SharePoint and Power Platform related Stuff

  Automate Excel Data Refresh with Office Scripts If you work with Excel files that contain Power Query , external databases , or connected data sources , manually refreshing the data every time can be repetitive. Office Scripts provide a simple way to automate this process. In this article, we'll explain the following Office Script: function main(workbook: ExcelScript.Workbook) { // Refresh all data connections workbook.refreshAllDataConnections(); } What is Office Scripts? Office Scripts is a feature in Excel for Microsoft 365 that allows you to automate repetitive tasks using TypeScript , a language based on JavaScript. Office Scripts can: Refresh data connections Format worksheets Create tables Generate reports Automate daily Excel tasks Work with Power Automate Understanding the Script Let's break the code into smaller parts. Function Declaration function main(workbook: ExcelScript.Workbook) { Every Office Script starts with a main() function. What does it do? main...

In Power Automate Desktop (PAD) there’s no built-in “auto-kill after X minutes” setting, so you have to enforce the 10-minute limit yourself. Here are the three reliable ways , from best practice to more advanced. Best practice: Control it from a Cloud Flow (recommended) This is the cleanest and safest approach. How it works A Cloud flow starts the Desktop flow You set a timeout of 10 minutes If the desktop flow runs longer → it gets terminated automatically Steps Create a Cloud flow Add action: Run a flow built with Power Automate for desktop Click … (three dots) on the action → Settings Set Timeout to: PT10M Enable Run in unattended mode if needed Save If the desktop flow exceeds 10 minutes, Power Automate will force stop it Pros Official, supported No hacks Best for production Option 2: Build a timeout watchdog inside the Desktop Flow Use this if you must run PAD standalone. Basic logic At the start of the flow , store the cur...

At times, you may have to check the search crawl logs if search results don’t return results from specific content. Search crawl logs can be obtained from the search service application in the SharePoint on-premises environment. However, to inspect the search crawl log in SharePoint Online, you must use  Get-PnPSearchCrawlLog  cmdlet. Make sure you have access to the Crawl Log before you execute any of these PowerShell scripts! Login to SharePoint Online Admin Center  https://tenant-admin.sharepoint.com Click on “More Features” from the left navigation >> Click on the “Open” button under the Search. On the Search Service Application page, click on the “Crawl Log Permissions” link at the bottom >> Enter the user names whom you want to grant search crawl log permissions and click on “OK” to save your changes. Register an App in Entra ID (Azure AD) Step 1: Register an App in Entra ID (Azure AD) Go to: https://entra.microsoft.com Navigate to:  Home ...

Microsoft Power Automate is a powerful tool for automating business processes, but like any platform, it comes with a set of limitations. Understanding these constraints is essential to designing efficient, scalable, and compliant workflows—especially as your automation strategy grows in complexity.  Here are the most important limits you need to know:  1. Switch Cases Each Switch action supports a maximum of 25 cases. If you need more, consider using nested Switches or alternate logic like parallel branches or conditionals.  2. Actions per Workflow A single flow can contain up to 500 actions. For complex workflows, you may need to split logic into separate flows or use child flows to stay within this limit.  3. Nesting Depth You can nest actions (e.g., conditionals or loops) up to 8 levels deep. Going beyond this will result in a design error.  4. Variables per Flow Each flow can define up to 250 variables. This includes all variable types (string, inte...

Microsoft PowerApps enables users to build custom business apps with minimal code. One of its core strengths is the rich set of built-in functions that can handle logic, data, user input, and more. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced app maker, these functions are essential for building flexible, user-friendly applications. In this post, we’ve grouped the most useful PowerApps functions into categories, so you can quickly find what you need for any scenario. 🔁 Logic & Conditional Functions These functions control decision-making within your app. If(condition, trueResult, falseResult) – Basic IF logic. Switch(expression, case1, result1, ..., defaultResult) – Simplifies multiple conditional paths. IsBlank(value) – Checks if a field or variable is empty. Coalesce(value1, value2, ...) – Returns the first non-blank value in a list. Not(condition) – Inverts a Boolean value (true → false and vice versa). 🔤 Text Functions Work with strings, user input, and formatted data. Concate...

Whether you're new to SharePoint Framework (SPFx) or a seasoned pro, having a go-to list of core commands can significantly improve your development workflow. In this post, we'll walk through the most important SPFx CLI commands—from setting up your environment to packaging and deploying your solution. 🛠️ Setting Up Your SPFx Project Start by scaffolding a new project using the Yeoman generator provided by Microsoft. Make sure Node.js and npm are installed before you proceed. yo @microsoft/sharepoint After scaffolding the project, install all dependencies: npm install To update dependencies later: npm update 🔐 Trusting the Development Certificate If you're using the local workbench, you need to trust the developer certificate for HTTPS support: gulp trust-dev-cert 🧪 Running the Local Workbench To build and serve your project locally, use: gulp serve This command starts a local server at: https://localhost:4321/temp/workbench.html You can also test your solution in ShareP...