Power Apps 2
By Richard Rost
74 minutes ago
Power Apps Front End for SQL Server, Part 2 In this lesson, we continue building a mobile front end with Power Apps connected to Microsoft Access and SQL Server. We will walk through adding and configuring an edit form, selecting fields, arranging data cards, saving and publishing the app, and previewing it in different layouts. I will show you how to set the form to display a default record and create a Save button using the SubmitForm function. We will also discuss sharing the Power App with other users and note licensing requirements when using SQL Server as a data source. MembersIn the extended cut, we will build previous and next buttons for navigating between records, and I will show you how to display a success or failure message when clicking the Save button. Silver Members and up get access to view Extended Cut videos, when available. Gold Members can download the files from class plus get access to the Code Vault. If you're not a member, Join Today!
PrerequisitesRecommended Courses
Keywords TechHelp Access, Power Apps, SQL Server, mobile app, Power Apps form, data card, Save button, app publishing, mobile front end, premium connector, web browser app, record navigation, multiline text field, app sharing, Power Apps trial, OnSelect function
Subscribe to Power Apps 2
Get notifications when this page is updated
Intro In this lesson, we continue building a mobile front end with Power Apps connected to Microsoft Access and SQL Server. We will walk through adding and configuring an edit form, selecting fields, arranging data cards, saving and publishing the app, and previewing it in different layouts. I will show you how to set the form to display a default record and create a Save button using the SubmitForm function. We will also discuss sharing the Power App with other users and note licensing requirements when using SQL Server as a data source.Transcript Oh, welcome to another TechHelp video brought to you by Access Learning Zone. I am your instructor, Richard Rost. Today is part two of my Power Apps video using Microsoft Access and SQL Server to build a mobile front end using Power Apps. If you have not watched part one yet, what are you doing here? Go watch part one and then come on back. You will find a link down below.
Yesterday, we talked about all the theory and what you need to do and how to get here. We have our Power App all set up. We have our data connected. Our SQL Server is connected. Here is where our fields are going to go. Consider this your form. It is not called a form in here. In fact, if you come over here and click on this guy, it goes to TreeView. Here is your app, and then you can see there is your host. This is called a screen. This is your screen. So that is just what they call it.
Next, we are going to Insert and Edit Form. So come up here and click Insert, Edit Form. Right here it is going to say, select a data source. What data source do you want to basically connect this form to? Think of it like the record source for a form in Access. Of course, customer T. It is the only one we have. Click on that.
Now it drops this form right here. Now we are going to pick the fields that we want to go in that form. Again, similar analogy to Access. Click on fields and then click Add Field. Now, which fields do you want in your form? Here they are. I am going to go with Customer ID, First Name, Last Name, Is Active, Customer Since, so we get a date, and Note, so we get a long text field. Then hit Add. Let's say those are the ones I really care about when I am on the road.
Here they come, and you could see some different options here. Customer ID, View Text, you could change it to a rating, a percentage, there are a whole bunch of options in here. First name is Edit Text, and you can see there are a bunch of other different options. There is last name. Is Active is a toggle. You can do all kinds of different toggles or option buttons or whatever. Customer Since comes in as a Date Time. You can have either the Date Time where you can select it or just type in as a text value. Then Notes down here. I am going to drop this down and pick Edit Multiline Text. This is a long text field, so let us go multi-line for that one.
Now click over here. One thing I do not like is that this little editing form, if you click here, you can see you click on the different fields there. Just like Access, you have to be careful. You are clicking on like with subform controls. So try to find the edge boundary around that. Sometimes it is hard to get to this Customer Since. If you cannot click on what you are looking for, come over here and click on Form 1. See that? That is the boundary of that form. It is like subform controls in Access.
It is only taking up half the screen here. I am going to click this and drag it down. Leave a little bit of room at the bottom because we are going to put a button down there. Now this here is the area of your form. You can scroll up and down in here if you need more space once we go into preview.
We have Customer ID and we can make this take up the whole top there. There we go. Customer ID, First Name, Last Name, Is Active, Customer Since, and Notes.
But sometimes these individual things can be hard to click on and get exactly what you want, like in this Customer ID field. Let me zoom in a little bit so it is easier to see. There we go. Let me zoom in.
Like in here, you have the Customer ID. First Name, this is a card and a card is actually the label and the text box together. See that? Label right there and text box. You have the card first, then the label, then the text box. You can move these things around and resize them and do all kinds of stuff too. You can think of the card, it is called a data card, as a little container that holds the label, the control itself, and all of the code that connects it to the underlying data. You can drag these cards around and you can resize stuff and move things around, but we are not going to get into all that today.
Let me put that back where it was there. It is a little different from Microsoft Access where you typically move the label and the text box independently, but the idea is the same. You are designing the layout of your form.
I am going to zoom back out a little bit so you can see more of the whole thing there. Okay, it looks good.
Now let us save our app. Click on the little save button up here. Give it a name. I will call this my PC resale phone app. Hit save.
Now once it is saved, let us click on this little button here that says preview the app. Oh, it says no item to display. Why is that? Microsoft Access Power Apps does not automatically open the form to the first record. Instead, the form has an Item property that tells it which record to display. Since we are keeping this example nice and simple, we are just going to tell the form to display the first record in the customer table.
To do that, let us close the preview. Select the form, that outline. Now over here where it says Data Source, drop this down. There is a whole bunch of properties in here. Some of them are over here too, but this is where I usually go.
We are going to find Item and change this over here. It is kind of like Excel, like a little function bar here. In here, what item do you want to see? We are going to put in here first open parentheses, customer T, close parentheses. See, look, it just prefilled some data in here. It says, when this guy starts, I want to see the first customer.
In a real application, you are going to have select records from a list, perform a search, all that stuff. But again, for today, we are keeping it simple.
Again, I was going to say, click save, but sometimes it saves automatically for you, which it just did.
Now hit preview again, and there you go. That is what your app is starting to look like. Right here, you can change, like, you can go from browser based to tablet sizes. Like, I want to see what it looks like on an iPad Pro. You can flip it and rotate it. You can change it to a specific phone type, for example, iPhone 11.
Close this. Now actually, here is one of my pet peeves. See how the Customer ID is below that? Let us move this up over here. I am going to click here. The first click gives you the card. Then click again. That gets you the label. Now resize that label like that and then grab the text box and then resize the text box like that. Then you can slide this up like so and try to get them lined up. You will never get them lined up exactly. Now when you preview it, it looks a little better. Customer ID is over here.
Like the way it looks here in the preview.
Let us close this and let us publish it. Now we are going to click on this little guy. Hit publish. Save it to Power Apps. It gives you this thing. Read the terms and conditions and all this stuff. Give you an icon if you want. You can put a description in here. I am just going to click on publish this version. Now you should see Published Successful.
It is now available to everyone. I am going to close that. Now let us go take a peek at it. I am going to open up this Power Apps in a new window. I am going to leave this open. What I like to do is right click on this and go open in a new window. So now I have a second window open up here.
I am back at my Power Apps home. Come down here and click on Apps. Here is your app. Right there. I hate when stuff moves around like that. Next to this, you will see a little button here. It says Play. Click on Play and that will actually open up your app.
The first time it runs, it is going to say, allow PC resale to access your data. In other words, you want the app to be able to connect to the data source. Read, write records. Of course. And boom. There you go. That is what it looks like in your web browser. You can give access to other people. I will show you how in just a second.
This screen that I showed you early in yesterday's video, this is right off my phone. This is from my phone browser. It looks just like that. Sorry. We have some buttons down here. We will talk about these buttons in a bit.
I should also probably note at this point, you might get the pop-up that says start a Power Apps trial. That is because you are using the SQL Server connector, which Microsoft classifies as a premium feature. Yesterday, I mentioned that using SQL Server with Power Apps requires a premium license, which right now is about 20 bucks a month.
The good news is that if you are just evaluating Power Apps to follow along with this lesson, you can start the free trial without entering your credit card. That is exactly what I am doing so we can continue testing the application. If you decide to deploy the apps later on and you will want to purchase the appropriate Power Apps license for your users.
Now you want to give this to someone else to use, Joe in accounting, whatever. Click on Share. You can either email them a link directly or copy it. Here is the link. You can copy it and send it to them, however you want to send it to them. I sent it to my phone, which I logged on with my second account. I have two Microsoft accounts and I was able to log on just fine. Once I was authenticated, it did not ask me for any kind of billing information for that account either. So it probably is still using the same 30-day trial as this one is. But I do not know that for sure, but that is what I am guessing.
Now, one thing you will notice is when you have your record in here, Microsoft Power Apps does not automatically save changes if you leave this record or close your browser. You have to actually create your own Save button. So unlike Access, you have to make your own Save button here, which most users are used to. Access is actually the odd one out in that respect.
So let us create a Save button. I am going to go back over here to my actual app and let us come down to the bottom down here where I left some extra space. Remember, I have this empty space down here. We are going to insert a button. There is Button right there and it puts it up top. I am going to zoom out so we can see. There it is. It just drops it up top here. Let us bring it down to the bottom.
It says Button. We do not want it to say Button. So come over here where it says Display Text. Let us make this Save.
Now for a Save button, you have to put some code in it, a little teeny tiny function. Click on the Save button. Come up here and make sure OnSelect, this is the OnSelect method. Over here, it just says False. We are going to change that to SubmitForm. Open parentheses and then the name of your form, which in this case is Form1.
The IntelliSense in here is really nice. So it is OnSelect; in other words, when you click on this button, SubmitForm(Form1).
Save it. Publish it again. Publish this version. Publish successful.
Let us go back over to our web browser version. I am going to hit refresh. Now you should see this, or you will most likely see this: "You are using an old version of this app. Refresh to get the latest version." In other words, you have to refresh the stuff that you just saved. Hit refresh.
You have to get permissions again. Hit allow. There you go. Now you have your Save button.
If I come in here and change Richard Rost to Rick and make myself active, and I can change the date and the time, hit Save, and now my changes have been saved. That is literally all you have to do for the Save button.
Here is the cool thing. If you go back to SQL Server and rerun your query, you can see there are the changes right there. I am now Rick. It is all connected. If you have this connected to an Access database, you will see it change there too.
One thing to be aware of with Power Apps and mobile devices: When someone opens your app on a phone, Microsoft is going to gently encourage them to install a free Power Apps app from the app store for the best experience. But that is not your only option. You will also see a Continue in browser link, which lets users sign in with their Microsoft account and run the app directly in their mobile web browser, which is what I do because you do not have to install anything.
Next, you might be looking at how to get to the other customers. Well, you have to add your own buttons for navigating back and forth between the records, or build a whole other screen with a list of customers like a continuous form. There are all kinds of options. It all depends on what you want to do.
In the extended cut for the members, I am going to show you one of those options. We are going to build our own little previous and next buttons right down here. We are also going to build a success or failure message when you click that Save button. Just in case you click Save and you think everything is saved, but you want to make sure. So we will have it say success or if it fails, it will give you a failure message. We will be doing all that in the extended cut for the members.
Silver members get access to all of my extended cut videos, not just this one, all of them, and there are hundreds of them by now. I would say that Gold members normally get to download my Access databases that I build in these videos, but there is not one today because this is just all online, so there is nothing to download. But Gold members also still get access to my code vault with lots of cool stuff. Everybody gets some free training. If you are interested in joining, click on the Join button down below for more information.
So there you go. That is how you build a simple little Power App. Once you have your Access data up in SQL Server on the web, you can now connect all kinds of different things to that SQL Server. You can use it from Access. You can use it from your phone. You can use it from your website. You can use it from Excel. You can use it from your grandma's house when you are stuck there on Thanksgiving and you are on the couch after dinner and everyone is talking and you do not want to talk so you are on your phone doing work. I do that. No, I am just kidding. That was me when I was younger though, but not anymore. Now I actually like hanging out and talking to people.
If you want to see more videos on Power Apps, post a comment down below and let me know. If you want to see stuff on Dataverse, I have more SQL Server videos coming. I am knee deep in that course. I have part two coming out very soon. I have more developer lessons coming out. All kinds of stuff coming out. Lots of things. Lots of irons in the fire.
That is going to do it for your TechHelp video for today. I hope you learned something. Live long and prosper, my friends. Post a comment down below. Let me know what you thought about today's video. I will see you next time.
Oh, and members, I will see you in the extended cut.Quiz Q1. In Power Apps, what is the term used for the main area where you arrange your fields that is similar to a form in Microsoft Access?
A. Screen
B. View
C. Document
D. Page
Q2. When connecting an Edit Form to a data source in Power Apps, what is this similar to in Access?
A. Setting the Record Source for a form
B. Assigning a Primary Key
C. Designing a Table
D. Creating a Report
Q3. What Power Apps control groups the label, input control, and code for a field?
A. Data Card
B. Data Block
C. Field Group
D. Record Holder
Q4. Which Power Apps property determines which record is shown in the Edit Form?
A. Item
B. Source
C. Record
D. Entry
Q5. If you want the form to show the first record in the table by default, which function would you use in the Item property?
A. First(CustomerT)
B. Last(CustomerT)
C. Find(CustomerT)
D. Fetch(CustomerT)
Q6. What must you do in Power Apps to save changes to a record after editing?
A. Click a Save button with SubmitForm code
B. Close the app and changes auto-save
C. Use a keyboard shortcut
D. Wait for autosave after a few seconds
Q7. When using SQL Server as a data source in Power Apps, what extra requirement did the instructor mention?
A. You need a premium Power Apps license
B. You must run Access as administrator
C. Only admins can connect to SQL Server
D. You can only use read-only data
Q8. If you want to preview how your app will look on different devices, what can you do in Power Apps?
A. Use the preview button and select device modes
B. Export the app to a phone
C. Download a separate app preview tool
D. Only open in a browser
Q9. To give another user access to your Power App, what should you do?
A. Share the app via the Share button
B. Print the app's screen
C. Give them your Microsoft account
D. Send them the raw database file
Q10. If a user opens your Power App on their mobile device, what does Microsoft encourage them to do for best experience?
A. Install the free Power Apps app from the app store
B. Use only the desktop browser
C. Download Access to their phone
D. Only use the app in offline mode
Q11. What extra step is needed if you want users to navigate to different records in your Power App?
A. You must add navigation buttons or a list screen
B. You need to enable auto-navigation in form settings
C. Records change automatically as you edit
D. This is not possible in Power Apps
Q12. Why might someone see a message about starting a trial when using Power Apps and SQL Server?
A. SQL Server connectors are considered premium features
B. The app is in offline mode
C. Trial is required for using text fields
D. Power Apps is only available as a free product
Q13. After adding a Save button in Power Apps, what code do you write in the OnSelect property to save the form?
A. SubmitForm(Form1)
B. SaveRecord(Form1)
C. SaveForm(Form1)
D. PostChanges(Form1)
Q14. What happens if you edit a record but do not click the custom Save button you added?
A. Changes are not saved if you leave the record or close the browser
B. Changes are always saved automatically
C. The app gives you a warning before you leave
D. Record is locked until saved
Q15. When the form does not display a record automatically in Power Apps, what was the reason explained in the video?
A. You must set the Item property to the record to display
B. The default form filter is empty
C. There is always a bug on first use
D. The form only works with continuous data
Answers: 1-A; 2-A; 3-A; 4-A; 5-A; 6-A; 7-A; 8-A; 9-A; 10-A; 11-A; 12-A; 13-A; 14-A; 15-A
DISCLAIMER: Quiz questions are AI generated. If you find any that are wrong, don't make sense, or aren't related to the video topic at hand, then please post a comment and let me know. Thanks.Summary Today's video from Access Learning Zone continues our series on using Power Apps with Microsoft Access and SQL Server to create a mobile front end. This is part two of the series, so if you have not checked out part one yet, I highly recommend starting there since it covers the foundational theory and setup steps to get you started. You can find the link to the first video below.
In the previous lesson, we reviewed all the necessary groundwork. Now, the Power App is set up, and the SQL Server connection is in place. In Power Apps, what would be called a "form" in Access is referred to as a "screen." It serves as the primary container where you will organize your controls.
The next step is to insert what Power Apps calls an Edit Form. Once you add this Edit Form to your screen and choose a data source, you will see an option to select which table or data set you want to connect to. In my case, that is the customer table ("CustomerT"), which is currently the only data source in use. After selecting this, the form appears on your screen.
Now, you need to specify which fields to display in the form. This is very much like choosing which fields to add in Access. I recommend including fields such as Customer ID, First Name, Last Name, Is Active (for a boolean toggle), Customer Since (for a date value), and Note (for a longer text field). These fields are likely to be the most relevant while working on the go.
As the fields are added, you have various options for how each control is displayed. For example, Customer ID can be shown as a text field or even as a rating or percentage; First Name and Last Name are text edits, and Is Active can be set as a toggle or option button. The Customer Since field defaults to date and time, and for Notes, you can pick multiline text for easier data entry.
It can sometimes be tricky to select the specific part of a control that you want to modify, especially with cards like Customer Since. If you have trouble selecting a field, you can use the tree view to click on the entire form and see all of its controls. Think of the form just like a subform in Access when you are trying to adjust boundaries and layout.
The Edit Form may not initially take up the whole screen; you may want to drag it to expand its size, leaving space at the bottom for buttons, such as Save. Power Apps provides a scrolling area, so you can deal with long forms.
An important design note: each field in Power Apps is held inside a "card," which is a container for both the label and the data entry control. This means you move or resize the card as a whole, as opposed to Access, where you typically treat labels and text boxes separately. The logic and data binding for each card are managed within that container, but for now, just focus on laying things out so they look appealing on your screen.
Once you are happy with the design, save your app with a meaningful name. After saving, you can use the preview feature to see your app in action.
At first, however, you might notice that the form does not display any data. Unlike Access, Power Apps does not automatically load the first record in a data set. The Edit Form uses something called the "Item" property to determine which record to show. For simplicity in this example, you can set this property to tell the form to display the very first customer record. In the formula bar, simply assign the form to show the first record from the customer table.
After saving again, use the preview feature to confirm that your data appears. You can preview your app in various layouts, such as different tablets or phone screen sizes, to see how it will look for users on different devices.
You might also want to make some design adjustments, like moving the Customer ID label and text box side by side for a cleaner look. This involves selecting the right controls in the card, resizing them, and aligning them on the form.
Once you are satisfied, publish the app to make it available to your users. Publishing will give you the opportunity to set an icon, a description, and finalize it for sharing. After publishing, you will find the app listed on your Power Apps home page, ready to launch and test.
The first time you (or any user) opens the app, you may encounter a prompt asking for permission to access the data source. Granting this is necessary for the app to read and write records.
For those using the SQL Server connector, Power Apps will prompt you to start a trial since this feature counts as "premium." The trial period is free and does not require a credit card upfront, so you can proceed with building and testing without commitment. If you eventually deploy the app for a larger audience, you will need to buy the appropriate licensing.
To share the app with others, you can either send them an invitation by email or copy the share link. As long as the recipient has the proper permissions and is authenticated with their Microsoft account, they will be able to log in and use the app, even across different devices and accounts. In my case, I used a second account to test the access and everything worked as expected.
One critical difference between Power Apps and Access is that changes made in the app are not saved automatically. You must provide your users with a Save button for their changes to stick. This is unlike Access, where navigation or closing a record auto-saves by default.
To create a Save button, add it to the form layout (using the space you left earlier). Change the display text to "Save" and assign it an event handler for when users click. You can enter a simple function that submits the form data and triggers a save to the SQL Server back end.
After you update the app with the Save button, publish the new version. Remember, users running the app in their browser will need to refresh to get the latest version. Upon refreshing, they might need to re-approve permissions.
Now, when you make a change in any field and hit Save, your records are updated in real time in SQL Server. You can verify this by rerunning a query in SQL Server or by opening the record in Access if you are using a linked table.
For users accessing your app on mobile devices, Microsoft will suggest installing the free Power Apps mobile app for the best experience. However, it is possible to continue directly in the browser using a regular mobile web browser with a Microsoft account.
If you want to provide record navigation, like previous and next buttons, or build a full customer list view, you will need to add those features separately. Power Apps gives you a lot of flexibility depending on your requirements. In the extended cut for members, I will demonstrate how to add your own navigation buttons and how to display a success or failure message after saving, so you know the save operation was successful.
Silver members have access to every extended cut video, not just for this topic but for hundreds more. Gold members can download the sample databases from other videos and also get into the code vault, although for this lesson, everything is online so there is nothing to download. Everyone can take advantage of the free training, and more information on joining is available below.
With your Access data now accessible in SQL Server online, it is easy to connect to your data through Access, your phone, a website, Excel, or anywhere with internet access, even at your grandma's house during Thanksgiving if you decide you want to get some work done.
If you want to see more content focused on Power Apps, Dataverse, or further SQL Server techniques, let me know in the comments. There are more lessons coming that will expand on these skills.
For a complete video tutorial with step-by-step instructions on everything discussed here, visit my website at the link below. Live long and prosper, my friends.Topic List Setting up an Edit Form in Power Apps
Connecting Power Apps to a SQL Server table
Selecting and adding fields to the form
Understanding screens vs forms in Power Apps
Using TreeView to navigate app components
Resizing and arranging the form on the screen
Configuring field types and data cards
Adjusting label and text box layout
Saving the Power App and naming it
Previewing the app in different device layouts
Setting the Item property to display the first record
Publishing the Power App
Launching and running the app from Power Apps home
Granting access and sharing the app with others
Starting a Power Apps trial for SQL Server
Adding a Save button to the form
Writing SubmitForm code in the Save button
Refreshing the app after publishing changes
Verifying data updates in SQL Server
Using Power Apps in a mobile browser or appArticle In this tutorial, I will walk you through creating a simple mobile front end for your Microsoft Access data using Power Apps connected to SQL Server. If you are planning to use Power Apps as a way to access and edit your data on the go, and you already have your data in SQL Server, this guide will help you get started building a functional form in Power Apps.
To begin, you should already have your Power Apps environment set up, with your data loaded into SQL Server and connected as a data source inside Power Apps. In Power Apps, what you might think of as a "form" in Access is actually called a "screen." To work with your data, you need to insert and configure an Edit Form control on your screen.
First, insert an Edit Form from the Insert menu. Power Apps will prompt you to select a data source for this form, similar to setting the record source for a form in Access. Choose your customer table (for example, CustomerT). Once you select the data source, Power Apps will place a form onto your screen.
Next, choose which fields you want to display and edit in your form. Click on the form, then open the Fields pane and click Add Field. You can pick fields such as Customer ID, First Name, Last Name, Is Active, Customer Since (to include a date), and Notes (for long text). Select the fields that matter most for your mobile use case and add them to your form.
Each field gets its own "data card," which combines the label, the editing control (like a text box or toggle), and all the connections to your data. You can adjust the display and edit settings for each card. For example, you might set Customer ID as a simple view-only text, use a toggle for Is Active, set Customer Since to a date picker, and use a multi-line text box for the Notes field.
The form control initially might not take up the full screen. You can resize it by selecting the border of the form and dragging it down to fill more space, while leaving room at the bottom for buttons like Save.
One important thing to know about Power Apps forms is that by default, the form does not automatically show any record when you preview it. The form has an "Item" property, which you must set to decide which record is displayed. For a simple example, you can set the Item property to show the first record in your table. In the function bar, enter a formula that tells the form to display the first customer from your data source. This ensures that when you preview the app, you will see the details of that first customer.
Once the form is displaying your data, you can fine-tune how the fields look and line them up the way you like. The controls inside each card can be resized and moved within the data card, letting you create the layout that works best for you. If you want fields and labels to line up a certain way, you can manually adjust them, although it can take a little effort to get everything just right.
After positioning your fields, save your app by clicking the save button and giving it a relevant name. This stores your changes so you will not lose progress.
Now, preview the app. If you see "no item to display," that means you need to make sure you have set the form's Item property correctly. Once the first record is being displayed, you can continue making changes.
When you are satisfied, publish your app in Power Apps. This makes it available for use on the web or mobile devices. Once published, you can access your app from the Power Apps portal. If you want others to use the app, you can share it with coworkers by sending them a link or inviting them through Power Apps. Each user will need to sign in with their Microsoft account and grant the app permission to access the data source.
Keep in mind that using the SQL Server connector in Power Apps is a premium feature. You will need the appropriate license to deploy the app widely, although you can start with a free trial if you are just evaluating.
One key difference between Power Apps and Access is that Power Apps does not automatically save changes when you edit a record and move to another one or close the browser. You must create your own Save button to submit form changes. To add a Save button, insert a button control on your screen, usually at the bottom beneath your form. Set the button's display text to "Save". Then, in the OnSelect property of the button, you will need a simple command that submits the form data to your data source. This makes sure that when someone clicks Save, their changes are written back to your SQL Server table.
After adding the Save button, save and publish your changes again. When users work with the app and make changes to the fields, hitting the Save button will update the SQL Server data in real time. You can verify the changes by checking your SQL Server database directly.
When someone opens the app on a mobile device, Microsoft will offer the option to either install the free Power Apps app from their store or continue using the app in the browser. Both options work, but for the simplest setup, users can use the browser version without installing anything extra.
If you want users to be able to navigate to other records, you will need to add your own navigation buttons or build another screen that lists multiple records. Power Apps gives you a lot of flexibility, so you can expand your app as your needs grow. For starters, displaying and editing a single record with Save functionality covers many basic use cases.
Once you have built and published your app, you can access your SQL Server data from anywhere, including on your phone, from a web browser, or even from other Microsoft products such as Access, Excel, or your website. Power Apps provides a bridge to make your data available and editable wherever you need it.
To sum up, building a mobile Power App front end for your SQL Server or Access data involves creating a screen with an Edit Form, connecting it to your data source, customizing your fields, and adding buttons for saving or navigating records. With these tools, you can create practical, mobile-friendly apps for your organization and users. If you want to build on these basics, consider exploring options for record navigation, status messages on save, and multi-screen layouts as your next steps. |
