Intro

The Creator Kit is a set of managed solutions for the Power Platform that provide components such as a component library, commonly used Power Apps component framework controls, a set of templates, and other utilities that increase developer productivity.

The kit helps create Power Apps experiences on the web and mobile platforms with convenient components that are ubiquitous in modern software.

All controls and components included in the kit use the Fluent UI framework to help you easily create consistent, beautiful, and effective user experiences for custom business applications.

These components are available to you, free to use, open-source, and will help you create professional-looking Power Apps more easily.

Fluent UI

Microsoft Fluent UI is an open-source free-to-use controls library developed by Microsoft.

It contains a large list of controls used across many Microsoft apps, like Microsoft 365.

It is cross-platform and cross-device. Although it is built for the web, it can be used for the desktop too, through a technology called React Native.

The components provide integrated functions for accessibility and internalization. They are also tested across multiple apps, are very performant, and have great documentation and community support available.

These controls are designed to work together and when used in an app create consistency and experience uniformity, which facilitates user adoption.

The Creator Kit uses this library to provide functionality. It is like a wrapper around the controls, providing the plumbing needed to use them in your Power Platform apps.

Installation

There are two ways of installing the components in your Power Platform environment.

Option 1, download the solutions yourself, and upload them in your environment. With this option, you have more control over what you install, but it takes more manual steps. Use this option if you installed solutions before and you are familiar with the process.

Option 2, install them from the App. This option requires less user interaction, but you have less control over what’s installed. Use this option if you are learning and there is not much concern over what’s installed in the environment.

More details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/guidance/creator-kit/setup

Option 1

There are 3 solutions you can download. The first is required, the other two are examples and are optional.

First, the Core solution. It contains the main components.

Then, you have two reference app solutions, which contain demos and examples for Canvas Apps and Model Driven Apps.

If you don’t want to see the examples, install only the core solution. If you want to see them, then choose the Canvas Apps, Model Driven Apps examples, or both.

Find the links below. Download the zip files and use the install solution in your environment to import them.

Download the CreatorKitCore solution

Download the Model Driven App reference solution

Download the Canvas App reference solution

Option 2

This option is the simple one. Simple steps.

1. Sign in to an account that has System Administrator permissions in the target Environment.
2. Go to the Creator Kit page on AppSource. Click on the button Get it now.
3. Choose the Target Environment, select the button to agree on selling your soul to the devil, and then click on the install button.

At the end, you should have 2 new Apps available in your environment. One will be the Canvas App reference app, and the other the Model-Driven app reference app.

Conclusion

This is the first of a series of articles describing the setup and use of the Creator Kit components. We hope you find them useful. Stay tuned for the next part.

If you have any questions, or you need help customizing your Power Platform apps, don’t hesitate to let us know. Feel free to leave any feedback or comments below.