The Library · Insights
Deep dives across data, automation & AI
88 in-depth articles — from Excel foundations to production machine learning. Filter by topic or difficulty to find exactly what you need.
Power AppsFoundation
Designing Model-Driven Forms: Sections, Tabs, Subgrids, and Quick View Forms
A cluttered model-driven form kills adoption before your app ever gets a chance. Learn how to design professional forms using tabs, sections, subgrids, and Quick View forms — the building blocks that turn raw Dataverse data into a tool people actually want to use.
18 min read
Power AppsFoundation
Building Your First Model-Driven App: Site Map, Tables, Forms, and Views
Learn how to build a complete model-driven app from scratch — designing tables, configuring forms with subgrids and quick views, creating operational views, and building a site map that organizes everything into a deployable, role-aware application. This is the deep-dive lesson that teaches you to think in model-driven architecture, not just click through a designer.
34 min read
Power AppsFoundation
Designing a Dataverse Data Model: Relationships, Lookups, and Choice Columns
Learn how to design production-quality Dataverse schemas using the right relationship types, lookup configurations, and choice columns. This lesson goes beyond the basics to cover cascade behavior, referential integrity, and the lookup-vs-choice decision that determines your app's long-term maintainability.
24 min read
Power AppsFoundation
Dataverse Fundamentals: Tables, Columns, and Rows Explained for Power Apps Makers
Dataverse is the cloud database that powers serious Power Apps — but only if you understand how it's organized. This lesson teaches you exactly how tables, columns, and rows work together, with hands-on exercises and real business examples that build genuine competence from scratch.
20 min read
Power AppsExpert
Canvas App Custom Component Libraries: Publishing, Versioning, and Dependency Management for Shared Enterprise UI Components
Building reusable components is only half the battle — the real challenge is managing them across environments, coordinating updates without breaking consuming apps, and establishing the governance that keeps everything coherent at scale. This deep-dive lesson covers the full lifecycle of enterprise component library management in Power Apps.
31 min read
Power AppsPractitioner
Canvas App Delegation-Safe Search: Building Real-Time Filtered Galleries with StartsWith, Combo Boxes, and Server-Side Query Patterns for Large Dataverse Tables
Building a gallery search that works on 500 rows is easy. Building one that works correctly on 50,000 rows without silently missing records is a different challenge entirely. This lesson teaches you exactly which functions delegate to Dataverse, how to chain StartsWith and Combo Box selections into server-side queries, and how to validate your delegation posture before shipping.
22 min read
Power AppsFoundation
Power Apps Lookup and Dropdown Controls: Filtering Related Data and Building Cascading Selections in Canvas Apps
Learn how to build smart, responsive dropdown controls in Power Apps that filter based on each other's selections. This hands-on lesson walks you through cascading dropdowns, Combo Box configuration, and real-world data filtering patterns that eliminate bad data at the source.
15 min read
Power AppsExpert
Canvas App CI/CD with Azure DevOps: Automating Solution Export, Environment Variable Substitution, and Deployment Pipelines for Production-Grade Releases
Manual Power Platform deployments are a liability. This deep-dive lesson shows you how to build a complete Azure DevOps CI/CD pipeline that exports Canvas App solutions as source artifacts, substitutes environment variables per target environment, and deploys through approval-gated stages to production — with rollback built in from day one.
26 min read
Power AppsPractitioner
Canvas App Delegation Workarounds for Complex Multi-Filter Queries: Combining Local Collections, Incremental Loading, and Hybrid Server-Client Filtering to Handle Large Datasets
Delegation warnings are frustrating, but they're survivable — if you know how to architect around them. This lesson teaches you a layered, production-ready strategy for complex multi-condition filtering on large datasets in Canvas apps, combining server-first filtering, local collections, and incremental loading into a hybrid approach that scales.
21 min read
Power AppsFoundation
Power Apps Form Modes Explained: Using NewForm, EditForm, and ViewForm to Control Data Entry Behavior
Learn how to control whether your Power Apps form creates new records, edits existing ones, or displays data as read-only — using NewForm(), EditForm(), and ViewForm(). This lesson walks you through a real employee directory app, wiring up buttons, handling submission outcomes, and building dynamic UI that responds to form state.
15 min read
Power AppsExpert
Canvas App Custom Authentication Flows: Implementing OAuth 2.0 Token Acquisition, Refresh Logic, and Secure API Key Storage for Third-Party Service Integration
Learn how to implement production-grade OAuth 2.0 authentication in canvas apps, including secure token acquisition through Power Automate, proactive refresh logic, and Azure Key Vault integration — so your app never exposes credentials in formulas or browser memory. This lesson covers Client Credentials flow, Authorization Code flow architecture, static API key management, and hardened error handling for real-world third-party API integration.
30 min read
Power AppsPractitioner
Canvas App Formula-Level Audit Logging: Capturing User Actions, Timestamps, and Change History to Dataverse for Compliance and Traceability
Most Canvas Apps rely on Dataverse's built-in audit log — but it doesn't capture business context, before/after field values, or read access. Learn how to build formula-level audit logging directly into your app, producing a rich, queryable change history that satisfies real compliance requirements.
22 min read