Demonstrate the capabilities of Power Apps
Three app types, three starting points
- Canvas app: you design the UI first, control by control, and bind data with formulas (Power Fx). Runs on web and mobile, uses 1,000+ connectors, and can work offline with Dataverse or collections.
- Model-driven app: you start from the Dataverse data model and the platform generates forms, views, charts, and dashboards. Minimal layout control, consistent UI, security inherited from Dataverse, and support for business process flows and business rules.
- Power Pages: an external, anonymous-or-authenticated website for customers and partners - not an internal app.
Concepts to name
Screens, controls, galleries, and forms; Power Fx functions such as Filter, Patch, Collect, and LookUp; delegation (the data source must translate the query, or you silently get only the first batch of rows); component libraries for reusable controls; custom connectors; business process flows to guide users through stages; business rules for logic without code.
Traps
- 'Pixel-perfect layout control' → canvas. 'Same data-driven UI for every user' → model-driven.
- Model-driven apps require Dataverse; they cannot sit on SharePoint lists alone.
- A delegation warning is a correctness bug, not a cosmetic warning.
- Power Pages is for external users; picking it for internal staff is a common error.
Rule of thumb
Ask two questions: does the data model already exist, or does the UI matter more? and is the audience internal or external? Data-first + internal = model-driven; UI-first = canvas; external = Power Pages.
Worked example: A field engineer must complete a checklist with photos on a tablet, sometimes with no signal. That is a canvas app with an offline-capable data source - not a model-driven app, and not Power Pages.