Data sources and connectors

Introduction to Power Apps

Luise Freese

Azure & Power Platform Architect

The words everyone mixes up

Connector, the bridge (SharePoint, Excel...)
Connection, your specific sign-in to that bridge
Data source, the table you point your app at
Environment, the space your app and data live in

Diagram of four labeled cards: Connector (bridge icon), Connection (key icon), Data source (table icon), and Environment (container icon)

Standard vs premium

Comparison of Standard connectors (SharePoint, Excel, OneDrive, Outlook, included with M365) and Premium connectors (SQL Server, Salesforce, Dataverse)

Standard connectors come with Microsoft 365
Premium connectors need an add-on license
This course uses Standard only

A tasks list for Lumen Coffee

A marketing team at Lumen Coffee
One SharePoint list: Marketing Tasks
Five columns: Title, Status, Priority, AssignedTo, DueDate

SharePoint list view showing the Marketing Tasks table with five columns: Title, Status, Priority, AssignedTo, and DueDate, with three sample task rows

Excel

Real screenshot of the Power Apps "Start with data" page showing the title and helper text on the left, with six connector tiles in a grid on the right: Create new data, SharePoint, Dataverse, Excel Online Business, SQL, and Upload file

Start with data → Upload Excel file
Power Apps builds a starter app for you
Excel is a learning shortcut, not how you'd actually ship

What happens on first upload

A developer environment is created for you (~50s)
A welcome dialog appears once, dismiss it
Your app opens with the data already wired

Loading screen showing a spinner with the label "Creating your developer environment" and a progress bar, with database, cloud, and checkmark step icons

The data panel

Screenshot of the Power Apps Studio Data panel with Add data button, Search field, and table grid

Find it in the left rail
Shows every table your app is connected to
Click any table to inspect its columns

Gallery: how Power Apps shows lists

A gallery repeats one template for every row
Set Items to your data source
Each row is a clickable copy of the template

Real screenshot of Power Apps Studio with a gallery control on canvas

What you'll build

Mockup of the finished Lumen Marketing Tasks app showing a header and four task cards with title and status pills in a warm coffee-brown accent

Connect your app to a real dataset
Inspect the data with the Data panel
Insert a gallery and bind it to the data

Let's practice!

Introduction to Power Apps