Legacy Application Modernization with Power Automate and Power Apps

Background:

The Microsoft Power platform division of Professional Services, operating in the technology services industry, was approached by a client who sought to migrate their custom solutions from the deprecated SharePoint 2007/2010 environment to SharePoint Online/M365. The client’s existing setup consisted of custom SharePoint designer flows and InfoPath forms, which required modernization to align with the updated platform.

Challenge:

The migration project presented several challenges to the customer. Some of the features utilized in the legacy SharePoint designer flows were no longer supported in Power Automate, requiring the team to improvise and find solutions specific to these cases. Additionally, achieving custom functionality in SharePoint list forms posed a challenge, involving the utilization of multiple JavaScript libraries. This functionality encompassed tasks such as reading HTTP response parameters in the URL, implementing cascading drop-down lookups, and performing multiple list updates using JavaScript Object Model (JSOM).

Solution:

To address the challenges faced during the migration, the customer devised a comprehensive solution leveraging Microsoft power platform tools, specifically Power Automate and Power Apps. For achieving custom functionality in SharePoint list forms, the team created a Power Apps canvas app that dynamically read the URL parameters and updated them for each item upon creation, facilitated by a Power Automate flow. Consequently, users were redirected from the custom form to the canvas app, enabling seamless data fetching operations.

To tackle the issue of multiple daily reminders being sent only when users had not responded to approval tasks until a specific due date, the team devised a solution using Power Automate. Flows were created to assign tasks, and the parallel task functionality was utilized, incorporating a wait action that checked for the approval outcome every 24 hours. If the due date was reached and the desired outcome was not achieved, a reminder would be sent. This approach eliminated the need for approximately five different SPD2013 workflows, consolidating the functionality into a single flow.

To address the challenge of managing numerous SharePoint designer workflows and forms, along with multiple JavaScript libraries, the customer leveraged recommended ALM practices by Microsoft. They utilized solutions in multiple environments, creating them in the development environment using a service account, packaging them as managed solutions, and subsequently deploying them to the production environment.

Another significant challenge involved monitoring workflow progress by end users and stakeholders who lacked access to the flows. Unlike SharePoint designer workflows, Power Automate lacked built-in workflow action logging features. To meet this requirement, the team remediated the issue by utilizing the parallel action in case of both failure and success of actions in flows. In the event of a failure, create item actions were added to both the success and failure branches, generating entries in a Workflow Log list located within the solution site. Process owners gained visibility into the process flows through these logging entries, enabling them to contact the SharePoint support team if any issues arose. The logging entries provided live data snapshots and environment variable values, further enhancing visibility into flow execution.

Results:

The migration of custom solutions from deprecated SharePoint 2007/2010 to SharePoint Online/M365 was successful. The client was able to use the re-created SharePoint Designer flows and InfoPath forms using Power Automate and Power Apps. The PowerApps canvas app provided custom functionality for SharePoint list forms. The use of Power Automate flows eliminated the need for multiple SPD workflows, and the logging feature in flows provided better visibility of the flow execution.

Conclusion:

The migration of custom SharePoint Designer workflows and InfoPath forms to SharePoint Online/M365 using Power Automate and Power Apps was a successful project for the client. Their team was able to overcome the challenges and provide a solution that satisfied the client’s requirements. The client can now take advantage of the latest features and benefits offered by Microsoft’s cloud-based platform.

Advantages of moving from obsolete on-prem SharePoint Designer workflow and InfoPath to Power Automate and Power Apps:

The migration of custom solutions from SharePoint Designer workflows and InfoPath forms to Power Automate and Power Apps provided several advantages, including:

• Better integration: Power Automate and Power Apps integrate with other Microsoft services, such as SharePoint Online, Dynamics 365, and Power BI, allowing for seamless collaboration and data sharing.
• Improved efficiency: Power Automate and Power Apps provided more efficient solutions, consolidating multiple workflows and forms into streamlined processes.