
■■ Workspaces—Displays a list of the workspaces created by the user
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■■ My workspace—Displays a list of the elements in the user’s current workspace, including
dashboards, reports, apps, data sets, and local data sources
■■ Get data—Appearing at the bottom of the pane, displays the Get Data tab, with tiles
that allow the user to discover and create content using files, databases, online services,
and apps published by other users
In Power BI Desktop, when a user opens a file (or creates a new one), the navigation pane on
the left contains the following tabs:
■■ Report—Displays the pages of the current report file and the Visualizations and Filters
panes, which developers use to create and modify those pages
■■ Data—Displays the contents of the document’s data sources and the controls for add-
ing measures and transformations
■■ Model—In a report with multiple data sources, displays the relationships among the
selected tables
The Report view in Power BI Desktop, shown in Figure 3-27, is similar to the workspace edit
view in the Power BI service, with the Fields, Visualizations, and Filters panes on the right side
of the screen, each of which the user can collapse independently for more workspace. How-
ever, Power BI Desktop has a ribbon at the top of the screen, much like an Office application,
rather than the button bar found in the service.
FIGURE 3-27 Power BI Desktop Report view
Describe uses for custom visuals including charts or controls

Power BI includes a large selection of visualizations, but it is also possible for organizations
and users to create their own custom visualizations and share them within the organization or
with the outside Power BI community. Custom visualizations can be cosmetic variants on the
appearance of built-in Power BI visualizations, such as the addition of a company name or logo,
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or they can fulfill data display or integration requirements that are specific to the organization.
In the Power BI service interface, selecting Get more visuals in the Visualizations pane provides
access to the Power BI Visuals screen, as shown in Figure 3-28.
FIGURE 3-28 The Power BI Visuals screen
NOTE CUSTOM VISUALS IN POWER BI DESKTOP

In Power BI Desktop, the Get more visuals icon is labeled Import a custom visual.
The Power BI visuals screen has two tabs:

■ AppSource—Contains Power BI visuals available from the Microsoft AppSource store for
business applications
■ My organization—Contains custom Power BI visuals uploaded by the organization’s
administrators
The AppSource store contains hundreds of Power BI visualizations, including variations on
the chart types included in Power BI as well as new chart types and controls for visualizing data,
The My organization tab contains visuals that are exclusive to the organization, such
as those that contain company branding or other product-specific features. Before
users can access them, visuals on this tab must be uploaded to the service by a Power BI
administrator using the Add Visual dialog box in the Power BI admin portal, as shown in
Figure 3-30.
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FIGURE 3-29 Chord chart
FIGURE 3-30 The Add Visual dialog box in the Power BI admin portal
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Creating custom visuals is somewhat more complicated than creating Power BI reports
and dashboards and can require some coding. Microsoft has made the code for their visuals
and the necessary development tools freely available on its GitHub repository site. To create a
custom visual, the developer must set up the correct environment by installing the Node.js tool
and the pbiviz package and then by creating a certificate. Then, the developer uses the pbiviz
tool to create a custom visual project.
NEED MORE REVIEW? CREATING CUSTOM VISUALS

For more information on the process of creating custom visuals for Power BI, see https://
docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/developer/visuals/custom-visual-develop-tutorial.
After completing the development process, the result is a file with a .pbiviz extension that an
administrator can add to the My organization tab. It is also possible to submit a custom visual
to the AppSource site for distribution on the internet. An optional part of this process is for
Microsoft to certify the custom visual to make sure that its code is secure and that it does not
access any external resources, such as commercial libraries or outside services.
Compare and contrast dashboards and workspaces

As noted in Chapter 1, “Describe the business value of Power Platform,” Power BI supports
three types of distributable content: reports, dashboards, and apps. The report is the basic
content unit, a multipage document that developers can use to publish large amounts of data
in various formats. From a report, the developer can create dashboards, which are limited to a
single page and consist of visual elements extracted from a report. An app is a means of pack-
aging Power BI content from various sources for distribution as a freestanding unit.
When a user registers a Power BI account, the service creates a workspace for that user. A
workspace is a private area of the service in which a user can work on their content prior to
sharing it. A workspace can contain multiple Power BI elements, including data sets and Excel
workbooks, as well as dashboards and reports, as shown in Figure 3-31.
FIGURE 3-31 A default workspace in the Power BI service
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When the content is ready, the developer can then share individual elements or use the
workspace as a container to create an app from its entire contents. Although it is possible for
single developers to create Power BI dashboards and reports in their individual workspaces
and then share them with consumers all over the network, Power BI can also be a collaborative
development environment.
Users can create multiple workspaces in addition to the default one and provide other users
with access to them. Using a shared workspace, a team of developers can work together to cre-
ate Power BI content and keep it private until it is ready to share with consumers.
Power BI administrators control the ability to create new workspaces using the interface shown
in Figure 3-32, found on the Tenant settings page in the Power BI admin portal. Administrators can
grant the permission to everyone, to specific groups, or to everyone except specific groups.
FIGURE 3-32 The Workspace settings controls in the Power BI admin portal
Power BI supports two types of workspaces:

■■ Classic workspaces—Use an automatically created Office 365 group to control access to
the space
■■ New workspaces—Have four workspace roles that administrators use to control access,
as follows:
■■ Admin—Provides all capabilities, including the ability to assign and revoke work-
space roles, including other admins
■■ Member—Includes all contributor permissions; provides the ability to publish and
share apps and add members of the same or lesser roles
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■ Contributor—Allows users to create, edit, and delete workspace content and publish
reports to the workspace
■ Viewer—Allows users to view and interact with workspace content and read the data
in workspace data sets
EXAM TIP
As of mid-2020, the new workspace is the default type created in the Power BI service,
although it is still possible to create classic workspaces. Candidates preparing for the PL-900
exam should be aware that many Power BI resources might not be updated to reflect the
new workspace type and its default status.
Creating a new workspace

The Workspaces tab in the Power BI service interface includes a Create a workspace button that
opens the dialog box shown in Figure 3-33. As noted, the new workspace is now the default, so
the process of creating a workspace does not automatically create an Office 365 group.
FIGURE 3-33 The new Create a workspace dialog box in the Power BI service
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To control access to a new workspace after it is created, click the Access button to open the
Access dialog box, as shown in Figure 3-34, in which you specify users and the workspace roles
assigned to them.
FIGURE 3-34 The workspace Access dialog box in the Power BI service
Creating a classic workspace

To create a classic workspace instead, the user must click the Revert to classic link in the Cre-
ate a workspace dialog box to open the alternative interface shown in Figure 3-35. Creating a
classic workspace creates an Office 365 group. In this dialog box, the user specifies whether the
workspace should be private or public and whether members of the Office 365 group should
have read/write or read-only access to the contents of the workspace.
Compare and contrast Power BI Desktop and

Power BI service
The Power BI service is the cloud-based environment that both developers and consum-
ers use to create and access dashboards, reports, and other content. Power BI Desktop is
a Windows application that provides more advanced data modeling and report develop-
ment capabilities.
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FIGURE 3-35 The classic Create a workspace dialog box in the Power BI service
Because it is cloud based, the Power BI service is accessible to all users, on almost any
device. Whatever tool developers use to create reports or dashboards, they publish them
to the Power BI service so that consumers can access them freely. The Power BI service
also allows developers to collaborate by providing them with access to documents stored
in the cloud.
The Power BI service has a Reading view for consumers and an Edit view for develop-
ers. The Reading view displays the Pages and Filters pane, whereas switching to the Edit
view moves the pages tabs to the bottom of the screen and adds the Visualizations and
Fields panes on the right side, as shown in Figure 3-36.
Power BI Desktop is intended as a development and editing environment; consumers can-
not use it to access shared content. It also does not support collaboration in the way that the
service does. There are no workspaces in Power BI Desktop; instead, users open individual
content files that use a format with a .pbix extension.
The Power BI service and Desktop tools have some basic functions in common, but each
has some capabilities that the other lacks, as shown in the Venn diagram in Figure 3-37. The
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primary strength of Power BI Desktop, when compared to the service, is the ability to access
multiple data sources and model the data using the Power Query Editor tool.
FIGURE 3-36 Power BI service in Edit view
FIGURE 3-37 Power BI service and Desktop capabilities
Skill 3.2: Connect to and consume data

The first step in creating Power BI content is to access the data that the developer intends to
illustrate using the charts and other types of visualizations that Power BI provides. Doing so
calls for the developer to establish a connection to any of the data sources that Power BI sup-
ports and to select specific data provided by that source. Power BI Desktop allows developers
to connect to multiple data sources and model the data into the form needed to tell an appro-
priate story in the Power BI report.
Skill 3.2: Connect to and consume data CHAPTER 3 117
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■ Combine multiple data sources
■ Clean and transform data
■ Describe and implement aggregate functions
■ Identify available types of data sources including Microsoft Excel
■ Describe use cases for shared data sets and template apps and how to consume each
Combine multiple data sources

The Power BI service allows developers to connect to any one of hundreds of data sources.
However, in Power BI Desktop, it is possible to connect to multiple data sources at once and
combine the information from them into a single data model.
As noted earlier in this chapter, connecting to a data source is the first step in creating a
Power BI report. When you create a new file in Power BI Desktop, the startup screen includes
a Get data button that starts the process of connecting to a data source by displaying the Get
Data screen shown in Figure 3-38.
FIGURE 3-38 The Get Data screen in Power BI Desktop
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The developer can choose from hundreds of data sources, which generate proper screens for
the submission of credentials. For example, to access data on a webpage, Power BI Desktop gener-
ates an Access Web content dialog box, as shown in Figure 3-39. Here, the developer can choose
to access the webpage anonymously or specify one of the standard web authentication protocols.
FIGURE 3-39 The Access Web content screen from Power BI Desktop
After the developer has authenticated to the data source (if necessary), Power BI Desktop
evaluates the data found at the source and displays the Navigator screen, as shown in Figure 3-40,
containing all the tables it has found. Selecting a table and clicking Load adds the data to the
Fields pane in the Report view.
FIGURE 3-40 The Navigator screen in Power BI Desktop
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At this point, the developer can repeat the process to access one or more additional sources
and add them to the Report view. In the Home tab in Power BI Desktop, the developer can
select one of the icons in the Data group or select Transform data to open the Power Query
Editor tool and select New Source.
Once the developer combines the queries, the data from the additional sources is added to
the Fields pane, as shown in Figure 3-41. The developer can then proceed to use the data from
the various sources to create visualizations for the report, but it is more likely that the data will
require some modeling first. Developers do this using the Power Query Editor tool in Power BI
Desktop.
FIGURE 3-41 The Fields pane in Power BI Desktop with two data sources
Clean and transform data

Whether a Power BI content developer accesses one data source or many, it is possible that the
data might need modeling before it can be used effectively in a report. Data modeling—also
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called shaping or transforming data—is a term that can refer to a variety of tasks, including the
following:
■■ Modifying data types
■■ Removing rows or columns
■■ Renaming tables, rows, or columns
■■ Splitting columns
The purpose of data modeling is to select and arrange the data accessed from the source so
that it suits the visualization the developer intends to create. As always, modeling the data in
Power BI does not change the original data in the source, so splitting, removing, and renaming
rows and columns has no effect on the original data.
Modifying data types

One example of a data transformation is to modify the data type of a column. When a devel-
oper accesses a webpage as a data source, the resulting table might contain numerical values
that Power BI Desktop sees as text. For example, the Overall rank column in Figure 3-42 is
labeled as text (as shown by the ABC tag in the column header). Even though the values appear
to be numbers, the Power Query Editor reads them as text and cannot use them in mathemati-
cal calculations.
FIGURE 3-42 Text column in Power Query Editor
By right-clicking the Overall rank column and selecting Change Type from the context
menu, or by selecting the Data type drop-down list in the ribbon’s Transform group, the
developer can choose Whole Number to convert the column to numerical values that the
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Power Query Editor can use in mathematical operations (as shown by the 123 tag in the column
header in Figure 3-43).
FIGURE 3-43 Whole number column in Power Query Editor
After the developer changes the data type, that modification appears in the Query Settings
pane in the Applied Steps box as Changed Type. To undo the change, the developer can simply
delete the Changed Type transformation. Each transformation a developer applies to the data
is added to the Applied Steps list for later manipulation, if necessary.
NEED MORE REVIEW? USING POWER QUERY EDITOR

For more information on using the Power Query Editor, see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/
power-query.
Removing rows and columns

When combining data from different sources, it is common for developers not to need every-
thing that Power BI Desktop obtains from each source. For example, the Ranking of best and
worst states for retirement webpage accessed in the previous section includes a column con-
taining the names of the states. However, a developer might want to use the two-letter state
abbreviations instead. To do this, the developer can access another data source that contains
columns specifying the state names and their abbreviations. However, that data source might
include other information as well.
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For example, the data source shown in Figure 3-44 includes a column containing the full
names of the states, as well as one containing the equivalent ANSI values, which are the stan-
dard two-letter state abbreviations. However, there are 11 columns in total, of which the
developer needs only two. It is therefore possible to select the unneeded columns and select
Manage Columns > Remove Columns in the ribbon to delete them.
FIGURE 3-44 State abbreviations in a second data source
Renaming elements
Depending on the configuration of the data as it appeared in the source, it might be necessary
for a developer to click the Use first row as headers command in the ribbon’s Transform group
to create column headers. It is also possible for the developer to right-click a column and
rename the header to accommodate the needs of the other source to which the developer will
merge or append the data.
Combining queries
Modeling data is essentially a matter of applying one or more queries to it. Power BI
Desktop therefore refers to the modeled data from a source as a query. After the devel-
oper has modeled the data from multiple sources, it is possible to combine the queries
in two ways:
■■ Merge—Adds columns from one data source to the existing columns from another
source
■■ Append—Adds new rows from one data source to the existing rows in another source
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In the previous example, the developer sought to add the state abbreviations to the Rank-
ing of best and worst states for retirement data. To do this, the developer selects the target
data source and, on the ribbon, selects Combine > Merge Queries.
In the Merge dialog box, shown in Figure 3-45, the developer selects the query to
be merged and the columns to be matched during the process. In this example, select-
ing the State and State Name columns will synchronize the state abbreviations with the
correct names.
FIGURE 3-45 The Merge dialog box in Power BI Desktop
Clicking OK in the Merge dialog box causes the merged data to appear in the original
source, as shown in Figure 3-46. The entire merged query appears as a single column with the
word “table” in each cell, indicating that column contains all the merged columns in contracted
form.
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FIGURE 3-46 Power Query Editor with merged query
Clicking the Expand button at the right side of the column header displays the dialog box
shown in Figure 3-47. By selecting or clearing check boxes, the developer can specify which
expanded columns should appear in the merged query.
FIGURE 3-47 Expand dialog box in Power Query Editor
For this example, the developer should clear all but the Abbreviation check box and then
click OK. The Abbreviation column is now merged into the Ranking of best and worst states for
retirement query, as shown in Figure 3-48.
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FIGURE 3-48 Power Query Editor with expanded merged query
When the data modeling process is complete, clicking Close & Apply in the ribbon’s Close
group adds the table from the Power Query Editor to the report in Power BI Desktop.
Describe and implement aggregate functions

Power BI uses the term aggregate to refer to mathematical functions that it executes on values
obtained from data sources. When Power BI evaluates data, it automatically aggregates certain
data types to anticipate the needs of the developer in creating a report. For example, when
Power BI imports a table containing sales figures for a company’s branch offices, it might
aggregate those figures using the sum function to add up totals for the product sales catego-
ries. Although Power BI does this automatically, it is still possible for developers to modify the
automatic aggregations or apply new aggregations to data as needed.
It is the Value element in a visualization that is typically aggregated by Power BI during its
evaluation of the data. For example, in Figure 3-49, the values represented in the column chart
are taken from the data source’s Units Sold field. Hovering the mouse cursor over that field in
the Value well indicates that the amounts used to create the chart are sums of the units sold.
In the original source data, each product has dozens of Units Sold values for each product,
broken down by country. Power BI has added the values for each product to arrive at the totals
used for the chart.
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FIGURE 3-49 Power BI visualization with indication of aggregate
If for any reason a developer does not want to use sums of the units sold to create the
visualization, it is possible to change the aggregate by right-clicking the field in the Value well
to display the list of functions shown in Figure 3-50. For example, selecting Average instead of
Sum causes Power BI to recalculate the values and redraw the chart with the averages instead
of the sums. Other aggregates that Power BI supports include minimum, maximum, count
(distinct), count, standard deviation, variance, and median.
FIGURE 3-50 Power BI visualization with aggregate context menu
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It is also possible to aggregate a text field, but Power BI obviously does not support math-
ematical functions such as sum and average for this purpose. Only functions such as count,
distinct count, first, and last are applicable.
Identify available types of data sources including

Microsoft Excel
Before Power BI developers can do any modeling or visualizing, they must obtain the data they
intend to use. The Power BI service and Power BI Desktop both provide support for hundreds
of data sources, which they can access as local files, as databases within the organization, or as
cloud-based services on the internet, whether public or private.
The data sources available in the Power BI service and Power BI Desktop differ, as does the
means of accessing them. Microsoft is continually adding support for more data sources in
Power BI, so it is not uncommon to see sources with beta or preview tags that are currently in
development and might not be fully functional.
Power BI service data types

In the Power BI service, you can begin the process of selecting and connecting to data sources by
clicking Get Data in the navigation pane on the left to display the screen shown in Figure 3-51.
FIGURE 3-51 The Get Data screen in the Power BI service
The Get Data screen displays four tiles:

■■ My organization—Provides access to apps and organizational content packs published
to the AppSource repository by other users in the organization
■■ Services—Provides access to apps and organizational content packs published to the
AppSource repository by third-party users and organizations
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■■ Files—Provides access to data files stored on the local computer or network, includ-
ing Excel workbook files, comma-delimited value (CSV) files, and Power BI Desktop
(PBIX) files
■■ Databases—Provides access to cloud-based databases, such as Azure SQL Data-
base and SQL Server Analysis Services, and on-premises databases
Some of the data sources listed in the Power BI service require developers to install
and run Power BI desktop, as shown in Figure 3-52, which offers a more comprehensive
set of sources.
FIGURE 3-52 The Create new content screen in the Power BI service
Power BI Desktop data types

Power BI Desktop includes a larger set of data source connections from which developers
can choose and a tabbed interface that provides simpler access to them:
■■ All—Contains a list of all the connections found on the other tabs
■■ File—Contains connectors for Excel workbooks, text files, SharePoint folders, PDFs,
and other standard file formats, as shown in Figure 3-53
■■ Database—Contains connectors for many of the standard commercial database
formats, including SQL, Access, Oracle, IBM Informix, Sybase, and SAP, as shown in
Figure 3-54
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FIGURE 3-53 The File tab in Power BI Desktop’s Get Data dialog box
FIGURE 3-54 The Database tab in Power BI Desktop’s Get Data dialog box
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■■ Power Platform—Contains connectors for data sources from other Power Platform
elements, including Power BI data sets, Power BI dataflows, Common Data Service, and
Power Platform dataflows
■■ Azure—Contains connectors for many Microsoft Azure data storage solutions, includ-
ing Azure SQL Database, Azure Blob Storage, Azure Table Storage, and Azure Data Lake
Storage, among others, as shown in Figure 3-55
FIGURE 3-55 The Azure tab in Power BI Desktop’s Get Data dialog box
■■ Online Services—Contains connectors for dozens of internet services, including

SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, and many
others, as shown in Figure 3-56
■■ Other—Contains connectors for various other sources, including websites, Share-
Point lists, Active Directory, Spark, and Python scripts, among others, as shown in
Figure 3-57
Depending on the nature of the connection, selecting one of the data sources generates
additional screens with controls for making further file selections or supplying authentication
credentials. When you create a data set, the selections and credentials you specified with the
data source are saved with it so that it will not be necessary to enter them again.
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FIGURE 3-56 The Online Services tab in Power BI Desktop’s Get Data dialog box
FIGURE 3-57 The Other tab in Power BI Desktop’s Get Data dialog box
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Describe use cases for shared data sets and template apps
and how to consume each
Shared data sets and template apps are ways for Power BI users to function as content devel-
opers without a great deal of experience manipulating data or Power BI constructions.
Using shared data sets

Obtaining and modeling data are the first—and arguably the most important—parts of creat-
ing a report or dashboard in Power BI. These steps can be complicated and require a lot of time
and effort, so Power BI makes it possible to share data sets with other users. This way, devel-
opers do not always need to have a complete understanding of the data they use to create
reports, dashboards, and apps. They can access data that has already been transformed and
modeled into a useful state.
Data set sharing is an important element of the new workspace model in Power BI. Data sets
saved to a new workspace are automatically shared with other new workspaces. For example,
Figure 3-58 displays the Datasets + dataflows tab of a new workspace. The Customer Profit-
ability Sample, Financial Sample, and Human Resources Sample data sets are stored in that
workspace; however, the Retail Analysis Sample data set is stored in another new workspace
and yet it appears in this list.
FIGURE 3-58 The Datasets + dataflows tab of a new workspace in the Power BI service
This figure also includes data sets that have been endorsed to indicate that they are of
particularly high quality and suitable for use by other developers. Data sets with the blue
Promoted tag are endorsed by their creators. The green Certified tag appears on data sets
that their creators have submitted for certification by a group of expert users selected by the
organization’s Power BI administrators.
It is also possible for developers to apply permissions to data sets to regulate what other
users can do with them. When you select Manage permissions from the context menu of a data
set, its Manage access page appears, as shown in Figure 3-59.
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FIGURE 3-59 The Manage access page for a data set in the Power BI service
From this page, the owner of a data set can add users and assign them the following
permissions:
■■ Read—Allows recipients of the permission to reshare the element
■■ Build—Allows recipients of the permission to build new content from the element
Using template apps

Power BI template apps are sets of prepackaged reports and dashboards that users can down-
load from the AppSource repository and connect to their own live data sources. Developers
can create template apps and distribute them within their organizations or submit them for
publication on AppSource.
On the Apps page in the Power BI service, clicking the Get apps button opens the
AppSource interface, enabling the user to browse through the many templates available. After
selecting and installing a template, Power BI creates a new workspace for it, and a Get started
with your new app screen appears, as shown in Figure 3-60.
FIGURE 3-60 The Get started with your new app screen in the Power BI service
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The Get started with your new app screen provides three ways to utilize the template app:
■ Connect—Allows the users to connect the app to their own data sources, to create fully
operational reports and/or dashboards using current data
■ Explore—Provides access to the reports and/or dashboards in the app using sample
data included with the template
■ Customize—Opens the workspace created during the installation of the template,
enabling the user to modify the reports and/or dashboards or just examine their
construction
Skill 3.3: Build a basic dashboard using Power BI

A dashboard is a single-page Power BI document, like the one shown in Figure 3-61, that pres-
ents consumers with a selection of tiles containing highlights from one or more reports. The
object of a dashboard is to tell a story relatively concisely, in relation to a report. It is assumed
that if the consumers require more information, they can simply look at the report(s) from
which the dashboard tiles came.
FIGURE 3-61 Sample Power BI dashboard

■ Design a Power BI dashboard
■ Design data layout and mapping
■ Publish and share reports and dashboards
Skill 3.3: Build a basic dashboard using Power BI CHAPTER 3 135
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Design a Power BI dashboard
A dashboard is a single page composed of tiles, rectangular placeholders containing visualiza-
tions taken from existing reports and data sets that update in real time. Dashboards are essen-
tially gateways to the reports and data sets from which the tiles are taken. When consumers
click a tile on a dashboard, they are taken to the report that is the source for the tile.
There are advantages to creating dashboards, rather than having consumers just access the
reports from which they were sourced themselves. A dashboard is a single page, whereas a
report can have many pages. Therefore, a well-designed dashboard contains only the infor-
mation that is essential to the story that the developer wants to tell. Dashboards can also take
their tiles from multiple dashboards and data sets. This allows a developer to use resources
from several places to create a composite picture of a situation or process.
Although developers can create reports and data sets in either the Power BI service or
Power BI Desktop, they can only create dashboards in the Power BI service. Therefore, any
reports and data sets created and saved in Power BI Desktop must be published to the service
before developers can use elements from them in dashboards.
The process of creating a dashboard begins with the creation of a report by connecting to
a data source, modeling the data, and creating visualizations. There are then several ways to
create a dashboard, but the simplest is to pin visualizations from the report to a new, empty
dashboard, as in the following procedure.
1. Open a report in the Power BI service in Edit view and select a visualization. A toolbar
appears in the upper-right corner, as shown in Figure 3-62.
FIGURE 3-62 A Power BI report visualization with toolbar
2. Click the Push pin icon in the toolbar to open the Pin to dashboard dialog box, as shown
in Figure 3-63.
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FIGURE 3-63 The Power BI Pin to dashboard dialog box
3. Select the New dashboard radio button, specify a name in the Dashboard name field,
and click Pin. The new dashboard is created in the default workspace, and a Pinned to
dashboard message appears.
4. Click Go to dashboard. The newly created dashboard appears with the selected visual-
ization on it, as shown in Figure 3-64.
FIGURE 3-64 A newly created dashboard with a single visualization
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After Power BI has created the new dashboard, the developer can pin additional visualizations
to it, this time selecting the Existing dashboard option in the Pin to dashboard dialog box. The
additional visualizations can come from the same report as the first one or from different reports.
NOTE CREATING A LIVE PAGE

If a developer wants to create a dashboard that consists of an entire page from a report, it is
possible to do so without pinning each visualization individually by clicking the More options
button on the page’s toolbar and selecting Pin a live Page from the context menu to generate
a Pin to dashboard dialog box like the one shown earlier.
It is also possible to add tiles containing media content and other material directly to a
dashboard by selecting Add tile from the More Options menu to display the Add tile dialog
box shown in Figure 3-65.
FIGURE 3-65 The dashboard Add tile dialog box in the Power BI service
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Design data layout and mapping
The combination of the pinned visualizations from reports and the additional material avail-
able through the Add tile dialog box allow developers to design dashboards that tell a specific
story to the consumers and provide them with access to more detailed information in the
reports themselves. Deciding what information needs to appear on a dashboard and how that
information should be visualized is an important part of the dashboard design and creation
process.
Designing for screen size

Because a dashboard is only a single page, developers must consider the size of the screen that
consumers will be using to view it. Dashboards are scrollable, both vertically and horizontally,
so it is possible to create a page that is longer or wider than the actual screen, but developers
typically should try to avoid overly large pages for the convenience of consumers. This is espe-
cially true when consumers will be using mobile devices with small screens.
After the developer has pinned all the desired tiles to the dashboard, it is possible to move
them around, resize them, and add titles and subtitles to create a usable configuration.
The choice of display is up to the consumer, but developers might want to consider sizing
dashboards to accommodate full-screen mode, with which consumers can eliminate all the
surrounding frames and navigation panes to display only the dashboard itself.
When working with a dashboard in Power BI service, developers can switch between the
standard web view and a mobile view, as shown in Figure 3-66. The mobile view arranges the
titles vertically on a scrollable interface so that text is readable on a smaller screen.
Emphasizing importance
The other design consideration that developers should observe is the relative importance
of the visualizations being displayed. For example, in the detail from the sample dashboard
shown in Figure 3-67, the table lists the available beds and the occupancy rate for each of
seven facilities, with totals at the bottom. However, to provide the consumer with an immediate
overview of the data, the totals for all the facilities combined are also displayed above the table
in card tiles, using much larger type.
The decision as to what data is most important is, of course, particular to the subject and to
the audience for the dashboard. New developers might find that the dashboard design process
requires some trial and error, both to accommodate the screen size and to select the tiles from
the report that are most important to the consumers. The process might even involve modi-
fications to the report from which the tiles are taken. For example, an elaborate chart visual-
ization might be appropriate for the report, but a developer might find it necessary to create
some smaller card tiles isolating the most significant statistics from the chart and pin those to
the dashboard to save space, rather than including the entire chart.
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FIGURE 3-66 Mobile view of a dashboard in the Power BI service
FIGURE 3-67 Dashboard table tile with significant statistics displayed as card tiles
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Publish and share reports and dashboards
After creating a report or dashboard in the Power BI service, developers can share it with
selected users. These users then become consumers of the content, meaning that they can view
the material and interact with it (by adding comments, for example), but they cannot edit it.
EXAM TIP
To share content, both the developer and the consumer must have Power BI Pro licenses or
be working in a Power BI Premium workspace. Candidates for the PL-900 exam can access
the free version of Power BI, but to work with the sharing features, they can obtain a trial
version of Power BI Pro from Microsoft.
When you select a dashboard or report in a service workspace and click the Share icon, the
Share dashboard or the Share report dialog box appears, like the one shown in Figure 3-68.
FIGURE 3-68 The Share dashboard dialog box in the Power BI service
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After specifying the addresses of the users with whom the developers want to share the
content, they can select or deselect the following options:
■■ Allow recipients to share your dashboard/report—Allows recipients to reshare the con-
tent with other users
■■ Allow recipients to build new content using the underlying datasets—Allows recipients to
utilize the data sets with which the report or dashboard was created, using the devel-
oper’s credentials if necessary
■■ Send an email notification to recipients—Generates an email containing a link to the
report or dashboard and sends it to each recipient
For developers working in Power BI Desktop, their completed content is not accessible to
consumers until they publish it to the Power BI service, as in the following procedure:
1. With the completed content file open in Power BI Desktop, click the Publish button
on the ribbon’s Home tab or select File > Publish > Publish to Power BI. If the file has
changes that have not been saved, a prompt appears to save it.
2. If the developer is not signed on to the Power BI service, a sign-on interface appears.
After the sign-on is complete, the Publish to Power BI dialog box appears, as shown in
Figure 3-69.
FIGURE 3-69 The Publish to Power BI dialog box in Power BI Desktop
3. Select one of the available workspaces listed in the dialog box and click Select.
4. When the publication process is completed, a Success message box appears, containing
a link to the published file in the Power BI service, as shown in Figure 3-70.
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FIGURE 3-70 Publishing to Power BI Success message box in Power BI Desktop
Chapter summary
■■ Visualizations are the formats designers can use to display data in a Power BI dashboard
or report. Power BI provides a large selection of visualizations to choose from, including
various types of charts, tables, maps, gauges, apps, and cards.
■■ Filters are a means by which Power BI designers and consumers can specify what data is
displayed in reports.
■■ The Power BI service interface has a menu on the left side of the workspace that pro-
vides the primary means for users to navigate around the site.
■■ With Power BI, it is possible for organizations and users to create their own custom
visualizations and share them within the organization or with the outside Power BI
community.
■■ When a user registers a Power BI account, the service creates a workspace for that user.
A workspace is a private area of the service in which users can work on their content
prior to sharing it.
■■ The Power BI service is the cloud-based environment that both developers and consum-
ers use to create and access dashboards, reports, and other content. Power BI Desktop
is a Windows application that provides more advanced data modeling and report
development capabilities.
■■ The Power BI service allows developers to connect to any one of hundreds of data
sources. However, in Power BI Desktop, it is possible to connect to multiple data sources
at once and combine the information from them into a single data model.
■■ Data modeling is a term that can refer to a variety of tasks, including modifying data
types; removing rows or columns; and renaming tables, rows, or columns.
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■■ Power BI uses the term aggregate to refer to mathematical functions that it executes on
values obtained from data sources.
■■ Power BI makes it possible to share data sets with other users, so developers do not
always need to have a complete understanding of the data they use to create reports,
dashboards, and apps.
■■ A dashboard is a single page composed of tiles, rectangular placeholders containing
visualizations taken from existing reports and data sets that update in real time.
■■ Because a dashboard is only a single page, developers must consider the size of the
screen that consumers will be using to view it.
■■ After creating a report or dashboard in the Power BI service, developers can share it
with selected users.
■■ For developers working in Power BI Desktop, their completed content is not accessible
to consumers until they publish it to the Power BI service.
Thought experiment
Ralph is new to Power BI, and he wants to create a dashboard that compares the number of
COVID-19 cases in each of a selected group of East Coast U.S. states on a particular day. He has
found a website with a table containing the necessary data for all 50 states, which is updated
daily. After studying Power BI for a while and planning the process of creating a dashboard,
Ralph expects to perform the following tasks:
1. Create a data set from the COVID-19 data on the website.
2. Create a report with table and column chart visualizations of the data for the 50 states.
3. Create a dashboard and pin the table and column chart visualizations from the
report to it.
4. Use filters to restrict the data in the two visualizations to the desired East Coast states.
5. Share the dashboard with selected users on the network.
However, Ralph is somewhat confused about whether to use the Power BI service or Power
BI Desktop to perform these tasks. For each of these tasks, specify whether Ralph can use the
Power BI service only, Power BI Desktop only, or either the Power BI service or Power BI Desk-
top. Explain your answers by specifying any additional tasks that Ralph might have to perform.
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1. To create a data set from the website, Ralph must use Power BI Desktop only.
2. To create a report with the desired visualizations, Ralph can conceivably use either the
Power BI service or Power BI Desktop. To use the Power BI service for this task, however,
Ralph must first save the data as a PBIX file in Power BI Desktop and publish the file to a
workspace in the Power BI service.
3. To create a dashboard, Ralph must use the Power BI service. If he has not done so
already, he must save the report containing the data set he created in Power BI Desktop
as a PBIX file and publish it to his workspace in the Power BI service.
4. To use filters to limit the states displayed in the visualizations, Ralph can conceivably use
either the Power BI service or Power BI Desktop to edit the report. If he does this in the
Power BI service, the filters will be applied automatically to the dashboard. If he wants
to do this in Power BI Desktop, however, he will have to publish the filtered report to the
Power BI service again.
5. To share the dashboard, Ralph must use the Power BI service.
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CHAPTER 4
Demonstrate the capabilities

of Power Apps
As with the other Power Platform tools, Power Apps is designed for citizen developers with
little or no coding experience. The tool allows users to create cloud-based apps that range
in capability from simple information-gathering tools to internet-facing data access solu-
tions. Power Apps can access hundreds of public and private data sources, as well as Power
Platform’s own Common Data Service. Unlike Power BI, which is based primarily on read-
only access to data sources, Power Apps can be fully interactive, building up databases and
replacing paper-based processes with digital ones.
The fundamental philosophy behind Power Apps is to provide organizations with a devel-
opment paradigm that allows manual business processes to be realized as digital, automated
processes without the need for an extensive development budget or a large team of devel-
opment engineers.
Many large organizations have hundreds or thousands of manual procedures in place,
and realizing them as traditionally developed applications could require a huge, costly, and
lengthy IT expansion. With a no-code development environment such as Power Apps, the
personnel who will actually be using the apps can be responsible for designing and building
them. Instead of outside developers having to familiarize themselves with the users’ needs,
the users can decide what they need and when they need it.

■■ 4.1: Identify common Power Apps components
■■ 4.2: Build a basic canvas app
■■ 4.3: Describe Power Apps portals
■■ 4.4: Build a basic model-driven app
147
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Skill 4.1: Identify common Power Apps components
Power Apps allows developers to create three types of applications: canvas apps, model apps,
and portal apps. The processes for creating these apps are similar, but their functions and the
design properties available to the developer are different.

■ Describe differences between canvas apps and model-driven apps
■ Describe portal apps
■ Identify and describe types of reusable components including canvas component
libraries and Power Apps Component Framework (PCF) components
■ Describe use cases for formulas
Describe the differences between canvas apps and

model-driven apps
Power Apps supports two types of internal applications: canvas apps and model-driven apps.
The two types are similar in many ways, but they differ primarily in the flexibility of their inter-
faces and in the nature of the data sources they use.
Canvas apps
Canvas apps are the original application type supported by the Power Apps tool when it was
released in 2016. Rather than write code, developers can create canvas apps by dragging
and dropping elements onto a blank canvas in Power Apps Studio, in much the same way as
PowerPoint users design slides. The developers then link the app to one or more data sources
using the many connectors supplied with Power Platform and expressions that are similar to
those used in Excel.
There are three ways to create a canvas app, as shown in Figure 4-1: by starting from a blank
canvas, by starting with data from the Common Data Service or through one of the other
Power Platform connectors, or by starting with one of the many templates included in the
Power Apps portal.
In the sample help desk canvas app shown in Figure 4-2, the center pane displays the Login
screen, the first one that users and admins will see when they open the app. The right pane
contains controls for manipulating the appearance of the Login screen, and the left pane con-
tains an expandable list of the various screens in the app and the components the developer
has placed on them.
148 CHAPTER 4 Demonstrate the capabilities of Power Apps
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FIGURE 4-1 The Create page of the Power Apps portal
FIGURE 4-2 A canvas app in the Power App portal
Skill 4.1: Identify common Power Apps components CHAPTER 4 149
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This sample app has several other screens, some of which are shown in Figure 4-3. Develop-
ers can modify the screens as needed, both by adding or removing controls or by altering the
colors and other cosmetic properties.
FIGURE 4-3 Three additional screens from the Power Apps sample help desk app
Canvas apps (unlike model-driven apps) provide the developer with complete freedom over
the creation of the application interface. In addition to cosmetic properties, developers can
configure canvas apps to display data in different ways, or even create controls that allow users
to sort and limit the data.
After the app is completed, the developer can share it in the cloud with users running desk-
top browsers or iOS and Android mobile devices. One of the other strengths of canvas apps is
their ability to be embedded in other services, including Power BI reports, SharePoint sites, and
Microsoft Teams.
The help desk app shown in the earlier example uses a portrait orientation, which makes
it suitable for display on mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. When developers
build apps intended for use on browsers, landscape orientation is also available.
NOTE POWER APPS OPERATING SYSTEM AND BROWSER REQUIREMENTS

To run canvas apps, the Power Apps clients for mobile devices require iOS version 12 or later or
Android 7 or later. PCs require Windows 8.1 or later. The browsers supported by Power Apps
include Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer 11, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Safari.
Model-driven apps
Compared with canvas apps, model-driven apps do not provide the same interface configu-
ration capability. Instead, the developer begins by using business functions and business
processes to create a data model in the Common Data Service and then selects and configures
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the components to be added to the app, such as forms, views, charts, and dashboards, in the
Add Designer interface, as shown in Figure 4-4.
FIGURE 4-4 The App Designer interface in the Power Apps portal
Using the source data and the components selected by the developer, the app then uses
the Unified Client Interface (UCI) to design and create a tile-based display like the one shown
in Figure 4-5. By rearranging the tiles, developers make it possible for the app to automatically
adapt itself to the screen configurations of different device types. Canvas apps therefore have
more design flexibility, but model-driven apps support more complex business logic. In some
cases, a model-driven app can function as the back end for a canvas app.
FIGURE 4-5 A model-driven app
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Because they rely on the Common Data Service, model-driven apps have differ-
ent licensing requirements than canvas apps. Microsoft 365 subscribers have the
Power Apps/Power Automate license needed to create canvas apps using the stan-
dard set of connectors, but to use premium connectors or the Common Data Service,
which is required for creating model-driven apps, an additional Power Apps license is
needed.
Dynamics 365 is itself based on model-driven apps and the Common Data Ser-
vice, so subscribers have the Power Apps/Power Automate licensing needed to cre-
ate their own model-driven apps and use premium connectors. For users that do
not subscribe to Microsoft 365 or Dynamics 365, there are standalone Power Apps
licenses available on a “per user, per app” or “per app” basis, which include Power
Automate capabilities. Both license options provide access to the full set of Power Apps
capabilities, including the Common Data Service and standard, premium, and custom
connectors.
EXAM TIP
Candidates for the PL-900 exam should be aware that Microsoft provides time-limited trial
versions of Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365, which include the full Power Apps and Power
Automate capabilities described here. A trial version of Power BI Pro is also available as a sepa-
rate product.
Describe portal apps

A portal app is a means of providing users—both internal and external—with access to data
stored in the Common Data Service using a website. Organizations can use portal apps to pro-
vide customers, partners, and employees with self-service access to business information that
eliminates the need for many call center and face-to-face transactions.
Portal apps were at one time a feature of a Dynamics 365 add-on product, but Microsoft
has now incorporated them into Power Apps. Users are limited to creating a single portal app
in an environment. Because the portal app accesses and stores all of its data in the Common
Data Service, there is no need or capacity for establishing connections to outside applications
and services.
Selecting the Portal from blank tile on the Create screen of the Power Apps portal prompts
the user to confirm the provisioning of the current environment with the components needed
to create the portal app. This can include the Common Data Service, if not installed already,
appropriate entities and data, and a starter portal template. After the provisioning is complete,
the portal app appears on the Apps page. Opening the portal app displays the starter page for
the website, as shown in Figure 4-6.
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FIGURE 4-6 Starter page for a Power Apps portal app
EXAM TIP
Candidates for the PL-900 exam should be aware that Microsoft and other sources use the
word portal frequently and with many different definitions. In computing, the term portal
is usually defined as a webpage that provides access to other services, applications, or
websites. In the context of the Power Platform tools and other Microsoft cloud services, it
is common to refer to their management and administration websites as portals. Be sure
to avoid confusing these applications for the term with the portal app in Power Apps.
After the portal app has been created, the developer can then edit the website as needed by creat-
ing new pages, adding components, and applying templates, using the interface shown in Figure 4-7.
FIGURE 4-7 Editing interface for a portal app
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Identify and describe types of reusable components
including canvas component libraries and Power Apps
Component Framework (PCF) components
Developers working from a blank canvas can create components that define the characteristics
of the app’s screen elements. A component can be a form, a button, a text box, or any other
element. It is possible to create a button or other screen element individually, but the advan-
tage of creating it as a component is that it becomes reusable on multiple screens. Compo-
nents in Power Apps function in much the same way as styles in Microsoft Word; they consist of
multiple attributes that users can apply in one step.
For example, a canvas app might consist of several screens, each of which has one or
more buttons on it, and the developer wants all the buttons to have the same basic appear-
ance. By creating a component containing the button characteristics, such as shape, color,
and text size, the developer can create buttons on each app screen that all look the same. If,
at a later time, the developer decides to change the appearance of the buttons—by chang-
ing the text size, for example—modifying the component will cause all the buttons in the
app to change at once.
When the developer is working with a canvas app, the tree view page has two tabs: Screens
and Components. On the Components tab, shown in Figure 4-8, developers can create new
components, such as the button shown, which will then be accessible to any screen in the
app. To insert a component into an app screen, open the Insert page and expand the Custom
header to see a list of the components created in the app.
FIGURE 4-8 The Components tab in a canvas app
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Component Libraries
Components by themselves simplify the process of unifying elements throughout the various
screens in an app, but there are situations in which developers might want to unify elements
across apps. For example, an organization might want to create multiple apps and have them
all utilize the same buttons and other components. Component libraries are one way to do this.
A component library is a repository for components that exists independently from the apps in
which the components will be used.
In the Power Apps portal, component libraries are listed on the Apps page under the Com-
ponent libraries tab, as shown in Figure 4-9. Developers can create new component libraries
here and add components to them; the process of creating components in a library is virtually
identical to creating them in an app. After creating them, developers can share component
libraries with other users.
FIGURE 4-9 The Component libraries tab on the Apps page in the Power Apps portal
To access a component library when creating an app, a developer opens the Insert page and
clicks the Get more components button at the bottom of the screen. This generates a list of the
available component libraries, as shown in Figure 4-10, from which the developer can import
individual components or the entire library.
FIGURE 4-10 The Import components pop-up on the Insert page of a canvas app
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After they are imported, the selected components appear under a Library components
header in the Insert pane, as shown in Figure 4-11. As with components created within an app,
modifying a component in a library can cause it to change in all the apps where developers
have used it. To do this, however, the developer must publish the component library after mak-
ing the changes and then update the apps in which the library components appear by clicking
Check for updates on the Insert page.
FIGURE 4-11 The Library components header on the Insert page of a canvas app
Power Apps Component Framework

The Power Apps Component Framework (PCF) is another means of creating and publishing
components that developers can import and use in their apps. This type of code-based com-
ponent can transform displays like the one shown in Figure 4-12 into various types of graphics
and charts, as shown in Figure 4-13, and add controls such as sliders and dials to provide users
with control over numeric values. Code components can also display information retrieved
from services outside the app.
FIGURE 4-12 Display without Power Apps Component Framework
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FIGURE 4-13 Display with Power Apps Component Framework
NEED MORE REVIEW? PCF CODING

Unlike most of the Power Platform tools and technologies, PCF does require the use of code,
and Microsoft has released a Power Apps CLI (command-line interface) tool that allows devel-
opers to create and work on PCF code components https://aka.ms/PowerAppsCLI.
As with component libraries, PCF provides resources for developers that can create a uni-
fied appearance and experience across all of an organization’s apps. There is also a growing
community of component developers that make their work available online on an open source
basis.
To deploy PCF code components, developers package them into a solution file and import
the file into the Common Data Service. From there, individual app developers can add them to
canvas or model-driven apps.
PCF code components must include the following three elements:
■ Manifest—A metadata file in XML format that specifies the name of the component,
how it can be used, what properties can be configured, and what resource files it needs
■ Component implementation—TypeScript or JavaScript code that defines the functional-
ity of the component and its user interface
■ Resources—A file containing the code needed to implement the component’s visualiza-
tion, which can include JavaScript libraries, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) code, images,
and HTML
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After the coding is completed, the developer must package the code components into a
solution file using the CLI pac command, generate a zip file of the solution using the msbuild
command, and then manually import the zip file into the Common Data Service.
To use PCF code components in apps, an administrator must first allow the feature for the
environment in which the components are needed, using the Power Platform admin center, as
FIGURE 4-14 The Environments page in the Power Platform admin center
Describe use cases for formulas

Formulas in Power Apps function in much the same way as formulas in Microsoft Excel. Devel-
opers can use formulas to perform operations on cell contents and to modify the functionality
of controls, such as buttons, drop-down lists, and combo boxes.
Performing operations with formulas

For example, just as people can use the sum function in Excel to total a column of cells, a
developer can use the sum function in a Power App to add the numerical values in multiple
text boxes together. In Figure 4-15, the sample app shown has three text input controls called
TextInput1, TextInput2, and TextInput3 with numerical text in them. The fourth element is a
label control with the following multifunction formula in it:
Sum(Value(TextInput1.Text),Value(TextInput2.Text),Value(TextInput3.Text))
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FIGURE 4-15 The Power Apps workspace containing a sample canvas app with a Sum formula
In this formula, the Value function converts the text in each of the first three controls into
a value that can be manipulated. The Sum function then adds the three values together into
a total that appears in the Label1 control. The developer can also elaborate on the formula by
adding other functions, such as the If function in the following example:
If(Sum(Value(TextInput1.Text),Value(TextInput2.Text),Value(TextInput3.Text)) >=65,
"Pass","Fail")
This formula uses the If function to evaluate the sum, as in the case of a teacher calculating
a quiz grade. If the value arrived at by the Sum function is greater than or equal to 65, then the
Label1 control displays Pass, as shown in Figure 4-16; if the sum is less than 65, Fail appears.
FIGURE 4-16 The Power Apps workspace containing a sample canvas app with a formula using the If
function to evaluate a sum
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Configuring controls with formulas
Power Apps can also use formulas to configure controls. The Insert menu in the Power Apps
workspace provides developers with a large collection of controls that they can add to
canvas apps. After they are added, controls have properties that developers can configure
using formulas. All controls have properties that define their appearance, such as their size,
color, and location on the app screen. There are also properties specific to the function of
the control.
For example, when a developer inserts the Date picker control into an app screen, as shown
in Figure 4-17, the DefaultDate property shown in the drop-down list in the top-left quadrant
of the app workspace has a default formula value of Today(), which appears on the app screen
as today’s date. The developer can change that default formula value to display any other date
instead.
FIGURE 4-17 Configuring properties in the Date picker control
Selecting the Format property in the drop-down list displays a default formula value of
DateTimeFormat.ShortDate, which causes the date to appear in the control using the format
mm/dd/yyyy. As shown in Figure 4-18, developers can select that formula to display alternative
values, such as ShortDateTime, which adds the time to the date, and ShortDateTime24, which
adds the time using the 24-hour clock.
Scrolling through the list of other possible formula values, developers can also select Long-
Date, which displays the date in the control as Friday, July 3, 2020.
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FIGURE 4-18 Configuring the Format property in the Date picker control
Skill 4.2: Build a basic canvas app

Canvas apps provide the developer with complete control over the formatting and appearance
of the app. The process of building a canvas app involves connecting to a data source, placing
controls on the app screens, and finally publishing and sharing the app to make it accessible to
consumers.

■ Describe types of data sources
■ Connect to data by using connectors
■ Combine multiple data sources
■ Use controls to design the user experience
■ Describe the customer journey
■ Publish and share an app
Describe types of data sources

Connecting to a data source is usually the first step in creating an app in Power Apps. This is
true whether the app is built on the source data or the object of the app is to collect informa-
tion from the consumers and save it.
Skill 4.2: Build a basic canvas app CHAPTER 4 161
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An app can be based on data from any one of hundreds of data sources, accessed through
the connectors supplied with Power Platform, a few of which are shown in Figure 4-19.
FIGURE 4-19 A sampling of connectors supplied with Power Platform
Organizations that subscribe to Microsoft 365 have access to cloud-based storage services
that they can use as data sources, including OneDrive for Business and SharePoint. Both of
these services can store files that contain the data on which an app is based. Dynamics 365 and
Power Apps Pro subscribers have access to Common Data Services, which is a database that
apps can use to store the data they gather from users.
The many other connectors supplied with the Power Platform tools provide access to
applications and services running on local servers and in the cloud. Power Platform has two
classes of connectors, standard and premium, which are dependent on the Power Apps/Power
Automate license used by the developers. The standard connectors provide access to most of
the Microsoft cloud services, as well as to basic internet services and social media. The pre-
mium connectors allow apps to connect to higher-end commercial applications and services,
including SQL Server, Dynamics 365, and various Azure services.
In some cases, a data source might just be a place to store data generated by the app, such
as SharePoint or the Common Data Service. In other cases, the connection might be the source
for the data that is presented in the app, as in the Flooring Estimates sample app shown in
Figure 4-20, which was generated from an Excel spreadsheet accessed from a OneDrive for
Business connection.
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FIGURE 4-20 Sample app using data from a spreadsheet stored on OneDrive for Business
A spreadsheet is a type of table; this is the most common form of data used by apps in
Power Apps. An app can read data from a table, modify the existing table data, and add new
entries to a table. Other types of connections also can provide access to tabular data, such as
SharePoint lists and SQL tables. Connectors can also provide access to other types of data that
are not tabular, such as calendars and email messages.
Connect to data by using connectors

Connecting to a data source is usually the first requirement in building a canvas app in Power
Apps. How this happens depends on how the developer chooses to begin the build process. As
noted elsewhere in this chapter, the Create page in the Power Apps portal provides three ways
to create a canvas app:
■■ Start with a blank app
■■ Start with a data source
■■ Start from a template
Starting with a blank app

If a developer chooses to begin from scratch by selecting the Canvas app from blank tile on
the Create page, the recommended first step is to navigate to the Data sources pane. This pane
lists any current connections that are open, the Common Data Service entities that are avail-
able, if any, and lists all the available connectors, as shown in Figure 4-21.
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FIGURE 4-21 Connectors available in the Data sources pane
Depending on the nature of the connector, the developer selecting it will be presented with an
interface providing access to the application or service. For example, if the developer selects the
Import from Excel connector, a standard combo box appears, enabling the selection of an Excel
file from a local or network drive. If the developer selects the connector for a subscription-based
online service, a window appears, prompting for user account credentials, as shown in Figure 4-22.
FIGURE 4-22 Sign-in pop-up window for a connector authentication
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After the connection with the data source is established, the developer can begin building
the app by adding controls to the app screens. There is nothing to prevent the developer from
designing the app screens and adding controls before the data source connection is in place,
but only the cosmetic aspects of the controls will function.
Starting with a data source

The second method for creating a canvas app is to start with a data source and work from
there. The Start from data section on the Create page contains icons for four of the most com-
monly used data sources: SharePoint, Excel Online, SQL Server, and Common Data Service, as
well as an Other data sources link, which opens the Create an app page shown in Figure 4-23.
FIGURE 4-23 The Create an app page in the Power Apps portal
Selecting one of the tiles in the Start with your data section, such as the OneDrive for Busi-
ness tile, opens a Connections page, as shown in Figure 4-24. In this example, the Connec-
tions page indicates that there is already an open connection to the developer’s OneDrive for
Business account. If there was no existing connection, the developer would have to click the
+New connection button, select the OneDrive for Business connector, and type the necessary
credentials to gain access to the data source.
FIGURE 4-24 The Connections page for a new app in the Power Apps portal
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With the connection established, the developer can browse OneDrive for Business
and select a data file containing tabular information that Power Apps can use. In this
example, the chosen file is an Excel workbook containing the spreadsheet partially
shown in Figure 4-25. Because an Excel workbook can contain multiple spreadsheets, a
Choose a table pane appears, listing all the spreadsheets in the file for the developer’s
selection.
FIGURE 4-25 Sample spreadsheet used to create app
After the developer selects a data file, Power Apps analyzes its contents and creates a work-
ing app that utilizes the data in an appropriate manner. In this example, Power Apps uses the
spreadsheet information about types of flooring to create a catalog app that consists of the
following three screens, as shown in Figure 4-26:
■■ A Browse screen listing all the flooring products
■■ A Detail screen for each product
■■ An Edit screen in which users can modify the information for a particular product
The design of this working app is based on the data supplied in the file and is basically
Power Apps’ guess of the developer’s intentions. The developer can still modify the app in
any way. In fact, if the supplied design is completely inadequate for the developer’s needs,
it might be easier to start over from scratch with a blank app and then connect to the data
source.
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FIGURE 4-26 Three screens from the FlooringEstimates sample app
Starting with a template

As noted earlier, Power Apps includes a collection of templates that consist of app screen
designs and data source connections intended to perform a specific task or solve a specific
problem. This is a different approach to creating apps in that developers can attempt to locate
a template that accommodates their needs as nearly as possible.
Templates perform two basic functions: they can serve as a blueprint for an app the devel-
oper actually needs, and they can be training aids, demonstrating how apps perform certain
tasks. In many cases, the templates included with Power Apps include sample data and prompt
the developer to supply a data storage connection such as OneDrive, as shown in Figure 4-27.
The developer can then modify the app to use different text, source data, and images, as well
as modify the controls and add or remove screens.
FIGURE 4-27 App created from a template prompting for a data storage connection
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Combine multiple data sources
Power Apps supports the use of multiple data sources in a single app, which developers can
use in various ways. When a developer uses a connector to access a resource, it is possible
to access multiple tables or other elements. For example, in the sample app generated
from an Excel spreadsheet shown earlier, it would be possible for the developer to con-
nect to more than one table in the same Excel file. The initially generated app is created
from a single table, but the developer can always add other tables later. In that case, each
table would be considered a separate data source, even though they both use the same
connection.
When apps are connected to multiple data sources, using one connection or more than
one, the app can use them for incoming or outgoing data. An app can combine existing tables
from multiple data sources, such as the product inventories from several branch stores, and
combine them into a catalog app that provides a picture of the available inventory for the
entire chain.
It is also possible to use multiple data source connections for different purposes. For
example, an app can conceivably use one connection to retrieve data from a branch office in
an Excel file, allow users to modify the data table in the app, and then use another connection
to save the revised data to the environment’s Common Data Service in the cloud.
Use controls to design the user experience

With connections in place, the actual process of designing an app in Power Apps involves
placing controls and other elements on the app screens to create a usable interface for
the consumers who will be running it. The term control refers here to any of the display
elements found on an app screen. The title box at the top of the screen, the buttons that
trigger functions, and the panels containing data from your source are all examples of
controls.
One of the best ways to learn about controls is to explore the ones created automatically
when you generate an app from a data source or a template. The three screens shown earlier
from the sample FlooringEstimates app are typical of an app generated from a tabular data
source. These screens are as follows:
■■ Gallery—The gallery screen, shown in Figure 4-28 and called BrowseScreen1 in the
sample app, displays the table data from the connected source as a scrolling list, with
each product box containing the data from one row in the table. The gallery control
(called BrowseGallery1) is the primary control for the screen, occupying most of its real
estate. The other controls listed in the Tree View pane implement the other elements
on the screen, including the title bar (called a label control), the buttons on the title bar
(called icon controls), and the search box (called a text input control). The BrowseGallery1
control in the Tree View pane is expandable because it contains other controls that cre-
ate the contents of each box in the gallery.
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FIGURE 4-28 The BrowseScreen1 screen in a Power Apps sample app
■■ Detail—The detail screen, shown in Figure 4-29 and called DetailScreen1 in the sample
app, displays all the information for one product selected from the gallery. Apart from
the label and icon controls in the title bar, the screen consists mostly of card controls,
which contain the individual data elements corresponding to the cells in the source
spreadsheet.
FIGURE 4-29 The DetailScreen1 screen in a Power Apps sample app
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■■ Edit—The edit screen, shown in Figure 4-30 and called EditScreen1 in the sample app,
displays the same information as the detail screen, but in editable controls so that the
user can modify the information. Instead of simple card controls, which only display the
data, this screen uses text input controls to contain the individual data points so that the
user can modify them. All of these editable controls are part of an edit form control.
FIGURE 4-30 The Edit screen in a Power Apps sample app
When working in the Power Apps Studio portal, clicking any element in a screen highlights
the corresponding control in the Tree View pane and displays the properties of the control in
the right pane. All controls have properties that specify how they look and what they do. The
right pane in the Studio interface contains some of the properties for the selected control,
using text boxes, buttons, and drop-down lists to allow the developer to modify the property
values.
An equation bar near the top of the interface contains a drop-down list for selecting a prop-
erty and an interactive function box, as shown in Figure 4-31, in which the developer can work
with the individual property values. In the sample, the Data Source property of the EditForm1
control on the edit screen indicates that the data comes from the spreadsheet, identified as
@FlooringEstimates.
FIGURE 4-31 The equation bar from the Power Apps Studio interface
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This FlooringEstimates app contains only a small sampling of the controls available to
developers in Power Apps and how they can make use of them. The insert bar, above the
equation bar in the figure, contains buttons and drop-down menus that allow the devel-
oper to insert controls anywhere on an app screen. The buttons and menus include the
following:
■■ New screen—Adds screens of various types to the bottom of the Tree View from a gal-
lery of thumbnails, including list, form, email, and calendar formats
■■ Label—Adds a text box intended for display text
■■ Button—Adds a rectangular blue button that developers can resize and recolor as
needed
■■ Text—Adds a box for the display and/or insertion of text in various formats, including
plain text, HTML, rich text, and pen input
■■ Input—Adds controls that allow users to supply data, including text boxes, drop-down
lists, combo boxes, date pickers, check boxes, radio buttons, and toggles
■■ Media—Adds controls that allow apps to display images, audio, and video, as well as
accept user input from cameras and barcode scanners
■■ Charts—Adds controls that can display the source data as column, line, or pie charts, as
well as insert Power BI tile
■■ Icons—Adds controls that display small icons, such as plus signs, pencils, and check
marks, which can function as buttons
■■ Custom—Allows developers to create, import, and export components
■■ AI Builder—Allows the insertion of standard AI Builder functions, such as the business
card reader, the form processor, and the object detector
Describe the customer journey

The customer journey is the complete experience that a consumer undergoes while work-
ing with a company or organization. The customer’s experience can include interactions with
salespeople, customer service representatives, technical support personnel, and others. Power
Apps can enhance the customer’s journey by providing these company representatives with all
the information they need to satisfy the needs of the customer.
Custom apps running on smartphones or other mobile devices can ensure that company
reps have up-to-date information about the products they sell and service. For example, using
Power Apps with AI Builder, developers can create applications that supply sales and service-
people with current inventory information, ensuring that the promises they make to customers
can be fulfilled, that the products they need are available, or that the parts required to effect a
repair are in stock.
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Publish and share an app
After developers finish building their apps, they have to save them and share them with the
users who will access them. When a developer later makes changes to an existing shared app,
the developer must publish the app so that the latest version is supplied to the users.
When a developer saves a canvas app for the first time, Power Apps opens a page that pro-
vides the option to save it to the cloud or to the local computer, as shown in Figure 4-32. After
this first save, Power Apps automatically saves any changes made to the app every two minutes.
FIGURE 4-32 The Save as page in the Power Apps portal
After the app is successfully saved, the success screen includes a Share button. Clicking
this opens the Share page, on which the developer can specify a user or group with which the
app will be shared, as shown in Figure 4-33. By default, the accounts added on the Share page
become users, who are permitted to run the app. Selecting the Co-owner check box grants the
user the permissions needed to edit the app and share it with others.
FIGURE 4-33 The Share page in the Power Apps portal
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After the app is saved, it is still possible for the developer or the co-owners to modify it,
and Power Apps saves the changes every two minutes. However, it is necessary to publish the
app to supply the sharing users with the latest version. Selecting Save from the File menu after
making changes to an app produces a page with a Save button, and then another page with a
Publish button. Clicking Publish causes the Publish pop-up shown in Figure 4-34 to appear.
FIGURE 4-34 The Publish pop-up in the Power Apps portal
Skill 4.3: Describe Power Apps portals

As mentioned earlier in this chapter, a Power Apps portal app is a means of creating a web-
site that allows internet and intranet users to access data stored in a Common Data Services
database. To run a canvas or model-driven app requires a Portal Apps license, so these types
of apps are intended for an organization’s internal use. However, portal apps make it possible
for unlicensed users to access data that developers have previously stored in Common Data
Services.

■ Create a portal by using a template
■ Describe common portal customizations
■ Identify differences in portal behavior based on whether a user is authenticated
■ Apply a theme to a portal
Create a portal by using a template

In its default configuration, a developer with a Power Apps license can create a blank por-
tal, but no portal templates are listed on the Create page. Creating a blank portal uses the
Skill 4.3: Describe Power Apps portals CHAPTER 4 173
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Common Data Services database installed in the selected environment as its data source,
eliminating the need to establish outside connections.
If the currently selected environment does not have the required entities and other com-
ponents installed, creating a portal using the Portal from blank pop-up window, as shown in
Figure 4-35, installs the necessary prerequisites—including a starter template—along with the
portal app itself.
FIGURE 4-35 The Portal from blank pop-up window
The starter portal includes three sample webpages that developers can use as the basis for
their own page designs, as follows:
■■ Default Studio template
■■ Page with title
■■ Page with child links
When a developer who is a Dynamics 365 subscriber has model-driven Dynamics 365 apps
installed in the currently selected environment, then the Create page includes portal templates
associated with the Dynamics 365 apps, as shown in Figure 4-36.
Installing a portal app from a template first calls for the developer to supply a name for the
app and the address with which users will access it in the powerappsportals.com domain, as
shown in Figure 4-37. The form checks the address supplied by the developer to ensure that it
is not already in use. After the developer clicks Create, the window closes and the portal provi-
sioning process proceeds in the background, often for several minutes.
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FIGURE 4-36 Dynamics 365 portal templates
FIGURE 4-37 The Customer self-service pop-up generated by a portal app template
While the provisioning occurs, the new portal app is listed on the Apps page, as shown in
Figure 4-38, but it is grayed out and the icon has a progress symbol, indicating that it is not yet
accessible.
FIGURE 4-38 A provisioning portal app, listed on the Apps page
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After the provisioning is complete, the portal app is ready for editing and/or browsing. The
template provides sample data that populates the app with fully functional features appropri-
ate to the application. In the case of the Customer Self-service portal, shown in Figure 4-39,
there is a knowledge base, discussion forums, a support page, and a search engine.
FIGURE 4-39 The home page of a Customer Self-service portal app
Describe common portal customizations

The starter page generated by a portal app created from a blank has a rudimentary design that
is only intended to provide the developer with a basic structure on which to build. A substantial
web development effort is necessary to make the website functional enough for clients to use.
By contrast, a portal app created from a template supplied by Dynamics 365 uses a far more
attractive and comprehensive design that includes web applications, such as a search engine, a
knowledge base, and threaded discussion forums.
The portal app templates include sample data for the websites they create that conform
to a sample business application that is appropriate for the type of portal. For example, the
Customer Self-service portal app creates a sample website for a company called Contoso, Ltd.
that contains material on supporting 3D printers and audio equipment. Obviously, the app
developer will have to modify the site design to change the company name and populate the
site with customer service articles and other material appropriate to the developer’s business.
Portal Apps provides a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) workspace that allows
developers to edit the website pages in place. The toolbar in the left pane provides the follow-
ing editing tools:
■■ Pages—Provides access to each of the pages on the portal website and the ability to
create new pages, as shown in Figure 4-40
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FIGURE 4-40 The Pages menu in Portal Apps Studio
■■ Components—Allows developers to add elements to webpages, including text, images,

frames, forms, and lists, as shown in Figure 4-41
FIGURE 4-41 Sampling of the Components menu in Portal Apps Studio
■■ Themes—Provides access to prebuilt CSS themes that modify the color and other cos-
metic attributes of the portal website, as shown in Figure 4-42
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FIGURE 4-42 The Themes menu in Portal Apps Studio
■ Templates—Provides access to editable blocks of code that define the layout of a

webpage, as shown in Figure 4-43, enabling developers to reuse page designs across
multiple websites. The Template drop-down list in each page’s properties pane specifies
the page template it is using.
FIGURE 4-43 The Templates menu in Portal Apps Studio
EXAM TIP
Candidates for the PL-900 exam should be careful not to confuse the page templates that
define the layout of portal webpages with the app templates on the Create page that are
used to create sample apps.
A developer might choose to customize the existing website generated by the app tem-
plate by completely redesigning the website, by creating new pages, by applying themes
and/or templates, and by adding components to them. In other cases, developers might
prefer to use the site produced by the template, changing only what is necessary to accom-
modate the organization’s name and content.
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Identify differences in portal behavior based on
whether a user is authenticated
In some cases, the portal apps generated from templates provide users with access to sensi-
tive information, and they therefore require the user to authenticate before full access to the
website is granted. It is possible to create a portal in which users can access some or even all of
the content anonymously, such as a technical support portal that provides general information
for all users of a product, but for customer service, employee, or partner portals and the like,
authentication will be necessary to provide access to user-specific information.
Portal apps, by default, use local authentication based on accounts realized in the Con-
tact entity of the Common Data Services database. Developers can register users by having
them fill out a form, as shown in Figure 4-44, which provides the information that goes into a
contact record. For greater control over the registration process, developers can require users
to validate their email addresses or supply an invitation code. Portal apps also support external
authentication methods, using Azure AD accounts or social media providers, such as Google.
FIGURE 4-44 The Register for a new local account page from a portal app
Apply a theme to a portal

Themes are Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) definitions that specify the attributes to be applied
to the webpages generated by a portal app. CSS is a standard web design tool used by many
internet websites. The themes in the Portal Apps Studio interface are simply sequences of CSS
code that developers can apply to portal pages, or even to multiple portal websites, to create a
uniform appearance.
The Themes menu in the Portal Apps Studio interface contains a selection of themes, which
developers can apply as is or modify as needed. Opening a theme displays it in a Code Editor
window, as shown in Figure 4-45.
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FIGURE 4-45 CSS code for a theme in a portal app
CSS code contains attributes and values that web browsers use to configure text, colors, and
other elements of webpages as they render them. For example, the text-align attribute in CSS
code specifies whether a given block of text should be left-justified, right-justified, or cen-
tered. The font-size attribute specifies the text size. Therefore, the following syntax causes the
selected text to be 36 pixels and centered, typical for a section heading on a webpage:
{
font-size: 36px;
text-align: center;
}
When a developer modifies the CSS code for a particular theme, selecting Upload custom
CSS from the Themes menu makes it possible to add the revised code as a new theme that will
be accessible on other webpages.
Skill 4.4: Build a basic model-driven app

Rather than concentrating on interface design, as some developers tend to do when building
canvas apps, model-driven apps are centered around the data they gather and present and the
business processes they realize for users. Developers concentrate on what they want the app to
do, rather than how it will look or function. Power Apps is responsible for the interface design.
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■ Add entities to app navigation
■ Modify forms and views
■ Publish and share an app
Add entities to app navigation

Model-driven apps have the same creation options as canvas apps. The Create page in the
Power Apps portal contains a Model-driven app from blank tile as well as several model-driven
templates.
Using the templates requires a Common Data Services database and the sample apps
included with Power Apps. If the database and the samples do not exist in the current envi-
ronment, Power Apps offers to create a new environment that includes both, as shown in
Figure 4-46.
FIGURE 4-46 Power Apps model-driven app template message box
EXAM TIP
Candidates for the PL-900 exam can install a trial version of Power Apps, as well as a trial
version of Dynamics 365, to sample the full Power Apps experience. The trial versions are
time-limited, and there is also a limit of one trial environment.
The real difference between building model-driven apps and canvas apps comes after the
app is installed. Instead of the canvas app workspace showing a facsimile of the app screens
that the developer can populate by dragging and dropping WYSIWYG components, model-
driven apps have an App Designer workspace, like the one shown in Figure 4-47.
Skill 4.4: Build a basic model-driven app CHAPTER 4 181
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FIGURE 4-47 The App Designer interface for a model-driven app
As with canvas apps, model-driven app designs are based on components, but in the App
Designer interface, the components do not resemble the elements as they will appear on the
final app screens. Model-driven app screens are based on tiles, and developers use the App
Designer to specify what tiles should appear, what data they contain, and how that data should
be presented.
Model-driven apps also differ from canvas apps in that they are always based on data
accessed from the Common Data Services database. Developers design the app by adding
entities from the database.
For example, in the Innovation Challenge app shown in the previous figure, the App
Designer has nine rows in the Entity View section, the first four of which are visible in the figure:
Challenge, Document Location, Feedback, and Idea. The entities appear as buttons on the left
side of the screen, and each entity has a row of four icon boxes representing the entity assets:
Forms, Views, Charts, and Dashboards. These are the elements that determine what data will
appear in the final app and how it will be presented.
Developers can add entities to the app by clicking the Entities artifact on the Components
tab and selecting from the list shown in Figure 4-48. Selecting a check box adds the entity to
the Entity View area, creating a new row of assets for the developer to use.
The entities available to the app are those found in the Common Data Services database
for the selected environment. Developers can add to the capabilities of model-driven apps
by adding entities to the database and populating them with attributes and records. Model-
driven apps can also run users through business processes that create new records in specific
entities and add data to them.
When a user runs the Innovation Challenge sample app, it appears as the dashboard shown
in Figure 4-49. The entity assets appear as tiles, which the app can shift around depending on
the size of the screen displaying it. Developers do not choose a tablet or phone format in a
model-driven app, as they do in a canvas app; the app itself controls the display.
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FIGURE 4-48 Entity selection check boxes
FIGURE 4-49 The Innovation Challenge sample model-driven app
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Modify forms and views
In the Innovation Challenge sample app, the first row of tiles in the dashboard, as shown in the
previous figure, contains two charts called Active Challenges and a list called Active Ideas. The
configuration of the entity assets for Challenge and Idea rows in the App Designer are what
make the data from those entities appear as they do.
For example, in the App Designer interface for this app, the Challenge entity has a number
2 in its Charts asset box. Selecting that box displays the Select Charts interface in the Compo-
nents pane, as shown in Figure 4-50. The two check boxes selected are Active Challenges by
Domain and Most popular Challenges, which, not coincidentally, are the two charts that appear
in the Innovation Challenge dashboard.
FIGURE 4-50 The Select Charts interface in the Components pane of a model-driven app
Clicking the down arrow in the Charts asset box opens a drop-down list with the names
of the two charts, each with an edit icon that opens the Chart Designer window, as shown in
Figure 4-51. In this window, the developer can change the appearance of the chart by selecting
a chart type and configuring its properties.
Forms appear in model-driven apps when users view entity data in a table format and click
the New button to create a new record in the entity. For example, selecting the Challenges
screen in the Innovation Challenge app and creating a new record displays the form shown in
Figure 4-52, which is similar in appearance to a business process flow in Power Automate, tak-
ing the user through multiple stages, beginning with Setup, with several steps to complete in
each stage.
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FIGURE 4-51 The Power Apps Chart Designer interface
FIGURE 4-52 The New Challenge form in a model-driven app
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As with the Charts asset box, the Forms asset box provides an edit button for each of the
forms appearing in the drop-down list. The edit button opens the Form Editor interface, as
shown in Figure 4-53. The Form Editor has a WYSIWYG display of the form in the center pane.
In the left pane, the developer selects the fields that will appear in the form, and the right
pane contains the configurable properties for the selected field. After modifying the form, the
developer must save the changes and publish the form so that it can appear in the live app.
FIGURE 4-53 The Power Apps Form Editor interface
A view in a model-driven app is a display of information from the Common Data Services
database in tabular form, as shown in Figure 4-54. Views can also appear on dashboards as
scrollable lists, as shown earlier.
FIGURE 4-54 A view page in a model-driven app
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Developers can modify views from the entity asset boxes just as they can charts and forms.
The View Editor interface, shown in Figure 4-55, is similar to the Form Editor, with selectable fields
listed in the left pane, editable properties in the right pane, and a real-time display of the view in
the center pane, to which the developer can add and remove columns.
FIGURE 4-55 The View Editor interface in a model-driven app
EXAM TIP
Candidates for the PL-900 exam should be aware that all the designer interfaces for
the entity assets have been updated recently, and the new versions—called the new
experience—are now the defaults. However, many of the documents and resources online
are still based on the previous interfaces. All of the designers also have a Switch to classic
button that allows developers to use the previous interface.
Publish and share an app

After working with a model-driven app, the developer must save the changes using the Save
button in the top-right corner of the App Designer interface. Saving the changes activates the
Validate and Publish buttons. Validating the app checks the components for asset dependen-
cies and any other issues that could affect their performance and displays error, warning, or
information messages like those shown in Figure 4-56.
FIGURE 4-56 Error and warning messages detected by the app validation process
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After addressing any problems with the app, the developer must click the Publish button.
Doing so activates the Play button in the App Designer and also makes the updated version of
the app available to Power Apps users.
For users to run model-driven apps, the developer must share the app with the individual
users or a group to which the users belong. Security for model-driven apps is role based. Power
Apps has predefined roles that might be appropriate for some apps, or the developer can cre-
ate custom roles that contain the permissions needed to run an app.
To share an app in Power Apps, the developer selects the app and clicks the Share button
to open the Share pop-up for that app. Selecting the app allows the developer to select the
predefined standard roles to assign to users. Then, the developer supplies a user or group
name in the People text box, chooses the correct user, and selects the role to assign to the user,
as shown in Figure 4-57. If the predefined security roles are not appropriate for the app, the
developer can click Manage security roles and create a new custom app.
FIGURE 4-57 The Share pop-up interface for a specific model-driven app
Chapter summary
■■ Power Apps is designed for citizen developers with little or no coding experience.
■■ Developers create canvas apps by dragging and dropping elements onto screens in
Power Apps Studio; model-driven apps do not provide the same interface configuration
capability.
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■■ A portal app is a means of providing users—both internal and external—with access to
data stored in the Common Data Service using a website.
■■ The process of building a canvas app involves connecting to a data source, placing con-
trols on the app screens, and finally publishing and sharing the app to make it accessible
to consumers.
■■ The actual process of designing a canvas app involves placing controls on the app
screens to create a usable interface for the consumers who will be running it.
■■ After developers finish building their apps, they have to save them and share them with
the users who will access them.
■■ Creating a blank portal uses the Common Data Services database installed in the
selected environment as its data source.
■■ The starter page generated by a portal app created from a blank has a rudimentary
design that is only intended to provide the developer with a basic structure on which to
build.
■■ Portal apps, by default, use local authentication based on accounts realized in the Con-
tact entity of the Common Data Services database.
■■ Themes are Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) definitions that specify the attributes to be
applied to the webpages generated by a portal app.
■■ Model-driven apps are centered around the data they gather and present and the busi-
ness processes they realize for users.
■■ Model-driven app designs are based on components, but in the App Designer inter-
face, the components do not resemble the elements as they will appear on the final app
screens.
■■ Forms appear in model-driven apps when users view entity data in a table format and
click the New button to create a new record in the entity.
Thought experiment
Ralph is experimenting with Power Apps, the license for which he obtained with his Dynam-
ics 365 subscription. He is trying to develop a canvas app that will allow his company’s sales-
people to enter order information on their smartphones. The orders are to be saved to an
order entry database on the company’s SQL Server. Ralph has created a suitable interface for
the app, with fields in which the salespeople can specify the customers and the products they
want to order. The app seems to be working properly during Ralph’s in-house testing, but
when he attempts a trial deployment to a small group of salespeople in the field, the order
Thought experiment CHAPTER 4 189
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information is not being written to the SQL database. Which of the following could be the
problem?
a. The salespeople are using a Power Apps version that does not support connections to a
SQL Server.
b. The salespeople do not have adequate permissions to write to the SQL database.
c. The SQL server is not accessible from a mobile data network.

A, b, or c. Any of the three answers could potentially be the cause of the problem experienced
by the salespeople.
a. If the salespeople are not using a Power Apps license that supports premium connectors
(of which the SQL Server connector is one), they will not be able to access the database.
Ralph has obtained his Power Apps license with his Dynamics 365 subscription, which
includes support for premium connectors.
b. The salespeople must log on to the SQL Server to access the database, and if their
accounts do not have the appropriate permissions, as Ralph’s evidently does, they will
not be able to save their order entry information to the database.
c. If the SQL server is hosted by a physical computer in the company’s data center, Ralph
is presumably accessing it through the company network. The salespeople in the field
might not be able to access the SQL server using their mobile data networks from out-
side the company’s facility.
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CHAPTER 5

of Power Automate
As the name implies, Microsoft Power Automate is a tool that allows developers to auto-
mate commonly performed, repetitive tasks. Many applications have the ability to automate
their own tasks, but Power Automate can automate sequences of tasks that involve multiple
applications and services. For example, it is possible to use Power Automate to generate an
email notification each time a tweet is posted that is addressed to a specific hashtag. The
sequences of tasks Power Automate creates are called flows. In fact, the Power Automate
product was until recently known as Microsoft Flow.

■ 5.1: Identify common Power Automate components
■ 5.2: Build a basic flow
Skill 5.1: Identify common Power Automate

components
Power Automate is a tool that does not require any coding knowledge; it uses a graphical
interface in the Power Automate portal to create sequences of events called flows that are
themselves divided into elements known as triggers and actions. A trigger is an event that
launches the flow, and actions are the tasks that the flow performs after it is launched.

■ Identify flow types
■ Describe use cases for and available templates
■ Describe how Power Automate uses connectors
■ Describe loops and conditions including switch, do until, and apply to each
■ Describe expressions
■ Describe approvals
191
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Identify flow types
The Power Automate portal provides developers with dozens of flow templates, a few of which
are shown on the My flows screen at the bottom of Figure 5-1. Flow templates are essentially
combinations of various triggers and actions.
FIGURE 5-1 The My flows screen in the Power Automate portal
However, it is also possible to create a flow from scratch. When you click the +New button
on the My flows screen, a drop-down list appears, as shown at the top left of the figure, and
you can opt to create a flow from a template or choose one of the following flow types:
■■ Automated (see Figure 5-2)—A flow that is triggered automatically when a specific
event occurs, such as the arrival of an email or the posting of a file
FIGURE 5-2 The Build an automated flow page in the Power Automate portal
192 CHAPTER 5 Demonstrate the capabilities of Power Automate
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■■ Instant (see Figure 5-3)—A flow (also called a button flow) that is triggered manually by
a user clicking or tapping a button or other control
FIGURE 5-3 The Build an instant flow page in the Power Automate portal
■■ Scheduled (see Figure 5-4)—A flow that is configured to launch at a specific date and
time or by a recurring schedule
FIGURE 5-4 The Build a scheduled flow page in the Power Automate portal
Skill 5.1: Identify common Power Automate components CHAPTER 5 193
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■■ UI flow (see Figure 5-5)—A flow that automates the playback of recorded tasks in legacy
applications requiring mouse clicks and/or keyboard input
FIGURE 5-5 The Create a UI flow page in the Power Automate portal
■■ Business process (see Figure 5-6)—A flow that leads users through the individual stages
and steps of a process needed to complete a task
FIGURE 5-6 The Build a business process flow page in the Power Automate portal
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Describe use cases for and available templates
Power Platform has hundreds of connectors that provide access to Microsoft and third-party
applications and services, which Power Automate developers can use in innumerable combina-
tions when creating flows. The Power Automate tool can support advanced development proj-
ects, but it is actually designed for beginning users that Microsoft often calls citizen developers.
To simplify the process of getting started in creating Power Automate flows, the tool also
includes dozens of templates, a small sampling of which are shown in Figure 5-7.
FIGURE 5-7 The Templates screen in the Power Automate portal
Templates are examples of flows using various combinations of connectors that are
designed to perform common business tasks involving multiple applications and services. Each
template appears as a tile, as shown in Figure 5-8, which contains a summary of the tasks the
flow accomplishes, the template’s author, how the flow is triggered, and icons indicating the
connectors the flow will use.
FIGURE 5-8 The Notify me in Outlook when a student completes a quiz template tile in the Power
Automate portal
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For example, users can easily configure Microsoft Outlook to generate a notification in Win-
dows 10 whenever a new email arrives; doing so does not require any special programming or
outside software. However, if a teacher wants to receive Outlook email notifications whenever
students submit quiz responses in Microsoft Forms, this requires communication between
Forms and Outlook that is not readily possible within the applications themselves.
As shown in the previous figure, Power Automate includes a template for a flow that makes
these notifications possible. When a user selects the template tile, a detail screen appears that
summarizes the tasks performed by the flow and lists the connectors it will use, as shown in
Figure 5-9.
FIGURE 5-9 Detail screen for the Notify me in Outlook when a student completes a quiz flow template in
the Power Automate portal
NOTE CONNECTOR CREDENTIALS

By default, most connectors will use the credentials of the currently logged-on user when
accessing outside applications and services. If the given credentials do not authenticate prop-
erly, or if there is a reason to use a different account, the developer can switch accounts for a
selected connector and supply new credentials.
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Clicking Continue on the detail screen for the flow displays the workspace canvas con-
taining the individual trigger and action elements of the flow, as shown in Figure 5-10. On
this canvas, the developer provides the details needed for the flow to function. Controls
are also available that the developer can use to customize the flow to perform additional
tasks.
FIGURE 5-10 The workspace canvas for the Notify me in Outlook when a student completes a quiz
template
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A generic template like this one obviously cannot include all the details necessary for the
flow to run. In this case, the developer must supply information such as the name of the form
to monitor and the subject line and message text to be used in the notification emails.
Flows are not limited to one trigger and one action, and there are templates that perform
multiple actions when triggered. For example, the template shown in Figure 5-11 expands on
the previous one by not only sending a notification email, but also by storing the students’ quiz
responses in a SharePoint list.
FIGURE 5-11 Detail screen for the Notify me and store the response when a student completes a quiz
template in the Power Automate portal
The workspace canvas for this template, as shown in Figure 5-12, approaches the tasks
somewhat differently than the previous one. This template uses the Notifications connector to
send the email and adds a SharePoint action that saves the form response to a list selected by
the developer.
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FIGURE 5-12 The workspace canvas for the Notify me and store the response when a student completes a
quiz template in the Power Automate portal
All the templates provided in the Power Automate portal can be used as is or modified to
suit the needs of the developer. The bottom of the canvas always includes an Add an action
button that opens the Choose an action dialog box, as shown in Figure 5-13, which the devel-
oper can use to add another task to the flow.
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FIGURE 5-13 The Choose an action dialog box from the workspace canvas for the Notify me and store the
response when a student completes a quiz template in the Power Automate portal
The Templates screen in the Power Automate portal allows users to search for specific tem-
plates or browse through the tiles representing the hundreds of flow templates included with
the tool. A series of tabs break the collection of templates down into categories, including the
following:
■■ All flows—Displays all the available flow templates
■■ Featured—Displays a selection of the most popular flow templates
■■ Shared with me—Displays flow templates that other users in the organization have
shared with you
■■ Remote work—Displays a selection of flow templates appropriate for users working
from remote locations
■■ Approval—Displays flow templates requesting or granting manager approval for speci-
fied tasks
■■ Button—Displays templates for instant flows that are triggered by a manual button click
or tap
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■ Visio—Displays templates that allow developers to use Microsoft Visio to design
workflows
■ Data Collection—Displays flow templates that save, copy, or move incoming data
■ Email—Displays flow templates that manage or generate email messages
■ Events and calendar—Displays flow templates that create and manage calendar events
■ Mobile—Displays templates for flows that are designed for use on mobile clients
■ Notifications—Displays flow templates that generate notifications
■ Productivity—Displays flow templates that create and manage tasks in productivity
applications, such as SharePoint and Teams
■ Social media—Displays flow templates that perform tasks in social media applications
■ Sync—Displays flow templates that copy, move, or synchronize files between accounts,
folders, or applications
Describe how Power Automate uses connectors

The Power Platform tools use connectors to access data sources in various ways. Power Auto-
mate uses connectors in flows for both triggers and actions.
NEED MORE REVIEW? CONNECTORS

For more information on connectors and their use in the Power Platform tools, see the
“Skill 2.2: Describe Connectors” section in Chapter 2, “Identify the core components of
Power Platform.”
Connector types
Power Automate uses connectors to establish two basic types of data source connections:
■ Function-based—Refers to connections that use functions to perform tasks on the
source application or service. Triggers often use functions to monitor activity at the
source, allowing them to launch a flow when a specific event occurs, such as the arrival
of a file or email. Flows also use functions for actions, allowing them to send an email,
create a calendar event, modify permissions, or generate a notification.
■ Tabular—Refers to connections that allow a flow to retrieve data from the source appli-
cation or service in a table format. Flows can use tabular data as triggers, to provoke an
action when the data is changed, for example. However, flows more often use tabular
data as part of an action, to copy it to another location, for example. When Power Apps
uses a Power Automate flow as part of its functionality, it can conceivably use a connec-
tor to create, modify, or remove data on the source.
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Connection permissions
When Power Automate uses a connector in a flow, it is nearly always necessary for the connec-
tor to authenticate to the outside application or service before it can access the data source.
The connector must therefore have the credentials necessary to complete the authentication.
When a flow uses multiple connections to different data sources, each connector must supply
credentials to perform its own authentication.
When a developer creates a flow by selecting a template tile, a detail screen appears, the
bottom half of which lists all the connectors needed for the flow, as shown in Figure 5-14, as
well as the account names that will be used to establish the connections. Many connectors, by
default, use the credentials of the currently logged-on user to connect to the data source, but
this is not always appropriate or possible. The developer might want to use different accounts,
or the user might prudently have different passwords for the various applications and services.
FIGURE 5-14 A flow template detail screen with five connections
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In this particular template, the Office 365 Users and Office 365 Outlook connectors are
using the current account, and the green check marks indicate that the connectors will authen-
ticate successfully. The remaining three connectors have blue plus signs, indicating that they
are not prepared to authenticate, and that the developer needs to specify the accounts they
will use to access the data sources.
Until that is done, there is a grayed-out Retry button at the bottom of the screen; when all
of the connectors are ready to authenticate, it changes to a blue Continue button, allowing the
developer to move on in the process of creating the flow.
When the developer clicks one of the blue plus signs or the Switch account button on a con-
nector that already has an account listed, a Sign in to your account screen appears, as shown in
Figure 5-15, in which the developer can select a user account or specify a new one. Depending
on the connector and the nature of its authentication, the screen prompting for credentials
might be different in appearance.
FIGURE 5-15 The Sign in to your account screen from the Power Automate portal
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When a developer creates a flow from scratch or modifies an existing flow, it is always
possible to change the credentials that a connector uses to authenticate with a data source.
On the workspace canvas, every trigger and action step has a menu button on the right side.
The menu includes a My connections section, in which the developer can choose an existing
account or click the +Add new connection button, as shown in Figure 5-16.
FIGURE 5-16 Two steps in a flow on the Power Automate workspace canvas
One important consideration for developers configuring connectors in Power Auto-

mate flows is whether they want the consumers of the flow to be able to use the same
authentication credentials specified during its creation. When developers create auto-
mated flows, the credentials they specify for the connectors are used whenever the flow
runs. Adding co-owners to an automated flow allows them to change the credentials as
needed.
When developers create instant flows—flows that are manually triggered—they can
designate other users as co-owners or run-only users. For run-only users, the developer
can specify whether the consumers can use the credentials already supplied during the
creation of the flow or must supply credentials of their own for the connectors. Consum-
ers can then configure the flow to access their own accounts instead of the developer’s, as
in the case of a flow that must access the consumer’s email.
EXAM TIP
Candidates for the PL-900 exam should be conscious of credential security issues when
designing and building flows. There can be situations when a developer’s use of administra-
tive credentials while creating a flow can allow the flow’s consumers to access sensitive data.
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Describe loops and conditions including switch, do until,
and apply to each
In its simplest form, a Power Automate flow consists of a series of steps performed in sequence,
one trigger, and at least one action. When the last action is completed, the processing of the
flow ends. However, it is possible to create more complex flows that take nonlinear paths, such
as those that contain conditional branching or processing loops.
Conditional flows
A flow can contain a condition, which is an if/then statement that defines two possible actions.
For example, an automated flow can contain a trigger that causes it to run whenever a new
email arrives in a specific mailbox. A Condition action can then check whether the email mes-
sage was sent with high importance, as shown in Figure 5-17. The Condition step then branches
into two possible actions: the If yes action if the message was sent with high importance and
the If no action if it was not. The If yes action can cause a notification to be sent to the user’s
smartphone, and the If no action does nothing.
FIGURE 5-17 A Condition branch in an automated flow
To create a conditional branch, the developer creates a new step and, in the Choose
an action dialog box, clicks the Built-in tab and selects the Condition action, as shown in
Figure 5-18.
The Condition action is one way to create branching actions in the Power Automate flow;
another is the Switch action, which is a conditional action that determines which of multiple
cases to execute based on the input fed to the switch. The advantage of the Switch action over
the Condition action is that though Condition is limited to two branches (Yes and No), the
Switch action can have as many cases as are needed.
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FIGURE 5-18 Built-in actions in the Choose an action dialog box
For example, the flow in Figure 5-19 contains an action that determines the day of the week,
which is then followed by a Switch action that contains cases named for days of the week. Each
case can then contain actions specific to that day.
FIGURE 5-19 The Switch action with three cases
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Looping flows
Looping refers to flows that contain sequences of actions that intentionally repeat.
Two of the most common looping actions are Apply to each and Do until. Each of these
actions performs a series of tasks repeatedly, until a particular condition causes the
loop to end.
Apply to each is a loop action that retrieves an array of items (such as the 10 most
recent emails received) and performs a subsequent action (or series of actions) on each
of the items in the array. For example, the flow shown in Figure 5-20 first executes the Get
emails (V3) action to retrieve the user’s ten most recent emails. Then, the Apply to each
action executes the Condition action for the 10 emails, checking the value of the Impor-
tance field in each one. If an email is set to high importance, the Send me a mobile notifi-
cation action executes; if not, then there is no further action. The looping action continues
until all the items in the array have been processed.
FIGURE 5-20 The Apply to each action with a Condition action inside the loop
Do until is a loop action that repeatedly performs a subsequent action (or series of
actions) until a specified condition is met. For example, the flow in Figure 5-21 sets a
variable to an integer value of 1. Then, the Do until action sets the loop to repeat until
the variable reaches a value of 10. The Increment variable action within the Do until loop
increases the variable by 1 each time it executes. The loop repeats until the value of the
variable reaches 10.
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FIGURE 5-21 The Do until action with an Increment variable action inside the loop
Describe expressions
Power Automate provides a large collection of connectors with a wide selection of triggers
and actions. Most of the triggers and actions have settings that the developer must configure
before the flow will operate. Placing the mouse cursor in a text box causes a Dynamic content
pop-up to appear.
This dialog box contains fields from the data source accessible by the connector. Selecting a
field inserts a variable into the text box that is replaced by actual data when the flow executes.
For example, selecting the Timestamp field inserts the Timestamp variable into the text box,
as shown in Figure 5-22. When the flow runs, the variable will be replaced by the time stamp
reflecting the date and time that the flow executed.
However, there are instances when developers might want to add operations that are not
provided by an action’s native settings. For these cases, Power Automate supports the use of
expressions, which can perform operations on existing values.
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FIGURE 5-22 The Dynamic content pop-up dialog box with the Timestamp field selected
The previous example used the Get calendar view of events (V3) action and inserted the
Timestamp variable into the Start Time text box. The action will therefore get the calendar
events starting on the date and time the flow is executed. For the End Time value, the devel-
oper might want to get seven days’ worth of calendar information. The field could accept an
exact date and time, in the correct time stamp format, but this does not provide a permanent
solution for the flow.
Instead, the developer can insert the addDays() expression, which can calculate an end time
seven days from the date and time that the flow is executed. Selecting the Expression tab on
the pop-up menu displays a list of expressions that can perform a variety of operations. The
addDays() expression, as shown in Figure 5-23, takes as its parameters the time stamp from
which the days will be added and the number of days to add (or subtract, using a negative
value).
For the purpose of this example, the value for the End Time field will be as follows:
addDays (utcNow(),7)
The utcNow() expression returns the time stamp for the current date and time, so the add-
Days() expression will take the date and time when the flow executes and add seven days to it.
Other date and time expressions allow developers to add hours, minutes, or seconds to a given
time.
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FIGURE 5-23 The Expression tab in the pop-up dialog box, with the addDays() expression selected
Expressions can perform many other functions apart from working with time stamps. The
expressions that Power Automate uses are taken from the Workflow Definition Language in
Azure Logic Apps and are organized into the following categories:
■■ String functions—Manipulate data strings by concatenating, replacing, splitting, trim-
ming, formatting, and converting data
■■ Collection functions—Work with data arrays by specifying their length, locating empty
strings, joining elements, and locating their first or last elements
■■ Logical functions—Perform calculations using if/then statements, arithmetical functions,
and Boolean operators
■■ Conversion functions—Convert input to different data types, such as integers, strings,
Booleans, and XML or JSON values
■■ Math functions—Perform standard arithmetical functions, generate random values, and
identify minimum and maximum values
■■ Date and time—Generate strings containing time stamps based on calendar functions,
such as adding and subtracting time intervals and identifying the start of a time interval
■■ Referencing functions—Provide the ability to work with the inputs and outputs of other
triggers and actions
■■ Workflow functions—Provide the ability to retrieve details about a flow and the URL of a
trigger or action
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■ URI parsing functions—Retrieve specific information about URIs, including host names,
queries, paths, ports, and schemes
■ Manipulation—Retrieve information about and modify JSON and XML objects
NEED MORE REVIEW? EXPRESSIONS

For a schema reference guide to the Azure Logic Apps Workflow Definition Language that
contains expressions usable in Power Automate, see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/
logic-apps/logic-apps-workflow-definition-language?
Describe approvals
One of the common uses of Power Automate flows is to process approvals of documents in
which users must seek the approval of a superior before the task they are working on is com-
pleted. For example, a file might require approval before it can be posted to a SharePoint site,
or an email might require approval before a user can send it out to customers.
In many cases, an approval works by having users post documents to a temporary place,
such as a SharePoint list. The temporary post triggers a flow, which contains an Approvals
action. This action generates an approval request email and sends it to a designated user, as
shown in Figure 5-24. An approval tile also appears on the user’s Home page of the Power
Automate portal. The user responds by approving or rejecting the document, and a Condition
action takes appropriate action depending on the response.
FIGURE 5-24 An approval email generated by an Approvals action
In the example flow shown in Figure 5-25, users wanting to send an email to the organiza-
tion’s customers post the desired text in a SharePoint list called CustomerMail. This triggers the
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flow, which runs a Start an approval action, specifying the name of the person whose approval
is sought and containing a link to the SharePoint item.
FIGURE 5-25 An example of an approval flow
When the approver’s response is returned to the flow, the Start an approval action passes
it down to a Condition action, which tests for a value of Yes in the Response field. In the If yes
branch of the condition are actions that update the SharePoint item to register its approval and
generate the email message for the customers. In the If no branch, there is just an Update item
action that registers the No response in the SharePoint item.
Skill 5.2: Build a basic flow

Power Automate provides two basic ways of creating a flow: one is to select from the many
templates included with the tool, and the other is to start from scratch by selecting a trigger
type and adding actions from there. The Home page in the Power Automate portal, shown in
Figure 5-26, provides several entries into these two methods.
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FIGURE 5-26 The Home page in the Power Automate portal
The search box at the top of the screen allows users to locate templates and other elements
related to their needs. Then, there are several collections of templates directed toward specific
business needs, such as those aimed at sales, information, and productivity tasks. The next
element is a list of icons for popular services, such as SharePoint and Office 365 Outlook, which
provide developers with triggers, templates, and actions for those services. All of these are
entries to the same process of creating and modifying flows.

■ Create a flow by using the button, automated, or scheduled flow template
■ Modify a flow
■ Use flow controls to perform data operations
■ Run a flow
Create a flow by using the button, automated, or

scheduled flow template
The Create page in the Power Automate portal, shown in Figure 5-27, also provides different
methods for creating a flow. The first method is to start from a blank flow by selecting one of
the tiles representing the type of trigger that will launch it.
Skill 5.2: Build a basic flow CHAPTER 5 213
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FIGURE 5-27 The Create page in the Power Automate portal
Selecting one of these three tiles opens a screen containing configuration settings for the trig-
ger, as shown in “Identify flow types,” earlier in this chapter. These screens function as follows:
■ Automated flow—To create an automated flow, the developer must select a trigger that
monitors some element of a connector for activity that launches the flow. For example,
the trigger can launch the flow in response to the arrival of a message or the creation of
a document in an application or service.
■ Instant (also called button) flow—To create an instant (or button) flow, the developer
must select a trigger that responds to an action by the flow user. The trigger can be
linked to a button pressed in the Power Automate mobile app or an activity in another
application or service, such as selecting a file or other object.
■ Scheduled flow—To create a scheduled flow, the developer must specify a date and time
for the flow to launch and, if necessary, a repeat interval.
■ UI flow—To create a UI flow, the developer only has to specify a name for the flow.
■ Business process flow—To create a business process flow, the developer must select the
entity in which the information gathered from the user by the flow will be stored.
EXAM TIP
Candidates for the PL-900 exam should be conscious of the fact that the button flow type
referenced in the exam objective is now referred to as the instant flow type in the Power
Automate portal.
In the case of the automated, instant, and scheduled flows, the opening screen specifies
how and when the flow will launch. The UI and business process flows have specialized func-
tions that will be deliberately launched by the users.
Using the Power Automate workspace canvas

After the developer has configured the trigger for an automated, instant, or scheduled flow in
the Power Automate portal, the workspace canvas for the flow appears, as shown in Figure 5-28.
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In this example, an automated flow is triggered each time a new email arrives at the user’s Out-
look 365 Inbox. By default, the trigger uses the account of the user that is currently logged on,
although it is possible to create a new connection to a different email address, if desired.
FIGURE 5-28 A trigger in a Power Automate flow
With the trigger in place, the developer can then click the New step button to open the Choose
an action dialog box, as shown in Figure 5-29. Power Automate provides hundreds of actions that
developers can use to manage the incoming email messages. For example, Control actions can
evaluate the email messages and take action on what they find. Notification actions can inform
the user when certain types of emails arrive. This example will use both of these action types.
FIGURE 5-29 The Choose an action dialog box in a Power Automate flow
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Selecting the Condition action adds three boxes to the workspace canvas, as shown in
Figure 5-30: the Condition box and, branching from that, an If yes and an If no box.
FIGURE 5-30 A Condition action in a Power Automate flow
In the Condition box, the developer creates an if/then statement that can examine some
part of the incoming email. Clicking in the Choose a value text box opens the Dynamic content
pop-up, as shown in Figure 5-31, which lists the various fields in an email.
FIGURE 5-31 The Dynamic content pop-up in a Power Automate flow
The Condition box can test the value of any field in the email and return a Yes or No
response. For example, after selecting the Importance field, the developer can type one of the
acceptable values for that field in the Choose a value box. In this example, the condition being
tested is whether Importance is equal to high, as shown in Figure 5-32. In the same way, the
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developer could use the Condition box to test whether the From field contains the name of a
specific person or the Subject field contains a specific text string.
FIGURE 5-32 A Condition equation in a Power Automate flow
The If yes and If no boxes take action based on the results of the equation in the Condi-
tion box. If an email is set to have high importance, the Condition result is yes, and the flow
executes any actions in the If yes box.
Clicking Add an action in the If yes box opens the same Choose an action dialog box shown
earlier. In this example, high importance emails cause the flow to execute the Send me a
mobile notification action, as shown in Figure 5-33. The developer can type any message in the
Text box and include values from fields selected in the Dynamic content pop-up. In this case,
the notification will specify the sender of the email.
FIGURE 5-33 A Send me a mobile notification action in the If yes box in a Power Automate flow
The developer can create additional actions in the If yes box, if desired, such as an action
that stores the email in a SharePoint site or copies any attachments to the user’s OneDrive. The
If no box can contain actions also, or be left blank, as needed.
Once the flow is complete, the developer should click Save to make sure that the flow is
added to the user’s My flows list, as shown in Figure 5-34.
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FIGURE 5-34 A new flow in the My flows list in Power Automate
Modify a flow
For many new developers, the easiest way to learn how to build a flow is to begin with one of
the flow templates included with Power Automate. A template includes the trigger and all of
the actions needed to complete the flow’s designated tasks, although some configuration of
the elements might be needed to render the flow fully operational.
Many of the Power Automate flow templates are designed to transfer data from one appli-
cation or service to another. For example, the Copy files between OneDrive for Business and
SharePoint template, shown in Figure 5-35, creates an automated flow that monitors a speci-
fied OneDrive folder and copies all the files saved there to a specific SharePoint folder. The flow
also checks for the success of the copy operation and generates an email if it fails.
FIGURE 5-35 The Copy files between OneDrive for Business and SharePoint flow template tile
A template such as this one needs some modification before it can run. The developer
must specify which OneDrive folder the trigger should monitor and choose the SharePoint
site and the folder on it where the incoming files will be stored. The template detail screen,
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shown in Figure 5-36, includes drop-down lists in which the developer can configure the
necessary fields.
FIGURE 5-36 The Copy files between OneDrive for Business and SharePoint flow template detail screen
The template also provides a list of the connectors the flow will use, which the developer
can modify to use different credentials as needed. The flow then appears in the Power Auto-
mate workspace canvas, as shown in Figure 5-37.
In this template, the flow’s trigger monitors the specified OneDrive folder and, when files
appear in it, the SharePoint Create file action uses the OneDrive File name and File content
values to copy the files to the specified SharePoint folder. Then, a Condition action checks the
status code of the SharePoint file creation and, if the value is 403 (Forbidden), the If yes branch
generates an email to the user indicating that the task has failed.
Once the workspace canvas appears with the specified OneDrive and SharePoint folders,
the work of the template is complete. The trigger and actions shown on the canvas are no
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different than if the developer created the flow from scratch. This means that it is possible for
the developer to modify the flow as needed by changing the existing actions, inserting new
actions, or altering the order in which the actions are executed.
FIGURE 5-37 The workspace canvas for the Copy files between OneDrive for Business and SharePoint flow
template
Modifying actions
Whether created by a template or added manually, developers can always modify the con-
figuration of a trigger or action. By default, triggers and actions use the currently logged-
on user’s account to establish a connection to an application or service. Clicking the menu
button in the trigger or action displays a context menu with a My connections section, as
shown in Figure 5-38, in which the developer can select a different user account or add a new
connection.
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FIGURE 5-38 The context menu for a SharePoint Create file action
When the developer changes the connection to use a different account, the drop-down
lists and the Dynamic content fields for the action change as well. In this example, the Site
address and Folder path fields have drop-down lists that provide access to the current
user’s SharePoint environment. Changing the user address for the connection changes the
contents of the drop-down lists. The File name and File content values are dynamic con-
tent fields that reference the OneDrive connection established in the trigger, so changing
the connection in the trigger above changes the fields available in the Dynamic content
pop-up.
Inserting actions
Developers can add actions to a flow in multiple ways. The Power Automate workspace
canvas always includes a +New step button at the bottom, which opens the Choose an
action dialog box. Selecting an action from the dialog box adds it to the bottom of the
flow. The arrows pointing down from the trigger to the first action and from one action
to another display a plus sign when the cursor hovers over them, allowing a developer to
insert an action between two existing steps. Clicking the plus sign displays a menu with two
options:
■■ Add an action—Opens the Choose an action dialog box, in which the developer can
select an action to be inserted between the existing steps
■■ Add a parallel branch—Opens the Choose an action dialog box in a separate branch off
of the step above, as shown in Figure 5-39. This allows the flow to perform two separate
actions at the same time, both using the results of the same previous step.
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FIGURE 5-39 Two actions in a parallel branch off of a single trigger
NOTE DRAGGING AND DROPPING ACTIONS

The trigger step always appears at the top of a flow, with one or more action steps beneath
it. When a flow runs, it executes the steps from top to bottom. The workspace canvas uses
down-pointing arrows to indicate the progression between steps. When editing a flow,
however, the developer can modify the progression of the steps by dragging and dropping
actions up or down as needed. This alters the order in which the running flow processes the
actions.
Use flow controls to perform data operations

When working with data from various sources, it is sometimes necessary to modify the data
format to make the sources compatible. Power Automate’s Data Operation actions makes it
possible to reuse and reformat the data from previous actions in various ways:
■ Compose—Allows the developer to type a data string into the Inputs field, as shown in
Figure 5-40, and reuse that string later. In a subsequent action, the developer can select
the Outputs field from the Compose section in the Dynamic content pop-up to insert
the string from the Inputs field in the Compose action.
FIGURE 5-40 The Compose action in the Power Automate workspace canvas
■ Create CSV table—Allows the developer to convert a data array into a table in CSV
(comma-separated values) format, as shown in Figure 5-41. In this example, the array
of usernames taken from the body of the previous action will be reformatted into the
following table:
FirstName,LastName
Sanjay,Patel
Joanna,Yuan
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FIGURE 5-41 The Create CSV table action in the Power Automate workspace canvas
■■ Create HTML table—Allows the developer to convert a data array into an HTML
(Hypertext Markup Language) table.
■■ Filter array—Allows the developer to apply a filter to a data array using an equa-
tion to select specific entries, as shown in Figure 5-42. In this example, an array
consisting of usernames will be filtered to include only those users with a last name
of Patel.
FIGURE 5-42 The Filter array action in the Power Automate workspace canvas
■■ Join—Allows the developer to modify a data array to use a different delimiter, as shown
in Figure 5-43. In this example, the array of addresses in the From field is delimited by
commas. Specifying a semicolon in the Join with field ensures that the resulting output
will be the same array but delimited with semicolons.
FIGURE 5-43 The Join action in the Power Automate workspace canvas
■■ Parse JSON—Allows the developer to interpret the JSON output from a previous action
by specifying a sample schema, as shown in Figure 5-44. The developer can then use
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the Dynamic content pop-up for a following action to select specific Parse JSON fields
derived from the sample schema.
FIGURE 5-44 The Parse JSON action in the Power Automate workspace canvas
■■ Select—Allows the developer to reshape a data array to suit a different application or

service, as shown in Figure 5-45. In this example, an array of names using the labels first
and last, such as [ { "first": "Sanjay", "last": "Patel" }, { "first": "Joanna",
"last": "Yuan" } ], will be remapped to use the labels FirstName and LastName
instead, as in [ { "FirstName": "Sanjay", "LastName": "Patel" }, { "FirstName":
"Joanna", "LastName": "Yuan" } ].
FIGURE 5-45 The Select action in the Power Automate workspace canvas
Run a flow
After the developer has finished building a flow and has saved it so that it appears in the My
flows list, it is ready to run, based on the type of trigger it uses. An automated flow will run
when the event specified in the trigger occurs. An instant flow will run when a user deliberately
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triggers it by tapping a button or selecting an item. A scheduled flow will run when the speci-
fied date and time arrive.
To test a flow and examine how each step executes, the developer can click the Test but-
ton at the upper right of the workspace canvas. This opens a Test Flow pane, which provides
options for starting the flow by performing the trigger action manually, using the data from
previous runs, as shown in Figure 5-46, or using data selected from the trigger application, in
this case OneDrive for Business.
FIGURE 5-46 The Test Flow dialog box in the Power Automate portal
After the test run begins, the developer can monitor the performance of each step on
the screen. Successfully executed steps have a circled check mark and failed steps have an X.
Expanding each completed step in the flow displays detailed input and output information for
that step, as shown in Figure 5-47.
For a step that has failed, an error message appears describing the reason for the failure, as
shown in Figure 5-48. In this example, the Condition action exists only to send an email to the
user in the event that the SharePoint Create file action fails. The Create file action was success-
ful in this case, so despite the Condition action having failed, the overall execution of the flow is
shown as having succeeded.
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FIGURE 5-47 Flow test run results
FIGURE 5-48 Flow test run results with a failed action
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Chapter summary
■■ Power Automate supports five flow types: automated, instant, scheduled, UI, and busi-
ness process.
■■ To simplify the process of getting started in creating Power Automate flows, the tool
also includes dozens of templates.
■■ Power Automate uses connectors to access data sources in flows for both triggers and
actions.
■■ A flow can contain a condition, which is an if/then statement that defines two possible
actions. Looping refers to flows that contain sequences of actions that intentionally
repeat.
■■ Power Automate supports the use of expressions, which can perform operations on
existing values.
■■ One of the common uses of Power Automate flows is to process approvals of docu-
ments, in which users must seek the approval of a superior before the task they are
working on is completed.
■■ One method of creating a flow is to start from a blank flow by selecting one of the tiles
in the Power Automate portal representing the type of trigger that will launch it.
■■ For many new developers, the easiest way to learn how to build a flow is to begin with
one of the flow templates included with Power Automate. Templates often need some
modification before they can run.
■■ Power Automate’s Data Operation actions make it possible to reuse and reformat the
data from previous actions in various ways.
■■ To test a flow and examine how each step executes, the developer can click the Test but-
ton at the upper right of the workspace canvas.
Thought experiment
chapter. You can find answer to this thought experiment in the next section.
Ralph is working with a British application that stores customer names using the labels
Christian Name and Surname. He wants to use a Power Automate flow to transfer data from
the British application’s database to an American customer service application each time a new
customer record is created. However, the American application refers to the same customer
name data fields as First Name and Last Name. There are connectors available for both applica-
tions. Based on this information, respond to the following questions and describe the structure
of the required flow.
1. How can Ralph reconcile the differently named data fields for the two applications?
2. How can Ralph transfer the customer names obtained from one application to the
other?
Thought experiment CHAPTER 5 227
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1. The flow should use the connector for the British application as the trigger, launching
the flow each time a new customer record is created. After the trigger, add a Select
action with the output from the trigger placed in the From field and Map values that
equate the labels: Christian Name with First Name and Surname with Last Name.
2. After reconciling the data field names, Ralph should add an action for the American
application using the output from the Select action as input.
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CHAPTER 6

of Power Virtual Agents
Power Virtual Agents is the most recent addition to the Power Platform toolkit; it allows
developers to create chatbots that provide customer service functionality without having
to write code. A chatbot is a pop-up window that appears on a user’s screens and provides a
realistic dialogue experience with the consumer, furnishing genuine responses to customer
service queries and even taking action at the customer’s request.

■ 6.1: Describe Power Virtual Agents capabilities
■ 6.2: Build and publish a basic chatbot
Skill 6.1: Describe Power Virtual Agents capabilities

Chatbots have long been seen as a useful and economical means of providing customer ser-
vice, but the development process involved in creating them was often lengthy and trouble-
some. This was, in large part, because of the constant communication required between
the development and customer service departments, both prior to and subsequent to the
deployment of the bot. Power Virtual Agents, by virtue of its no-code or low-code develop-
ment requirements, allows the customer service personnel themselves to create chatbots and
update them as needed when circumstances change.

■ Describe use cases for Power Virtual Agents
■ Describe where you can publish chatbots
■ Describe topics, entities, and actions
Describe use cases for Power Virtual Agents

Customer service and first-tier technical support services are always expensive propositions.
This cost can be particularly galling for organizations when so many of the customer issues
229
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are simple and repetitive that it does not seem worth paying live representatives to give the
same answers over and over. Live support can also be frustrating to customers when they
discover that the hours they can interact with a live person are limited or that they must wait in
a queue for the next available representative.
Chatbots were created to take over these repetitive and time-consuming tasks from live
telephone and chat personnel. A bot with a script designed to provide basic information to
customers can answer the simple questions at any time of the day or night, leaving the more
complicated issues to the live representatives.
Citizen developers
As time has passed and the value of chatbots has been recognized by more organizations, the
bots have been enhanced to take on more complex tasks themselves, even using artificial intel-
ligence (AI) to perform actions instead of just supplying information. One of the main prob-
lems with these increasingly complex chatbots is that they require an extensive development
effort.
In a chatbot development project, a gap has always existed between the people who know
what tasks the bot has to perform and those who know how to make the bot do them. This gap
is particularly problematic for organizations in which the customer service and technical sup-
port requirements change frequently. One of the primary design objectives for Power Virtual
Agents, as with the other Power Platform tools, is to reduce that gap by making it possible for
the customer service and technical support people to function as citizen developers by creating
and updating the chatbots themselves.
Power Virtual Agents provides a guided graphical development environment that allows
these citizen developers to create chatbots by specifying the questions most commonly asked
by customers and then supplying possible answers to the questions. This strategy allows the
bot to lead the customers through a branching dialog, such as that shown in Figure 6-1, which
leads them to a satisfactory answer to their question.
The Power Virtual Agents development interface allows the personnel familiar with custom-
ers’ questions to program the bot with appropriate responses that they themselves would
otherwise supply. More important, when the questions change or new questions arise, these
same people can modify the bot to accommodate the organization’s changing needs. In other
environments, updating a bot can require a lengthy period of latency as the software goes
back to a developer for changes to the code, retesting, and redeployment.
Artificial intelligence
The ultimate goal of any chatbot is to make the customers believe that they are conversing
with a real person. That might or might not be possible, depending on the effort put into
the bot’s development and on the sophistication of the customer, but Power Virtual Agents
includes AI capabilities that allow it to engage the customer in realistic exchanges.
230 CHAPTER 6 Demonstrate the capabilities of Power Virtual Agents
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FIGURE 6-1 A branching dialog in a Power Virtual Agents chatbot
For example, the phrases that the developer supplies—the phrases that the customer can
use in the conversation with the bot—might include “help me,” “I need help,” and many others.
However, there are any number of other variations that a customer might also use, which the
developer could not possibly anticipate. By supplying Power Virtual Agents with a selection of
common phrases, it uses AI to extrapolate others and accommodate many of the alternatives
that customers might supply.
Skill 6.1: Describe Power Virtual Agents capabilities CHAPTER 6 231
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Taking action
Because it is part of the Power Platform toolkit, Power Virtual Agents can also work in conjunc-
tion with the other tools. The same connectors that allow Power Apps and Power Automate to
interact with outside applications and services are available to Power Virtual Agents as well.
This allows chatbots to not just dispense prerecorded information, but also to perform actions
in response to customer requests by calling flows or apps and connecting to external data
sources.
EXAM TIP
Candidates for the PL-900 exam should be conscious of the warnings that Microsoft
includes with the Power Virtual Agents documentation, specifying that the product is not
intended for use in emergency situations or for diagnosing or treating medical conditions,
and that Microsoft abjures all responsibility for situations arising from the use of chatbots
created by Power Virtual Agents subscribers.
Describe where you can publish chatbots

Publishing a chatbot makes it available to consumers. Whenever developers make changes to
chatbots, they must republish them for consumers to see those changes. When a developer
publishes a chatbot for the first time, Power Virtual Agents makes it available for testing on a
demo website, as shown in Figure 6-2.
FIGURE 6-2 Demo website for Power Virtual Agents
Arguably, the place where consumers are most likely to encounter chatbots is on websites,
but developers can publish their chatbots to many types of platforms other than websites,
including internal messaging platforms, such as Microsoft Teams; mobile apps; and social
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media. Power Virtual Agents refers to these places of publication as channels, some of which
are shown in the Power Virtual Agents portal, as shown in Figure 6-3.
FIGURE 6-3 The Channels page in the Power Virtual Agents portal
NEED MORE REVIEW? CHANNELS

For a complete list of the channels supported by Power Virtual Agents, expand the Manage
menu item in the navigation pane of the Power Virtual Agents portal and select Channels.
Developers can publish a single chatbot to more than one channel. When a developer
publishes a chatbot to multiple channels, modifying the bot and republishing it causes it to be
refreshed on all the channels in which it appears.
Describe topics, entities, and actions

A chatbot has to understand what the user is saying and react appropriately, even when the
user says something unexpected. Power Virtual Agents uses elements such as topics, entities,
and actions to do this.
Topics
Power Virtual Agents simplifies the process of creating and configuring a chatbot by break-
ing the conversation between the bot and the user down into discrete elements called topics.
For example, the first topic for a chatbot might be a greeting that welcomes the user and
introduces the bot’s purpose. The Topics page in the Power Virtual Agents portal, shown in
Figure 6-4, contains a selection of basic system topics and also allows the developer to create
new ones from scratch.
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FIGURE 6-4 The Topics page in the Power Virtual Agents portal
As noted earlier, a topic begins with a trigger phrase, which is a list of possible phrases that the user
might supply, which the bot understands and uses to initiate a particular conversation topic. The greet-
ing topic, for example, might include “Hi,” “Hello,” and “Good morning” in its list of trigger phrases.
A conversation will typically span multiple topics, with the bot configured to launch a specific
new topic based on the user’s responses to the bot’s questions. For example, at the end of the
greeting topic, the developer might have the bot ask the user to specify the product with which
they are experiencing a problem. When the user responds with a product name, as shown in
Figure 6-5, the developer can select Go to another topic and link to a topic specific to that product.
FIGURE 6-5 Linking topics
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Entities
In Power Virtual Agents, the term entity has a different meaning than it does in the Common
Data Service. An entity in Power Virtual Agents is essentially a dictionary of terms and phrases
that a bot’s artificial intelligence uses to identify a concept in a conversation. This aids the bot
in understanding what the user is saying, even when the language the user employs is not an
exact match to one of the trigger phrases in the topic’s list.
NEED MORE REVIEW? ENTITIES

For more information on entities, see the “Describe entities, fields, and relationships” section
in Chapter 2, “Identify the Core Components of Power Platform.”
The Entities page in the Power Virtual Agents portal, shown in Figure 6-6, contains a list of
prebuilt entities that help bots to understand many common conversational concepts. These
entities provide examples of syntax for these concepts that help the bot to understand what
the user is saying.
FIGURE 6-6 The Entities page in the Power Virtual Agents portal
For example, there are many ways that users can reference specific dates or times in con-
versation. The user might refer to “last Thursday,” or “December 25,” or “3pm,” all of which are
easily comprehensible to another person but are not understandable to a bot unless it has
some frame of reference for those expressions. The Date and time entity, shown in Figure 6-7,
contains examples of these expressions and provides translations into saved values, which are
time stamps that the bot can understand.
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FIGURE 6-7 The Date and time entity
The prebuilt entities included with Power Virtual Agents provide bots with standard busi-
ness terminology, but some organizations require bots to handle conversations involving
specialized vocabulary. To accommodate these needs, developers can create custom entities
using the interface shown in Figure 6-8, in which they can specify terms and synonyms by
which users might refer to them.
FIGURE 6-8 The entity creation interface
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To use an entity when configuring a bot to ask a question, a developer selects the appropri-
ate entity in the Identify selector, as shown in Figure 6-9.
FIGURE 6-9 Using an entity in a bot
Actions
An action, as the word implies, is an element that allows a Power Virtual Agents bot to actually
do something beyond conversing with the user. When a developer creates a new node in the
Power Virtual Agents workspace, as shown in Figure 6-10, selecting Call an action provides the
option to authenticate the user with an identity provider, such as Azure Active Directory, or
create a flow using Power Automate.
FIGURE 6-10 Calling an action from a bot in Power Virtual Agents
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A bot can call an existing flow as long as it exists in the same environment as the bot, or the
developer can create a new flow from scratch. By working in tandem with Power Automate, a
Power Virtual Agents chatbot can perform a wide variety of tasks to service the user, including
retrieving information from a database or service.
NOTE BOT AND FLOW INTERACTION

Power Automate flows can interact with Power Virtual Agent bots by exchanging data. To
relay information to and from a data source using a flow, Power Virtual Agents creates vari-
ables that the developer can then use elsewhere in the topic.
Skill 6.2: Build and publish a basic chatbot

Power Virtual Agents simplifies the process of creating chatbots by eliminating the need to
write code and providing a graphical design interface. The following sections examine the
steps involved in creating and running a chatbot.

■ Create a chatbot
■ Create a topic
■ Call an action
■ Test a chatbot
■ Publish a chatbot
■ Monitor chatbot usage
■ Monitor chatbot performance
Create a chatbot
After starting Power Virtual Agents, a developer must begin by creating a bot, using the dialog
box shown in Figure 6-11. This step involves selecting a name, a language, and the environ-
ment in which the bot will be created. The process by which Power Virtual Agents creates the
account’s first bot occurs in the background and can take as long as 15 minutes.
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FIGURE 6-11 The Create a new bot dialog box
To create additional bots, developers must click the Bots panel icon at the top-right corner
of the Power Virtual Agents portal to open the Bots panel shown in Figure 6-12 and then click
the + New bot button.
FIGURE 6-12 The Bots panel in the Power Virtual Agents portal
Skill 6.2: Build and publish a basic chatbot CHAPTER 6 239
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Create a topic
As noted earlier, Power Virtual Agents includes a collection of system topics that cover some
of the most common exchanges between bots and customers. When first creating a bot,
a developer might want to use the Greeting topic to start the conversation, but after that,
developers might have to create topics from scratch to accommodate their business needs.
The prebuilt Greeting topic ends with a message node saying “So, what can I help you with
today?” Therefore, the next topic should address the possible responses that the customer
might supply to that question. After creating that new topic, the developer can then link it
to the Greeting topic to create a conversation by clicking the plus sign and selecting Go to
another topic, as shown in Figure 6-13.
FIGURE 6-13 Linking to another topic
To create a new, blank topic, the developer clicks the +New topic button on the Topics
page to open the panel shown in Figure 6-14. After supplying a name for the topic, and
optionally a description, the developer can proceed to create a list of trigger phrases.
These phrases should be the most likely responses to the question the bot asks at the end
of the Greeting topic.
For this example, Request might be an appropriate title, and some possible trigger phrases
would be as follows:
■ I want to check the status of an order
■ I want to return a product
■ I want to place an order
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FIGURE 6-14 The +New topic interface in the Power Virtual Agents portal
After saving the topic, clicking the Go to authoring canvas button adds the phrases to the
Trigger Phrases node, along with an empty Message node. The developer can add a message
and then click the plus sign under the Message node to add another node. For example, the
developer could select the Ask a question option and use it to provide the customer with three
choices, as shown in Figure 6-15.
FIGURE 6-15 Building a topic in the Power Virtual Agents workspace
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The Question node allows the developer to branch the conversation by creating three con-
ditions corresponding to the three trigger phrases. The developer can then develop the branch
for each option separately to complete the desired task.
Call an action
In the example presented here, the three options presented to the customer might require the
bot to do more than just provide prerecorded information. As mentioned earlier in this chap-
ter, Power Virtual Agents can also perform actions by working together with Power Automate.
It is actually Power Automate flows that perform actions, but a Power Virtual Agents bot can
pass information to a flow and receive information back using variables.
So, for example, if a customer requests the status of an order, the bot can request an order
number from the customer and save it to a variable, as shown in Figure 6-16.
FIGURE 6-16 Assigning bot user input to a variable
When the developer clicks the plus sign to add a node and selects Call an action, the option
Create a flow appears. This option opens the Power Automate portal in a separate window and
loads the Power Virtual Agents Flow Template, as shown in Figure 6-17.
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FIGURE 6-17 Power Virtual Agents Flow Template in Power Automate
The developer can then build a flow in Power Automate, using the variable created by the
bot, which appears in the Dynamic content window, as shown in Figure 6-18, to query a data-
base and retrieve the order status. The flow can then pass the order status it has discovered
back to the bot using a variable in the same way, and the bot can furnish it to the customer.
FIGURE 6-18 Adding a Power Virtual Agents variable to a Power Automate flow
Test a chatbot
In the lower-left corner of the Power Virtual Agents portal is a Test your bot button, which opens
a test pane, as shown in Figure 6-19. This pane allows the developer to interact with the bot as a
customer while tracking the progress of the conversation through the nodes in the workspace.
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FIGURE 6-19 Testing a bot
Acting as a customer, the developer initiates the conversation with one of the topic’s trigger
phrases. As the test conversation proceeds, each node that is processed appears with a green
title bar and a circled check mark in the top-right corner. If problems occur, the developer can
make changes in the workspace and click the Reset button at the top of the pane to begin the
conversation again.
Publish a chatbot
Developers can test their bots as they create them using the testing pane, but to run the bot on
an actual website and make it available to customers, the developer must publish it. The Pub-
lish page, shown in Figure 6-20, contains a single Publish button that makes the current version
of the bot available for distribution to users.
NOTE REPUBLISHING
In Power Virtual Agents, publishing a bot is not usually a one-time task. Developers must
republish their bots each time they make changes to them so that the latest version is pro-
vided to users. The channel on which a bot appears will continue to use its existing content
until the bot is republished, even when the original conversation has been modified in the
Power Virtual Agents portal.
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FIGURE 6-20 The Publish page in the Power Virtual Agents portal
Publishing a bot makes it available on a demo website that is fully operational, as shown in
Figure 6-21. The demo website is accessible to the internet, but it is not intended to be used as
a production platform for the bot.
FIGURE 6-21 Demo website with functioning chatbot
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As mentioned earlier in this chapter, Power Virtual Agents publishes bots to channels, and
the demo website has a channel tile of its own, which you can configure by adding a welcome
message and suggested trigger phrases, as shown in Figure 6-22.
FIGURE 6-22 The Demo website panel
Publishing a chatbot to the demo website is a simple process that occurs wholly within
Power Virtual Agents. To publish a bot to another site on the web, the Custom website chan-
nel provides the HTML code needed to embed the bot on a page, as shown in Figure 6-23.
Because the embed code calls the bot from the Power Virtual Agents service in the cloud, its
content is updated whenever the developer republishes it.
Publishing a bot to other channels can require different procedures, based on the platform
with which the developer is working. It might be necessary for the bot developer to work with
other administrators within the company to obtain the necessary permissions to add a bot
to a platform such as Teams or the credentials necessary to manage a company social media
account. The tiles for the various channels provide links to instructions for embedding bots in
various services, as well as a Bot ID and Tenant ID that uniquely identify the developer’s ten-
ancy and the specific bot within that tenancy.
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FIGURE 6-23 The Custom website panel
Monitor chatbot usage

The Analytics page in the Power Virtual Agents portal, shown in Figure 6-24, provides an array
of charts that allow developers and administrators to track the number of users that access a
bot and examine the results of that usage.
The top row of small area charts provides the following statistics for the range of dates
specified in the selector:
■ Total sessions—Specifies the number of bot sessions that took place
■ Engagement rate—Specifies the number of bot sessions in which the user’s topic was
found or the session was escalated
■ Resolution rate—Specifies the number of bot sessions in which the user responded posi-
tively to a customer satisfaction survey
■ Escalation rate—Specifies the number of bot sessions that were escalated to a human
representative
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■ Abandon rate—Specifies the number of bot sessions that were engaged but not
resolved or escalated
■ CSAT—Displays the results of the customer satisfaction survey the bot provides to will-
ing users at the end of the conversation
FIGURE 6-24 The Analytics page in the Power Virtual Agents portal
Monitor chatbot performance

Power Virtual Agents includes a prebuilt End of Conversation topic, shown in Figure 6-25,
which includes a survey question that allows users to state whether their session with the bot
was successful in answering their questions or solving their problems. This is one way to moni-
tor the performance of a chatbot in terms of customer satisfaction.
FIGURE 6-25 The End of Conversation prebuilt topic in Power Virtual Agents
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The Analytics page includes charts that track the customer survey results generated by the
End of Conversation topic, as well as the other possible session outcomes:
■ Engagement—A session in which the customer supplies a trigger phrase that launches
a user-created topic (as opposed to one of the system topics, such as Greeting) or the
session ends with the escalation of the issue to a human representative. An engaged
session must always be resolved, escalated, or abandoned.
■ Resolution—An engaged session in which the user responds to the End of Conversation
customer satisfaction survey with Yes or with no answer.
■ Escalation—An engaged session in which the bot transfers the issue to a human
representative.
■ Abandonment—An engaged session that, after one hour elapses, is not resolved or
escalated.
Some of the more detailed charts included on the Analytics page are as follows:
■ Session outcomes over time—A line chart that tracks the daily number of resolved, esca-
lated, and abandoned sessions on separate colored lines.
■ Engagement over time—A column chart that specifies the daily number of engaged and
unengaged sessions.
■ Rate drivers—Three tables that lists the topics with the greatest impact on the bot’s
resolution, escalation, and abandonment rates. In each table, the Rate figure is the per-
centage of engaged sessions, including the specified topics that have a Resolved, Esca-
lated, or Abandoned outcome. Impact is a bar representing the resolution, escalation,
or abandonment rate of sessions, including the specified topic minus the rate of sessions
that do not include the topic. A red bar indicates a greater-than-average resolution,
escalation, or abandonment rate; a blue bar indicates a less-than-average rate.
Chapter summary
■ Power Virtual Agents is a no-code or low-code tool that allows customer service and
technical support personnel themselves to create chatbots and update them as needed.
■ Developers can publish chatbots to websites and many other types of platforms, includ-
ing internal messaging platforms, such as Microsoft Teams, mobile apps, and social
media. Power Virtual Agents refers to these places of publication as channels.
■ Power Virtual Agents breaks down the conversation between a bot and a user into
discrete elements called topics. An entity is a dictionary of terms and phrases that a
bot’s artificial intelligence uses to identify a concept in a conversation. An action is an
element that allows a bot to actually do something beyond conversing with the user.
■ After starting Power Virtual Agents, a developer must start by creating a bot, which
involves selecting a name, a language, and the environment in which the bot will be cre-
ated. The process occurs in the background and can take as long as 15 minutes.
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■ Power Virtual Agents includes a collection of system topics that cover some of the most
common exchanges between bots and customers. Developers can also create their own
topics from scratch.
■ Power Virtual Agents can perform actions by working together with Power Automate. It
is actually Power Automate flows that perform actions, but a bot can pass information
to a flow and receive information back using variables.
■ The test pane allows the developer to interact with the bot as a customer while tracking
the progress of the conversation through the nodes in the workspace.
■ The Publish page contains a single Publish button that makes the current version of the
bot available for distribution to users. Developers must republish their bots each time
they make changes to them so that the latest version is provided to users.
■ The Analytics page in the Power Virtual Agents portal provides an array of charts that
allow developers and administrators to track the number of users that access a bot and
examine the results of that usage.
■ Power Virtual Agents includes a prebuilt End of Conversation topic, which includes a
survey question that allows users to state whether their session with the bot was suc-
cessful in answering their questions or solving their problems.
Thought experiment
chapter. You can find answer to this thought experiment in the next section.
Ralph is experimenting with the Power Platform tools, and he has just created a Power
Automate flow for his company’s technical support department that allows a user to create a
new trouble ticket and submit it for attention by the help desk. However, the manager of the
tech support department is wary of the help desk being inundated with trouble tickets for
trivial issues that the users could conceivably resolve themselves.
Ralph is now looking at the capabilities of Power Virtual Agents, and he wonders if he could
use a chatbot to provide users with basic technical support in the form of questions to which
they must respond before they are able to fill out a trouble ticket. With the help of the techni-
cal support manager, Ralph compiles a list of questions that a help desk representative would
ask users when they report some common problems. The questions are phrased so that “No”
answers indicate a failure to solve the problem.
Based on this information, answer the following questions:
1. How might Ralph design the chatbot’s conversation with the user?
2. How might Ralph incorporate the Power Automate flow he created into the bot’s
conversation?
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1. Ralph could create a topic containing a series of Question nodes that attempt to isolate
the user’s problem. “Yes” responses indicate that the user is experiencing the proposed
problem, and the bot could provide information to help the user solve it.
2. After a certain number of “No” responses, indicating that the proposed problems have
been ruled out, the conversation should proceed to an Action node that calls the flow in
Power Automate and allows the user to fill out and submit a trouble ticket.
BOOK.indb 251 22/10/20 6:37 PM


Index
Numerics
100% stacked charts, 96 Text Recognition, 88–89
alerts, Power BI, 8–9
ALM (application lifecycle management), 68
A Analytics menu, Power Platform, 48

APIs, and custom connectors, 80–83
AAD (Azure Active Directory), 32, 42, 45, 45, 59 approvals, 211–212
actions, 76–78, 198 apps. See also canvas apps; Dynamics 365; model-driven
calling, 242–243 apps; Power Apps
Compose, 222 canvas, 13, 148, 150, 154
Condition, 205 building, 161
Create CSV table, 222–223 creating, 148–149
Create HTML table, 223 screens, 148–150
dragging and dropping, 222 Dynamics 365, 25, 26
Filter array, 223 help desk, 150
inserting, 221–222 managing, 42
Join, 223 model-driven, 13, 150–152
modifying, 220–221 adding entities to app navigation, 181–183
Parse JSON, 223–224 building, 180–181
Power Virtual Agents, 237–238 forms, 185–186
Select, 224 views, 186–187
Activity entities, 60 portal, 13, 152–153, 173
addDays() expression, 209 creating, 173–176
admin centers, 47–48 customizations, 176–178
Admin portal, Power BI, 49 themes, 179–180
aggregation, 126–128 user authentication, 179
AI (artificial intelligence), 230–231 Power, 13–15
AI Builder, 2, 83 Power BI, 6–7, 7
business value, 83–84 publishing, 172–173, 187–188
consumption of data, 90–91 screens
custom models, 89–90 detail, 169
prebuilt models, 83, 84 edit, 170
Business Card Reader, 84–85 gallery, 168
Category Classification, 85–86 sharing, 172–173
Entity Extraction, 85–86 storing data in Common Data Service, 58–59
Key Phrase Extraction, 87–87 template, 134–135
Language Detection, 87–88 third-party, 30
Sentiment Analysis, 87–88 using with Common Data Service, 59
253
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area charts
area charts, 99 using with Common Data Service, 59

attributes, 15 cards, 102
auditing, 52–53 Category Classification model, 85–86
authentication, portal apps, 179 CDM (Common Data Model), 2, 71–72
automated flows, 192 folders, 73
Azure, 32 schemas, 72
admin centers, 47–48 charts
Azure Blob, 37 100% stacked, 96
area, 99
clustered, 96–97
B combo, 99
funnel, 97
Back-End cluster, 35–36, 37 gauge, 103
bar and column charts, 95–98 KPI, 102
bots. See also chatbots line, 98
actions, 237–238 pie, 100
entities, 235–237 scatter, 101
flow interaction, 238 stacked, 95–96
topics, 233–234 waterfall, 97–98
building chatbots, 229, 230
canvas apps, 161 calling an action, 242–243
connecting to data using connectors, 163–167 creating, 22–23, 238–239
data sources, 161–163 creating a topic, 240–242
starting with a blank app, 163–165 monitoring
starting with a data source, 165–166 performance, 248–249
starting with a template, 167 usage, 247–248
dashboards, 135 publishing, 232–233, 244–246
flows, 212–224 testing, 243–244
model-driven apps, 180–181 topics, 233–234
Business Card Reader model, 84–85 citizen developers, 1, 23, 29, 147
business process flows, 19, 68–70, 194 creating chatbots, 22–23
business rules, 70–71 Power Virtual Agents, 230
conditions, 70 classic workspaces, creating, 115–116
business value, of AI Builder, 83–84 cloud computing
Common Data Service, 57–58
Power BI service, 3
combining, data sources, 168
C Power BI Desktop, 118–120
combo charts, 99H
calling an action, 242–243
Common Data Service, 2, 15–16, 30, 57–58, 152, 182
canvas apps, 13, 148, 150, 154
business rules, 70–71
building, 161
conditions, 70
connecting to data using connectors, 163–167
entities, 15, 59–60
data sources, 161–163
Activity, 60
starting with a blank app, 163–165
complex, 62
starting with a data source, 165–166
custom, 60–61
starting with a template, 167
fields, 62–64
creating, 148–149
ownership, 60
screens, 148–150
relationships, 64–65
sharing, 150
254
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developers
representing people, places, and things, 73–74 classic, 115–116

restricted, 62 custom connectors
security, 16 sharing, 82–83
solutions, 66 use cases, 79–83
managed, 66 custom entities, 60–61
unmanaged, 66 custom models (AI Builder), 89–90
storing app data, 58–59 custom visualizations, Power BI, 109–112
using with canvas and model apps, 59 customer journey, 171
complex entities, 62
Compliance Manager, 51–52
component libraries, 155–156
components D
model-driven apps, 182 dashboards, 112. See also apps
Power BI, 3 building, 135
Power Platform, 1–2 designing, 136–138
Compose action, 222 emphasizing importance, 139
Condition actions, 205 screen size, 139–140
conditional flows, 205–206 Power BI, 4–5
conditions, 70 creating, 94
connectivity, Power Platform, 24–25 publishing, 141–143
connectors, 20, 21, 74–75, 163–167, 201 data connectors, 2
credentials, 196, 202–204 data modeling, 120–121
custom combining queries, 123–126
sharing, 82–83 modifying data types, 121–122
use cases, 79–83 removing rows and columns, 122–123
function-based, 201 renaming elements, 123
licensing, 78–79 shared data sets, 133–134
Power Automate, 21 data operation actions
tabular, 201 Compose, 222
content, Power BI, 7, 8 Create CSV table, 222–223
controls, configuring with formulas, 160 Create HTML table, 223
Create CSV table action, 222–223 Filter array, 223
Create HTML table action, 223 Join, 223
creating Parse JSON, 223–224
apps Select, 224
canvas, 148–149 data sources, combining, 168
portal, 173–176 in Power BI Desktop, 118–120
chatbots, 22–23, 238–239 data storage. See also Common Data Service
calling an action, 242–243 Common Data Service, 57–58
creating a topic, 240–242 Power BI Back-End cluster, 37
dashboards, 135 databases, 73
Power BI, 94 designers, Power BI, 37
DLP (data loss prevention) policies, 50 designing, dashboards, 136–138
environments, 46–47 emphasizing importance, 139
flows, 192, 213–214 screen size, 139–140
live pages, 138 detail screen, 169
solutions, 66–67 developers, 29
users, 42 citizen, 1, 23, 29, 147, 230
workspaces, 114–115 creating solutions, 66–67
255
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digital feedback loop
digital feedback loop, 26–27 business process, 19, 68–70, 194

digital transformation, 25–26 code view, 20
DLP (data loss prevention) policies, 49–50 conditional, 205–206
dragging and dropping actions, 222 creating, 192, 213–214
Dynamics 365, 25, 26, 152 instant, 18, 193, 204
digital feedback loop, 26–27 looping, 207–208
modifying, 218–219
running, 224–226
E scheduled, 18, 193

sharing, 40–41
edit screen, 170 UI, 19, 194
entities, 15, 59–60 workspace canvas, 214–218
Activity, 60 folders, CDM (Common Data Model), 73
adding to app navigation, 181–183 forms, 185–186
complex, 62 formulas, 158–159
custom, 60–61 configuring controls with, 160
fields, 62–64 function-based connectors, 201
ownership, 60 funnel charts, 97
Power Virtual Agents, 235–237
relationships, 64–65
many-to-many, 64
many-to-one, 64
G
one-to-many, 64 gallery screen, 168
representing people, places, and things, 73–74 gauge charts, 103
restricted, 62 Get Data dialog box, Power BI Desktop, 11
Entity Extraction model, 85–86
environments, 45–47
equation bar, Power Apps Studio, 170–171
expressions, 208–209 H
addDays(), 209 help desk app, 150
categories, 210–211 home page, Power BI, 4
utcNow(), 209 Home tab, Power BI, 108
F I-J
fields, 62–64 inserting, actions, 221–222
Filter array action, 223 instant flows, 18, 193, 204
filters, 104, 105–106 Join action, 223
Filters pane, Power BI, 106–107
flow templates, 192, 195–200
flows, 16, 17. See also connectors
actions, 198 K
dragging and dropping, 222 key influencers, 103
inserting, 221–222 Key Phrase Extraction model, 87–87
approvals, 211–212 KPIs (key performance indicators), 102
automated, 18, 192
and bots, 238
building, 212–224
256
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Power Automate
L P
Language Detection model, 87–88 Parse JSON action, 223–224
licenses, 44 PCF (Power Apps Component Framework), 156–158
connector, 78–79 people, representing with entities, 73–74
Power BI, 7 permissions, connector, 202–204
line charts, 98 pie charts, 100
live pages, creating, 138 places, representing with entities, 73–74
looping flows, 207–208 polling triggers, 22, 76
portal apps, 13, 152–153, 173
customizations, 176–178
M templates, 173–176
themes, 179–180
managed solutions, 66 user authentication, 179
managing portals, 153
apps, 42 Power Apps, 13–15, 147. See also canvas apps;
users, 42–44 model-driven apps
many-to-many relationships, 64 actions, 76–78
many-to-one relationships, 64 App Designer interface, 151
Microsoft 365, and Power Platform canvas apps, 148–150, 154
business solutions, 29–30 component libraries, 155–156
Microsoft Azure, and Power Platform consumption of AI Builder data, 90–91
business solutions, 30 controls, 168
Microsoft Teams, Power Platform business data sources, combining, 168
solutions, 27–29 formulas, 158–159
model-driven apps, 13, 150–152 configuring controls with, 160
adding entities to app navigation, 181–183 licenses, 78
building, 180–181 managing apps, 42
components, 182 model-driven apps, 150–152
forms, 185–186 PCF (Power Apps Component Framework), 156–158
publishing and sharing, 187–188 portal apps, 152–153, 173
using with Common Data Service, 59 Power Automate interoperation, 21–22
views, 186–187 reusable components, 154
modifying security, 38–40
actions, 220–221 Power Apps Studio, equation bar, 170–171
flows, 218–219 Power Automate, 16, 30. See also connectors; flows
triggers, 220–221 actions, 76–78
monitoring chatbots approvals, 211–212
performance, 248–249 connectors, 21, 201
usage, 247–248 function-based, 201
permissions, 202–204
tabular, 201
consumption of AI Builder data, 90–91
N-O data operation actions
Compose, 222
navigation pane, Power BI, 109
Create CSV table, 222–223
one-to-many relationships, 64
Create HTML table, 223
Filter array, 223
Join, 223
257
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Power Automate
Parse JSON, 223–224 removing rows and columns, 122–123

Select, 224 renaming elements, 123
expressions, 208–209 data types, 128–129
addDays(), 209 designers, 7
categories, 210–211 filters, 104, 105–106
utcNow(), 209 Filters pane, 106–107
flow templates, 192, 195–200, 218–220 home page, 4
flows, 16, 17 Home tab, 108
automated, 18, 192 interoperation, 20–21
building, 212–224 licenses, 7
business process, 19, 194 navigation pane, 109
code view, 20 and Power BI Desktop, 115–117
conditional, 205–206 Recent tab, 108–109
creating, 192, 213–214 Report view, 109
inserting actions, 221–222 reports, 6
instant, 18, 193, 204 publishing, 141–143
looping, 207–208 security, 32–33, 37–38
modifying, 218–219 Back-End cluster, 35–36, 37
running, 224–226 WFE cluster, 33–35
scheduled, 18, 193 shared data sets, 133–134
sharing, 40–41 template apps, 134–135
UI, 19, 194 visualizations, 94
workspace canvas, 214–218 area charts, 99
licenses, 79 bar and column charts, 95–98
My flows screen, 192 cards, 102
portal, 17–18 combo charts, 99
Power Apps interoperation, 21–22 gauge charts, 103
security, 40 key influencers, 103
Templates screen, 200 KPIs, 102
triggers, 75 line charts, 98
polling, 76 pie charts, 100
push, 76 scatter plots, 101
Power BI, 3. See also data modeling slicers, 104
Admin portal, 49 tables, 104
aggregation, 126–128 Visuals screen, 110–112
alerts, 8–9 workspaces, 112–113, 113–114
apps, 6–7, 7 creating, 114–115
classic workspaces, creating, 115–116 Power BI Desktop, 3, 10–11, 31. See also data modeling
components, 3 combining multiple data sources, 118–120
content, 7, 8 data types, 129–131
custom visualizations, 109–112 Get Data dialog box, 11
dashboard, creating, 94 Power Query Editor, 12
dashboards, 4–5, 112 Power BI Premium, 36
building, 135 Power BI service, 3
designing, 136–138 Power Platform, 1. See also Power Apps; Power Auto-
publishing, 141–143 mate; Power BI; Power Virtual Agents
data modeling, 120–121 admin centers, 47–48
combining queries, 123–126 ALM (application lifecycle management), 68
modifying data types, 121–122 Analytics menu, 48
258
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Sentiment Analysis model
business solutions, 27–29 re-, 244–245

consumption of Microsoft 365 services, 29–30 shared reports and dashboards, 141–143
consumption of Microsoft Azure services, 30 push triggers, 22, 76
consumption of third-party apps and services, 30
Common Data Service, 15–16
entities, 15
security, 16 Q-R
components, 1–2 queries, combining, 123–126
connectivity, 24–25 Recent tab, Power BI, 108–109
connectors, 20, 21, 74–75 relationships
use cases, 79–83 many-to-many, 64
DLP (data loss prevention) policies, 49–50 many-to-one, 64
environments, 45–47 one-to-many, 64
licenses, 44 renaming, elements, 123
Power Apps, 13–15 Report view, Power BI, 109
Power Automate, 16–20 reports
Power BI, 3 filters, 104, 105–106
Power Virtual Agents, 22–23 Power BI, 6
privacy and accessibility guidelines, 50–51 publishing, 141–143
triggers, 21 republishing, 244–245
polling, 22 restricted entities, 62
push, 22 reusable components, Power Apps, 154
users, managing, 42–44 component libraries, 155–156
Power Virtual Agents, 22–23, 229 running a flow, 224–226
actions, 237–238
chatbots
calling an action, 242–243
creating, 238–239 S
creating a topic, 240–242
scatter charts, 101
monitoring, 247–248, 248–249
scheduled flows, 18, 193
publishing, 232–233
schemas, CDM (Common Data Model), 72
testing, 243–244
screens
entities, 235–237
detail, 169
topics, 233–234
edit, 170
use cases, 229–230
gallery, 168
AI (artificial intelligence), 230–231
security, 32
citizen developers, 230
Common Data Service, 16
taking action, 232
DLP (data loss prevention) policies, 49–50
prebuilt models (AI Builder)
Power Apps, 38–40
Business Card Reader, 84–85
Power Automate, 40
Category Classification, 85–86
Power BI, 37, 37–38
Entity Extraction, 85–86
Back-End cluster, 35, 37
Key Phrase Extraction, 87–87
WFE cluster, 33–35
Language Detection, 87–88
STP (Service Trust Portal), 50–51
Sentiment Analysis, 87–88
auditing, 52–53
Text Recognition, 88–89
Compliance Manager, 51–52
publishing
Select action, 224
apps, 172–173, 187–188
Sentiment Analysis model, 87–88
chatbots, 232–233, 244–246
259
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sharing
sharing for Power Virtual Agents

apps, 150, 172–173 AI (artificial intelligence), 230–231
model-driven, 187–188 citizen developers, 230
custom connectors, 82–83 taking action, 232
datasets, 133–134 users, managing, 42–44
flows, 40–41 utcNow() expression, 209
slicers, 104
solutions, 66
managed, 66
unmanaged, 66 V
spreadsheets, 163 views, 186–187
stacked charts, 95–96 visualizations, 94. See also dashboards
STP (Service Trust Portal), 50–51 aggregation, 126–128
auditing, 52–53 area charts, 99
Compliance Manager, 51–52 bar and column charts, 95–98
cards, 102
combo charts, 99
T gauge charts, 103

key influencers, 103
tables, 104 KPIs, 102
spreadsheets, 163 line charts, 98
tabular connectors, 201 pie charts, 100
template apps, 134–135 scatter plots, 101
templates slicers, 104
flow, 195–200 tables, 104
portal app, 173–176 spreadsheets, 163
Templates screen, Power Automate, 200 Visuals screen, Power BI, 110–112
testing, chatbots, 243–244
Text Recognition model, 88–89
themes, portal apps, 179–180
third-party apps, and Power Platform business W-X-Y-Z
solutions, 30 waterfall charts, 97–98
tiles WFE (Web Front End) cluster, 33–35
cards, 102 workspaces, 112–113, 113–114
key influencers, 103 classic, creating, 115–116
topics, 233–234 creating, 114–115
creating, 240–242 WYSIWYG, 176–177
triggers, 21, 75, 198
modifying, 220–221
polling, 22, 76
push, 22, 76
U
UI flows, 19, 194
unmanaged solutions, 66
use cases
for custom connectors, 79–83
260
BOOK.indb 260 22/10/20 6:37 PM

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From the Library of Jose Contreras

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From the Library of Jose Contreras

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2020946246 PROOFREADER

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From the Library of Jose Contreras

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Chapter 1 Describe the business value of Power Platform 1

Skill 1.2: Describe the business value of extending business

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Thought experiment answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Chapter 2 Identify the core components of Power Platform 57

Skill 2.2: Describe connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Skill 2.3: Describe AI Builder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

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Thought experiment answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Chapter 3 Describe the business value of Power BI 93

Skill 3.2: Connect to and consume data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Skill 3.3: Build a basic dashboard using Power BI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Chapter summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Thought experiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Thought experiment answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Chapter 4 Demonstrate the capabilities of Power Apps 147

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Skill 4.2: Build a basic canvas app. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Skill 4.3: Describe Power Apps portals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Chapter summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Thought experiment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Thought experiment answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Chapter 5 Demonstrate the capabilities of Power Automate 191

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Chapter summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Thought experiment answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Chapter 6 Demonstrate the capabilities of Power

Skill 6.2: Build and publish a basic chatbot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Chapter summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Thought experiment answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

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From the Library of Jose Contreras

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Organization of this book

Preparing for the exam

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MORE INFO ALL MICROSOFT CERTIFICATIONS

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Quick access to online references

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From the Library of Jose Contreras

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From the Library of Jose Contreras