Connectors, Dataverse, AI Builder and Other

Microsoft Power Platform Connectors

• Azure Cognitive Services is used to read text from uploaded images
• Custom connector is used to connect to a custom web application's API

Security and Compliance

• Create data policies to prevent external leakage of corporate data
• Data loss prevention (DLP) policy is used to restrict access to social media connectors

Power Apps

• Canvas apps can be used to create a web-based knowledge base
• Portal apps can be used to allow suppliers to register themselves to gain access to information stored in the knowledge base

Power Automate (formerly Microsoft Flow)

• Expression function is used to save the subscriber ID in uppercase
• AI Builder is used to analyze customers' reviews on a social platform to understand how they feel about a product

Microsoft Dataverse

• Choice column type allows users to select one option from a list of available values
• Choice column type allows users to select more than one option from the list of available options
• Lookup column type is created when a one-to-many relationship is created between two tables
• Many-to-many relationship is used to create a relationship between customer and product
• Standard table type is used for the Currency table
• One environment can have one Microsoft Dataverse instance
• Three environments, each with one instance, can be created for three branch offices

AI Builder

• Sentiment analysis, text recognition, language detection, object detection, and document processing are prebuilt models available in AI Builder
• AI Builder can be used to extract entity information such as city, color, phone number, and location from text
• AI Builder is used to analyze customers' reviews on a social platform to understand how they feel about a product

Microsoft Power Platform Features

• Control functionality with Microsoft Power Fx formulas can be used in canvas apps

• Include artificial intelligence can be used in canvas apps

• Embed entire Power BI dashboards cannot be done in canvas apps, but individual tiles from a Power BI dashboard can be embedded### Azure Cognitive Services

• Can analyze images and extract printed and handwritten text from the image

• Has multiple connectors for Microsoft Power Platform

• Can analyze images but cannot analyze the contents of files in Azure Blob storage

Microsoft Power Platform Connectors

• Azure Blob storage connector is used for storing and accessing files, not analyzing contents
• Microsoft Dataverse can store files but cannot analyze contents
• Microsoft Teams connector can create channels and post messages but cannot analyze files

Data Security and Policies

• Data policies prevent apps or flows from connecting to two different data sources that may allow data to be accessed or copied outside of the organization
• Microsoft Entra ID conditional access can control when a user can access a Power Apps app using various signals like location and device
• CoE toolkit enables monitoring of apps, flows, and connectors used within the organization, but does not prevent data leakage on its own

Power Apps and Power Automate

• Power Apps is used to create apps for end users, including canvas apps, model-driven apps, or a Power Pages site
• Power Apps cannot detect sentiment in text or extract information from text on its own
• AI Builder is used to detect sentiment in text and extract entity information, and can be used in Power Apps apps or Power Automate flows

AI Builder

• Has prebuilt models, including sentiment analysis, text recognition, and language detection
• Also has custom models, such as object detection, category classification, and document processing
• Can be used directly in Power Apps applications or Power Automate flows

Microsoft Dataverse

• Has a single instance per environment
• Environment is required to host a Microsoft Dataverse instance
• Has standard tables, including out-of-the-box tables, such as the Currency table
• Custom tables are unmanaged tables created directly in the Microsoft Dataverse environment
• Virtual tables are custom tables with columns containing data from an external data source

Data Modeling

• Lookup columns are created on the related table when a one-to-many relationship is created between two tables
• Lookup columns are also known as foreign keys
• Alternate keys are created for integrations with other systems

App Development

• Canvas apps are built from scratch and require more time to build than portal apps
• Canvas apps require users to be authenticated with Microsoft Entra ID
• Canvas apps can include AI controls for form processing and object detection
• Model-driven apps do not allow for self-service registration to gain access to the app

Microsoft Power Platform CoE Toolkit

• Enables monitoring of apps, flows, and connectors used within the organization
• Enables managing of data policies
• Does not prevent data leakage on its own### Customer and Tables
• Customer is a special lookup column that represents an account or a contact
• Customer column cannot be created by creating a one-to-many relationship
• Every table in Microsoft Dataverse has a primary key that uniquely identifies each row
• Primary key column is created when the table is created

Custom Connectors

• Custom connector needs to be shared to allow other makers to use it in their apps and flows
• Policies on custom connectors are used to configure the connector at runtime
• Policies do not make the connector available for other makers
• Paconn command line tool can be used for development of custom connectors
• Custom connector can only be submitted if the connector needs to be available publicly

Microsoft Dataverse

• Microsoft Dataverse for Teams does not support multiple currencies or Mobile offline
• Microsoft Dataverse and Microsoft Dataverse for Teams both have file and image support
• Microsoft Dataverse for Teams also supports relational storage

Fields

• Choice field allows user to select a single value from a list of available values
• User also has the option not to choose any value from the options, in which case the data for the column will be saved as null in data store
• Choices field allows a user to select more than one value from the list of available options
• Approve and Reject options can be enabled using Yes/ No column type, but it can have only two values
• Text fields allow free user text without any data validations, but cannot be used to display options to user

Security and Access

• For users to have access to the custom table in the app, a security role must be assigned to it
• To share a model-driven app, a security role must be assigned to a user when sharing the app
• When sharing a canvas app, a co-owner can be selected
• Navigating to the details page will give the user the location of the app, but it will not grant any permissions to the user
• If the user has not already been granted permission, they will get an error message when they load the Power Apps app

Microsoft Power Platform

• Microsoft Power Platform offers many prebuilt connectors
• In scenarios where you need to integrate with a custom web application, you have the option to build a custom connector to connect to the custom APIs for data exchange
• Dataverse connector is a prebuilt connector in Microsoft Power Platform that is used to interact with Dataverse data
• Excel Online (Business) connector is a prebuilt connector in Microsoft Power Platform that is used to connect and work only with Excel files in document libraries supported by Microsoft Graph
• Business process flows are guided UI flows in model-driven apps for streamlined data entry

Azure Cognitive Services

• Azure Cognitive Services can analyze images and extract printed and handwritten text from the image
• Azure Cognitive Services has multiple connectors for Microsoft Power Platform
• Azure Blob storage has a connector, but it is used for storing and accessing files, not analyzing the contents of the files

Data Policies

• Data policies prevent an app or a flow from connecting to two different data sources that may allow data to be accessed or copied outside of the organization
• Microsoft Entra ID conditional access can control when a user can access a Power Apps app using various signals such as location and device
• The Microsoft Power Platform CoE toolkit will enable monitoring of the apps, flows, and connectors used within your organization

Auditing

• Auditing in Microsoft Dataverse captures changes to data in Microsoft Dataverse tables
• Auditing does not prevent data leakage

Portal Apps

• A portal app, using the Partner portal template, allows users to register themselves for your portal app web site
• The knowledge management feature in the app can be used to allow suppliers to read documentation from the company

Test your knowledge on Microsoft Power Platform connectors by answering questions related to selecting the appropriate connector for reading text from uploaded images, preventing external leakage of corporate data, and more.