PowerApps and Flow

PowerApps is a graphical application development environment and an Azure-hosted service that lets users create applications that can present data for viewing and editing without writing code. Sample applications Microsoft provides include budget trackers and cost estimator tools. PowerApps could make simple line of business applications easier to create and distribute to teams within an organization.

PowerApps is designed to complement Microsoft Flow, a graphical workflow automation engine that also runs in Azure. Flow could benefit power users who want to create lightweight workflows. It has similarities to If This Then That (IFTT), a third-party tool that also offers automation for consumer services.

With Flow, users can create processes that start automatically based on specific events within a connected service or by a timer. For example, a flow can be triggered when a file is added to a monitored OneDrive folder (such as a shared vendor quote folder), which then sends a notification e-mail to a specific e-mail address based on the file’s name, metadata, or contents. Creating a flow is a process designed for nonprogrammers and is performed within a browser-based design canvas.