Accessing source code of PowerApps and hosting it elsewhere - azure

We are looking into using PowerApps to develop apps quickly. However, we are concerned about dependency on Azure and inability to access the source code.
We are interested in understanding the transportability of an app in PowerApps.
1) Can we access the source code?
2) In a scenario where PowerApps does not satisfy our needs, can we take away the source code and manage everything ourselves?
3) Can we deploy the code in another cloud provider such as AWS or Google Cloud or our own server?
Thanks!

Can we access the source code for Power Apps?
Yes. You can use export to zip.
Inside the zip there's a .msapp file. You also unzip that.
There's a ton of json files. It includes your Power Apps code.
See also:
running a diff on two Powerapps: https://github.com/microsoft/powerapps-tools#powerapps-review-tool
A Flow / Power Automate that exports your code to github: https://github.com/SeaDude/seattlePowerAppers/blob/master/outlines/powerappsVersionControl.md

No, you cannot access the source code. The whole point of PowerApps is that it is a zero code environment. Therefore you cannot take the code and use it elsewhere.

Related

Azure component that compares 2 word documents?

I am looking to build a solution where we can compare (Automated) a word document we email to a client to the word document the client emails us back.
Any suggestions please, we will be using MS Azure to create the solution.
Due to the lack of a direct automation of this feature you can use an indirect route to approach the solution.
Note:
This solution invokes Word using COM automation. Hence this is expected to be running on a VM that has word installed.
Since this solution simplifies the content that is being compared, it might lose the details you might want to show up in your comparison.
You can create a PowerShell script that does the following
Convert the documents to a simpler (txt) format - See this or this.
Compare the text files - See this.
The powershell script will get the comparison done. After that its up to how much fancy you want to get when exposing this functionality outside that VM. e.g. You could create an HTTP invokable API that can call this Powershell script and return results.
I think your best bet would be using Microsoft Azure Logic Apps! Azure Logic Apps allows you to develop advanced automation workflows on the cloud and it supports a vast array of connectors out of the box including email triggers and the Microsoft Word Connector. If that's not enough then, you could even develop your own connectors too...

Can you use a Sharepoint Trigger to export an uploaded Excel File to a Network Drive as CSV?

I have a business requirement to process files uploaded by regional businesses for import to another system. It's envisaged that users will use SharePoint 2007 (soon to be SharePoint 2013), the event will trigger an export to CSV and the process will then run against those files.
Is this possible in either SharePoint versions?
Would that be an app, or standalone service I would want to create and schedule?
Does anyone have a more elegant solution? Essentially the CSV export is feeding in to a program that allows a user to visually validate and press a button to push to the other system after tweaking.
With custom code, you could create an event receiver on the list where CSV file lives that will run some code whenever the CSV file is updated. Here's a starter:
http://elczara.wordpress.com/2011/02/16/sharepoint-2010-event-receiver/
Make it a farm solution (sandbox solutions can't write to the filesystem directly), and you'll probably want to look up RunWithElevatedPrivileges, since the user doing the uploading may not have permission to write to the file system.
Steve's suggestion of rethinking the end-to-end solution is a good one, although I'm not sure how you can trigger the other system to "do its business".
Yes, it is possible, both with the 2007 version and the 2013.
Depending on your deployment scenario, you can:
create a custom timer job that will execute your job.
Create a custom site Workflow, with a loop and a delay, that will do the job.
The 1st is easier to build and maintain, but has less perspectives if you need to apply custom process.
But if you can control the application that consumes the feed, why don't you consume SharePoint directly? From the 2010 version, you can very easily get data using the listdata.svc web service. With older versions, you can still get data using a simple web service.

Using SAS to write to external Sharepoint library

I need a routine for loading files (.html) onto a sharepoint library using SAS. The site is outside the firewall (am unable to use the 'map network drive' method).
The sharepoint library is configured with 'No versioning' etc, and my username / password has administrator privileges..
I believe there are easier ways (tools) to do it than SAS, so I'd just let SAS call some other process - e.g. if your SAS is on Windows, it could call (even generate) a Powershell script.
This http://poshcode.org/2122 seems to be a way.
I've done something similar with SAS calling curl to upload files to SAS webDAV server.
If you'd like a pure SAS way - it should be doable using new PROC HTTP as a web service call.
Refer to
http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/proc/61895/HTML/default/viewer.htm#a003286672.htm for SAS side and probably this http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff798339.aspx
for Sharepoint side.
Anyway, PROC HTTP seems interesting for some easier things.
I don't think you can use plain old SAS to do this. If you have the SAS Enterprise BI Server product, there is a component called "SAS Web Parts for Microsoft SharePoint", but that is really an interface between Sharpoint and the BI server (so you can display dashboards or run stored processes).
The "easiest" thing to do is create your html files and then use FTP to copy then to the SharePoint server. Of course, this requires an FTP server on the other end and you would want to engage the help of the Sharepoint administrator. I've done something similar myself. I don't know SharePoint myself but there is a way to set it up so that all content that shows up in a directory is automatically recognised.
There may be other solutions and I'd love to see them as well.
Sharepoint has this wonderful web interface. Basically what you do is open your web browser, works best in IE8+ and navigate to your site URL and open your document library. If you select Items in the Ribbon you can upload a document using their interface. :)
SharePoint already exposes several options, using legacy web service and the new rest services.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff798339.aspx

Does SharePoint Support VBA?

I have read very little content regarding Sharepoint (SP), and most of my reading has been sales pitch oriented overview material. I utilitze VBA with Office apps - especially Access - on a regular basis, and I am wondering if there is any translatable way to retain the custom functionality of writing my own VBA within Sharepoint, especially with MS Access.
I have read that Access databases can be run on SP, with tbales to list and forms to InfoPath, but I am assuming they are primarily talking about Access database apps that were built with wizards, which consist mainly of bound objects without explicitly-defined code.
Most of my app are primarily code driven with VBA because of my automation requirements, which I rely on to perform my tasks. Am I going to be able to accomplish the same thing within SP, and could anyone please provide any references on the subject, specifically?
You can use Access to distribute your front end to users, regardless of how much VBA it has, but an app with VBA code in it will not convert to run in the browser as a Web Database within Sharepoint 2010's Access Services. For that to work, you have to use the new, more powerful macros and limit yourself to the features supported by web objects. For an existing app, this means rebuilding every object from scratch.
Do you need to run your Access app in a web browser? If not, then you're barking up the wrong tree here.
AFAIK Sharepoint does not support VBA.
If you publish an Access database to SharePoint as a web database it cannot use VBA, however you can create a hybrid with the tables in SharePoint and the frontend in Access, that way you can have as much VBA etc as you want and still have the advantages of your data being stored in the SharePoint SQL server. You can store the frontend on SharePoint and have users download it through SharePoint .
The alternative is to keep a traditional Access database on the SharePoint share and access it via webDAV rather than the SharePoint web interface. You could map the SharePoint library as a local drive to make it easy.
Note that drive mapping is considered a legacy technology and will no longer be supported by Windows 11 due to the demise of IE11.

Permissions problems with Excel Services in SharePoint

I'm trying to implement an Excel Services reporting solution in SharePoint (MOSS). Since the source data is a SharePoint list, this problem is doubly frustrating. I keep bumping up against permissions problems, even though I've enabled virtually everything in sight.
The first error is about refreshing external data - it's not (really) external data, but that's a semantic point.
The second error is a cryptic "Excel Web Access" problem.
Anyone get this to work??
Could be a couple different problems. The first possibility is that Excel Services doesn't support using SharePoint list data (crazy I know)... although this only applies if you try using the type of embedded data source you get if you choose Export to Excel from a list (again, I know crazy).
However an easy way around this problem is to use the SP webservices to get you list data. I had a macro written by someone at MS a while back that automated this conversion, if I canfind a link I'll post it. If you are using Kerberos then you task is probably finished. If using NTLM then you may need to also configure an SSO application so that the right credentials can be passed to the webservice (or any other data source for that matter). There's a pretty good step by step here.
One kind of "hack" to get this to work via UDF's (which if trusted, custom code can be deployed and made available via Excel Services) can be found here.

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