Forum Discussion

Kerem Yuceturk's avatar
Oct 27, 2017

PowerApps and Flow buttons are graduating out of preview!

PowerApps and Flow are becoming a more integral part of SharePoint Online with the imminent release of Custom Forms with PowerApps and the Flow Launch Panel. Starting in November, these features will no longer be considered as preview features.  

 

If you have the Preview Features switch turned off in SharePoint administration center today, you were not seeing the Flow and PowerApps buttons in modern lists and libraries. Once this change goes into effect, the buttons will become available, regardless of the setting: Flow button in modern libraries, and both Flow and PowerApps buttons in modern lists.

 

 

The change will start with our First Release tenants, and then move forward into the rest of the production in two waves. We hope to complete the change over the month of November.

 

PowerApps and Flow are still working on completing their certification for government and sovereign cloud environments with stricter compliance requirements, and the buttons will continue to remain invisible for these environments, independent of the preview features switch setting.

  • Kerem Yuceturk Without Flow Plan 2, is there _any_ Enterprise control over what type of data sources one can connect to? Or can I get away with a single Plan 2 license to have that enterprise control? It's really unclear as to what Flow license is included in the E3/E5 plans.
    • Kerem Yuceturk's avatar
      Kerem Yuceturk
      Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft

      Hi Trevor Seward, Office 365 administrators can go to Flow and PowerApps admin centers, and can set data policies for the default environment, without requiring a P2 license. You do not need any additional licenses. 

       

      You could get P2 licenses to be able to create and manage additional environments, and set policies in those additional environments.

  • Hi ,

      I would like to know if we set the list /library experience to classic in the list or library settings would I still be able to see the Flow and PowerApps button in the SharePoint list/library despite of the preview feature being enforced now ? Could you please confirm . 

  • Paul Alvarez's avatar
    Paul Alvarez
    Copper Contributor

    Hello,

     

    Has the "Create Flow on Selected Item" trigger been completed in Flow? That was one that seemed to be a work in progress several weeks ago.

     

    thanks

     

     

  • Craig White's avatar
    Craig White
    Brass Contributor

    To add further to my points raised above, a generic end user with a free licence also has access to the 'Admin Centre' option within the Flow/PowerApps browsers, so can not only create apps but also provision new PowerApps environments without prior governance or approval.

     

    An Admin Centre should only be accessible by O365 administrators. Why is this not so?

  • Craig White's avatar
    Craig White
    Brass Contributor

    "So having these features off is not something we want to encourage to keep the product consistent for our users"

     

    This is all well & good, but things shouldn't be released & out of preview without the supporting administrative controls to restrict visibility/usage, until our Organisations are ready to do so, in line with our internal & very specific strategies.

     

    As a result, our 35k strong userbase will have ability to use tools they are not familiar with, without the correct guidance or best practices, subsequently causing large increases in resources in correcting user errors or addressing design duplications from separate users.

     

    We appreciate Microsoft have their own Change Management processes, which are adhered to with preview features then full release gradually over time; there needs to be an understanding that individual business, organisations & specific users within those may have their own Change Management & access policies that are being hindered by Microsoft's lack of understanding for administrative needs.

  • Sunny Rajpal's avatar
    Sunny Rajpal
    Brass Contributor
    I think this should be security based so that administrator can control who can see these button and who can't.
  • Jaymin Patel's avatar
    Jaymin Patel
    Brass Contributor

    Does PowerApps and Flow button appears even though user do not have PowerApps\Flows license enabled in our tenant?

    • Craig White's avatar
      Craig White
      Brass Contributor

      Jaymin Patel, when the user clicks on the ribbon icon for PowerApps/Flow, it should open a separate browser tab for the app in question. Once the user logs in with their standard O365 credentials, it will AUTOMATICALLY grant them a free licence.

       

      We just tested this with a dummy account & saw the change instantly in the licencing part of the O365 admin centre for the associated account. Again this is a worry if licences are automatically being applied to users without correct governance applied "on the ground"

      • Jaymin Patel's avatar
        Jaymin Patel
        Brass Contributor

        Thanks Craig for your reply. It is really bummer!! Most of user base is not tech savvy. We do not want to expose them to PowerApps and Flows until we train them and they are ready. Apart from this, If license is automatically assigned to the user (without Admin's knowledge) then it defeat the purpose of governance. 

         

        Kerem Yuceturk - How is Microsoft going to solve a problem when we do not want our user to see "PowerApps" and "Flows" button on Modern forms. 

  • Pontus T's avatar
    Pontus T
    Iron Contributor

    This is all good news, but for organisations that are not yet ready to roll this feature out to end users, there needs to be a way to hide these buttons on tenant or site collection level.

     

    For anyone of the same opinion, please vote up this user voice item to make Microsoft understand the importance allowing their customers to roll out new features in their own pace.

    • Tami Shaw's avatar
      Tami Shaw
      Brass Contributor

      It's unbelievable that MS won't empower their customers to control their environment. It's irresponsible - no thought given to training or security concerns; other initiatives that may be a high value priority to the business. It puts teams supporting Office 365 in a reactive position and doesn't set them up for success. I'm sending the user voice link to people in my company to vote. 

    • Kerem Yuceturk's avatar
      Kerem Yuceturk
      Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft

      Hi Pontus T, we are starting to take big dependencies on Flow and PowerApps: Custom Forms in the PowerApps case, and out of box review/approval flows for lists and libraries on the Flow side. So having these features off is not something we want to encourage to keep the product consistent for our users. 

       

      We do appreciate the feedback, and will be watching the discussion under the user voice item to be sure.

      • Rob Bowman's avatar
        Rob Bowman
        Iron Contributor
        Kerem, based on your statements that PowerApps and Flow are still catching up with meeting all regulatory and security features, dependent or not to the future of SharePoint, the decision to release to a company should be based on the Admins and companies decision, not Microsoft. Some of us are keeping SharePoint on Premise around for just this reason. The decision to "Push" companies keeps our team (a highly regulated Global Financial Firm) continuously explaining situations that we should not have to.

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