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3.2 Forms, Views & Business Logic (Power Fx, Business Rules)

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Microsoft Power Platform Fundamentals PL-900

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1 Introduction & Exam Overview

1.1 What PL-900 Tests in 2026 1.2 Exam Logistics & Scoring 1.3 The Power Platform Ecosystem

2 Business Value of Microsoft Power Platform (5-10%)

2.1 Business Value of Power Apps & Power Automate 2.2 Business Value of Dataverse & Connectors 2.3 Business Value of Power Pages, Generative AI & Copilot Studio Agents

3 Manage the Environment: Microsoft Dataverse (20-25%)

3.1 Dataverse vs Traditional Databases; Tables, Columns, Relationships 3.2 Forms, Views & Business Logic (Power Fx, Business Rules) 3.3 Using AI to Create & Edit Dataverse Schema

4 Manage the Environment: Administration & Governance (20-25%)

4.1 Environments & Their Purposes 4.2 The Power Platform Security Model (Roles, Business Units, Teams) 4.3 Data Privacy (DLP), Monitoring/Analytics & ALM Pipelines

5 Demonstrate the Capabilities of Power Apps (20-25%)

5.1 Canvas Apps: Use Cases & Capabilities 5.2 Model-Driven Apps, Plan Designer & Code Apps 5.3 Building Apps with AI (Vibe Experience)

6 Demonstrate the Capabilities of Power Automate (20-25%)

6.1 Cloud & Desktop Flows: Types & Use Cases 6.2 Building Flows: Triggers, Actions & AI Assistance 6.3 Automating Microsoft 365 & Document Processes

7 Agents in Microsoft Copilot Studio (20-25%)

7.1 Building Agents: Topics, Knowledge, Tools (MCP, Agent Flows), Publishing 7.2 Managing Agents: Microsoft Agent 365, Monitoring & Evaluations

3.2 Forms, Views & Business Logic (Power Fx, Business Rules)

Key Takeaways Explain This Topic AI

Forms control how a single record is displayed and edited, and are used mainly in model-driven apps

Form types include Main, Quick Create, Quick View, and Card forms, each suited to a different situation

Views are saved, filtered, sorted lists of records; they can be system, personal, or public

Business rules provide no-code 'if-then' logic on forms, such as requiring or hiding fields

Power Fx formula columns calculate values in real time; workflows and cloud flows automate multi-step processes triggered by data changes

Last updated: July 2026

Once a table's structure is in place, makers still need a way for people to see and edit individual records, a way to browse matching sets of records, and rules that keep the data consistent without writing code. Dataverse provides these through forms , views , and a set of no-code and low-code business logic tools. This section covers all three, which together make up a meaningful share of the "Manage the Environment" domain on PL-900.

Forms: Displaying and Editing Records

A form controls how a single record's columns are laid out on the screen for viewing and editing. Forms are used primarily in model-driven apps , where the app surface is generated automatically from the table schema (canvas apps use screens you design by hand instead). Dataverse supports several form types for different situations:

  • Form Type Purpose
  • Main form The full, primary form used to view and edit a record
  • Quick Create form A short form for rapidly creating a new record without leaving the current screen
  • Quick View form A read-only, embedded snapshot of a related record's fields shown on another form
  • Card form A compact, card-style layout, often used in mobile or space-constrained views

A single table can have multiple main forms (for example, one for sales staff and a simplified one for support staff), and Dataverse security roles determine which form — and which fields on it — a given user sees.

Views: Filtered, Sorted Lists of Records

A view is a saved, filtered, and sorted list of records from a table, displayed as a grid of columns — think of it as a saved query with a chosen set of visible columns. Views let users quickly get to the subset of records that matters to them without building a filter from scratch every time. Dataverse ships with system views such as Active Accounts, My Active Accounts, and All Accounts, and makers or users can also create their own:

System views ship with a table and are maintained by makers; examples include "Active X" and "My Active X."

Personal views are created and saved by an individual user for their own use and are not visible to others by default.

Public views are created by a maker and shared with other users, becoming available to everyone with access to the table.

Because views only change what is displayed — not the underlying data — they are a safe, no-code way to tailor the experience for different roles without duplicating tables or columns. A table can also have a default view , the view a model-driven app grid shows automatically when a user first navigates to that table's list.

Business Logic: Three No-Code and Low-Code Options

"Business logic" refers to the rules that govern how data behaves — what is required, what is calculated, and what happens automatically when data changes. Dataverse offers several ways to implement this logic without writing custom application code:

Option What It Does Typical Use

Business rules No-code, declarative "if condition, then action" statements applied to a table or form Require a field, show or hide a field, set a default value, show an error message, or apply a business recommendation

Power Fx formula columns A column whose value is calculated in real time from a Power Fx formula referencing other columns A Total Price column calculated as Quantity × Unit Price

Workflows / Power Automate cloud flows Automated processes triggered by Dataverse events such as a record being created, updated, or deleted Sending a notification, updating a related record, or kicking off a multi-step approval

Business rules are the most accessible option — they are built with a simple condition-and-action editor and require no formulas or code, making them a good first stop for enforcing data quality on a form. Power Fx formula columns go a step further, letting a maker define a calculation using the same formula language used throughout Power Apps, so the calculated value is always current and does not need a separate flow to keep it updated. Workflows and cloud flows handle logic that goes beyond a single form or record — reacting to a change in Dataverse and automating a multi-step process, often by connecting to other systems.

For scenarios beyond what these low-code tools can express, pro developers can extend Dataverse with plug-ins — custom server-side code that runs in response to data events — though writing plug-ins is outside the scope of what PL-900 expects a citizen maker to do themselves.

  • Key Takeaways
  • Forms control how a single record is displayed and edited, and are used mainly in model-driven apps
  • Form types include Main, Quick Create, Quick View, and Card forms, each suited to a different situation
  • Views are saved, filtered, sorted lists of records; they can be system, personal, or public
  • Business rules provide no-code "if-then" logic on forms, such as requiring or hiding fields

Power Fx formula columns calculate values in real time; workflows and cloud flows automate multi-step processes triggered by data changes