Implement booking availability in Power Apps in less than 5 minutes
Today I was asked how to implement a booking availability solution in Power Apps. The booking availability app So I’m looking to create an app that will ask the user for some booking details, a start date and an end date for the booking period. Once you user has supplied those details we need to know if the slot is available or not. You could sue this for calendar management in for example a room booking solution. I’ve...
Delegation with SharePoint lists Power Apps vs Power Automate
We all know about delegation warnings in Power Apps, but how about delegation with SharePoint lists in Power Automate? Ever seen those blue lines in Power Automate? Delegation with SharePoint lists warnings in Power Apps In Power Apps there are quite a few delegation warnings that you can get. And when we hover over that blue line we will see that the Not function isn’t delegable within Power Apps. Looking at the SharePoint...
Timing issues in relation to App OnStart, Screen OnVisible, Timers and user interruptions in Power Apps
When you create apps, it is important to understand the timing issues that may happen. When various elements manipulate data, things could go wrong quite easily. fixing these issues however is not an easy task. Running code When you create an app there are various places where you can insert code to read data or write data. We can add code in the following places: App OnStart Screen OnVisible Timer ( On Start and On End) User...
Implement a PDF preview in a Model Driven Apps
Recently I needed to implement a PDF preview in a Model Driven App. This should be quite an easy thing to implement. The PDF Preview in a Model Driven Apps options Well, I considered the following options: Out of the box previewer Existing custom controls for my Model Driven App Develop a new custom PCF control Embedded Canvas app I looked at the existing controls but there doesn’t seem to be a file preview option available....
Performance of the Graph API, REST API and Web Services with SharePoint and Power Automate
When you build your flows do you consider performance? SharePoint has multiple APIs available. The Performance of the Graph API, REST API and Web Services is very different. Graph API, SharePoint REST API and Web Services Before I’m looking at the performance of the Graph API and the other APIs, I first want to have a look at each API. The naming here is already a bit confusing as the Graph API is also an API following the REST...
Develop your own chatbot in Power Apps
Recently a new feature to added to Power Apps to add your Power Virtual Agent chatbot in Power Apps. In this post the step by step guide. Enable the Chatbot component feature In the settings of your app all you have to do is enable the Chatbot component feature and you are up and running. Then of course don’t forget to save your app and restart the Power Apps studio and reopen you app. Adding the Chatbot to your app Now you can...
SharePoint Enterprise Content Types and the Graph API
Following my posts about the Content Type Gallery and my series about the Graph API, today a post about Enterprise Content Types in SharePoint and how to access them through the Graph API. Creating an Enterprise Content Type From the SharePoint admin center I have created an Enterprise Content Type as shown below: Then within my Content Type I’ve created an Enterprise Content Type Site Column as shown below. Both my content type...
Stop missing reminders in Outlook
Do you ever miss the start of a meeting because those reminders don’t pop up when you want them to pop up? Do you want to stop missing reminders? Reminders in Outlook 15 minutes before a meeting starts reminders will appear (unless you have disabled this) while you work on other things. This can really help you avoid missing meetings. Recently however I noticed that when I ignore reminders and don’t dismiss them that the...
Don’t Update or Insert records in Dataverse but Upsert when using Power Automate
A typical pattern for data import processes is that you first check if an item exists before either inserting or updating the found item. Upsert (Update or Insert) the item in one operation is however better. Update or Insert So the base process could look something like this. We first get the flow to check if the item already exists and then when it doesn’t exist we can add the item. However there is a bit of time between those...
Size your Power Apps with Height and Width in SharePoint webparts
Sizing you apps in Power Apps isn’t any more complicated than setting the height and the width of the app. But tday I came across a situation where I needed a banner shaped app. Banner image So I created a Power App and added an image control that shows my banner. If I was to add this to a sharePoint page then I would end up with a lot of unused space on my page. So how do we resize the app so that we don’t have the white...
Filter null values in Dataverse using Power Automate
Filtering records on empty values can be a real pain as there are many mistakes to make. Null First of all I would like to have a look at the null function. Many times, I’ve seen people ask the question why their null values haven’t been working. Below 3 examples. Only one will really work. In Power Automate you can have an expression null. You can type the text null (this is just 4 characters, n,u,l,l) And then you can...
Lock and wipe devices using Microsoft Graph in Power Automate
On a recent project I needed to be able to lock and wipe devices. I used Microsoft Graph, Power Automate and HTTP requests to get this done. In this post the details. Big Warning This post should have a big “Don’t try this at home (or work)” warning as you wouldn’t want to wipe a device that someone is actually using for the wrong reasons. In my case we are managing 1000s of laptops for an organization who...
2 Liquid tips – Generate GUIDs and base urls in Power Pages
In this post I’m looking at Power Pages and how to get the base url of my site and generate Guids in Liquid. Power Pages development Ok, first of all, Power Pages development can be challenging for many. It really helps if you are good at the following technologies: HTML CSS JavaScript Dataverse Liquid Now assuming that you have a basic understand of the above, I’ve got 2 quick tips to hopefully make your Power Pages...
I don’t believe this is true (or false) in Power Automate child flows
Sometimes Power Automate can be difficult to understand. Today I’m looking at the how child flows handle the boolean values true and false. True or false Just to start this post I would like to make clear that true is not a text “True” and false is not “False” Child flow output in Power Automate I’ve created a simple flow that I will call from another flow. My child flow has two output parameters...
Create a stack trace in Power Automate flows
Many pro developers will be familiar with the concept of stack traces. Can we take this idea into the low code world? Stack Trace Within Power Automate I like to use child flows and after the introduction of the Try Catch Finally pattern over 5 years ago and the idea of passing Parent flow URLs to child flows, I’ve been thinking about creating a stack trace. In the pro code world a stack trace can show you which...
Get your Microsoft Teams One on One chats with Power Automate using the Graph API
You can get some details of One on One chats in Microsoft Teams using the Microsoft Teams connector in Power Automate, but getting the actual details is slightly harder. Chats and the Teams Connector Using the List chats action you can choose to get chats of the different types available. This way you can get the chats that are within Groups, Meetings or the One on One chats. When we run this flow however, we will only see very little...
Fetch Xml vs Filter Queries in Power Automate
When you query rows in Dataverse using Power Automate you have a few options. Fetch Xml and Filter queries are the two obvious options to go for. But when should you use which? List Rows action When we compare the Get Items ( from SharePoint) with List rows for Dataverse, there are a few differences The Dataverse List rows and the SharePoint Get Items both have filter options, but only the Dataverse action has a Fetch Xml Query...
Query Excel tables using Power Automate
This week I was asked three times about how to query Excel files using Power Automate. Time for a SharePains post on this subject. Is Excel a Database? I can’t stop myself from starting with a warning. Excel is not a database and it shouldn’t be used as such. Many people however seem to use Excel as a source of data, therefor I’m going to give in and write a post on how to query your data in Excel. If your Excel...
Managing high volumes of flow runs within Power Automate using Power Apps
When you have high volumes like 100s of flows in your environment how do you manage these flows. All these flows are kicking off whenever they need to run. It can be a challenge to find out which flows are actively running. Finding your Running flows When you use the standard Power Automate UI, you can see all your flows, but if you want to see if a flow is running or if a flow has failed then you will probably have to visit each...
How to use Microsoft Graph for SharePoint within Power Automate
In this post a variety of options on how to use Microsoft Graph for SharePoint within Power Automate. My Microsoft Graph Series, so far I will start with a quick overview of the Microsoft Graph posts that I published recently. MS Graph API Authentication in Introduction Manage Users with the Graph API Manage calendars and events The Subscription model within Graph API using Power Automate Read Excel files faster using the Graph API...
Data in collections not appearing in Power Apps
Have you ever found that data in collections not appearing in Power Apps? Are you displaying data in collections from a data source while you haven’t used this data source directly in your UI controls? Explicit column selection If you have found that your galleries aren’t loading data then you might have fallen for the issues related to the Explicit column selection feature. So what does this feature do? When you load your...
Using the Content Type Gallery in SharePoint Online with existing sites
Recently the Content Type Hub in SharePoint Online turned into the Content Type Gallery and this is more that just a rename of a feature. Creating Content Types You might have noticed that when you try to update content types or add new content types that the look and feel of the pages have changed a bit. The warning at the top ponts towards an article explains some of the changes. All good so far. If you are tying to enable the...
Applying site designs failing to apply the site design to SharePoint
Today I tried to apply a site design to a SharePoint site using Power Automate, however this would just not work without any failure being reported. ApplySiteDesign This is going to be a quick post. But hopefully this will help someone else spend too much time on this issue. Normally the ApplySiteDesign endpoint will apply a site design to a SharePoint site however I found that when you have larger site scripts assigned to your site...
Graph API responding with Unexpected response from the service in Power Automate
Today a real SharePains post. I create a flow that makes a call to the Microsoft Graph API and I’m getting “Unexpected response from the service”. This is as good as something went wrong. Unexpected response from the service The Unexpected response from the service error message doesn’t give us very much. You get these errors when something is wrong within the request. This error seems to catch all the errors...
Calculate progress of tasks in SharePoint using Power Automate
Today, I was asked about how to calculate progress on a task list in SharePoint using Power Auotmate The requirements Imagine that each task goes through 5 phases and we now want to get a percentage complete column filled. My first thought of course was to use calculated columns, but in this case there were actually nearly 30 phases to go through. Calculated columns might be an options but getting an expression written for that would...
Manage Users using the Graph API in Power Automate
When you manage user accounts within Power Automate, you can user the Office 365 Users connector, but sometimes the Graph API can give you more possibilities. Office 365 Users Connector The Office 365 Users connector gives some help with user management with the following actions: Get relevant people Get trending documents Get user photo Get user photo metadata Get user profile Search for user Update my profile Update my profile photo...
Microsoft Graph API and the Power Platform
This is going to be a large series of posts about the Microsoft Graph API and the Power Platform. Introduction to the Graph API I often get asked questions about the Graph API when using Power Automate. It can be difficult to get the configuration right. It only takes one character being wrong and the Power Automate might give you some unclear error message that takes you days to debug. What is the Microsoft Graph API? Well it is an...
A form with a multi-select dropdown with additional information collected for each selected option in Power Apps
Yesterday I was asked on the chat here, if it is possible to use a multi-select dropdown in a form and then ask for each selected option some additional information. In this post the pattern that you could follow. Use case In my example I will have a form where I’m asking for working days and then for each working day I will ask for a range of working hours. The development of the solution all starts with data. In this case...
Quickly find the parent from the child flow in Power Automate
When you have used child flows and attempted to debug issues you will have come across the issue where you want to find the parent flow for the failing child flow. Parent – Child flows In this example I’ve created a simple set of flows. There is one parent flow and there is a child flow. The parent flow calls my child flow using the Run a child flow action. Then the Child flow has a manual trigger and does something before...
Create multi user real time apps in Power Apps
When multiple users edit data and you want your app to show real time data, you will need a multi user real time app. It isn’t a good idea to reload all your data every time someone might have updated data. The data setup I’m going to use SharePoint as my data store within this post, however the pattern could be applied to any database, such as SQL or Dataverse. First of all I’m creating a list that will hold my data...
Sort by Title in your Highlighted Content web part in SharePoint
Yesterday I was asked about how to sort Documents in the Highlighted Content web part by the Title property. To sort by Title you will have to go through some extra steps. SharePoint Search web parts First I would like to take you through some history. In the year 2016, I wrote a blog post about making the Title field sortable in the classic SharePoint search web parts. And for the Highlighted content web part we have to roughly go...
Copy large files from SharePoint to Azure Blob Storage using Power Automate
When you try to copy large files from SharePoint to Azure Bob Storage with Power Automate, you will find that you have a few options. But quite a few of them fail straight away. In this post the solution. Failed attempts I’m going to include my failed attempts first. In my situation I would like to take a file in SharePoint, get its content and then upload it to Azure Blob Storage. Attempt 1 – Get file content failure I...
Sort an array by dates in Power Automate
When we use the Sort function to sort arrays in Power Automate, it is soo much easier than the 3 step approach that we had before. But there are a few potential issues when you really start to use this function. Sort Dates When we sort dates in Power Automate we really want to to work with dates like this: We have some dates generated by for example a get items action in SharePoint. Or anything else that generates the dates and all...
New! Format data by examples in Power Automate
This feature “Format data by examples” will kill one of my most popular posts! How to format dates using formatDateTime. Using the Format data by example Although this feature is easy to use, it is worth writing a quick blog post about this. You can find this new feature in the expression editor. It has even been given a blue icon to jump out at you. Just click on it and then you will see a pane sliding in where you can...
Named formulas in Power Apps using App.Formulas
Do you use the App onstart to set a lot of variables? And then do you repeat this same within other places of the app to keep things up to date? The new named formulas in App.Formula might be a better option. Enable Named Formulas To enable Named functions you can go to the Settings in your app. Then switch on the Named formula feature. Notice that this feature is still experimental, but it is a great feature to try out ( in non...
Introduction to the PDF function in Power Apps
Have you ever wanted to create a PDF from your Power Apps Screens? Now you can using a the new PDF function in Power Apps Enabling the PDF Function To enable this new experimental feature all you have to do is look for the PDF function feature in the Experimental tab and enable it. Using the PDF function Now straight away you will be able to use the PDF function as shown below. <img loading=”lazy”...
Do Power Platform updates come as a surprise?
How often does it happen that you are working in Power Automate or Power Apps and suddenly on of those new Power Platform Updates features appears. Released Versions It can be hard to keep up with all the changes within the Power Platform. There are so many releases and so many new features arriving all the time. You can find these releases using the following URL: Released Versions – Release Notes Power Platform Released...
Use ParseJSON in PowerApps to retrieve data from Power Automate
Recently a new ParseJSON feature was added to Power Apps. ParseJSON is possibly one of the most complex functions available in Power Apps. in this post some help! ParseJSON Introduction Imagine that we have a flow that sends data back to a Power App using a text property in the Respond to a PowerApp or flow action. But rather than creating multiple fields we return everything as a single text property. Now the app will receive a text...
1 step to update an item in an array in Power Automate
What do you do when you have an array of data in Power Automate and you want to update just one item? Generate an array In this example I will generate an array of numbers using the following expression: range(1,10) This will now generate the array when I run the flow. So how about updating item 7 to 17? I could imagine using Pieter’s method but there is an easier option. Just 10 minutes ago I was asked on the chat how I would...
Failed to load in Azure Synapse Workspace
After last week’s post about how to configure Azure Synapse Link to export data from Dataverse into SQL Server, today a post about some issues. How do you deal witht he failed to load messages that users might get when accessing the data. Failed to load When users try to access the data, they may get the failed to load message. The supporting details of the error may say something like Failed to load one or more resources due to...
Buckinghamshire & Northamptonshire Power Platform User Group launch
Have you been waiting for a new face to face Power Platform User Group in Buckinghamshire & Northamptonshire? First Power Platform User Group session Register now Our first evening will be on 28 September 7pm – 9 pm in the following location: Building 3, Royal Ordnance Depot, Weedon Bec, Northamptonshire, NN7 4PS, United Kingdom Will have the following amazing sessions to kick off this user group: Laura Graham-Brown –...
Configure Dataverse exports using Azure Synapse Links for Azure SQL Databases
In this post I’m looking at the Azure SQL databases option that is part of the Azure Synapse link configuration. A bit of background Azure Synapse Links let you configure Dataverse exports to Azure. Quite often this results in a file structure in azure storage that holds csv files. These csv files are organised in such a way that the year (or month) of the records creation in Dataverse decide where your exported data will end...
5 steps to implement word based search in Power Apps
A common requirement in Power Apps is to create a word based search on data in galleries. Step 1 – Basic search in Power Apps First of all I would like to have a look at some basic (not working so well) search on data in galleries. In my example here I’m using a SharePoint list as my data source, but there is no real difference between SharePoint and Dataverse or SQL in this case. Imagine I have an app as shown below with...
900th post on SharePains.com, it is a time to celebrate and win!
This is the 900th post on SharePains.com and I thought this would be a good moment to celebrate that milestone. Ok, it is not the 1000th post but 900 is still quite a lot. The 900th Post Quiz With posts about many of the Microsoft Technologies, SharePains has grown from just a few posts in the beginning to multiple posts per week in the recent years. SharePains has helped with user pains related to SharePoint, Power Platform, Azure,...
Resolved – Avoid variables in Apply To Each steps in Power Automate
Yesterday I was asked about how to avoid variables when you want an index number of the item processed by an apply to each step. Variables or Compose? The variables or compose question is quite an old question in the Power Automate world. The main issue with variables is that inside an apply to each variables lock the processing of items by the Apply to each. This disables the possibility to run the processing in parallel using the...
Debug Compose actions and Conditions in Power Automate
Debug compose actions and condition steps can be difficult as flow runs will only show the output of your expressions. In this post a workaround, to make this easier. Try-Catch-Finally Before I go into the solution, it will be useful to reintroduce the Try Catch Finally pattern used within this post. It has been a while since I wrote my first Try catch pattern post, 4 year ago, and since then it has been accepted as general best...
What can I do with my Power Automate Licenses?
Do you know what you can do when you purchased Power Automate licenses? Or what does that Trial that you enabled give you? Power Apps Plan(s) In Power Apps the option to see which licenses you have has been available for a little while in the Settings menu under Plan(s). This then gives me the underwhelming overview of my licenses. But if you want to know more you will need to go to Power Automate. Power Automate Licenses Today I...
Azure Application Insights and Error Handling in Power Apps
This post is all about error handling in Power Apps with Azure Application Insight. Logging all events in your app (wanted and unwanted) within an easy to use log. Enable the Application Insight feature To enable the Azure Application Insights integration we will first need to enable to Pass errors to Azure Application Insights. If however you want to also catch any erroring code you will also need to enable the Formula-level error...
Boolean logic in Power Apps
This post is all about Boolean logic in Power Apps. So that is all the true/false stuff within your app. true and false In short we have two values that are important in Boolean logic. And we actually have 3 values that are relevant: truefalsenull/empty/nothing/undefined ( or whatever you would like to call this) In Power Apps we can now use this true and false to check if something is true or if it is false (yes this sounds indeed...
Secure your SharePoint data in Power Apps using Power Automate
Although Dataverse is available many of us still use SharePoint to store their data. But how do you secure your SharePoint data? Or are you just happy for people to edit your data outside your app? SharePoint is not a database!? I often hear that SharePoint is not a database. Our friends from Oracle use the following definition of a database: A database is an organized collection of structured information, or data, typically stored...