Flow Alt Delete – Josh Cook [Microsoft MVP]

Category: Power Platform

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  • Get the difference between two dates (Updated 2025)

    Get the difference between two dates (Updated 2025)

    Many Power Automate users encounter issues with the dateDifference() function when calculating the difference between two dates. The problem arises when the output format varies depending on the duration, causing errors in extracting Days, Hours, Minutes, and Seconds.

    This blog provides a robust and easy-to-implement solution that works seamlessly in all scenarios, including durations less than a day. Learn how to use a single expression with conditional logic to avoid these common pitfalls and ensure your date calculations are accurate every time. This is your ultimate fix for handling dateDifference() errors!

    The Flow

    1. Compose action: named StartDate = 2024-12-10T15:58:28
    2. Compose action: named EndDate = 2024-12-10T19:22:20
    3. Compose action: uses dateDifference() expression. see below

    Below is the expression used in the ‘Date Difference’ compose action. It dynamically handles all scenarios—when days are included and when they are not (same with hours and minutes).

    dateDifference expression

    Create a compose action for StartDate and EndDate

    if(
   contains(
     dateDifference(outputs('StartDate'), outputs('EndDate')), 
     '.'
   ),
   json(
     concat(
       '{"Days":', string(int(split(dateDifference(outputs('StartDate'), outputs('EndDate')), '.')[0])),
       ',"Hours":', string(int(split(split(dateDifference(outputs('StartDate'), outputs('EndDate')), '.')[1], ':')[0])),
       ',"Minutes":', string(int(split(split(dateDifference(outputs('StartDate'), outputs('EndDate')), '.')[1], ':')[1])),
       ',"Seconds":', string(int(split(split(dateDifference(outputs('StartDate'), outputs('EndDate')), '.')[1], ':')[2])),
       '}'
     )
   ),
   json(
     concat(
       '{"Days":0',
       ',"Hours":', string(int(split(dateDifference(outputs('StartDate'), outputs('EndDate')), ':')[0])),
       ',"Minutes":', string(int(split(dateDifference(outputs('StartDate'), outputs('EndDate')), ':')[1])),
       ',"Seconds":', string(int(split(dateDifference(outputs('StartDate'), outputs('EndDate')), ':')[2])),
       '}'
     )
   )
)

    How it works

    • The if() function checks if the dateDifference() result contains a . (dot).
    • If it does, it means the result has a days component (e.g., 1268.04:15:30), so we parse out Days, Hours, Minutes, and Seconds accordingly.
    • If it does not, it means the result is less than a day (e.g., 12:57:47.2544602), so we treat Days as 0 and parse Hours, Minutes, and Seconds directly from the string.

    Result:

    This will produce a JSON object like:
    {
    "Days": 1268,
    "Hours": 4,
    "Minutes": 15,
    "Seconds": 30
    }
    Or
    {
    "Days": 0,
    "Hours": 12,
    "Minutes": 57,
    "Seconds": 47
    }

    Steps to Access Each Value

    If you use the fixed expression directly in a Compose action (e.g., named Date_Difference), you can reference the fields like this:

    • Days: outputs('Date_Difference')?['Days']
    • Hours: outputs('Date_Difference')?['Hours']
    • Minutes: outputs('Date_Difference')?['Minutes']
    • Seconds: outputs('Date_Difference')?['Seconds']

    Use these expressions in subsequent actions (like another Compose, a Condition, or Apply to Each) to reference the specific values.

    Download my Flow

    You can easily copy and paste actions in Power Automate. Allowing you to copy and paste my example.

    1. Classic designer
    2. New designer

    Classic designer

    Step 1: Copy the code snippet

    {"id":"b6b531e2-b7b5-4a9e-86bd-7e2a069529a0","brandColor":"#8C3900","connectionReferences":{},"connectorDisplayName":"Control","icon":"data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMzIiIGhlaWdodD0iMzIiIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMSIgdmlld0JveD0iMCAwIDMyIDMyIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPg0KIDxwYXRoIGQ9Im0wIDBoMzJ2MzJoLTMyeiIgZmlsbD0iIzhDMzkwMCIvPg0KIDxwYXRoIGQ9Im04IDEwaDE2djEyaC0xNnptMTUgMTF2LTEwaC0xNHYxMHptLTItOHY2aC0xMHYtNnptLTEgNXYtNGgtOHY0eiIgZmlsbD0iI2ZmZiIvPg0KPC9zdmc+DQo=","isTrigger":false,"operationName":"Get_date_difference_object","operationDefinition":{"type":"Scope","actions":{"StartDate":{"type":"Compose","inputs":"2024-12-10T15:58:28","runAfter":{}},"EndDate":{"type":"Compose","inputs":"2024-12-10T19:22:20","runAfter":{"StartDate":["Succeeded"]}},"Date_Difference":{"type":"Compose","inputs":"@if(\r\n   contains(\r\n     dateDifference(outputs('StartDate'), outputs('EndDate')), \r\n     '.'\r\n   ),\r\n   json(\r\n     concat(\r\n       '{\"Days\":', string(int(split(dateDifference(outputs('StartDate'), outputs('EndDate')), '.')[0])),\r\n       ',\"Hours\":', string(int(split(split(dateDifference(outputs('StartDate'), outputs('EndDate')), '.')[1], ':')[0])),\r\n       ',\"Minutes\":', string(int(split(split(dateDifference(outputs('StartDate'), outputs('EndDate')), '.')[1], ':')[1])),\r\n       ',\"Seconds\":', string(int(split(split(dateDifference(outputs('StartDate'), outputs('EndDate')), '.')[1], ':')[2])),\r\n       '}'\r\n     )\r\n   ),\r\n   json(\r\n     concat(\r\n       '{\"Days\":0',\r\n       ',\"Hours\":', string(int(split(dateDifference(outputs('StartDate'), outputs('EndDate')), ':')[0])),\r\n       ',\"Minutes\":', string(int(split(dateDifference(outputs('StartDate'), outputs('EndDate')), ':')[1])),\r\n       ',\"Seconds\":', string(int(split(dateDifference(outputs('StartDate'), outputs('EndDate')), ':')[2])),\r\n       '}'\r\n     )\r\n   )\r\n)","runAfter":{"EndDate":["Succeeded"]},"metadata":{"operationMetadataId":"03c8d578-576a-41a3-8d63-609a15ce594b"}}},"runAfter":{"Add_to_time":["Succeeded"]}}}

    Step 2: In Power Automate when adding a new action click My clipboard .

    Step 3: Ctrl + V

    New designer

    Step 1: Copy the code snippet

    {"nodeId":"Get_date_difference_object-copy","serializedOperation":{"type":"Scope","actions":{"StartDate":{"type":"Compose","inputs":"2024-12-10T15:58:28"},"EndDate":{"type":"Compose","inputs":"2024-12-10T19:22:20","runAfter":{"StartDate":["Succeeded"]}},"Date_Difference":{"type":"Compose","inputs":"@if(\r\n   contains(\r\n     dateDifference(outputs('StartDate'), outputs('EndDate')), \r\n     '.'\r\n   ),\r\n   json(\r\n     concat(\r\n       '{\"Days\":', string(int(split(dateDifference(outputs('StartDate'), outputs('EndDate')), '.')[0])),\r\n       ',\"Hours\":', string(int(split(split(dateDifference(outputs('StartDate'), outputs('EndDate')), '.')[1], ':')[0])),\r\n       ',\"Minutes\":', string(int(split(split(dateDifference(outputs('StartDate'), outputs('EndDate')), '.')[1], ':')[1])),\r\n       ',\"Seconds\":', string(int(split(split(dateDifference(outputs('StartDate'), outputs('EndDate')), '.')[1], ':')[2])),\r\n       '}'\r\n     )\r\n   ),\r\n   json(\r\n     concat(\r\n       '{\"Days\":0',\r\n       ',\"Hours\":', string(int(split(dateDifference(outputs('StartDate'), outputs('EndDate')), ':')[0])),\r\n       ',\"Minutes\":', string(int(split(dateDifference(outputs('StartDate'), outputs('EndDate')), ':')[1])),\r\n       ',\"Seconds\":', string(int(split(dateDifference(outputs('StartDate'), outputs('EndDate')), ':')[2])),\r\n       '}'\r\n     )\r\n   )\r\n)","runAfter":{"EndDate":["Succeeded"]},"metadata":{"operationMetadataId":"03c8d578-576a-41a3-8d63-609a15ce594b"}}},"runAfter":{"Add_to_time":["Succeeded"]}},"allConnectionData":{},"staticResults":{},"isScopeNode":true,"mslaNode":true}

    Step 2: In Power Automate click the + to add an action. Click Paste an action

    Conclusion

    That’s it! pretty easy right? if you encounter any issues, comment below!

  • Creating Navigation Buttons for Different Views in Model-Driven Apps

    Creating Navigation Buttons for Different Views in Model-Driven Apps

    When building model-driven apps, one common frustration is the limitation of adding a single table with only a default view. For example, if you have a Contacts table with a Choice field, and you’ve created a view for each choice, users have to select Contacts first, then navigate to the desired view manually.

    But what if you could streamline this process by adding separate navigation buttons for each view directly in the app’s left-hand navigation bar? This blog post will walk you through how to achieve that using URL-based navigation—no extra coding required.

    The Scenario

    This is a small example, but the functionality I am about to show you is very powerful, and can help streamline UX.

    Imagine you have:

    • A Contacts table in Dataverse.
    • A Choice field in the Contacts table called Contact Type with options like Client, Vendor, and Partner.
    • Custom views for each Contact Type, such as Client Contacts, Vendor Contacts, and Partner Contacts.

    By default, when adding the Contacts table to your app, only one button appears on the navigation bar, leading to the default view. Users must manually switch to the other views. This approach isn’t user-friendly for frequent switching between views. Especially when some users only care about certain contact types.

    Setup

    Step 1: Create views

    First you will want to create a view for each button on the navigation. In my case I created a view for Vendor Contacts, and Client Contacts. Each view I added a simple filter to show only that Contact Type

    Example:

    Step 2: Get the entitylist ID and view ID

    Play your model driven app, select the Table and choose the view.
    Now look at the URL, and copy everything after entitylist&etn=

    So in my example the Vendor Contacts view URL is:
    contact&viewid=ee7b9134-7cb2-ef11-a72f-000d3af40ac9&viewType=1039

    Next add this to the beginning of the URL you just copied:
    /main.aspx?pagetype=entitylist&etn=

    So my final URL will be:
    /main.aspx?pagetype=entitylist&etn=contact&viewid=ee7b9134-7cb2-ef11-a72f-000d3af40ac9&viewType=1039

    This will be the URL we use as our navigation link.

    Step 3: Edit model-driven app to add URL

    Edit your model driven app, click +New, and select Navigation link

    Add the URL we built in Step 2, and give it a name, click Add

    NOTE: If you get an error, it means your URL is wrong. Follow Step 2.

    By leveraging this simple yet effective approach, you can elevate the user experience in your model-driven apps, making navigation more intuitive and streamlined for your team.

    Special thanks to Kevin Nguyen for showing me how to do this.

    Let me know how this works for your app or if you have other creative solutions to share!

  • Get the difference between two dates EASY

    Get the difference between two dates EASY

    We have all been there, we need to check the difference between 2 dates, and if you ever had to implement this you would need to use some crazy mathematical equations using the ticks() expression. But now..

    I’m not sure when this expression got added, but we can now use dateDifference() expression instead of using ticks().

    The dateDifference() expression is a powerful tool in Power Automate and Logic Apps for calculating the difference between two dates.

    Allowing to easily determine the number of days, months, or years between two dates, which can be useful in a variety of scenarios.

    Syntax and Parameters

    The syntax is easy with only 2 parameters:

    dateDifference('<startDate>', '<endDate>')

    How to Use

    Below is a simple example of how to use this expression:

    dateDifference('2015-02-08T10:30:00', '2018-07-30T14:45:30')

    This returns

    "1268.04:15:30"

    The result is in the format of:
    Days.Hours:Minutes:Seconds

    Note:: If the dates passed in have no time interval, the result shows zeros for the hours, minutes, and seconds. We can extract the different parts of the return by using some expressions inside a Compose action, which we will do next.

    Extracting the Result

    If you need to extract certain parts of the result into the hours, minutes, or even seconds, you can use the split() expression.
    Below you will find the explanation on the extraction, as well as the exact expressions to use.

    • The split() function splits the output of dateDifference() at the period (‘.’) into an array with two elements: days and the rest (hours:minutes:seconds).
    • The [0] indexer retrieves the first element of the array, which represents the number of days.
    • The int() function converts the days from a string to an integer.
    • Replace the date time values with your dates/time

    Extracting Days

    To extract the days from the result we can use

    int(split(dateDifference('2015-02-08T10:30:00', '2018-07-30T14:45:30'), '.')[0])

    This returns:

    1268

    Extracting Hours

    To extract the hours interval from the result we can use

    int(split(split(dateDifference('2015-02-08T10:30:00', '2018-07-30T14:45:30'), '.')[1], ':')[0])

    This returns:

    4

    Extracting Minutes

    To extract the minutes interval from the result we can use

    int(split(split(dateDifference('2015-02-08T10:30:00', '2018-07-30T14:45:30'), '.')[1], ':')[1])

    This returns:

    15

    Extracting Seconds

    To extract the seconds interval from the result we can use

    int(split(split(dateDifference('2015-02-08T10:30:00', '2018-07-30T14:45:30'), '.')[1], ':')[2])

    This returns:

    30

    Things to Know

    There are a few things to be aware of:

    • Be aware of time zones, Power Automate uses UTC as a baseline for all time formats.
    • If pulling dates from SharePoint be aware of what time zone your site is in.
    • You can convert the time zones by using expressions or by using actions. Read more about converting time zones here.

    date Difference – Reference guide for expression functions – Azure Logic Apps | Microsoft Learn

  • Dataverse Record Level Security

    Dataverse Record Level Security

    The scenario here is to enable row level security within the concepts of Dataverse inside a Model-Driven App. Important to note, this can be applied to Canvas or Model-driven apps.

    For example:
    I have a Sale Commission table which is connected to a Model-Driven App. One of the columns is a choice called Store.

    The concept is; we only want users to see records from their own respective stores. This concept seems straight forward and easy.. After some digging and reading documentation and asking some friends in understanding this model. I found a way to do this. So here it is!

    Video Tutorial

    Prerequisites

    The feature that will help us in this concept is called Matrix data access structure (Modernized Business Units). Click the link to read more into it. But I will articulate what we need to do.

    Enable record ownership across business units (preview)

    First we need to enable this feature on an environment. Follow the steps below to enable this feature.

    1. Sign in to the Power Platform admin center, as an admin (Dynamics 365 admin, Global admin, or Microsoft Power Platform admin).
    2. Select the Environments tab, and then choose the environment that you want to enable this feature for.
    3. Select Settings > Product > Features.
    4. Turn On the Record ownership across business units toggle.
    5. Click Save.
    Record ownership across business units (Preview)

    Setup steps

    This guide is assuming you have your Dataverse tables built.
    We need to setup a few things to get this functionality to work:

    1. Create Business Units
    2. Create security role
    3. Assign security role
    4. Create Business rule

    Create Business Units

    We are creating a Business unit for each “Store” in this example.
    Creating business units in the Power Platform Admin center:

    1. In the Admin center, select your environment.
    2. Select the Settings cog in the top.
    3. Under Users + permissions.
    4. Select Business units.
    Showing step 4. Clicking Business units
    1. Click New, and create as many business units as you need.
    2. In this example, I am creating 3. One for each store.
    Showing all business units that have been created

    Create security role

    We want to create a security role. This is a role to give access to the custom tables we have for Dataverse, as well as privileges for Business unit. This will allow users to append different Business units to new records.

    While still in the Admin center;

    1. Click See all under Security roles.
    Admin center showing the security role option
    1. Click, New role or edit an existing role.
    2. When editing the role click the Custom Entities tab.
    3. Find your table that users will be interacting with. In this example, its Sale Commission table.
    4. Set this table to:
      Read = Business unit
      Create = Parent child business unit
    Showing the Sale commission permission
    1. Next, click the Business Management tab.
    2. Set the Business Unit table to:
      Read = Parent child business unit
      Write = Parent child business unit
      Append To = Parent child business unit
    Showing the Business Unit permissions
    1. Click Save and Close.

    Assign security role

    Now we need to assign the security role to users based on the Business unit. To do that follow the steps:

    While in the Admin center;

    1. Click See all under Users.
    2. Select a user to assign the Business unit role to.
    3. Click Manage roles.

    Notice that we can change the Business unit the Security role can be assigned under.

    Showing the new option to select Security roles under each Business unit

    In this example, I am assigning the role under each Business unit to give permissions.

    1. Select the Business unit and assign the role.
    UserRoles assigned + Business unit
    AdeleSales Contributor in MainStore-BU
    AlexSales Contributor in NorthStore-BU
    Sales Contributor in DowntownStore-BU
    Showing a table of permissions

    Based on the table above.

    • Adele can see all records part of the Main store
    • Alex can see all records in North Store and Downtown Stores
    1. Click Save.

    Create Business rule

    Now that the feature has been enabled and configured, we still need to change the Owning Business Unit field based on the selected store. There are many ways to do this, but for this example, I will be using a Business rule.

    To configure a Business rule;

    1. Navigate to your solution, or where the table (Sale Commission) is in Power Apps.
    2. Select the table, and click Forms.
    3. Select the form that users will be using when creating records.
    4. Once the form is opened, add the Owning Business Unit field, and select it
    5. Once selected, click Business rules on the right pane.
    6. Click New business rule.
    7. Give the rule a meaningful name.
    8. In the default condition, in the properties tab mine looks like this:
    Business rule condition 1

    For the rule, I am going to add a Condition to the “is false” and continue to do this for each Business unit / Store I want to check.
    Here is what mine looks like after adding all the conditions:

    All conditions added to Rule

    Next we need to Set the values of the business unit based on the store.

    1. In the components tab, add a Set Field Value action to all the “Is true” paths.
    2. With the Set Field Value selected, click on the Properties tab.
    3. Select Owning Business Unit for Field and the right Value. Example for the NorthStore:
    Set Field Value properties for North Store
    1. Do this for all the Conditions. Mine looks like this:
    Completed Business Rule
    1. After you’re done, click Validate.
    2. If validation is good, click Save.
    3. After saved, click Activate.

    That’s it. Done!!
    Now when a user selects the Store, it will automatically change the Owning Business Unit.

    Form view of Owning Business Unit changing based on Store selected.
  • Tip For Testing Your Flows In Power Automate

    Tip For Testing Your Flows In Power Automate

    If your like me, you test your Flows over and over again. This results in sending unwanted emails, creating items in SharePoint or Dataverse, Creating files on OneDrive or SharePoint.
    Every time you test your Flow, these actions inside our Flow get executed and cause unwanted behavior when Testing.

    Wouldn’t it be nice if we can Test our Flows without executing these actions? Guess what we can! And its very easy to do. Check this out!

    Scenario

    For example, I have a Flow that Create a new row in Dataverse, and then send an email to the person who created the new row. That is fine, but what happens when we have other actions in our Flow that we want to test to make sure they are correct.
    I may want to test the Flow multiple times if I am doing some data manipulation, but this will result in Creating multiple unwanted rows (records) in Dataverse, as well as send emails every time.

    We can clean up the testing process easily.

    How?

    We can utilize a feature called Static Result.

    First click the 3 dots on the action, and select Static Results.

    Next we can configure the static results. For easy example click the radio button to enable, select your Status, and the Status Code.

    Click Done.

    Now the action will have a yellow beaker, indicating that the action is using Static results.

    Things to note:
    – Static Result are in ‘Preview’ so it could change at any time
    – Not all actions will be able to use them
    – If the option is greyed out, and you’re certain the action is able to use it, save the Flow and re open

    This is only the beginning, as you can create a custom failed response, or create any result you want. This can help troubleshooting and testing certain scenarios.

    REMEMBER!! To turn off static results when you want to execute the actions like normal.

    Examples

    Some examples on when to use static results:

    • Flow runs without sending emails
    • Flow runs without Approvals needed
    • Flow runs that need to test errors on certain actions
    • Flow runs testing different error codes (Advanced) + Custom error codes

    Conclusion

    I have used this feature for awhile now, and noticed not many know about it. It’s so useful in many testing scenarios. Just remember to disable the static results once your done testing!

    If you have any questions or want to add anything please leave a comment and like this post! Thank you!

  • How to Use Regular Expressions in Microsoft Power Virtual Agents With Examples

    How to Use Regular Expressions in Microsoft Power Virtual Agents With Examples

    Regular Expressions in Power Virtual Agents? Sounds like a pretty advanced topic. But it’s actually not that difficult and can save you hours of time if you’re trying to validate user input for things such as credit card numbers, tracking IDs, custom invoice numbers or even IP addresses. In this post we’ll cover some of the basics of Regular Expression syntax so you can get started using them inside Power Virtual Agents.

    Summary

    To utilize regular expressions inside Power Virtual Agents, we must first create a new entity.
    This can be be done by clicking the Entities tab > New entity.

    Now select Regular expression (Regex)

    PVA does a great job in providing some general use case examples.

    The syntax is based on .NET

    RegEx Examples in PVA

    Below you will find some examples you can copy and paste directly into the Pattern for your Regular Expression:

    PatternDescription
    ^(?:(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?).){3}(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)$IP Address
    – Looks for X.X.X.X format
    – Each X range in 0-255
    – X length 0-3
    ^4[0-9]{12}(?:[0-9]{3})?$Visa Credit Card numbers
    – Start with a 4
    – Old cards use 13 digits
    – New cards use 16 digits
    ^3[47][0-9]{13}$American Express
    – Starts with 34 OR 37
    – All have 15 digits
     ^(?:5[1-5][0-9]{2}|222[1-9]|22[3-9][0-9]|2[3-6][0-9]{2}|27[01][0-9]|2720)[0-9]{12}$Mastercard
    Starts with either:
    51-55 OR 2221-2720
    – All have 16 digits
    ^(?!0{3})(?!6{3})[0-8]\d{2}-(?!0{2})\d{2}-(?!0{4})\d{4}$Social Security Number
    – SSN are 9 digits
    – Looks for XXX-XX-XXXX format
    – Cannot contain all zeros
    – Cannot begin with 666 OR 900-999
    ^[a-fA-F0-9]{2}(:[a-fA-F0-9]{2}){5}$Mac Address
    – 6 byte hex separated by colon “:” OR dash “-”
    ^((6553[0-5])|(655[0-2][0-9])|(65[0-4][0-9]{2})|(6[0-4][0-9]{3})|([1-5][0-9]{4})|([0-5]{0,5})|([0-9]{1,4}))$Port Number
    – Matches valid port number in computer network
    – 16 bit
    – Ranges from 0-65535
    [A-Z]{2,}-\d+Jira Ticket Number
    – Looks for format Hyphen-separated Jira project key and ticket issue number
    ^(bc1|[13])[a-zA-HJ-NP-Z0-9]{25,39}$Bitcoin Address
    26-35 alphanumeric characters
    – Start with 1 OR 3 OR bc1
    ^[0-9a-fA-F]{8}\b-[0-9a-fA-F]{4}\b-[0-9a-fA-F]{4}\b-[0-9a-fA-F]{4}\b-[0-9a-fA-F]{12}$UUID / {guid}
    – 36 characters
    – 128 bit, represented in 16 octets
    – Looks for format form of  8-4-4-4-12

    Using them in PVA

    Once we create the Entity, and define the pattern for our RegEx. We can now use this validation inside our PVA chat.

    For example, I will test the IP Address pattern 

    ^(?:(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?).){3}(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)$

    I have created a topic for testing my RegEx.

    To use the newly created entity, Add a Question, under Identify select your Custom Entity

    Under this, I add a message to confirm its valid.
    (Note, the bot will automatically let the user know if the validation does not match)

    Testing the RegEx

    Okay, drumroll….
    The values I will be testing are

    User InputValid?
    192.168.1.1Valid ✔
    127.0.0.1Valid ✔
    999.55.1.5Not Valid ✖
    Not A IP AddressNot Valid ✖

    Conclusion

    Being able to use Regular Expressions inside Power Virtual Agents can be extremely powerful. And with the above list of common patterns, I hope you find value in this post.

    Thank you, and have a great day!

  • Power Apps Choosing Which Connections To Use Using Power Automate

    Power Apps Choosing Which Connections To Use Using Power Automate

    You may have run into an issue when creating Power Apps that needs to submit data to SharePoint, Dataverse, etc. But did not want to give everyone in the app access to these.
    The problem is, Power Apps uses the connections of the user using the app, meaning if the app writes to a SharePoint List, the user will need Read/Write access.
    The same goes for Power Automate if we try to send the data to Power Automate from Power Apps, it still uses the users connection who triggered the Flow.
    How can we get around this? Read below!

    Table of Contents

    Known Issues

    1. If you block the HTTP Request connector via data loss prevention (DLP), child flows are also blocked because child flows are implemented using the HTTP connector. Work is underway to separate DLP enforcement for child flows so that they are treated like other cloud flows.
    2. You must create the parent flow and all child flows directly in the same solution. If you import a flow into a solution, you will get unexpected results.
      Call Child Flows – Power Automate | Microsoft Docs

    Prerequisites

    1. The Flows must be created inside the same Solution, so a Dataverse database must be configured on the Power Platform Environment

    The Scenario

    In this scenario, I will be showing how a user can use Power Apps to create items in a SharePoint List without being a member of the Site. This will allow us to use a specific Service Account to create the data in SharePoint without giving the user in the app any permission at all!

    First we will build the Child Flow, then Parent Flow, and lastly customize the Power App

    Child Flow

    Inside your Solution create a new Cloud Flow.

    1. For our trigger we use a Manual Button, and add the data we are expecting from Power Apps to put inside our SharePoint List
      (In my example I am only bringing in one field for Title)
    2. Next, I add a Create Item action for my SharePoint List, and add the Parameters from the trigger inside the action.
    3. Lastly, I add a ‘Respond to PowerApp or flow’ action, I create an Output called Success, and some details about what was created.
    Child Flow


    Make sure to use the Connection you want users of the App to use for the SharePoint Create item action.

    Save and go back to the Flow dashboard screen (where you see the Details and run history screen).

    There will be a Card on the right side called ‘Run only users’ click Edit

    Run only users

    Under Connections Used, switch ‘Provided by run-only user’ to the connection you want to be used by users of the App
    (They wont have access to this Connection outside this Flow)

    Run only user

    Click Save,

    Now onto the Parent Flow

    Parent Flow

    Go back to the Solution and Create another Cloud Flow.

    1. For our trigger we use the PowerApps button trigger.
    2. As best practice, create Variables for your data that is coming from Power Apps. Don’t forget to name them, as this will be the parameter name in Power Apps,
      Use the ‘Ask in PowerApps‘ dynamic content for your variable values.
    3. Next we use a action called ‘Run a Child Flow’
      (If you do not see this action, your Flow was not created inside a Solution)
      Add the parameters (these were the input parameters from the last Flow that we just created).
    4. Lastly, add ‘Respond to a PowerApp or flow’ action. For this demo I am adding the parameter ‘Success’ this is from the child Flow.


    Click Save.

    Power App

    Now onto the Power App, I am going to create a simple Power App with 1 TextInput for Title, and a Button to Pass the data to Power Automate.
    Here are my controls for reference:

    TextInput_Title
    Button_SendToFlow

    For the Button:
    1. Add the Flow to the button by clicking on the Button,
    2. Clicking Action tab on top of page,
    3. Clicking Power Automate
    4. Select the Flow


    Next add the parameters for the Flow, in my case I am adding the TextInput_Title.Text

    Now, I want to add a Notification that the Item has been added, which will confirm my Flow has Run correctly. Ill be using the ‘Success’ Output parameter from the Flow for this.

    To add this, I put my Flow run inside a Variable inside Power Apps. Ill call my variable Results, and IO add this to the OnSelect property of the Button where my Flow is:

    Now I use the ‘Notify’ function to notify the user of the item being created, I add this after the semicolon. So my function looks like this in the end:


    So my final code looks like this:

    Set(
    Results,
    'PA-Trigger1'.Run(TextInput_Title.Text)
);
Notify(
    Results.success,
    NotificationType.Success
);
Reset(TextInput_Title)

    Now lets test it!

    Conclusion

    I am using a User called ‘Demo User’ I have shared the App with this user. But they are not part of the SharePoint Site


    Here is the SharePoint Site:

    Now Logged in as the Demo User to test this:

    Logged in as Demo User


    Button Clicked >

    Button Pressed, Flow Completed

    Now to check SharePoint >

    Test Success!!

    Done!
    So this was just a basic example on how we can create data inside a Data Source that the user of the App does not need access too.

  • Check Conditions In Power Automate During Run

    Check Conditions In Power Automate During Run

    The Problem?

    Is your Condition not working as expected?
    The problem is when we use a Condition action inside Power Automate, we cannot see the “equation” that is being evaluated when looking into the run.

    The problem affects how we can troubleshoot, the following solution will show what is happening inside the Condition action during the run.

    Scenario

    In this scenario, I am checking:
    If one value is greater than a second value

    Now during a test run, I expect to see this condition true, but in my run it is always showing false and going in the If no branch.

    The big problem is though, I cannot see what the values being evaluated look like. Take a look below

    Clicking on the “Show raw inputs” is also not helpful..

    Solution

    So what is this quick and easy solution to see the condition results? A simple ‘Compose‘ action.

    Lets take a look:
    First add a Compose under your Condition

    Next copy the values that are in the Condition to the Compose.
    My Compose now looks like this:

    Now make sure the Compose is above your Condition.
    I am just dragging the Condition below the Compose

    Next, we can run the Flow again, and see what the Compose can tell us:

    Yikes! We can see our 2 values that are being evaluated are both 15.
    And 15 is not greater than 15. This is why its returning false.

    My Thoughts

    In my opinion, this should be already visible inside the Condition action. To get this feature added to Power Automate, we can vote on this feature. Head over to the Community Forum and vote for this idea.

    View details of Condition results in runs – Power Platform Community (microsoft.com)

    The more votes, the better the chances of the Product team implementing this.
    Thank you for reading, and have a great day!

  • Checking If HTML Table Is Empty In Power Automate

    Checking If HTML Table Is Empty In Power Automate

    The Problem

    I needed to check if an HTML table had data or not. Usually when I need to check I have two expressions I go to first.

    1. empty()
    2. length()

    I tried using empty() and found that the HTML table even when empty, is not truly empty.
    I then tried length() and found that when the HTML table is empty there is still a length of 30.

    The Scenario

    I have some data that is used to track different devices that can be loaned out. The data has properties like, Type of device, Serial Number, Etc.

    The data comes in, and looks like this:

    [
      {
        "type": "Phone",
        "device": "iPhone 11 Pro",
        "serialNumber": "0007488"
      },
      {
        "type": "Phone",
        "device": "Samsung Galaxy S20",
        "serialNumber": "1166289"
      },
      {
        "type": "Watch",
        "device": "Apple Watch Series 5",
        "serialNumber": "00013701"
      },
      {
        "type": "Laptop/Tablet",
        "device": "Surface Pro X",
        "serialNumber": "AA78442"
      }
    ]

    I want to put this array of data inside a HTML table and send it out on an email. The problem is, my data might be empty, as only available devices will show up in my data.

    I need to check if the HTML table is empty, if it is empty:
    If True:
    Send email with HTML table
    If False:
    Send email without HTML table

    The Flow

    For this Flow, I will be using an Array Variable to simulate my data coming in from another system.
    I will call this Variable ‘Data‘.
    The HTML table action will be added underneath.
    You will need to determine if you want to use ‘Custom columns‘ or ‘Automatic columns‘ This can be done in the advanced options in the HTML action:

    My ‘Data‘ Variable is empty at the moment. This is what we want for our first run, we want to get the length of the HTML table when its empty.

    Next add a ‘Compose‘ action, and use the expression length(), pass in the HTML table as the parameter. For example, my expression looks like:

    length(body('Create_HTML_table'))

    Now run the Flow with no Data in the HTML table, and check your Compose action to see what the length is. In my case it is 30

    Now we can add a If Condition to check if the length is greater than 30

    ** TIP **
    I am passing in the Compose action into the condition, this allows me to see what the outputs of the Compose action before it gets evaluated inside the condition. This is extremely useful for troubleshooting

    Conclusion

    The Flow will go into the ‘If yes’ block if the HTML table has data

    The Flow will go into the ‘If no’ block if the HTML table is empty

    Of course checking the Data Variable itself for length could work way better. This example is mainly for data that can come in that could have loads of junk. For example:
    An HTTP API could bring in no data, but still have other information attached like, headers, status code, version. In this case we can only do conditional checks on the HTML table, since our Data variable will always have something being passed in.

    I used this method to help someone on the Community Forum, check it out here:
    https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Flows/Create-a-Flow-with-Condition-that-does-not-send-email-when-list/m-p/721076/highlight/false#M98488