Integrate Live Spark Data into Custom Business Apps Built in Power Apps

Power Apps is a service for building and using custom business apps that connect to your data and work across the web and mobile — without the time and expense of custom software development. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to Spark data from the apps you build using Power Apps. This article shows how to connect to Connect AI from Power Apps and build an app based on live Spark data.

CData Connect AI provides a pure SQL, cloud-to-cloud interface for Spark, allowing you to easily integrate with live Spark data in Power Apps — without replicating the data. CData Connect AI looks exactly like a SQL Server database to Power Apps and uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Spark, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Spark data.

Configure Spark Connectivity for Power Apps

Connectivity to Spark from Power Apps is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Spark data from Power Apps, we start by creating and configuring a Spark connection.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
👁 Adding a Connection

2. Select "Spark" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Spark.

   Set the Server, Database, User, and Password connection properties to connect to SparkSQL.

   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Spark Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions
   

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give the PAT a name and click Create. 👁 Creating a new PAT
   
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to Spark data from Power Apps.

Connecting to CData Connect AI

To use Connect AI to integrate Spark data into your Power Apps, you need a new SQL Server connection:

1. Log in to Power Apps
2. Click Dataverse -> Connections -> New connection
3. Select SQL Server 👁 Creating a new SQL Server Connection
   
4. In the connection wizard:
   
   
   • Choose to connect directly
   • Set SQL server name to tds.cdata.com,14333
   • Set SQL database name to the name of the Spark connection (e.g. SparkSQL1)
   • Set Username to a Connect AI user (e.g. [email protected])
   • Set Password to the PAT for the above user
   • Click Create 👁 Connecting to Connect AI
     

Building a Data-Centric App for Spark Data

With the connection to Connect AI configured, you are ready to integrate live Spark data into the apps you build in Power Apps.

1. Log in to Power Apps
2. Click Create and select "SQL" 👁 Creating a new app from data
   
3. Select the SQL Server connection you created
4. Search for or choose a table to work with
5. Click Connect 👁 Connecting to Spark data
   
6. Customize the newly created app just like you would any other, including changing the layout and setting the fields exposed in BrowseScreen, DetailScreen, and EditScreen 👁 Customizing the Spark data app
   

At this point, you have an app with read and write access to live Spark data that you can save and publish for use within your organization.

SQL Access to Spark Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct connection to live Spark data from Microsoft Power Apps. You can create more connections and apps to drive business — all without replicating Spark data.

To get real-time data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, sign up for a free trial of CData Connect AI.