The ask, address a Power Automate cloud flow that needlessly continues to run even when there's no data to process. This particular flow is an Automated cloud flow, and it runs daily, emailing a dynamic list of people a digest report of SharePoint Online list items created the day prior. The flow is triggered, then … Continue reading Power Automate: Cloud Flows | Terminate Unnecessary Runs
Power Platform
Power Automate: SharePoint Online | Check If Document Set Exists [ v3 ]
The ask, find another, another way to determine whether a document set exists or not. Still using the Deal ID value as the unique identifier, instead of adding the Get files (properties only) action [ option #2 ], use the Send an HTTP request to SharePoint action. This particular HTTP request action takes advantage of … Continue reading Power Automate: SharePoint Online | Check If Document Set Exists [ v3 ]
Power Automate: SharePoint Online | Check If Document Set Exists [ v2 ]
The ask, determine whether or not a document set exists before Power Automate tries to create one. Otherwise, the cloud flow will run long, appear stuck, and eventually fail. The flow could check for an existing document set by Name, but because SharePoint Online (SPO) isn't the source of truth system. this column value isn't … Continue reading Power Automate: SharePoint Online | Check If Document Set Exists [ v2 ]
Power Platform: Application Lifecycle Management | Housekeeping
As with Power Automate housekeeping, good Power Platform solution hygiene means being intentional with design. Keep the managed and unmanaged solutions as lite as possible, and work to reduce the amount of unnecessary project assets. Larger Power Platform solutions can bundle dozens of different assets, as well as dozens of each asset type. For example, … Continue reading Power Platform: Application Lifecycle Management | Housekeeping
Power Automate: Ticketing System | Microsoft Teams + SharePoint Online [managed solution]
Some time ago, I architected a low-cost "service management"-esque app combining Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online (SPO), and Power Automate. As a Power Platform low-code solution, I could piece everything together and demo a working ticketing system in a few hours. However, I never packaged the deliverable as a Power Platform managed solution, adhering to proper … Continue reading Power Automate: Ticketing System | Microsoft Teams + SharePoint Online [managed solution]
Power Apps: Canvas App | Merging Data Sources w/ AddColumn()
Scenario: There is a canvas app with a text box, two radio choices, a vertical gallery, and two data sources. Toggling the radio button changes which data source is filtered and used to populate the gallery. Problem: The data sources don't have any data columns in common and Power Apps doesn't like that. Solution: Create … Continue reading Power Apps: Canvas App | Merging Data Sources w/ AddColumn()
Power Platform: Data Sources | SQL Tables or Dataverse Tables
The Power Platform is Microsoft's collective of no-code/ low-code solutions. To supplement this platform, Dataverse is Microsoft's secure, no-code/ low-code data storage solution. SQL Server is still a strong contender for data storage, but leveraging it requires some mastery of SQL. Dataverse, however, stores data in tables just like SQL, but doesn't require any proficiency … Continue reading Power Platform: Data Sources | SQL Tables or Dataverse Tables
Power Automate: Generate Custom GUID(s)
Yes, there is a guid() expression available in Power Automate. The provided expression doesn't accept parameters though, so for some people, there isn't an easy way to control the GUID formatting. With that in mind, it might be worth creating your own GUID value: Figure 1 - Power Automate cloud flow logic. After the cloud … Continue reading Power Automate: Generate Custom GUID(s)
Power Platform: Data Sources | SQL Tables or SPO Lists
The Power Platform is Microsoft's collection of low-code, citizen developer solutions. Being low-code, makers don't need coding experience to build their apps, bots, automations, and/ or dashboards. Even so, makers still need to decide where their data should ultimately live. For most people, SQL is typically the go-to data storage consideration. And honestly, SQL isn't … Continue reading Power Platform: Data Sources | SQL Tables or SPO Lists
Power Fx: Calculate | Calculate Days in a Month
Power Fx is the Excel-like, formula language of the Power Platform. Akin to Microsoft Excel, most of the functions are only reasonably powerful on their own. When they're combined though, they become much more awe-inspiring. For example, calculating the number of days in a month. Calculating this, makers only need a handful of functions and … Continue reading Power Fx: Calculate | Calculate Days in a Month
Power Apps: Build a Game… !NeRdlE!
!JeOpArDy was my last canvas app game, so it's been a while. Working on another canvas app, I wanted to give "Nerdle" a try. Important to note though, I'm only replicating maybe 80% of the game. With this in mind, puzzles are hardcoded and not loaded from an external source. Also, keeping this post from … Continue reading Power Apps: Build a Game… !NeRdlE!
Power Fx: Understanding | With()
Power Fx is the Excel-like programming language of the Power Platform, more specifically canvas apps. As with any of their programming offerings, Microsoft has bundled plenty of pre-built functions into Power Fx. Among these bundled functions, With() is easily a standout. If you haven't worked the With() function into your canvas apps yet, then you're … Continue reading Power Fx: Understanding | With()
Power Platform: Understanding | Solutions + Environments
Application lifecycle management is the governance, deployment, and maintenance of applications. Even though the Power Platform is "low-code", makers should still adopt the practice. More specifically, when deploying their projects as solutions across environments. So, what are solutions and what are environments? Solutions are bundled project assets. In the Power Platform ecosystem, these project assets … Continue reading Power Platform: Understanding | Solutions + Environments
Power Apps: Canvas App | Best Practices + Tips
Power Apps come in two flavors. To begin, there are model-driven apps, which are built on the Microsoft Dataverse and are more data-focused. These model-driven apps are not meant to be pretty. However, canvas apps are customizable and can be pretty, so they're more UI/UX-focused. Contrasting the two approaches, makers should build canvas apps if … Continue reading Power Apps: Canvas App | Best Practices + Tips
Power Automate: Lookup Table Arrays
As Power Automate cloud flows grow in complexity, makers often need to nest loops within loops. Nesting loops isn't bad, but nesting the same loop more than once is inefficient. An alternative approach, loop the content once without nesting it and build an array of objects, which creates a lookup table that can be referenced … Continue reading Power Automate: Lookup Table Arrays
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