Power Apps Creator Kit overview Hello and welcome. In this short presentation, I’m going to introduce
Hello and welcome.
In this short presentation, I’m going to introduce you to the Power Apps creator kit.
For this presentation, I wish to thank April Dunnam for bringing this kit to my attention.
April is well worth following and I recommend you do.
In the reference section, I’ve added a link to her video below.
Power Apps for some time has had a feature called components.
Think of components as recipes.
No doubt through your app development life.
You may have found yourself rather irritatedly writing the same code many times.
Either in the same app or in previous apps.
Of course, as you repeat the same steps you naturally become more proficient.
In other words, faster.
OK if you have the time but not so great when you really could be doing other things.
Even more annoying you inadvertently miss something.
You are so confident you don’t bother to test your code.
You later discover the code doesn’t work.
Even more annoying it’s taken time to discover the error.
You can’t quite see what you missed.
An hour or so later you suddenly realise and correct it.
Well, think of components as your cookbook.
Write the recipe once.
Look it up and add the recipe as and when you need it.
A significant time-saving capability.
An extra benefit your apps have a consistent look and feel.
Important characteristic when trying to grow user adoption.
User familiarity accelerates use and reduces your support costs.
Until recently the components feature was largely used by developers.
To build their own libraries.
So how do you get it?
First things first.
You need to activate ‘the power Apps Component Framework for canvas apps.’
I’ve provided full documentation link in the reference section.
Below is an overview of how to activate components.
1. Sign into Power Apps.
2. Select Settings gear icon, and then select Admin Center.
On the left pane, select Environments. Select the environment where you want to enable this feature. And then select Settings.
On the Products tab, select Features.
From the list of available features.
Turn on Power Apps component framework for canvas apps, and then select Save.
Tip: Depending upon your location you may need to allow half an hour or so to allow your tenancy to be updated.
So don’t panic if you complete, components activation and the ‘creator kit’ isn't install.
In most cases this process is quick.
Install Creator Kit
Your next step, visit the ‘Creator Kit’ webpage and download the kit.
URL link in the reference section.
Log in to Power Apps.
Make sure you are in a Power App environment (top right) for which you have admin rights.
Next click the Solutions tab left-hand side of the screen.
Click ‘Import solution.’
Right-hand side of the screen.
Click the browse button.
Navigate to and select the creator kit file you just downloaded.
Click the next button.
Don’t worry if it seems to take some time.
Click the import button.
You should see the currently importing solution “Creator Kit” don’t worry if it appears to be taking a while.
You should see Solution “Creator Kit” imported successfully.
To view what the kit offers. Click the ‘Creator Kit” label.
Scroll your eyes down.
The list and click the horizontal dots to the right of the “Creator Kit Reference App” label.
Then click ‘Play.’
When the app opens to the left you will see a number of menus. Click 'Tag List.'
Cast your eyes down to the ‘Fluent Icon’ basic tag list.
Marigold Yellow Plumb tags.
To the right, you see tick box place a tick in the rounded tags box.
Further to the right of the screen, you will see ‘App’ and {} Code buttons.
Click the code button. You can copy the code and if you so wish edit using ‘Visual Code’ or add it to your app.
This kit is a considerable time saver and I urge you to spend some time exploring what this package offers you.
I shall be publishing short videos to illustrate how to use this kit in your app development soon.
Thank you for viewing.
I’ll see you soon.