PowerApps Tips and Tricks

I present a few of the latest tips I have picked up whilst developing SharePoint based PowerApps for some of my Auckland, New Zealand based clients.

Use your most powerful computer and 64 Bit Browsers

If you have a large number of columns on a screen, PowerApps can slow down and be clunky to use.   To avoid performance issues use your most powerful computer and make sure you have a 64 bit browser installed.

You can download 64bit Chrome from Google.  

This performance tip is reinforced from the PowerApps blog post.

Browser running out of memory (July 23, 2018)

If you run out of memory while using PowerApps, please consider downloading a 64-bit version of Chrome, Edge, or Internet Explorer.

Microsoft: Common Issues and Resolutions.

Formatting can be a nightmare

Be wary when making multiple format changes at the same time. 

Formatting issues are particularly evident when making changes to the width of datacards.  Even though you can select multiple data cards and change each of their widths all at once, it is not recommended. 

PowerApps can automatically reshuffle your datacards and there is nothing you can do to put them back in order!  You can rearrange your order as often as you like to no avail.  If PowerApps wants Question 3 to go ahead of Question 1 after you have resized your datacards, then that is where Q3 is going… 

Multiple selection is handy for non-size formatting changes, like background color, but be very wary when changing the size of any element!     

Unlimited Undos?

If you do make a change to multiple columns at once and need to get your order back, you can click CTRL Z to undo your latest mistake.   Note, when you change multiple elements at once, undo will only undo each change at a time.  So if you select five datacards and resize them all at once, you will have to click the undo button 5 times to get back to where you were.  If you changed the size and background color that will be 10 undo’s…

It seems PowerApps Studio stores a very large number of your actions ready to be undone.  I made a change to 30 datacards at once yesterday, and had to immediately undo the change as the cards did the automatic reshuffle of death (see Formatting can be a nightmare)!  I was clicking the undo button for 15 minutes to get back to where I was.  This constituted many hundreds of individual actions, but PowerApps studio was up to the task.

PowerApps Desktop Version

When I first started developing PowerApps the Client Desktop version could be used for creating and editing your PowerApps.   This is no longer the case.  PowerApps Desktop can now only be used to open or test your apps. 

This is not a huge loss. The desktop editor occasionally crashed, which was very annoying if you forgot to save in the last few minutes.   Saving is not a problem in the online version that autosaves at regular intervals.

Autosave can be problematic as you cannot experiment with formatting changes etc, and then revert to a previous unsaved version to rectify your mistakes.  You can go back to a previous published version, but this is not useful for Live applications.

Shane Young’s Videos

If you are new to PowerApps, or moderately experienced, or even an expert then Shane Young’s YouTube channel is a must see.   Shane seems to able to get in touch with his mates at Microsoft to give him inside tips on the best way to get things done.  If you work your way through each of these videos you will be a PowerApps expert within weeks!

He also has great videos on Microsoft Flow and PowerBI so be sure to check out his channel.

Finally, have you had a chance to check out SitePac, my newly released SharePoint Templates.  We can quickly install these SharePoint based templates in your Office365 environment to get your Instant Intranet up a running in a flash.