Understanding the concepts of topics, entities, and actions is fundamental to gaining proficiency with the PL-900 Microsoft Power Platform. This understanding sets the foundation for being able to build solutions and apps that manipulate data, automate processes, and help organizations achieve more.
Topics
In the context of the Microsoft Power Platform, topics are a key concept in Power Virtual Agents. Topics are essentially a way of categorizing and triggering conversations in a bot. A bot conversation’s subject is determined by its topic.
During the chat, topic is identified based on the user’s input and the bot provides relevant responses as defined in the topic. For instance, if the bot has a topic defined for “Proceeding with an order”, once the user types a similar phrase, the bot would be able to offer tips on how to successfully place an order.
Entities
Entities are a significant concept in Microsoft’s Dataverse. Dataverse is the underlying data platform that stores and consolidates data for all of your Microsoft apps, making it easy to create data-centric applications and automate business processes.
Entities in the context of Dataverse are used to model and manage business data – they are like database tables. Each entity comes with a set of attributes representing the table columns and each attribute stores a specific type of data, such as text, number, date, etc.
For instance, an entity can be “Customer”, and it may contain attributes such as “Name”, “Address”, “Email”, and so on.
| Entity | Attributes |
|---|---|
| Customer | Name |
| Address | |
Actions
In the world of Power Automate, actions are steps in a flow that are performed after a specific event, condition, or trigger is initiated. They can include everything from sending an email notification to creating a new record in a database.
For example, you may create a flow in Power Automate where the trigger is “When a new customer is added in the Dataverse”. The action could be “Send an email to the sales team”, letting them know a new customer has been added.
To summarize, topics, entities, and actions are fundamental concepts that underpin many of the capabilities within the Microsoft Power Platform. Understanding them is integral to the process of creating effective, efficient, and powerful solutions for your business. For the PL-900 exam, make sure to understand these concepts deeply and how they apply within Power Virtual Agents, Dataverse, and Power Automate respectively.
Practice Test
True/False: The purpose of a topic in Microsoft Power Platform is to guide an AI model to recognize and classify user input.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: Topics in Microsoft Power Platform help the AI model understand what the user is asking. Each topic is like a guiding instructions for the AI to recognize and classify user input.
Which of the following best describes the purpose of entities in Microsoft Power Platform?
- A. To store user data
- B. To classify user input
- C. To define the structure of data that an application operates on
- D. To manage user permissions
Answer: C. To define the structure of data that an application operates on
Explanation: In Microsoft Power Platform, an entity represents a piece of data or a business object, with its own set of attributes and relationships to other entities.
True/False: Actions in Microsoft Power Platform can’t be reused across different scenarios.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Actions in Microsoft Power Platform are reusable units of work that can be performed across different scenarios and applications.
What is the purpose of topics in Microsoft Power Platform?
- A. To recognize and classify user input
- B. To define business processes
- C. To define the structure of a database
- D. To perform calculations on data
Answer: A. To recognize and classify user input
Explanation: Topics guide the AI to recognize and classify the user input based on certain patterns or keywords.
True/False: Entities in Microsoft Power Platform serve to store the user login information only.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Entities serve to define the structure of data that an application operates on, not just user login information.
What is the purpose of actions in Microsoft Power Platform?
- A. To perform steps in a business process
- B. To store user data
- C. To classify user input
- D. To define the structure of data
Answer: A. To perform steps in a business process
Explanation: In Microsoft Power Platform, actions represent tasks or operations that users or systems can perform.
True/False: Topics help to conduct conversation with an AI model.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: Topics help guide the conversation with an AI model by recognizing and classifying user input.
Which of the following is not the purpose of entities in Microsoft Power Platform?
- A. Storing user preferences
- B. Defining the structure of data
- C. Conducting conversation with an AI model
- D. Defining business processes
Answer: C. Conducting conversation with an AI model
Explanation: The purpose of entities is to define the structure of data and not to conduct conversation with an AI model.
How are actions categorized in Microsoft Power Platform?
- A. By user input
- B. By the type of operation
- C. By data structure
- D. By user permissions
Answer: B. By the type of operation
Explanation: Actions are categorized by the type of operation they perform, like creating, reading, updating or deleting data.
True/False: Actions in Microsoft Power Platform can perform multiple operations like reading data, writing data, and executing business processes.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: Actions are versatile and can perform a wide range of operations like reading data, writing data and executing business processes.
How do topics differ from entities in Microsoft Power Platform?
- A. Topics handle user input while entities store data
- B. Topics store data while entities handle user input
- C. Topics perform operations while entities handle user input
- D. Topics handle user input while entities perform operations
Answer: A. Topics handle user input while entities store data
Explanation: In Microsoft Power Platform, topics are used to classify and guide user interaction whereas entities are used to represent and store data.
True/False: An entity can be used to represent a single item of data in Microsoft Power Platform.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: An entity is a set of records used to store data, similar to how a table stores data within a database. This data can refer to a single item or a collection of items.
Interview Questions
What is the purpose of a topic in the context of the Microsoft Power Platform?
Topics helps to determine and differentiate various subject areas within the Power Platform. They help in rendering structure to the data and discussions in relevant fields, creating a more organized and efficient data platform.
Can you describe what an entity is in Microsoft Power Platform?
An entity in Microsoft Power Platform is equivalent to a database table. Each entity represents a topic or a subject like Account, Contact, Product, etc, and is used to store data in a similar way to tables in a traditional database.
What role do actions play in Microsoft Power Platform?
In Microsoft Power Platform, actions are operations which you can perform on data records. Actions can be created, read, updated, deleted, etc, and are an integral part of processing and managing data in the Power Platform.
How do entities help in working with data in the Power Platform?
Entities act as foundational building blocks that allow data to be stored in PowerApps, helping to structure the data input and ensuring the data suits the requirements of the apps.
Can you explain how topics influence Power BI reports and dashboards?
Topics in Power BI represent the various categories of data which are represented in graphical format. They help in filtering, sorting and customizing the view of the data based on segments appropriate for the viewer’s interest.
How can actions be triggered in the Power Automate?
Actions in Power Automate are typically triggered by events such as a new entry in the database or a condition being met. They are used to automate processes and workflows, boosting efficiency and reducing manual tasks.
What happens when an action is performed on an entity in Power Platform?
When an action is performed on an entity, it causes a change in the data stored in the entity. This could mean adding or updating data records, triggering a workflow, or initiating other operations.
What is the relationship between entities and topics in Power Platform?
Topics represent different categories of data while entities are components within those categories that store actual data records. Therefore, the entities fall under specific topics, creating a structured and organized data environment.
Can you create custom entities in Power Platform?
Yes, Power Apps allows you to create custom entities for specific use cases. Literally, every application might require specific entities which are not available in the default set.
How does having topics aid in the understanding of PowerBI Analytics?
Topics make it possible for non-technical users to understand the data being represented without necessarily knowing the detailed technical aspects of the data. It provides a high-level overview of what the data entails.
Does every entity require an action in Power Platform?
Not necessarily. While actions allow operations to be performed on entities, there are instances where entities may be created solely for storing data and may not require any action to be associated with them.
Can actions be automated in Power Automate?
Yes, Power automate indeed helps users to automate their routine tasks and manual efforts by setting up flows that kick off automatic actions based on triggered events.
What kind of record does an entity store in Power Platform?
Each entity in Power Platform can store a variety of record types that are dependent on fields defined within the entity. These could be text records, numerical records, date/time records, or more complex data types.
Can topics be subclasses of another topic?
Yes, topics can be classified into subclasses to create further segmentation and differentiation within a data set. This gives more granularity to data categorization and analysis.
Are there limits to the number of actions that can be performed in the Power Platform?
Technically there is no limit to the number of actions that can be performed, but optimal performance could be impacted if too many actions are running simultaneously. Also, some tiered pricing plans may limit the number of actions that can be performed per month.
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