Introduction

This post describes a Power App that fetches and displays data from the Stack Exchange REST API using OAuth2 authentication, with a custom connector created by importing a collection from Postman.

Why did this happen?

This is a step in my ongoing project to access our Blackboard Learn Virtual Learning Environment using REST APIs. I thought this might be possible using Microsoft Power Apps, which would allow the development of apps more quickly, but getting the connection itself figured out was proving complex^{(*here’s why)}.

The first step in testing out this theory was my Dad Jokes Power App, which did not require any authentication.

Once that worked, the next step was to try the same process with another REST API that used the same kind of OAuth2 authentication process as Learn. After searching through various free public API lists, I found the Stack Exchange API, which seemed to match the authentication process fairly closely, and has good instructions too.

I also thought it looked useful in its own right, both for keeping up with news from developers, and for trying out methods for searching, sorting and filtering data when I got further into the Power Apps side of app development.

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