Integrate Live Printify 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 Printify 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 Printify data.

CData Connect AI provides a pure SQL, cloud-to-cloud interface for Printify, allowing you to easily integrate with live Printify 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 Printify, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Printify data.

Configure Printify Connectivity for Power Apps

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

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

2. Select "Printify" from the Add Connection panel

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

   Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the Printify Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\Profile.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for Printify (see below).

   Printify API Profile Settings

   In order to authenticate to Printify, you'll need to provide your API Key. To get your API Key navigate to My Profile, then Connections. In the Connections section you will be able to generate your Personal Access Token (API Key) and set your Token Access Scopes. Personal Access Tokens are valid for one year. An expired Personal Access Token can be re-generated using the same steps after it expires. Set the API Key to your Personal Access Token in the ProfileSettings property to connect.

   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Printify Connection page and update the User-based 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.
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 Printify data from Power Apps.

Connecting to CData Connect AI

To use Connect AI to integrate Printify 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
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 Printify connection (e.g. API1)
   • Set Username to a Connect AI user (e.g. [email protected])
   • Set Password to the PAT for the above user
   • Click Create

Building a Data-Centric App for Printify Data

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

1. Log in to Power Apps
2. Click Create and select "SQL"
3. Select the SQL Server connection you created
4. Search for or choose a table to work with
5. Click Connect
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

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

SQL Access to Printify Data from Cloud Applications

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