Power Automate use rights with a Power Apps per app plan

[sdowse]

Hi All

I have been told by a MS technical help person that I can't edit some of my flows because they are outside the "context" of my model driven power app, but I am not sure if this is right, especially given some of examples in the MS documentation - for example these two from the Dec 2021 Power Platform Licensing Guide page 13....

I am the only user in my tenant (so am a global admin) and the only user of the app, I have a MS 365 Business Standard Licence and the environment containing my model driven app has a P Apps per app license so I can use the app - the app is within a solution.

When I go to the edit screen of the problem flows I get a message saying: 

The two flows I know I have issues with are as follows - what I want to know is are they "within the context" of my power app? From the examples above I think they should be. At the very least the triggers should be covered under my MS 365 license and the premium dataverse actions should be within the context of my app........ but each flow interacts with the data in my apps tables so, according to the examples, should be within the context of my app.

One of the flows is triggered when an email arrives in a shared mailbox, it parses the text in the email, creates two records in two tables in my dataverse database, archives the email and sends me an email to say it is done.

The other one is triggered when an MS Form is submitted - it uses information from the form to find the relevant record in one of my dataverse tables, starts an approval process and if approved uses the information from the form to update records in various of my dataverse tables.

For background, which may be useful, the entire solution was developed under the P Apps Community Plan and was then exported to a new sandbox environment last year, which is the one my power apps per app plan is linked to.

Thanks!

Simon

[HSheild]

Hi @sdowse 

From what you have described the flows are in the context of the app and you shouldn’t be getting that error if the Power Apps per App pass is applied to the environment.

I would go back to Microsoft support and ask why they don’t think it is within context of the app.

[sdowse]

Thanks for your help @HSheild - I've sent them a message and will post my results here in case they can be of any use to anyone else!

[sdowse]

MS support have come back to me and said that only a flow with a Power Apps trigger (as per their screenshot below) can be said to be within the context of the app!

I have queried this as nowhere in the licensing guide or FAQs documents does it say this.

I'll keep you updated.

 

[HSheild]

I’m 99% sure what you are doing with Power Automate is in context with the app, and what the MS Support person is telling you is not true - unless Microsoft have made some technical changes recently.  If I was you I would ask the MS Support person to escalate to his manager or the product team. 

[Danj_b]

Did you get a response back from MS on this?  I am experiencing a similar issue

[sdowse]

Hi @Danj_b 

I spent a very long time with MS and got it working somehow - but it then broke again at which point I discovered that you can now tell PowerApps/Automate that a particular flow is associated with an app  - link to instructions below.

When I first discovered this it wasn't possible to do what the guide tells you as there was no option to add the association in Power Automate but I've just checked and it is now there. I had to do it via Powershell instead.

I hope that helps

Simon

Associate flows with apps - Power Automate | Microsoft Learn

[Danj_b]

Hi Simon,

Thanks for your response.

So I have a flow that is triggered when a Dataverse table is updated.  The Dataverse table is the main one that’s used in my PowerApp.  I found the steps to associate a flow with an app, which I done successfully. However I still get a warning in the admin centre that I am not in context.  I have an open ticket with MS who are insisting that to be ‘in context’ the flow MUST be triggered using the Power App connector from inside the app - which I am having an hard time believing!

[sdowse]

Hi @Danj_b 

I spent a lot of time educating the MS people as to what "in context" means - I did it by showing them the info in the Microsoft Power Platform Licensing Guide (page 11 of Nov 22 guide - Power Automate use rights included with Power Apps licenses)

Also see this FAQ at Power Platform licensing FAQs - Power Platform | Microsoft Learn

Are full Power Automate capabilities included in Power Apps licenses?

Power Apps licenses continue to include Power Automate capabilities. However, flows need to run within the context of the app, which refers to using the same data sources for triggers or actions as the app. Consuming standalone Power Automate flows unrelated to the app(s) requires purchase of a standalone Power Automate license.

I don't know why associating hasn't worked - it did for me.

Good luck!

Simon

[Danj_b]

Thanks Simon - that is really helpful.  I will let you know how I get on!