Monthly Archives: January 2025

Feature Bombing

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Badge: Feature Bombing 🌟🚀🤑🪄🪇

Creating a low-code app doesn’t always mean focusing on aesthetics. Sometimes, the magic lies in how different features come together to create an engaging and interactive experience. Here’s a look at five features we’ve integrated into our app, each with its own unique charm, working together to make the app both fun and functional.

1. Rating Feature

Our app includes a simple yet effective rating feature. Users can rate various elements within the app, providing feedback that helps us improve the user experience. While it might not be the flashiest feature, it plays a crucial role in gathering user insights and enhancing the app’s overall functionality.

2. Power BI Tiles for Hogwarts House Points

To add a touch of magic, we’ve embedded Power BI tiles that display house points from Hogwarts. These tiles dynamically update to show the latest standings of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. This feature not only adds a fun, Harry Potter-themed element but also demonstrates the power of data visualization in a low-code environment. And of course house 🐍Slytherin🐍 is in the lead, as you can see 💁🏻‍♀️✨

3. PCF Control for Gamification

Gamification is a key aspect of our app, and we’ve implemented a PowerApps Component Framework (PCF) control to achieve this. The PCF control introduces game-like elements, such as badges and rewards, to motivate users and make their interactions more engaging. This feature enhances user participation and adds a competitive edge to the app. The game is simple: Catch (click) the Golden Snitch. Once you manage to click it, you will level up and earn points for your house. As you level up, the Snitch will increase in speed and leveling up will become more and more difficult.

4. App Check In

The app also allows students to check in to events effortlessly using the barcode scanner. When a QR code is scanned, it triggers a Power Automate flow that instantly registers the student’s attendance. This streamlined process saves valuable time for both students and teachers, letting everyone focus on enjoying the event rather than worrying about manual registration.

5. Image Recognition for Sentiment Analysis

To take user interaction to the next level, we’ve integrated an image recognition control that analyzes facial expressions to perform sentiment analysis. This feature can detect emotions and potentially identify if someone is cheating based on their facial cues. It’s a fascinating blend of technology and psychology, providing deeper insights into user behavior. The camera will also take a photo of the student whenever they level up their Golden Snitch Level (GS Level). The photo is saved as an attatchment in a SharePoint list to laugh about at a later time😉.

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While these features might not be the most visually stunning, they work together to create a fun and engaging low-code app. By combining practical elements like the rating feature and Power BI tiles with more playful aspects like the Golden Snitch game, we’ve crafted an app that’s both functional and enjoyable. Whether you’re a Harry Potter fan or just looking for a unique app experience, our low-code creation has something for everyone.

Withcher 4 – The wild badge hunt. An Exciting Journey Through Challenges and Triumphs

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Long time since the last badge hunt…

In the fast-paced and exhilarating world of hackathons, few events shine as brightly as the ACDC Hackathon. This year, participants from all corners of the tech community gathered with one goal in mind: to push the boundaries of innovation and creativity. Amidst the coding sprints and problem-solving marathons, a unique and thrilling aspect stood out – the quest for badges and achievements.

Collecting badges in the ACDC Hackathon isn’t just about a sense of accomplishment; it’s a testament to the skills, perseverance, and collaborative spirit of the participants. From early morning brainstorming sessions to late-night debugging frenzies, every moment was a step closer to earning those coveted badges that symbolize mastery and ingenuity.

Join us as we delve into the journey of collecting badges and achievements in the ACDC Hackathon. We will explore the different challenges faced by the participants, the strategies they employed, and the unforgettable moments that defined their path to success. Whether you’re a seasoned hacker or a curious onlooker, this blog post will give you an insider’s view of what it takes to excel in one of the most dynamic and rewarding hackathons around.

When entering the HogWorkPlace Power App for the first time, you’ll be greeted by a landing page that seamlessly integrates with your house. Using Azure AD groups, we represent each house in vivid detail.

But wait, what’s that in the corner? It’s DobbAI, your personal AI house-elf assistant, ready to cater to your every need. DobbAI is a Copilot Studio agent, imbued with the charm and wit of a real house-elf. Its knowledge is deeply integrated with the rest of the intranet housed on SharePoint. Curious about tonight’s dinner? Simply ask DobbAI to fetch the menu from a SharePoint list.

For us, SharePoint isn’t just a repository; it’s the lifeblood of our data, securely storing and managing it alongside connectors to tables in Dataverse for seamless solution engagement. When you interact with DobbAI, you’ll authenticate using the robust Azure Active Directory V2 method. The AI is then published to a custom website channel, providing an iframe that seamlessly integrates with our React PCF component, all meticulously deployed to the power app solution.

But wait! There’s more to this dance we call “client-side salsa”. Within SharePoint, you’ll find an embedded Viva Engage and SPFx web part that displays the Hogwarts academic calendar, keeping you updated on both school events and social engagements. And lastly a Daily Proft newsfeed. All available via the canvas app, or just ask Dobby for directions 😉

The Stairway to Heaven Badge – Ascending with Microsoft Cloud APIs

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🪜 The Stairway to Heaven Badge – Ascending with Microsoft Cloud APIs 🌥️✨

We embarked on a cloud-powered journey, skillfully combining three powerful Microsoft Cloud APIs: Dataverse, Azure Storage REST API, and Azure Face API. Together, they’ve elevated our Dark Ledger solution to new heights of innovation and functionality. Here’s how we made magic happen. 🧙‍♂️

1. Dataverse – The Ledger’s Core 📜🔗

At the heart of our dark operations lies Dataverse, the keeper of all knowledge and the driver of our workflows. With the Dataverse Web API, we’ve created an enchanted process that triggers the OneFlow API to handle contracts for each Order of Doom. Here’s how:

  • Trigger the Spell: When a new Order of Doom is created, a Power Automate flow springs into action, retrieving the requester’s details and the order specifics.
  • Summon OneFlow: Using these details, the flow invokes the OneFlow API to craft a contract that’s sent for e-signature.
  • Centralized Power: All this data is stored and tracked in Dataverse, making it the foundation of our interactive map and contract records.

2. Azure Face API – Identity Verification 🧠🖼️

What’s a sinister operation without proof of completion? That’s where the Azure Face API steps in, acting as our Polyjuice Potion for digital identity verification. When a target is “handled,” here’s what happens:

  • Photo Submission: The person responsible uploads an image of the deed.
  • Identity Match: The Face API, integrated with Power Automate, analyzes the photo and compares it to the target’s profile in Dataverse.
  • Deed Confirmed: If the identity matches, the flow sends a final confirmation email and updates the record in Dataverse.

3. Azure Storage REST API – Mapping the Shadows 🗺️✨

The Azure Storage REST API brings a new layer of sorcery to our solution by enabling real-time tracking for the interactive map. This API, used within Power Automate, is our secret weapon for dynamic data handling:

  • Store Location Information: Each Order of Doom includes precise location details for both the requester and the target.
  • Real-Time Updates: Using the Azure Storage REST API, these locations are posted and retrieved, enabling our Google Maps-powered map to display updated positions in real-time.
  • Seamless Integration: The flow ensures that every movement is logged with precision, offering a spellbinding experience for users.

With this magical blend of AI and automation, we ensure efficiency, accuracy, and a bit of wizardly flair. 💀

Unlocking the Power of Low-Code Platforms with Pro-Code Customization

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This blog post will walk you through how to leverage both low-code tools and traditional coding to build a fun and effective user registration system. With the help of Microsoft Power Pages and Power Automate, we created a low-code solution that seamlessly integrates pro-code customization for a personalized experience.

Let’s break down in short lines the user flow:
1. The participant will fill out a registration form on the Power Pages site.
2. Their answers to a series of questions will be stored.
3. The user will be automatically sorted into one of the Houses based on their responses.

In Power Automate, we created a flow that is triggered by form submission from Power Pages (when user presses Join button). Then we added pro-code customization that packs the data and sends it to Dataverse.

Team work makes the dream work

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When putting together a team for the hightlight of the year that is ACDC, we had a short, but strict, list of requirements. The team members had to be:

  1. Teamplayers
  2. Hard-working and eager to learn something new
  3. FUN!

In Evidi, we have a saying that we are “More than just tech people”, and this is true – we have a guitar player, a riding teacher, we even have a guy from Bergen (!!) in our team, and our personalities are as diverse as our skills. In spite of this, our team spirits are extremely high and we work together as one. Victories are celebrated, small as big, and we all support eachother to get the most out of this intense weekend.

The only feeling better than solving a long lasting canvas app headache, you ask? Sharing the moment with good friends, of course! 💓

Getting house points for being the first team to enter the Great Hall this morning, and likely being one of the last teams to leave tonight is other signs that we are having a blast here together, showing Remarkable Teamspirit.

Ctelo

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One of the amazing sponsors for ACDC 2025 is ctelo

With this blog post we are claiming the sponsor badge for ctelo

We have set up their solution for Teams Telephony using their fantastic step by step guide.

The result when this is fully set up is that we now have the ability to call each other within Teams directly with our phone numbers, as demonstrated here where the Dumbledore (System Administrator) is calling Ulrikke Potter in Teams by entering her phone number,

Setup in Azure for domain:

Setting up direct routing

Setting up the phone number for the user

Sketch it up – HogWorkPlace

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When planning HogWorkplace, we initially didn’t know what it should look like. To get a clearer idea, we decided to sketch it by hand. Our goal was to create an intranet on a SharePoint site for both Hogwarts and the other house common rooms. We wanted to incorporate AI and CoPilot Studio, which led us to develop DobbAI. DobbAI is available on all SharePoint sites within HogWorkplace.

We aim to create a PowerApp that visualizes Hogwarts and the Hogwarts Express, making it clickable to navigate to different features on the SharePoint site. We sketched these drawings and pictures to visualize our thinking.

Hogwarts: The main SharePoint site, showcasing Hogwarts, the Hogwarts Express, and DobbAI.

Visual Design: A more detailed design of the castle, DobbAI, and the train.

Features: Showcasing the rest of the features on the Hogwarts SharePoint site, including a button to find your common room, conversation posts from Viva Engage, and a Hogwarts Academic Calendar that displays the yearly calendar. Clicking on an element in the calendar provides additional information.

DobbAI Interaction: Demonstrating how DobbAI will look once you interact with it. It’s a chatbot where DobbAI answers your questions based on its knowledge. We’ve integrated all the SharePoint sites, documents, lists, etc., of HogWorkplace into its knowledge base. You will only receive answers and access to information that your signed-up user has permission to read, ensuring no sensitive data is shared. When you get an answer, you also receive the source of the information and, in some cases, a navigation link to the relevant location if it suits the prompted question.

Power Of The Shell

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Badge: Power Of The Shell

Our Goal

In this hackathon, we wanted to focus our energy on building creative and impactful solutions so, to avoid getting bogged down by deployment challenges and manual processes, we set up a streamlined Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) process from the start. This allowed us to focus on innovation, confident that our solutions would transition smoothly from development to production.

Here’s how we scripted the configuration of our entire solution:

  1. Git Connect OOTB Integration with DevOps
    We used Power Platform’s new Git Connect functionality to automate the commit process for solution changes.
Example of solutions connected to the repository

This feature allows changes made in Power Platform to be committed directly to an Azure DevOps repository, with the user who made the changes reflected as the commit author. This integration not only saved time but also ensured proper traceability and alignment with our team’s Git workflows.

1. Components contained in the solution separated by name
2. Authors of the commits.

Pipeline for Building PCFs
To handle the custom PowerApps Component Framework (PCF) components, we reused and adapted an existing pipeline. This pipeline automates:

  1. Version Updates: Using a PowerShell script, we increment version numbers to maintain proper versioning.

2. Solution Packaging: The pipeline packs the updated PCF into a deployable solution.

3. Deployment: The final step deploys the solution directly to our environments.
This automation reduced manual effort, minimized errors, and ensured smooth delivery of components across environments.


By scripting and automating these processes, we ensured our development workflow was both efficient and scalable, freeing up valuable time to focus on building innovative solutions that truly shine in this hackathon 😀

Dataminer

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Badge: Dataminer

In the world of low-code development, efficiency and data integration are key to creating powerful and engaging applications. Here’s a glimpse into how we used a couple of APIs to fetch data efficiently and populate Dataverse with valuable information.

Utilizing the Harry Potter API

The Harry Potter API, available at hp-api.onrender.com, provides a wealth of data about the characters from the Harry Potter universe. For our project, we focused on retrieving information about the school’s staff and students.

Efficient Data Integration

By using the Harry Potter API, we were able to quickly and efficiently gather the necessary data. This approach saved us significant time compared to manually entering or sourcing the data from multiple locations. The API provided structured and reliable information that we could seamlessly integrate into Dataverse, ensuring our data was both accurate and up-to-date.

Populating Dataverse

With the data retrieved from the API, we populated Dataverse, Microsoft’s cloud-based data storage solution. This step was essential for creating a centralized repository of information that could be easily accessed and utilized across our Power Apps and Power BI dashboards. By having all the data in one place, we streamlined the development process and ensured consistency across our applications.

The data is populated!

We got 103 students into our table and managed to set the student value and their House (Which was a lookup so more advanced flow was needed):

The benefits of mixing magic with ancient magic

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Our OwlExpress solution needs to get the list of possible future wizards from a different set of data sources. We are merging these data into a PowerBI report so that the segmentation can be easily done using the slicers in a more intuitive way.

This Report is integrated into an MDA using a PCF control that House Elves Limited created that can save the segment chosen by the user using the Export Segment command.

This will trigger a Power Automate flow that will create the applications for all future students of the chosen segment.

To integrate the PowerBI report the following API’s are being consumed:

The PCF component has been developed using Test Driven Development and Storybook which allows you to fail fast and often and reach success faster.

The component is a react/virtual component, which simplifies a lot the separation of concerns into different components.

The code has been structured using the best practices for PCF components. We are using a Solution Project to simplify the build of the Solution that contains the component.

To standardize the build and deployment process and to ensure that the PCF Version is always kept in sync with the containing Solution version a couple of PowerShell scripts have been written. This helps also with the Azure DevOps pipelines because these can be simplified to execute the exact scripts that the developer executes on their machine.