Power Automate Flow Permissions when using PowerApps Trigger to Initiate Flow

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I have a Flow that uses a PowerApps trigger to update multiple items in multiple Sharepoint Lists when the user selects a button in the the PowerApp.  When I test this by selecting the button, all actions in the PowerApp execute, including the trigger that executes the Flow.  However, I have shared this App with another user.  When he selects the button, the flow does not execute.  I am guessing that this is a permissions issue, but I am unable to solve it.  I have tried giving the user co-owner and edit permissions, but it still does not work.  (It did work for a few runs initially, but then stopped working.)  Do you know how to have the flow execute when a user selects the button?  Or do I have to find a work around?  If so, do you have any suggestions.

Thank you,

CNI

[yashag2255]

Hi @Anonymous 

Can you share screenshot of the error you are seeing? 

Note that all the actions in the Flow triggered by a Power Apps control will use the connection of the user that is triggering the flow from the Power App. 

If you are seeing an error like: "

Unable to process template language expressions in action 'XYZ' inputs at line 'A' and column 'Z': 'The template language expression 'json(decodeBase64(triggerOutputs().headers['X-MS-APIM-Tokens']))['$connections']['shared_xyz']['connectionId']' cannot be evaluated because property 'shared_xy' doesn't exist, available properties are 'shared_xy, shared_xz'. Please see https://aka.ms/logicexpressions for usage details.'.

You might have to remove the flow from the Power App and then re-register it as this is one of the most common errors with Flows triggered from Power Apps that occurs when you add an action to the flow after adding the flow to the Power App. 

Hope this Helps!

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[Anonymous]

Hello @yashag2255 ,

Thank you for your reply.  I have not been getting an error.  The Power App is working as well as the flow.  The flow is currently set up with my connections only.  This must be why it is not working based on your note.  This leaves a few questions:

(1) If I have 20 users all using this app, does this mean I have to add each user to each and every connection in the flow?

(2) Do I need to give all the users 'co-owner' or edit access in both the PowerApp and the Flow?  I would like to give them user permissions, but I would like to reserve 'co-owner' or edit permissions to my development team.

Thank you for your help!

CNI

[yashag2255]

Hi @Anonymous 

No. You do not have to create any connection as such for the users. You just have to share the app with them and you can select the user permission. 

When the users launch the app for the first time, the connection request is done for the user and once they authorize, the connectors get authenticated with the users permissions automatically. You might want to check the access to SharePoint/ CDS or the data sources and the connectors and confirm that the users actually have access to those. 

Hope this Helps!

If this reply has answered your question or solved your issue, please mark this question as answered. Answered questions helps users in the future who may have the same issue or question quickly find a resolution via search. If you liked my response, please consider giving it a thumbs up. THANKS!

[Anonymous]

Dear @yashag2255 ,

Thank you again!  I really appreciate your help.  I will need to work with my IT/Admin team to check the permissions for each user.  Right now as it sits, when I initially gave user permission for the app, the Flow ran for 1-2 days after when the users (or myself) were doing actions in the Power App.  However, then it suddenly stopped.  Then, I removed the Flow Connection from the Power App and then added it again.  It worked for 1 more day and then stopped again.  This put me on the path of permissions for the users because it seems that the PowerApp and Flow are both working.  Do you have any thoughts on this?

Thank you,

CNI 

[yashag2255 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous 

I believe that you might be using certain connectors or services that you have access to but the team does not. Also, you might want to check if there are any Approvals or Time bound actions (like delays or nested loops) and check if those are working as expected. 

Hope this Helps!

If this reply has answered your question or solved your issue, please mark this question as answered. Answered questions helps users in the future who may have the same issue or question quickly find a resolution via search. If you liked my response, please consider giving it a thumbs up. THANKS!

[Anonymous]

Dear @yashag2255 ,

Thank you again!  I will check these things and post if I cannot figure it out.

CNI

[TedBabcock]

Not sure if your issue was resolved. As I understand it, SharePoint requires explicit permissions: the users of an app that accesses SharePoint must themselves have permission to the SP site. 

There is a way around this if you don’t want to give users permission to the SP site, besides row-level permissions, which doesn’t work in all cases. The solution is to use two flows: a parent flow, triggered in PowerApps and given any needed parameters, which issues an HTTP request to a child flow, triggered “when an HTTP request is received.” The child flow accesses SharePoint with your credentials, performs the needed CRUD operations, returns any output to the parent flow, which returns the output to PowerApps.

Only the parent flow is a data source in the PowerApp. The child flow doesn’t even know of the existence of the PowerApp and its users, so they do not need permission to the SP site. 

The same process solves the problem of “implicit sharing,” when a data source that does not require explicit permission, such as SQL Server, is implicitly shared with the app’s user. Not only the tables and views accessed in the app, but everything in the entire SQL database. This huge security hole is plugged by the parent-child flow process. 

[Tilman]

Thanks very much - this helped me a lot to get over several cases where I faced similar permission issues, like setting user permissions on a Dataverse envirnment or sending mail from shared mailbox where the triggering user account doesn't have send as permissions. Really cool!

[sastrakhan]

The approach I needed was leveraging Power Automate's "Run Only Users" feature, which is limited to certain kinds of triggers but nonetheless allowed the Flows to be run from the Flow owner's credentials instead of the trigger User.  Saved us from having to find every place the user needed permissions.