Author: Brendan Bowen

This author has written 23 articles
Read more about the article Force Sync Users to a Dataverse Environment
Dataverse / Power Automate / PowerShell

Force Sync Users to a Dataverse Environment

Unlike a default environment in your tenant, which includes all valid users in Entra, other Dataverse environments that use security groups to control access do not automatically sync those users. In order for a user to obtain access to an environment, they need the following: A valid Power Apps license Access to the environment’s security group A security role within the environment If any of those three conditions aren’t met, then nope—no access. Even then, however, the user still won’t automatically show up! The reason is because Dataverse uses just-in-time (JIT) user provisioning, meaning qualified users are only…

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March 31, 2026
Read more about the article Creating a Process Bar Component in Canvas Apps
PowerApps Canvas

Creating a Process Bar Component in Canvas Apps

As a busy user, I appreciate being able to see a visual indicator of the stage/status of an item at a glance. Model-Driven Applications, have Business Process Flows which include a nice visual control, which displays a process bar of the current stage. The process bar in a Model Driven App This led me to wonder: could I create something similar on the Canvas App side? In this post, I’ll demo my custom reusable component that visually represents stages in a Canvas App. The custom canvas app component built Example: Ordering Process Consider an example where you are…

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March 13, 2026
Read more about the article Collect External Responses in Dataverse Using Microsoft Forms
Dataverse / Microsoft Forms / Power Automate / PowerApps Canvas

Collect External Responses in Dataverse Using Microsoft Forms

A common requirement is the need to collect responses from users outside of your organization. Anyone who's spent a good deal of time within Power Platform knows this can quickly turn into a very complex task! I don't want to license external users and I don't want to build a Power Page to collect some simple form responses! Surely there's got a be a simpler way? Well, with the help of the pre-filled URL feature in Microsoft Forms, and a little Power Automate, there is! Scenario: Event Response Submissions In this example, I'm gathering Power Platform Conference Event…

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January 6, 2026
Read more about the article PowerApps Week of Selector Component
PowerApps Canvas

PowerApps Week of Selector Component

Have you ever needed to filter data based on the week of? To use a select-able dropdown, you first need to figure out the week start date based on the current date, week end, build a dynamic collection, filter, date add, sequence… yada yada, blah blah! Instead of doing all that in multiple apps, why not build one reusable component that handles all that tricky date calculation logic? That’s exactly what we’ll cover in today’s post. Component Goals Develop a reusable component that displays the week of start and end date in a dropdown Allow the user to…

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November 12, 2025
Read more about the article Import Data into a Many-to-Many Relationship Table in Dataverse
Automation / Dataverse / Power Automate / PowerShell

Import Data into a Many-to-Many Relationship Table in Dataverse

Importing data into a table in Dataverse auto-created by a many-to-many relationship proves to be much less straight-forward than it ought to be. For example, PowerApps Dataflows don't support importing to them. In this post, I’ll showcase two methods to import data using both Power Automate and the Dataverse Web API. Scenario: The Auto Inventory Manager I have this Dataverse data model for my Auto Inventory Management solution: Many Models can belong to a single make. That's a classic Many-To-One relationship. However, many models come in many different body styles. (Ex: a Honda Civic comes in a hatchback…

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October 18, 2025
Read more about the article PowerApps Modern Buttons Icon Name Cheat Sheet
PowerApps Canvas

PowerApps Modern Buttons Icon Name Cheat Sheet

Modern Controls in PowerApps Canvas Apps have been with us for a few years now. And while they are still in preview at the time of this post, some controls are more “mature” than others from my experience. One of these is the button control. Unlike the classic button control, the modern one can include an icon within the button making for a better visual experience to the end-user. Indeed, there are 73 modern button icons to choose from. Where I had some challenges however, is that I wanted to know all the icon names so I can…

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October 8, 2025
Read more about the article Retrieve Environment Variable Values using JavaScript
JavaScript / PowerApps Model Driven

Retrieve Environment Variable Values using JavaScript

This guide shows how to use JavaScript to query Dataverse environment variables and reference the values within a Model Driven App. This guide assumes you already know how to add JavaScript as a web resource and attach it to a Model-Driven App form. If not, I would review Microsoft's guides here: Create or edit model-driven app web resources to extend an app View and edit web resource properties for model-driven app forms Display Text Environment Value in a Notification Banner In the first example, we’ll use the formContext.ui.setFormNotification API to display an email address directly on the form.…

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September 13, 2025