Introduction
The much-awaited feature has finally come in Power Apps which allows a team to work simultaneously in one Power Apps application.
Forget now locked for editing message now – this sounds exciting, isn’t 😊
Together, we are going to create a sample app in Power Apps and enable the collaboration with Azure DevOps.
Without further ado, let’s get started with step-by-step instructions.
1. Create a Help Desk application
Let’s assume our organization is in need of a Help Desk application.
To make our life easier Microsoft has come with a plethora of templates ready to be provisioned, so let us build the application.
- In Power Apps left navigation Menu, click on + Create
- Locate Start from template, and look for Help Desk
- Provide a meaningful name and click create
- and voila, in less than a minute our app is ready to use
Now let’s say our Help Desk Admin needs to have a customized report for the respective technology stream in the organization – for example SAP Report, Microsoft Dynamics Report, etc – (please note that we will not be implementing any report in this blog, this would be out of scope).
To make it simpler, we will have 2 screens so each developer can work simultaneously on the same application.
2. Connect with Azure DevOps
2.1 What is DevOps?
It is a compound of development (Dev) and operations (Ops), DevOps is the union of people, processes and technology to continually provide value to customers.
2.2 What does DevOps mean for teams?
DevOps enables formerly siloed roles—development, IT operations, quality engineering and security—to coordinate and collaborate to produce better, more reliable products. By adopting a DevOps culture along with DevOps practices and tools, teams gain the ability to better respond to customer needs, increase confidence in the applications they build and achieve business goals faster.
2.3 The benefits of DevOps
Teams that adopt DevOps culture, practices and tools become high-performing, building better products faster for greater customer satisfaction. This improved collaboration and productivity are also integral to achieving business goals like these:
2.4 Login or Sign Up For A Free Azure DevOps Account
Login to dev.azure.com or sign up for a free account, we need it to setup a repository which we are going to see in the next steps.
Once logged in, create a New DevOps Project.
Provide a Project Name.
Click on Repos, then Initialize the repository.
2.5 Keep a note of the Azure DevOps Git Repository URL and Branch
It should be as follows:
[https://dev.azure.com/organization_name/project_name/_git/repo_name]
for our case, it would be:
[https://dev.azure.com/organization_name/Help%20Desk/_git/Help%20Desk]
the branch name would be:
[main]
2.6 Create a DevOps Project Personal Access Token
A personal access token (PAT) as an alternate password to authenticate into Azure DevOps, it contains your security credentials for Azure DevOps. A PAT identifies you, your accessible organizations, and scopes of access. As such, they’re as critical as passwords, so you should treat them the same way.
In the DevOps Project, under the User Settings (top-right corner), click on Personal access tokens
Create a new personal access token
Make sure you copy the token and keep it securely
3. Connect Azure DevOps Git with Power Apps
It is time now to connect our application with the repository:
3.1 Enable the Git version control setting
In Power Apps, Go to File > Settings > Upcoming features and enable the Git version control setting:
Once connected, click on the Git version control then connect.
Enter the value previously taken from the above step 2.5
3.2 Sign in to your DevOps repository
Sign in to your DevOps repository using your DevOps username and your Personal Access Token – see step 2.6
It creates a Directory for you if not found.
4 Collaborate with your team
4.1 Provide User Access or Grant User Access in the Organization Settings
We need to explicitly add the users who need to access the Organization/Projects. This is an extra security layer which is necessary for the Organization Administrator to perform.
4.2 Share the Help Desk app with your developer
Once the given user(s) have been provided access, now it is time now to share and collaborate, for that we need to share the app as co-owner
4.3 Login simultaneously to the app
Important note 1: we recommend closing and re-opening the main browser as it may result in an unwanted experience.
Important note 2: The second developer must login using his Active Directory Username and for the password use the Personal Token Access – see step 2.6
and voila, the second developer sees the same application and its artifacts.
5 Commit changes and check for Git updates
Let’s say that the second developer (right screen) has to work on a Jira Report, therefore he adds the screen
As his work is completed, he needs to commit so other developers can see his changes – this is done using the Sync button.
Once committed, the other developers use the same button to sync the application and here is how it looks:
5. Summary
This is a powerful and much-needed feature to deploy applications more quickly and seamlessly.
Additionally, Azure DevOps provide improved collaboration and productivity which lead to building better products faster for greater customer satisfaction.
Furthermore, this process allows the team to have complete code control such as code review, editing the code itself in a different application such as Visual Studio Code Editor, etc
Lastly, if you find this article useful, please share it with your friends. Every little bit helps. Thank you!