Add your app to the Community App Gallery

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We're very excited to host a gallery where you can share apps with your fellow app makers. This is a great opportunity to learn from each other, and to show off a little. We're interested in all kinds of apps, but especially those that include interesting formulas, a nice design, or a cool way to solve a problem. We don't expect perfection, so err on the side of submitting your app, and we'll review it.

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. Look at one or more of those apps before you do your own writeup: 

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

How to submit an app

• Click Submit an app, then fill out the form with the information described below.

Information to submit

When you fill out the gallery forum post for your app, you will need the following information. You will add everything from "Description" down to "Relevant blogs..." to the body of your post. 

• Title: Less than 50 characters that capture the essence of the app, like "Invoice Management App".
• Video (Optional): If you have a video that's relevant to your app, you can include that.
• Description: 2-3 sentences that cover the purpose of the app, who it's designed for, what problem it solves, etc.
• Data connections: List the data connections that your app uses, or specify that data is embedded in the app. Embedding data is more work for you, but easier for others to consume. For more information, see "Embedding data in your app" below.
• Setup and usage info: Provide any special instructions about how to set up or use the app. For example, does the user need to upload data and image files to Drop Box? For information about updating app connections, see Using apps from the Community App Gallery.
• Author's helpful tips and formula lessons: 3-5 paragraphs that cover the main things you want people to learn from the app. Think more highlights, rather than a summary. There might be 20 things you could list, but focus on the top ones that will be most interesting to other app makers. You may want to share the business scenario of your app as well, so that others will understand the context.
• Relevant blogs and online resources: Link out to blog posts, videos, webinars, documentation, or other resources that relate to your app. This could be an article about a particular formula in the app, or something broader like a set of design principles that you're trying to follow.
• Files to upload: Attach a zip file with the following items in it: your msapp file (from saving an app locally); a thumbnail to show on the opening page of the gallery (340 x 194 pixels); a larger image to show as part of the description; and any supporting files, like Excel files or image files.

Note: If you want to write a more detailed post about your app, we recommend submitting to the gallery first, and writing the post on the PowerApps Community Blog. You can then link to your post from the gallery.

Embedding data in your app (optional)

You can submit your app with external data connections, but if you want to embed data, follow these instructions. Using embedded data reduces the barrier of deploying the app, so there is zero friction for others to try it out.

PowerApps natively supports building apps with embedded data, so you just need sample data for your app to use. This data should be captured in an Excel file as one or more tables. In PowerApps, you then pull the data from the Excel tables into the app and work with it there, rather than through an external connection. The three-step process below shows you how to pull data in and use that data in your app.

Step 1: Import data into the app

Assume you have an Excel file with two tables: SiteInspector and SitePhotos.

Import these two tables into PowerApps by using the option Add static data to your app.

You now have the tables as data sources in your app.

Step 2: Handling read-only and read-write scenarios

The data you imported is static, therefore read-only. If your app is read-only (i.e. it only displays data to the user), reference the tables directly in the app. For example, if you want to access the Title field in the SiteInspector table, use SiteInspector.Title in your formula.

If your app is read-write, first pull the data from each table into a collection, which is a tabular data structure in PowerApps. Then work with the collection rather than the table. To pull data from the SiteInspector and SitePhotos tables into the SiteInspectorCollect and SitePhotosCollect collections:

ClearCollect(SiteInspectorCollect,SiteInspector); ClearCollect(SitePhotosCollect,SitePhotos)

The formula clears both collections, then collects data from each table into the appropriate collection:

• Call this formula somewhere in your app to load the data.
• View all collections in your app by navigating to File > Collections.
• For more information, see Create and update a collection in your app.

Now if you want to access the Title field, use SiteInspectorCollect.Title in your formula.

Step 3: Add, update, and delete data in your app

You've seen how to read data directly and from a collection; now we'll show you how to add, update, and delete data in a collection:

To add a row to a collection, use Collect( DataSource, Item, ... )

Collect(SiteInspectorCollect,{ID:Value(Max(SiteInspectorCollect, ID)+1),

        Title:TitleText.Text,SubTitle: SubTitleText.Text,Description: DescriptionText.Text)

To update a row in a collection, use UpdateIf( DataSource, Condition1, ChangeRecord1 [, Condition2, ChangeRecord2, ...] )

UpdateIf(SiteInspectorCollect,ID=record.ID,

        {Title:TitleEditText.Text,SubTitle: SubTitleEditText.Text,Description: DescriptionEditText.Text)

To delete a row from a collection, use RemoveIf( DataSource, Condition [, ...] )

RemoveIf(SiteInspectorCollect,ID=record.ID)

Note: Collections hold data only while the app is running; any changes are discarded when the app is closed.

In summary, you can create a version of your app with embedded data, which simulates the experience of your app connecting to external data.