Posts

Power Automate Blueprint Accessing Azure Portal Backend APIs and the Intricacies of main.iam.ad.ext.azure.com

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In the realms of digital infrastructure management, automation emerges as a pivotal ally, especially when confronting repetitive and time-sensitive tasks. A recent endeavor led me to a scenario where automating the management of OAuth tokens for users within our organization was paramount. Our meticulous record-keeping of these tokens and their respective assignments is handled through Power Apps. However, the manual aspect of adding these tokens via the Azure portal, which necessitated the upload of a CSV file each time, posed a cumbersome challenge. Given the current preview status of this functionality, a straightforward method through Graph API was conspicuously absent. Thus, I aimed to devise an automated framework, enabling individuals with the appropriate permissions in Power Apps to seamlessly add these tokens for users. While this wouldn’t entirely absolve admins of their duties—they would still need to activate the tokens within the Azure portal—it significantly mitigated t

PCF Component: Docx Templates in Canvas Apps

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PCF Component: Docx Templates in Canvas Apps Have you ever wanted to fill in a Docx template within a Canvas App? Look no further! I’m excited to introduce a new PCF component that allows you to do just that. This component leverages the easy-template-x open-source library, making it a breeze to create and structure templates. How to Get Started: Installation: Begin by downloading and importing the managed solution into your environment. Ensure you’ve enabled PCF components for Canvas apps. If you’re unsure how, you can find instructions here . Usage Instructions: Once you’re in the Power Apps Editor, navigate to Insert -> Custom -> Import Components . From there, select the Code tab and import the RAW! Docx Templates (Canvas) . Add the component to the form, and you’re good to go! The component offers various input properties, such as docxTemplate , fillTemplate , and templateData , allowing for a customizable experience. Explore the Sample Application: To get

Installing .NET Tools on Air Gapped Systems

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In today’s digital age, the vast majority of our tasks rely heavily on internet connectivity. However, there are scenarios, more common than one might think, where systems are intentionally kept offline for security or other reasons. These air-gapped or isolated systems, like Azure VMs in a restricted VNET, pose unique challenges, especially when it comes to software installation. One such challenge is installing .NET tools, a task that’s straightforward with an internet connection but can become a complex endeavor without one. In this blog, we’ll delve deep into the intricacies of using the dotnet command line reference to seamlessly install .NET tools on machines that don’t have the luxury of internet access. Whether you’re a seasoned developer or just starting out, this guide aims to simplify the seemingly daunting process and equip you with the knowledge to conquer the offline world of .NET installations. Before diving into the nitty-gritty of offline installations, it’s essentia

Capture User’s Last Successful Login with Portal Web API

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Hey Power Pages developers! Are you sitting there scratching your head wondering why the Authentication/LoginTrackingEanbled site setting isn’t working? Unfortunately it has been deprecated 😭😭😭😭. This saddened me a lot because I utilize the Last Successful Login date field on the Contact table for a lot of reporting and automation using Power Automate. In this article I will demonstrate how you can use the Portal WebAPI with a little Javascript/Liquid to populate that field. Before we dive in, here are a few other options you might consider: Power Automate: Use a Flow to capture the data, a good example of how to implement can be found here: Last Successful Login on Contact record by Prasad Motupalli . The one thing this was missing for me though was security which could be a concern with the http trigger not requiring authentication. I want to be sure that the person updating the data is an authenticated user. Application Insights: You can track additional details su

How to Create SharePoint Items with Power Automate Desktop

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Overview Power Automate Desktop is a great way to automate many of your daily task so you can focus on real work. A prime example of this is getting data from one place to another, especially when those data sources do not have an API such as a legacy desktop application or a file. In this example I demonstrate several ways in which an Excel sheet containing fictitious customer data could be loaded into a SharePoint list. In order to do this I first generated some fake data for my customers using Mockaroo . I then created a new SharePoint list and added some columns to match my spreadsheet. Methods My original plan was to just use the PAD recorder , which I did, but after creating that Flow I decided to find other possible ways to accomplish the task. The list below is not a complete list but should provide some ideas. The flexibility of PAD allows for an even wider range of possibilities for carrying out tasks such as these. At the end of each section I have placed the s

Power Apps Portal - Configure Azure AD Provider in Azure B2C

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It is recommended that you no longer use Local Login authentication for Power Apps Portal but instead utilize Azure Active Directory B2C to provide this type of authentication. See Migrate identity providers to Azure AD B2C Configuring the B2C providers is fairly straightforward utilizing the new preview interface Configure the Azure Active Directory B2C provider . Make sure you navigate to the preview version of the Maker portal for now to access this, https://make.preview.powerapps.com/ . For this article my goals were the following. Set the existing Azure AD and Local Login configuration as deprecated authentication mechanisms within the portal to migrate the users to B2C. Allow user to authenticate to B2C using Azure AD, Google or create local B2C account. Deprecate Old Providers Once I had run through the instructions for configuring the Azure B2C authentication I then had to mark the Local Login and Azure AD authentication methods as deprecated. This ensures that whe