Building a leaderboard is an excellent way to incentivize users and engage them with a competitive or performance-based experience. Whether it’s for a game, a training program, or any other metric, Dataverse combined with Power Pages (formerly Power Apps Portals) allows you to create dynamic, real-time leaderboards for your users.
Below is a step-by-step guide to creating a leaderboard using Dataverse and Power Pages:
Key Features of the Leaderboard System
- Data Storage: Store leaderboard data (user scores, rankings) in Dataverse.
- Real-Time Updates: Display real-time updates to the leaderboard on the portal.
- Filtering and Sorting: Enable sorting of the leaderboard based on different criteria (e.g., score, ranking).
- User-Specific Views: Show users their own ranking and details in the leaderboard.
- Dynamic Display: Allow for visual customization of the leaderboard in Power Pages (e.g., table or chart).
Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Leaderboard System
Step 1: Set Up a Dataverse Table for Storing Leaderboard Data
Before you can display any leaderboard, you need to store the scores and rankings in Dataverse.
- Go to Power Apps → Dataverse → Tables.
- Create a New Table for the leaderboard, for example, Leaderboard Data.
- Add the following columns:
- User (Lookup to the Users table or a text field if you are using external IDs).
- Score (Number or Decimal type, depending on the metric).
- Rank (Number type).
- Date Achieved (Date or Date/Time type, used for showing when the score was achieved).
- Other Metadata (Any additional details you want to capture, like course name or competition).
- Add the following columns:
- After creating the table, ensure that the Rank field is updated programmatically either by a Power Automate flow or on data entry to maintain a correct ranking order based on scores.
Step 2: Create a Power Automate Flow for Updating Rankings
In many cases, the rank of a user will change frequently. This is especially true in scenarios where scores are updated in real-time or periodically. A Power Automate flow can be used to automatically recalculate ranks whenever a new score is added or an existing score is updated.
- Create a New Flow:
- Trigger: The flow should be triggered when a new record is created or an existing record is updated in the Leaderboard Data table.
- Action: Sort all leaderboard entries by the Score field in descending order. After sorting, update the Rank field for each user according to their position in the sorted list.
- Use List Rows to get all leaderboard data from Dataverse.
- Sort the results by the Score field.
- Use an Apply to each loop to update the Rank field for each user based on their position in the sorted list.
- Save and Test the Flow: After creating the flow, ensure that it runs correctly by adding or modifying data in the Leaderboard Data table.
Step 3: Create a Power Pages (Portal) Page to Display the Leaderboard
After setting up the Dataverse table and automating rank updates, you need to display the leaderboard on a Power Pages site.
- Create a New Page in Power Pages:
- Go to your Power Pages site and create a new page to display the leaderboard.
- Add a Table or Gallery component to your page.
- Connect to Dataverse:
- Set the data source of the table or gallery to the Leaderboard Data table in Dataverse.
- You can filter this data to display only the top N leaderboard entries (e.g., top 10) by applying a filter or using pagination to show entries in chunks.
- Design the Display:
- Include the User’s Name, Score, Rank, and Date Achieved in the gallery or table.
- Optionally, you can use custom HTML or JavaScript to enhance the leaderboard’s appearance (e.g., color-code the top players, add a progress bar, or display profile pictures).
- User-Specific Views:
- To display a user’s own ranking, you can use a Power Pages feature to show personalized data. For example, you can filter the gallery to show a single user’s entry using their User ID or Email.
- Real-Time Updates:
- If you want to show real-time updates on the leaderboard, you could implement Auto Refresh or JavaScript polling to periodically check for updated data in the Leaderboard Data table and refresh the display.
Step 4: Customize the Leaderboard with Advanced Features
- Leaderboard Display Options:
- Add a Top 10 leaderboard, or let users filter the leaderboard by time range (e.g., today, week, or all-time).
- Implement pagination for displaying a large number of records.
- User-Specific Leaderboard:
- To show a specific user’s rank, add a button or widget that displays their score and ranking.
- For example, you can show a personalized message like: “You are ranked #5 in this competition!”
- Gamification Features:
- Consider adding gamification elements such as badges, levels, or achievement pop-ups when users reach a specific rank.
- Power Automate can also trigger email notifications when users achieve a certain rank or score milestone.
Step 5: Provide Filters and Sorting Options
Allow users to interact with the leaderboard by providing filtering and sorting options.
- Filters:
- You can allow users to filter the leaderboard by various criteria, such as:
- Top performers (based on score).
- Date ranges (e.g., weekly, monthly, all-time).
- Categories or Competitions (if applicable).
- You can allow users to filter the leaderboard by various criteria, such as:
- Sorting:
- Provide sorting options such as sorting by score, rank, or date.
- Use the Dataverse query capabilities to sort and filter data before it is displayed in the portal.
Step 6: Test and Deploy
- Test the System:
- Test the leaderboard system by creating new entries in the Leaderboard Data table and ensuring that the ranks are updated automatically.
- Verify that the leaderboard displays the correct data and updates in real-time or as expected.
- Deploy the Leaderboard:
- Once everything is tested and functioning, deploy the leaderboard on your Power Pages portal.
- Monitor the leaderboard’s usage and ensure that it scales properly with the number of users.