Congratulations! In the last post, you have successfully created your first PowerApp.
In this post, we will try to understand different controls available in PowerApps. Before jumping directly into PowerApps, one quick tip I want to share with you is that PowerApps is very much inspired by Excel. So, whenever you are stuck on any problem which you want to solve, then just give a try how you could solve that particular problem in Excel. You will find most of the functions similar to Excel.
Just remember that screen & its controls have global scope in PowerApps.
PowerApps support various controls which we will discuss shortly but before that, I would like to share that every control has properties and these properties have 2 types, Input properties and output properties. We can update the input properties, but not output properties.
With this, let’s start controls.
You can use controls by clicking on control’s icon of Insert menu.
Label
Label is simply a ready only control to show text value. We can change the properties like font, color, position, size, etc. from properties window.
You can write a custom function for any input properties or assign direct value.
TextBox
When we need input from the user, then in such cases, we can use Textbox control. For example, asking the name of the person.
Just to make you aware, Text property is Output property of textbox, so you can’t assign value while Default is in the input property to show any value in the textbox.
Button
Button control is used to perform any action by clicking on it. You can write custom action using the OnSelect trigger.
HtmlText
When we have to deal with Html Data, then in such cases, we can use HTML textbox.
Pen Input
This is one of the interesting controls. When you need pen input from Apps like a signature or something like that, then you can use this control.
Date Picker
When you want date value, then in such case, we can use Date Picker control. We have provision to change DateTime format & time Zone from Local to UTC.
DropDown
Whenever we have multiple options from which we need to select the value, then we can use DropDown control. DropDown control has Items properties to bind the dropDown options. If a user selected any Dropdown option, then we can get by Selected property of dropdown.
Combobox
Combobox is most likely a DropDown and also provides multi selection option.
Rating
If we want a rating for a specific reason, then we can use Rating control.
Timer
By the name, it is clear that it is a timer which starts counting. You can invoke an event on OntimerStart, OnTimerEnd, etc.
Toggle
Toggle is just True/False option. So, whenever you want true/false option, we can use it.
Radio Button
Radio button is again a normal control which you might have used earlier. You have a list of options and you need to select a specific option, then we can use a radio button.
Slider
When we require a predefined range and want a user to select from that particular range, then slider is one of the options.
Apart from this, there are some other controls like Form Control, Grid, Attachment, etc. which we will describe soon in our coming post as they need individual attention.
Till then, enjoy reading!
