Creating App for Displaying Concierge Database

[DillonHcon]

Hello all,

I work for a hotel Concierge team and recently discovered Power Apps. I'm tech savvy relative to most, but still not on the level of IT or Programming. I've been searching through these forums and help articles from Microsoft, but I'm struggling to put together an idea I have for an app. 

Set-up:

I'm looking to build an app that is derivative of the Calendar screen template. The idea is that I want to load this into Teams for employee beyond Concierge to be able to use the information we have on the area. The app user could select a date on the calendar, and the app will display the restaurants open and activities that are happening that day.

At the moment, we store the data for the area in an Excel file stored in our team's SharePoint. In the table, the first column "Restaurants" contains the names of the venues, and the remaining columns are the days of the month (1/1, 1/2.... through to 1/31). Under each date, the row contains "o" to indicate the venue in that row is open, "c" for closed, and blank for "not yet confirmed". If there are any special events or hours that day (such as Happy Hour from 4pm to 6pm, Live Music at 7pm, etc.) then we list the information via an Excel comment on that cell.

Building:

In making this, I start with a blank canvas and connect the Excel file via SharePoint. I am able to point the 'CalendarEventsGallery1' toward this rather than the default call to an Outlook calendar, though when the data populates most of the data pulled is simply "o"s and "c"s from different columns, listed the same on all dates. Essentially, I need the app to find the column for the selected date, then filter the "Restaurants" column for rows that have "o" in the date's column. I created a variable and used Set to obtain the date the user selected on the calendar, which I then need to search for in the table's columns. I've tried approaching this with various functions like LookUp and Search, though I think what I'm finding is that Power Apps functions need a static call to a column, not a dynamic/variable. Additionally, I'm not sure yet if it's possible to import the comments on the Excel cells as a description for the venue, on that day.

I'm currently circling trying to find a solution to this, with no real luck. Are there any alternate ways I should be looking at this? Somewhere in the forums, I saw one user tell a poster that Excel is more of a calculator, and he would have a better, more compatible time if he used Lists. Could this hold true in my case? I've experimented with exporting to Lists and building around that, but again not much luck, and allow our Comment system for details on certain days doesn't seem to work in Lists. One of the biggest hurdles for the database is getting employees to regularly update it, so making input quick and accessible is key, and overall I found that Excel is better for this than Lists. For example, they can easily locate or have the Excel open from SharePoint, but Lists seems to be a separate app entirely unless you catch it in the SharePoint's recent activity. 

Summary:

• Calendar based app that can be loaded and pinned into Teams
• Event gallery will display everything that is open that day
• If the Restaurant/Venue is having a special event or hours that day, list the info below the name and/or after clicking on the name.
• Inputting new information for calendar needs to be convenient to maximize adoption (possibly a separate app meant for entering new info?)
• For each restaurant, we would ideally store the following information as static: Address, Description, Link to Website. The following would be stored per each day of the month: Open or closed, Events, Hours.

I by no means am looking for a "build it for me!" style solution from the forum here; I'm just hoping someone might be able to point me in the right direction on how I might be able to accomplish this in PowerApps. I feel like there's something I'm missing or don't understand. Any and all ideas or guidance that you may have would be greatly, greatly appreciated!

[rhardin]

I am also very new to this so I apologize for not being able to provide much technical information for you. I can however, provide some helpful tips from my own face-palming I've run into since diving into Power Apps.

First, of all, to accomplish what you want within Teams thus eliminating needed additional licensing and development environment to production environment issues, you must create the app with teams itself. 

I have no affiliation with Pragmatic Works, but I highly recommend working through this great example before you get too far into design and functionality. Take notes, and rewatch, then learn to use this repository as I am trying to do when you get stuck. 

Here's the link to the playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcwrIWK7WBcSeR8xIopYBjNf1iL0576Q0&si=_kiSAq0JNThL0wq4

Best of luck!