My employer recently deployed Microsoft 365 for all employees. However, the ONLY intended use for it is the company intranet. I saw a few interesting apps in the Office 365 Launcher and began exploring the Power Platform.
I work in a manufacturing environment. This industry seems to have been left in the dark ages when it comes to modern, cloud based technology. Perhaps that can evolve.
I saw a way to improve upon a challenge that most similar environments face. Communication between shifts! This is an age-old struggle. Notes get mysteriously altered or "lost". The idea for an app that handles this was born.
Every workstation in the shop has a computer. So this was a realistic goal. But, I think it would also work if a company used tablets.
The app I came up with, Operators Notepad, seems to deal with the issues quite well.
On the "OPERATOR NOTEPAD" screen, operators can:
- Leave daily notes at whatever workstation they are assigned to
- Look back at historical notes to get up to speed
Notes that have been saved are not editable! This is a feature, not a bug.
If the current User().FullName is listed in the "Managers" list, the "MANAGER DASHBOARD" button becomes visible.
On the "MANAGER DASHBOARD" screen they have the ability to:
- View notes by date
- View notes by workstation
- View notes by individual employee
- Add a note to an individual workstation that will show up for the operators at that workstation
Managers like this because, in the past, they had to go from workstation to workstation to read the daily notes. Now they can peruse and comment on everything from the comfort of their offices and be assured they won't miss a thing.
The app uses 3 lists and a connection to Office 365 Users:
The zip packages for this app can be found here on GitHub.
OperatorNotepadAppProvisioner_20200911235826 (1).zip creates the necessary lists for the app
- OperatorNotepadApp_20200912084526.zip is the app package
To set it all up:
- Download from GitHub:
- Go to flow.microsoft.com
- Import the OperatorNotepadAppProvisioner_20200911235826 (1).zip into Power Automate
- Make sure the flow is turned on and click Run. Enter the URL of the SharePoint site you want to deploy the lists to when prompted.
- Go to make.powerapps.com
- Click on the Apps tabs on the left hand rail
- Click 'Import Canvas App' in the ribbon and browse to the OperatorNotepadApp_20200912084526.zip
- Open the app in edit mode.
- Click the data connections tab and delete all of the SharePoint Data Connections in the app
- Search for SharePoint and add in the new SharePoint lists in your tenant that you just provisioned
- Managers
- Notes
- Stations
This is my first attempt at sharing any of my projects. Feel free to give me questions and comments.