Custom Like/Dislike functionality using SharePoint list formatting
By using the setValue list formatting value, we are able to update field values as demonstrated in the earlier Quick Approvals sample. And the in addition to the possibility demonstrated on that sample, we can also use the new functions removeFrom and appendTo in combination with setValue, so we are able to remove and add people to a multi-person field. After seeing great samples and ideas… Continue Reading Michel Mendes’s...
Quick SharePoint Approvals using list formatting JSON to set field values
This week it came to attention two new possible actions to buttons created using list formatting: setValue: Updates a field valueopenContextMenu: Displays the default context menu for the list item With the first one, we can update the values of any field in the list item. And update multiple field values with a single click. Not only this but we can use dynamic values and do… Continue Reading Michel Mendes’s Article...
Getting the working hours/time zones for other users using Microsoft Graph API
In a recent discussion on Twitter, we were exploring approaches on how to get the working hours and time zone for another user (not the current logged user) in Microsoft Graph. This information could be useful to warn users about the availability of our colleagues (especially when there are people in the team working in different countries) or use this information and delay actions until… Continue Reading Michel Mendes’s...
Permanently delete SharePoint list items using Power Automate (skip the Recycle Bin)
WARNING: Use this trick carefully. The delete action explained below cannot be undone after executed There are some cases where it’s needed to delete SharePoint list items using a Power Automate flow. But when using the default ‘Delete Item’ action from Power Automate, it sends the item to the Recycle Bin, it’s not a permanent delete. This could be cluttering your Recycle Bin, and also… Continue Reading...
Hiding the SharePoint page title with Power Automate
For any SharePoint modern page that you create manually, there always be a page title that you cannot remove using the SharePoint UI at the moment. There are known options to remove the page title using PnP PowerShell and Microsoft 365 CLI. What if you cannot use PowerShell or Microsoft 365 CLI to achieve this, what extra option could be used? The logic behind those options is… Continue Reading Michel Mendes’s Article on...
Creating Planner Plans using Power Automate
Currently, the Microsoft Planner connector for Power Automate/Power Apps does not have a ‘Create Plan’ action. There are options to manage tasks and buckets, but when it comes to plans, there are only actions to list content. Alternatives to create a plan We can use the graph API to create Planner plans. Previously, to use the Graph API in Power Automate, we would need to either use one… Continue Reading Michel...
AI Builder models as data sources in Power Apps
While I was playing around with a POC I was working on my developer tenant, I found out a new interesting feature appearing between the experimental features: Obviously, I wanted to try it out, and in this post, I will show my findings and an example of using it. If you haven’t tried it yet, check out how to enable and use it below. Enabling the feature To enable the feature, open… Continue Reading Michel Mendes’s...
Creating a Modern SharePoint Site using Power Automate
Are you wondering how could you create a SharePoint modern site using Power Automate to automate a site creation process and found out there is no action to create sites? Don’t worry, you can use SharePoint Rest API and the Send an HTTP Request to SharePoint action for that. Before using it, a few things to be aware. EndPoint/Settings To create sites you need to use the base url:… Continue Reading Michel Mendes’s...
Steps to deny Power Apps users access to SharePoint data from the SharePoint UI
In a post I wrote a while ago, I explained how to create a SharePoint custom permission level and special SharePoint groups to be used in Power Apps using PnP PowerShell. And also how to break the permissions on the specified site lists while granting access to the new groups only to those lists. Then, the users from those groups would be able to access the lists only from the app interface… Continue Reading Michel...
Teams + Power Apps: Building context/theme aware apps
By default, for any Power Apps canvas app used on Teams, either using Dataverse for teams, or a Standalone canvas app (added as Teams Tenant app or a tab) there is a list of parameters/context variables that Teams passes to the app via QueryString that can be used to detect current Teams… Continue Reading Michel Mendes’s Article on their blog Teams + Power Apps: Building context/theme aware apps – michelcarlo By...
SharePoint list View Formatting: Highlighting items older than a specific number of days
The out-of-the-box rule configurations for SharePoint lists/Microsoft lists give us several options to format views without touching the view JSON, but we still don’t have the option of using calculations using relative dates: Options to visually set up view formatting For this, we still need to create a custom JSON view, but it is pretty straightforward anyway. The logic behind To… Continue Reading Michel Mendes’s...
Restrict SharePoint list item attachments by file type using a custom form
Have you ever wanted to restrict the attachments on a SharePoint Online list by file type? If so you probably found that using SharePoint only there is no such setting. However, it is possible to use a custom list form built with the help of the Power Apps list forms to achieve this result, as in the example below: Check how to create the form and the steps to customise it: Create… Continue Reading Michel Mendes’s Article...
Microsoft Lists – Issue Tracker template: Summary email of active items with Power Automate
One feature that is not included in the Microsoft Lists/SharePoint lists templates but can be quite useful is the ability to get a summary of active items at a frequency of your convenience. Luckily a simple Power Automate Flow can achieve that. Check how to build this flow below. Issue Tracker List sample For this example, consider a scenario where you have used the Issue Tracker… Continue Reading Michel Mendes’s Article...
Power Apps: Merge tables/collections and get distinct records (without using Collect)
Imagine a case where you have two tables/collections in a Power Apps canvas app, and you want to merge those tables in a single one to be used somewhere else. The common practice is to use collections and to collect all data from those tables in a new collection. The problem of this approach If this collection is used in a single place, with no data editing need, an additional third… Continue Reading Michel Mendes’s...
SharePoint glossary page using view formatting and connected list WebParts
List view formatting in combination with the out-of-the-box list WebParts can be very powerful, enabling us to create very nice page experiences. It is possible to render a view that uses view formatting in the list WebParts, and also at the same time use the dynamic filter feature to filter content on a WebPart based on the selection from another WebPart on the same page. In this… Continue Reading Michel Mendes’s Article...
PowerShell: Get created date for Microsoft 365/Azure AD users
Recently I had a need in a project to get the dates that users were created/added to Microsoft 365, so it would be possible to get some statistics on how many users were added per period. As the number of users was not that big, the quicker solution was to figure out a way using Azure AD PowerShell. Prerequisite Azure AD Powershell module installed. The simpler… Continue Reading Michel Mendes’s Article on their blog How to...
PowerShell script: Get created date for Microsoft 365/Azure AD users
Recently I had a need in a project to get the dates that users were created/added to Microsoft 365, so it would be possible to get some statistics on how many users were added per period. The problem One limitation was that it should be achieved without Microsoft Graph or Microsoft Graph PowerShell. So, the choice was to figure out a way using Azure AD PowerShell. Prerequisite
Alternative to the ‘in’ operator for Power Apps when filtering SharePoint data
Many of you may already have faced some delegation limitations when using SharePoint as a data source for your canvas apps. When the operation or filter is delegable, it means the query results are processed by the data source and returned to Power App rather than being processed locally in the App, with a maximum of 2000 items to be returned per call. For performance reasons, the default… Continue Reading Michel Mendes’s...
Power Apps & SharePoint: Dynamically get the site URL from lists used in an App (and make your app Flows easily reusable)
Imagine a situation you create a Power Apps button triggered Power Automate Flow. This Flow stores a file in SharePoint from data in the app and you need to use the same Power Automate Flow idea in different Power Apps canvas apps. It’s basically the same Flow just the flow to export content from the app to a file in a SharePoint. Would you recreate the same flow and edit the copies over and… Continue Reading...
Enable Azure Application Insights in Power Apps canvas apps
Power Platform already gives us some statistics related to canvas apps usage from the Power Apps home or Admin Center, which are really good, but those feature statistics related to the whole app, not to a specific screen, or related to user screen flow. But luckily we can easily have that in place with Azure Application insights. What is Azure Application insights? Azure Application Insights… Continue Reading...
Trigger a Power Automate Flow only if a specific user modified a SharePoint list item
If you want to proceed running actions in a Power Automate Flow only if a specific user did the change in a SharePoint list item, you can easily use a condition and manage that. But this will consume one Flow run from your daily runs allowance. To do this before the Flow is executed, you can use Trigger conditions to achieve it. So the Flow will be triggered only if the formula specified as… Continue Reading Michel...
Trigger a Flow only if a specific user modified a SharePoint list item
If you want to proceed running actions in a Power Automate Flow only if a specific user did the change in a SharePoint list item, you can easily use a condition and manage that. But this will consume one Flow run from your daily runs allowance. To do this before the Flow is executed, you can use Trigger conditions to achieve it. So the Flow will be triggered only if the formula specified as… Continue Reading michelcarlo’s...
Avoid unsupported characters errors when creating Teams channels in a Flow
If you want to automate Microsoft Teams Channels using Power Automate Flows, you can use a simple action named ‘Create a channel’ from the Teams Connector in your Flows (still in preview at the time of writing this post – May 2020). But due to naming restrictions, if you use unsupported characters (~#%&*{}+/:<>?|’”..) in the channel name, you will get errors related to that and the...
Creating Teams channels in a Power Automate Flow: How to avoid unsupported characters errors
If you want to automate Microsoft Teams Channels using Power Automate Flows, you can use a simple action named ‘Create a channel’ from the Teams Connector in your Flows (still in preview at the time of writing this post). But due to naming restrictions, if you use unsupported characters (~#%&*{}+/:<>?|’”..) in the channel name, you will get errors related to that and the channel is not… Continue...
Quick tip: Force Power Automate Flows to be executed in a queue instead of multiple instances
The default behaviour of a Power Automate Flow is to allow multiple instances of the same flow running. But depending on the scenario or implementation, this can be a big problem, for example, a Flow that is triggered when an item is modified and then based on that iterates through a big list of items and updates a field. Especially when it comes to SharePoint Online, the Flow can be throttled… Continue Reading...
PowerShell script: Prevent Power Apps users from accessing lists from SharePoint UI
Power Apps with SharePoint lists as a data source are becoming widely built, especially due to licensing, as if a company already has the Microsoft 365/Office 365 enterprise plans, SharePoint connectors for Power Apps are included (while Azure SQL/Common Data services and others require premium plans). If we connect any SharePoint list to Power Apps, it has to be shared with all users for them… Continue Reading...
SharePoint HTTP connector: Send a no-reply email from a specific sender name in a Flow
ally if there’s a need for a no-reply email message in Power Automate Flows, the Mail connector is used. But when using Mail connector the sender display name can’t be changed. It will always be “Microsoft Power Apps and Power Automate”. However, if the message needs to be sent to internal users within your tenant only, an alternative approach using SharePoint Rest API and the ‘Send an HTTP…...
Power Automate – SharePoint ‘Get Items’ action: New options for folders
Recently a new option was released in Power Automate (formerly Microsoft Flow) which is available in the SharePoint action ‘Get Items’: Limit Entries to Folder Include Nested items The same settings have recently been included in the action ‘Get files (properly only)’: For some people, it would make sense to see those settings for files and not in a list as by default folders are not… Continue Reading...
Manage Power Automate Flows with a Power Automate Flow??
I recently came into a situation where I needed to add a user as co-owner for all of the flows under another user account, where there are lots of flows created. Did I add the user manually in every flow? No, I created a flow to add the user as owner in my Flows! In this post, I will quickly show how to build this simple and useful flow. In order to easily trigger the Flow manually, create it… Continue Reading...
Managing Power Automate: Create a Flow to manage Flows
I recently came into a situation where I needed to add a user as co-owner for all of the flows under another user account, where there are lots of Flows created. Did I add the user manually in every flow? No, I created a Flow to add the user as owner in my Flows! In this post, I will quickly show how to build this simple and useful Flow. In order to easily trigger the Flow manually, create it… Continue Reading Michel...
Automatically export Power BI Reports to files in SharePoint
Do know how easy is to automatically save Power BI exported reports into SharePoint or other data sources? Check a simple way of automating this process in this post. First things first, for the report you want to automate the ‘Capture’, you’ll need to set up a Power BI Report subscription, so you’ll receive report updates on your Office 365 Outlook mailbox. From this e-mail message, we… Continue Reading...
What’s the story with SharePoint certifications?
I constantly receive questions regarding SharePoint certifications and recommendations of what to study and get up to speed with what’s new in the SharePoint world, so I decided to wrap up the main topics here (no news, it’s mainly to summarise the recommendations). What are the current SharePoint developer certifications available? At the moment, there are no active SharePoint developer… Continue Reading...
Microsoft Flow – How to move SharePoint Online list items to folders
Let’s say you have a SharePoint list with folders organized by continent and you have as well a choice column with the continent name in this. You want to move automatically all the list items with the chosen continent to the specific continent folder. The first idea would be to use Microsoft Flow to do that, but there is no out-of-the-box action that moves list items to folders. At the… Continue Reading michelcarlo’s...
SharePoint Modern Lists: Force forms to open in full size
SharePoint list forms on modern experience lists will open in a dialog side box by design (at the moment of writing this post, no out-of-the-box options are available to change this). In my opinion for non-customized forms that’s ok, but for PowerApps forms in SharePoint lists, the layout is not fine when the form layout becomes large, due to currently the forms inside the lists not being… Continue Reading michelcarlo’s...
Security Trimming PowerApps based on Office 365 Groups
PowerApps already does security trim for item-level permissions based on the Data Source permissions, but in some cases you may want to implement extra rules or more complex trimming types that are not possible with the selected Data Source. That’s when Office 365 groups come to help. Showing or hiding controls in a PowerApps based on Office 365 group membership is not obvious but it is not… Continue Reading michelcarlo’s...
Using Eircode (Ireland Postcodes) to get Geolocation from Google Maps with Microsoft Flow
Let’s say you have a SharePoint list storing information with an Eircode column (postal code for addresses in Ireland), and you want to use that information in Power BI later to generate a map organizing all your items by location. Unfortunately, the Power BI maps don’t work fine with Eircodes, so how could we get the locations with the most precise information? Let’s use Microsoft Flow… Continue Reading michelcarlo’s...
Do you want to get up to speed in PowerApps?
Do you want to start building your business applications with PowerApps and don’t know where to start? I’ve been working with PowerApps + Flow on top of Office 365 for a while, and as am always studying and learning new stuff, I came across with some different content sources to get updated. Here are some excellent resources to begin with: Developing Business Applications with Power Apps… Continue Reading...
Project Online – Setting up default SharePoint field values with Microsoft Flow and Project/SharePoint Rest API
In this post, it’ll be shown how to set the default Risks list items title based on Project Name in project online, with the help of Microsoft Flow, Project Online Rest API and SharePoint Online Rest API. The “Send an HTTP request to SharePoint” allows us to overcome lots of the out-of-the-box SharePoint/Project Online Flow connectors limitations, by accessing various different… Continue Reading michelcarlo’s Article on...