Using apps from the Community App Gallery

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The Community App Gallery gives you a way to share apps with your fellow app makers, so everyone can learn more about building high value apps. This post provides a few tips on using apps that others have shared. We just launched the gallery, and we are actively soliciting contributions from the community. If you would like to contribute, see Add your app to the Community App Gallery.

Using apps from the community

Each app from the community should include a "Setup and usage info" section in its forum post. This section provides any special instructions about how to set up or use the app. For example, do you need to upload data and image files to Drop Box before you can run the app?

Community apps in the gallery use either:

• External connections, where data is stored in a service, an Excel file, etc.
• Embedded data, where all data is contained in the app.

The "Data connections" section in the app's forum post should specify which one the app uses.

Using apps with external connections

To use an app with external connections, you need:

• Access to the service that the app connects to.
• Sample data to use within the service (supplied by the app author).
• To update the connections in the app.

For example, if an app connects to a SharePoint Online list, you need:

• An Office 365 subscription (get the trial);
• You need sample data for the list.
• To update the app connection from the author's connection to your own when the app launches, as shown in the following image.

 

Note: We realize it can take some work to set up an app, especially if you need to sign up for a new service, and upload sample data. If it seems too much, we encourage you to just open the app and see how it's put together. You might not get as much out of it as running the app end-to-end, but it can still be a valuable learning experience.

Using apps from Microsoft

We started the gallery off with four of our sample apps, so you can get an idea of how to write up information for your app:

• Asset Checkout
• Case Management
• Contest Registration
• Invoice Management

To run these apps from web.powerapps.com, follow the instructions in Create and run an app from a template.