Power Automate Tips, Tricks & Best Practices

[AnthonyRyanEQL]

Hi there,

Is there a blog, document or something that has a list of tips, tricks & best practices when using Power Automate with Survey123?

I'm finding some gotchas as I put my first flow together.

Some of things I would like to know are:

• Should you use a built-in named user or enterprise user using an AD service account with SAML/SSO for the authentication in the Surevy123 connector?
• Appears only the owner of the survey can be used as the authentication in the connector to see it. The Portal permission/security model of content sharing, create webhooks, etc isn't being used when other built-in accounts have those permissions (similar to geoevent server).

There would be plenty more but these 2 above define the landscape of how user access/permission is defined especially when having to pass this to cyber security teams, etc for endorsement.

[abureaux]

Aw man. I really want to put something like this together...

There isn't anything that comprehensive for S123 atm.

• Should you use a built-in named user or enterprise user using an AD service account with SAML/SSO for the authentication in the Surevy123 connector? This is up to you. I use a built-in named user for my Enterprise connector (Essentially, my Portal's service account). The only big thing would be to choose a single account that isn't going anywhere (I.e., Don't use Fred, because Fred may leave the company in the future. Use a dedicated "service" account that will never get up and walk away).
• Appears only the owner of the survey can be used as the authentication in the connector to see it. The Portal permission/security model of content sharing, create webhooks, etc isn't being used when other built-in accounts have those permissions (similar to geoevent server). Correct. Again, I use a single service account for all of these tasks. Two accounts in total, actually. One is a built-in Portal account (mentioned above) and the other is an MS account for Power Automate (plus a myriad of other applications). As I tell my boss often, all these mission critical services need to be set up such that if I ever leave, the tower of cards doesn't come crumbling down.

[abureaux]

May as well drop a few Power Automate tips while I'm here:

• Learn to use ParseJSON instead of referencing the flow Trigger. This will save you a LOT of headache. On that same note, get Visual Studio Code as it helps format the JSON.
• You can set up templates for yourself to make creating new flows incredibly fast. For example, all of my surveys have templates with a basic structure that never changes. I also have a couple of Power Automate "templates". All I do is change a few fields, and within 1-2 minutes a newly published survey can be delivering Feature Reports.
• Sometimes Power Automate's search feature gets borked... I.e., You type in a field name that you know is there, but nothing appears (check out the example below)
  
  This is easily resolved by going to "Expression" > type "=" > go back to "Dynamic content" > delete the "=" > scroll through the list and you will find the missing variable (this disables the 'type to search' feature, but un-hides all hidden variables)
• Sometimes, you may wish to grab something from your Trigger. When you format a label in S123, that is what appears in Power Automate's Dynamic Content list, NOT your easy to read name. A reasonable workaround is actually to decrease your browser's size until Power Automate shifts from a floating menu to an integrated menu (see below). The integrated menu allows you to hover over an item to see the FULL label
  

[AnthonyRyanEQL]

Thanks for confirming this. We get a little worried when either the PSA or admin account is used to do the authentication and not sure what information is actually stored.