Advice for Customizing "Milestones" Sample App?

[Anonymous]

Over the past few months I've been messing around with SharePoint lists and libraries trying to improve our team's workflow and file storage. The basic concept I'm working with is that for each project, we'd create a DocumentSet. Within each document set, we'd store estiamtes, proposals, drawings, customer communications, etc. Then to help track the different "efforts" for each project (e.g. ROM quote, Budget quote, Firm quote, etc.), we'd have a list wherein each item would be created from a button on the DocumentSet.

Long story short, I recently stumbled across the "Milestones" sample app and got really excited. A lot of the functionality (task tracking, assigning, etc.) that I'd want to eventually build into my original concept is already here. That being said, if I wanted to customize the sample app (and have no real experience with PowerApps or coding for that matter), what would be the best way to go about learning how this?

I'd like to be able to associate the Projects in Milestones with the DocumentSets in my library - is that a ton of work to accomplish?

[mdevaney]

@Anonymous 
What do you think about this question @PowerAddict?

[PowerAddict]

@mdevaney thanks for the tag!

@Anonymous am glad you liked the Milestones sample app! I am the developer of that app so can hopefully guide you here. To make learning easier, we will be releasing a document that outlines everything that happens in the app e.g. every variable, every collection where its declared/used etc. Also, if you would like to have those changes done for you, you can reach out to us at Hitachi Solutions. We are the ones who created all the sample apps - Inspections, Employee Ideas, Issue Reporting, Bulletins, and Milestones. 

With regards to your specific question, can you elaborate a bit more on what exactly you want to do with associating projects with documentsets? 

---
If you like this reply, please give kudos (Thumbs Up). And if this solves your problem, please mark this reply as a solution by selecting Accept as Solution. This makes it easier for others to find answers to similar questions. 

Thanks!

Hardit Bhatia

Microsoft Business Applications MVP

Microsoft Certified Trainer MCT

Blog | Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook | YouTube  |  Email

For your specific question, can you please elaborate on associating projects with documentsets? 

[Anonymous]

@PowerAddict @mdevaney  Thanks for the response - very cool to be able to be in direct communication with the dev(s) themselves! Having some documentation explaining in detail how everything works would probably help a ton here.

To give some context:

In my specific case, we are creating estimates and project proposals for customers. In most cases, this is an iterative process - wherein we start with a high-level quote and then as we refine we move towards a for-sale offer (or FIRM). While we do use a CRM as a larger organization, it's not so easy to tailor to our department's needs (we represent a small % of the overall organization), and does not easily integrate file storage for sharing and collaborative editing.

My original concept (simply using SharePoint lists and libraries) was to create a new DocumentSet for each project (Project #, Customer, Location, etc.). Each DocumentSet would contain all of the relevant project documentation (content received from customer, as well as our internal and external deliverables). I would then use a List to track the "Efforts" associated with each DocumentSet (or project). Each "Effort" would contain information relevant to the different quoting stages (e.g. Quote Type, Start Date, End Date, etc.). I've been able to build the primarily flows (to create new DocumentSets and Efforts), but I have not started actually using any of it yet...

To elaborate on associating DocumentSets:

Your app seems to be a more polished solution to my tracking of "Efforts" (seems like these would become the "Milestones"), but I'd really like to see some interaction/integration with the document library. 

With the Milestones app, I would like to know if it would be possible to:

• Select an existing DocumentSet (or Project) when creating a new project in the app - pulling in the relevant project information from the DocumentSet. I would think this would need to be a one-to-one relationship?
• Create a new DocumentSet if one does not exist
• Update the status of the DocumentSet (Open, Closed, Closed-Won, Closed-Dropped, On-Hold)
• Present users with a link to the DocumentSet so they can upload relevant project documentation

Hopefully that gives a little bit better idea and makes some sense...

Best,

James

[Anonymous]

@PowerAddict Any thoughts on my response above?

[J23]

Hi @Anonymous ,
I'm currently working on a very similar project as you. 
I have used PowerAutomate to make / build file structures and communication channels in Sharepoint / Teams.
I have embedded a PowerAutomate call as one of the steps in the process of creating a project.
The PowerAutomate proces makes a copy of a template file structure. It's quite convinient, you can change / modify the template without changing/looking to the code :).

I'm thiking about making a change / modification to the app to enable a project template (save a project as a template, + a posibility to select a template during project creation).

Possibilities are wide 🙂 

I had a lot of problems with translation (i'm from Poland) so I'm now quite familiar with the code 🙂 

You can contant me on priv

regards

Jacek

[Anonymous]

In addition to customizing, can a template of the personalized Milestones setup be created to apply to other projects?

[Dragerfroe]

@PowerAddict   Where is the dataset stored - I kind of assume dataverse? I am trying to connect to it via PowerBI.

[PowerAddict]

@Dragerfroe its in Dataverse for Teams. However, the Milestones solution is available to use in "full" Dataverse.

---
If you like this reply, please give kudos (Thumbs Up). And if this solves your problem, please mark this reply as a solution by selecting Accept as Solution. This makes it easier for others to find answers to similar questions. 

Thanks!

Hardit Bhatia

Microsoft Business Applications MVP

Microsoft Certified Trainer MCT

Blog | Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook | YouTube  |  Email

[Dragerfroe]

@PowerAddict Thanks! I started to build my own app and then peeled back the Milestones app to modify it for our usage inside the Team's PowerApp container - like a larger "notes" section and the ability for the number of progress boxes under the milestones section to scale if there is less than 2, 3, 4...etc. Still though, I think PowerBI connecting to the Teams Dataverse is in preview and I can't get it to connect, so I have to wait until it is available.