Microsoft Flow and Power Apps Building data connectors
Microsoft Flow and Power. Apps: Building data connectors
Agenda Power Platform – An introduction Building our first connector Integrating other Azure services Few advanced topics Architecture – How does a connector work? Open source CLI Adding a trigger Certifying your connector Q&A
Microsoft Power Platform Dynamics 365 Office 365 Power BI One high productivity platform that spans Office 365, Dynamics 365, and standalone applications Mobile apps Power. Apps Common Data Service Web apps Flow Data connectors
Total economic impact (TEI) of app building with Power Platform We used to have three full-time people writing reports. That’s now down to only one person. —CLIENT 70% Less application development cost & effort. 362% In the first year we saved $500, 000 in external developer costs. We expect to see similar savings in future years. —CLIENT Return on investment over 3 year term <3 Months Payback We reduced our time to quote from twelve days down to four. —CLIENT Source: The Total Economic Impact™ Of Power. Apps And Microsoft Flow, a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Microsoft, June 2018
Power Platform—driven by data Flow Data [Connectors & CDS] Power BI Power. Apps
Extending the Power Platform Power BI Custom connectors Custom visuals Power BI embedded Power. Apps Custom connectors Embed apps Custom code using Azure Functions Model driven apps — Client side extensions CDS server side extensions Microsoft Flow Custom connectors Embed Flow in your app Using Azure Functions
Extending the Power Platform Power BI Custom connectors Custom visuals Power BI embedded Power. Apps Custom connectors Embed apps Custom code using Azure Functions Model driven apps — Client side extensions CDS server side extensions Microsoft Flow Custom connectors Embed Flow in your app Using Azure Functions
A is a wrapper around an “API” that allows the underlying service to talk to and
Cloud and on-premises connectivity § With public connectors, built-in connectivity to over 250 cloud services, files, databases, web APIs, etc. § Seamless hybrid connectivity to on-premises systems via the On-Premises Data Gateway § Connect to the service with your own security credentials § With custom connectors, you can extend the reach for your organization 250+ connectors today
Demo: Building our first connector
Developing your custom connector Understand the API for the service Start from scratch, an Open. API definition, or a Postman collection Set up the authentication used by the API Anonymous Basic (username + password) API Key OAUTH 2. 0 (cloud only) —including Azure AD Windows (On-premise only) Define the operations for your connector Import the request and response from a sample payload Save and test your connector in Flow and Power. Apps
Integrating with Azure Services • Create a custom connector from within Flow/Power. Apps portals using a RESTful API hosted in Azure Functions or Azure Logic Apps • Current pre-requisites for Azure Functions : • App runtime version must be ~1 • Generate the Open. API definition (Swagger) • Enable Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) • Still to come: • Integration with more Azure services • Streamlining the custom connector creation experience with Azure
Demo: Create custom connector w/ Azure Functions
A few advanced techniques
Connector architecture Microsoft Flow Power. Apps
Connector (more options) Microsoft Flow Power. Apps
Connector (on-premise) On-premise network Microsoft Flow Power. Apps
Opportunity through open source Over 1. 85 M active community https: //github. com/Microsoft/Power. Platform. Connectors members for Dynamics and Power platform A common repository on Git. Hub Certified connectors Samples Tool Contributions from community
Power Platform connectors CLI Development using portal and CLI Power. Apps/Flow RP Power. Apps/Flow custom connector portal Code repository CLI paconn login paconn download paconn create paconn update paconn validate Dev machine
Demo: Power Platform connectors CLI
What is a trigger? Runs a flow based on interesting events Two types of triggers – Webhook Polling Webhooks Flow subscribes to events on the backend service The backend service pushes events as and when it happens More efficient, but requires the backend service to support webhooks Some events may be ‘lost’ Polling Flow will check for new events Flow will use a trigger state which is translated into appropriate API parameters Less efficient, but relatively easy to implement and doesn’t lose events
Polling Triggers – How it works
Demo: Adding a trigger
Polling Trigger UI Configuration
Policy templates in custom connectors Policies modify the behavior of the connectors Examples— Route calls to dynamic endpoints (https: //{subdomain}. uservoice. com) 4 template based policies are available Route request to a fixed endpoint Set host url Set HTTP header Set query string parameter
Certification
Certifying your connector Certified connectors Developed and maintained by you Certified and deployed by Microsoft Benefits of certification Increase exposure and adoption of your service Provide the extensibility your customer needs Expand the number of services you integrate with First class OOB connector experience Leverage Microsoft’s investment in the Power Platform Deeper value for customers using apps, dashboards, templates Building and certifying your connector Takes just a few weeks (days) Start small and invest/update as necessary
Summary Microsoft Flow and Power. Apps is a game-changing platform Custom Connectors can unblock sales and keep customers happy Flow Data [Connectors & CDS] It is *easy* to build custom connectors—you can do it in a few hours Start building your connector now! Certify your connector Power BI Power. Apps
Q&A (and don’t forget to attend these related sessions) Session When/Where THR 2020: Microsoft Flow and Power. Apps: An open sourced connector development Monday @ 11: 10 AM Building C - Level 1 - Exhibit Hall C 3 T 5 THR 3014: Microsoft Power BI: Deep dive into SAP connectivity Monday @ 11: 40 AM – Theater 4 Monday @ 4: 40 PM – Theater 1 Building C - Level 1 - Exhibit Hall C 3 BRK 1006: Microsoft Power BI, Flow, and Power. Apps: Working with data in the Power Platform Monday @ 1: 00 PM Building C - Level 3 - Georgia Ballroom BRK 4003: Microsoft Power BI: Building connectors Monday @ 1: 00 PM Building C - Level 1 - Room C 101 BRK 3005: Seamlessly enable CDS entities for analytics with out-of-the-box Azure Data Lake integration Monday @ 1: 00 PM Building C - Level 1 - C 105 - C 106 BRK 2096: Common Data Model: All you need to know Monday @ 1: 00 PM Building B - Level 4 - B 405 - B 407 BRK 3033: Microsoft Power BI: Common Data Model and Azure Data Services Monday @ 2: 15 PM Building B - Level 4 - B 401 - B 402 BRK 3003: Microsoft Power BI: Connect and transform data from hundreds of data sources using Power Query Monday @ 3: 30 PM Building C - Level 3 - Georgia Ballroom BRK 3032: Microsoft Power BI: Advanced concepts in the Common Data Model Tuesday @ 10: 45 AM; Building B - Level 4 - B 405 - B 407 BRK 3049: Microsoft Flow and Power. Apps: Building data connectors Tuesday @ 1: 00 PM Building B - Level 3 - B 302 - B 303 BRK 3031: How Dual Write enables F&O customers to natively get data into CDS Tuesday @ 1: 00 PM Building B - Level 3 - B 308 - B 309 BRK 3051: Power Platform: Democratizing self-service data prep with dataflows Tuesday @ 2: 15 PM Building C - Level 1 - Room C 101 BRK 3048: Power BI, Flow, and Power. Apps: Connecting to data using the on-premises data gateway Tuesday @ 2: 15 PM Building B - Level 4 - B 401 - B 402 BRK 2055, BRK 2093: CDM Industry Accelerators Tue @ 10: 45 and 2: 15
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