Link Share Power App

Link Share is a Power App that I made specifically for Dataverse for Microsoft Teams. I had been wanting to build a Power App for a while and wanted something simple that was also broadly applicable for many teams. I mean, who doesn’t want/need to share web links with their colleagues? It is free to use with any Microsoft Teams licence without any additional Power Apps licensing required. The concept of the app is simple: share your important and relevant web links with your team in one place that is easy to access and use. This saves you from posting links into channel chat directly and having the chat message disappear into the post history over time. Each user can share, vote and bookmark links that have been posted.

Below is the main Link Share interface:

Each link has information about who posted the link, a thumbs up button for up-voting the link, a vote counter for the number of up-votes, a bookmark option and a link button for opening the link in a browser window. The filter combo box allows you to see links from that day, week, month or forever. The sort combo box allows you to order the links by votes or post date.

 

In the Filter combo there is an option to show the Top Contributors which is ordered by votes. The top 3 contributors get gold, silver and bronze medal highlights around their photo so you know they’re awesome. The medals are also shown back on the main screen behind the user photo. 

If you select Bookmarks from the filter combo box you will see all of the links that you have bookmarked on the main page.

The app also has the ability to also post to the Teams Channel that it is deployed in if you turn on this capability in the settings dialog:

 Link Share will post a message to the Teams Channel when you add a new link:

Download the Power App

Download the Link Share Power App from Github here:

DOWNLOAD HERE

How to Install the App

 

Step 1: In the Microsoft Teams client click on the left rail ellipses. Open the Power Apps application:

Step 2: In the Power Apps application in the Build tab and select the team name on the left side and then click the “Import your solution” link.

Note: I have selected a team here that already has it's Power Apps backend and storage set up (I know this because it appears already in the list on the left). If the team you are wanting to add the app to is not already listed, you need to first use the Create button and choose to add a new app to the team. This will then create all the backend Power Apps components (storage, etc) for that team. Procedure: Click "Create" link in the bottom left > Select the Team you want to add Link Share to > You will then be taken to the App Design experience > Click the Build Tab to get back to this screen and you will now see the team in the left list.

 Step 3: In the fly out on the right side of the screen. Click the Browse button:

 Step 4: Open the Power App zip file:

 Step 5: Click the Next Button:

 Step 6: Import all the Tables and Canvas app:

 Step 7: You will now see a message telling you that the app was imported:

Step 8: You may need to open the Apps tab on the right to refresh the screen and see the Link Share app. Click on the app to open it:

Step 9: The app needs access to Office 365 user data (for access to images) and Microsoft Teams to post Links to Channels (if you have this configuration setting enabled):

 Step 10: In the top right of the app editing screen, click the Publish to Teams button:

 Step 11: Click the Next button on the dialog:

 Step 12: On the Add to Channel dialog, click on the “+” sign on the channel that you want to add Link Share to:

 Step 13: Click the Save and Close button:

Congratulations! The app is installed. Now you can start using it.

 

Using Link Share

 

Step 1: Go to the Channel that you added the app to and click on the Link Share tab:

Step 2: The Link Share app will now be displayed and you can Add a new link by clicking the Add/Edit Link button:

 Step 3: Click the Add New Link button to add a new link:

Step 4: Type in a Title, Description, Link and then click the Tick button:

 Step 5: Click the Back button to go back:

 Finished! Your link is now listed on the main app and everyone can vote on it and bookmark it.

 

The Wrap Up

 

There is my first ever Power App open sourced for your usage and tweaking. It may not be much, but it’s mine. Let me know if you have any feedback, features, comments, etc. Till next time, may the Power be with you.

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