Mar 23, 20214 min read

Project Oakdale Preview for Pros

Updated: Jul 21

Learn all you need to know to start building Power Apps and Flows with Project Oakdale preview. Follow along with Shane's video from our YouTube Channel:

PowerApps Forms offers a shared productivity suite to build and customize your own products. Project Oakdale uses this power to give you the tools to collaborate on and deploy software solutions for your business needs.

Understanding how to use the integrated work environment available through Microsoft Teams will help you empower development across projects. Installation and use of Microsoft Power Apps (Preview) in Microsoft Teams will enable you to deploy your business applications with this efficient and powerful solution.

Install Microsoft Power Apps (Preview)

To get started in Project Oakdale Preview, you first need to install Microsoft Power Apps (Preview).

To do this:

Click on the ‘more apps’ option in the left rail.
Search for ‘Power Apps (Preview).’
Click on the option that comes up, then choose ‘Add for me’ to install the application.

Power Apps (Preview) should now be installed to your Microsoft Teams account. Right-click and pin the application to your left rail for easier access in the future.

Create a New Application

You should be looking at the home screen of the Power Apps (Preview) application. Click on the ‘Create an app’ button just above the list of recent applications, and you should be given the option to select a team.

Each team that you create will become provisioned with its own Power Apps environment. This creates a common data service to contain the work done on the team. Rather than being globally defined, like the traditional Power Apps service, the Power Apps (Preview) provides a framework for containing provisioned applications within the specified teams.

To provision a new application, you can select an existing team, or type in the name of a new one, and click ‘Create.’ Power Apps will then begin provisioning the environment. It will take a minute for the program to generate the data structure.

Use the Build Environment

Once the provisioning is complete, you should be in the Power Apps (Preview) build environment, which is somewhat different than the traditional Power Apps environment. To enable autosave, click on the ‘App’ button and type in the new name, then click ‘Save.’

Teams will not ask if you leave the environment without saving, so be sure to save early and often so you don’t lose your progress!

Generate a New Database

To set up your database, you must first create a new data table. This can be done by clicking ‘Create new table’ in the left pane of the build environment. Enter a new table name, and click ‘Create.’ This will provide you with a new data table.

You will have the option to add new columns and rows to input data. Once you’ve added the necessary information, you can press the X button in the top-right of the current window. Power Apps should have populated your gallery, giving you easy access through the Teams interface.

Customize Gallery Layout

Now, you can add or remove, resize, and reposition the columns' layout.

There are a variety of other ways to customize the gallery:

1. Buttons

You can create a new button by selecting the plus symbol, then the button option, and dragging it from the left column. You can then configure the buttons by choosing their type, text, and color.

Power Apps provides many nuanced options for creating buttons. Work slowly through these options to find the ones that work best for you.

2. Labels

You can create a label by going to the same area where buttons were found and searching for labels instead.

3. Teams Integration

A new addition in Power Apps (Preview) is the integration of Teams. By typing ‘Teams' into the text bar, you have the option to call specific data types. These options provide powerful customization of your layout.

An example of this is ‘Teams.Thisteam.GroupID’ for dynamically getting the group ID of the current team.

Publish to Teams

Click the ‘Publish to Teams’ button in the top right of the gallery. Press ‘Next’ then select the plus symbol next to your channel before saving and closing the window.

The Power Apps application should now be embedded into Microsoft Teams.

View Your Build

To view your built applications, click on the ‘Power Apps’ option in your left ribbon. Click ‘Build’ at the top of the window to view the build environments for your applications. Select the correct team and, if you don’t see your applications, click on ‘Dismiss’ beneath the ‘Create’ button.

You should now have a list of available application environments built by your team. Click ‘See all’ to view each application and look at specific details. You also have access to any tables you have created, allowing you to view, edit, or delete your data.

Here, you can easily add images, create flows, and interact with common data services. The rich power available in Power Apps is here for you to experience.