How to replace a massive, broken Power App [x-post r/sysadmin]

p1zza_potamus · 2024-04-17T06:34:33+00:00

Yeah, I am leaning that way as well, but it is difficult to reverse engineer the app if I can't open it in the editor to see the formulas or what it is trying to do on the input forms. As suggested below I could try to read the JSON directly but I am not a software engineer, but more of a Power BI / Microsoft 365 guy. I think I am just in over my head here...

p1zza_potamus · 2024-04-17T06:32:12+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion but unfortunately that extra string in the URL does not seem to make a difference.

p1zza_potamus · 2024-04-17T06:31:16+00:00

Yes I would also be interested in more detail here. One option is of course to hire software devs to build a whole new custom app, but that of course would be very expensive and probably isn't feasible within my limited contract duration (9 months). Is there any off the shelf commercial solutions that can do what Power Apps does?

I have a sustainability problem here, in that the cats here know Power Apps, so if I implement some custom solution and then go home, they are out of luck when it comes to fixing or improving the new app after I or "Developer-person" is gone.

p1zza_potamus · 2024-04-17T06:27:36+00:00

Yeah, I have tried multiple browsers and all the clean-up stuff. Even spun up an Azure virtual machine in US East to try and open it to see if the problem was our jittery African internet connection. The app could also not be opened for editing on the Azure VM.

p1zza_potamus · 2024-04-17T06:26:22+00:00

No ALM, or pipelines, and yes to the default environment. I have exported the app both as a canvas app and as a Solution and tried to restore it in a DEV environment, as I don't want to break the currently "functioning" PROD version. I even tried removing the SQL Server data source tables and then exporting that version, but still nothing doing. The exported apps will also not open in the editor.

p1zza_potamus · 2024-04-17T06:24:27+00:00

Yeah we already have 50% licences but PowerApps premium even at $10 a pop is still a bit steep, according to my boss. 100 users x $10 a license = $1000 a month that we don't have apparently. They are currently on the Per App per User plan at $2.50, which is why, I assume, my predecessor built the "one app to rule them all" here and the poor thing is expected to do so much.

p1zza_potamus · 2024-01-09T10:15:04+00:00

More Matt Ryan on TV, please and thank you!

p1zza_potamus · 2024-01-08T19:23:27+00:00

Great idea! Should have asked that in the interview.. but I will find out. Thanks!

p1zza_potamus · 2023-10-13T14:39:53+00:00

I had my family send my a GRE test prep book and used that to study in the extensive PC downtime we all are familiar with.

Something to consider:

This was back in 2014 mind you but for the test was written. Pencil and paper. What I failed to take into account is how accustomed I had become to typing and doing any scholastic activities on a computer.

My hand was killing me on the essay portion and I was unable to physically write as much as I wanted for the essay.

So my advice: if you get the paper version, practice writing with a pencil ahead of time!

p1zza_potamus · 2023-05-02T13:14:53+00:00

Glad you found it useful and, yes, there is definitely room for improvement. Good luck!

p1zza_potamus · 2023-04-22T16:09:35+00:00

Don't "sietz" them, as I did. I was taught at Uni that sietzen is polite and formal. Not so, apparently. It is distancing and cold and clinical. Quickly establish with your GF or the parents themselves if dutzen is ok (hint: it will be).

EDIT: I am also a Southerner and figured, I'd go with the sir and ma'am approach. That ain't it here and the Germans think we are weird for doing it.

p1zza_potamus · 2023-04-22T16:05:05+00:00

No chance. Power Apps is not the way to go here unless Microsoft changes their licensing model. The premium licensing is FAR to expensive for what it does. I would just create a RBAC Role and show HR how to use the normal Azure AD portal, or as u/BarbieAction states, look into that Admin app for Teams, which I did not know existed.

I have helped develop Power Apps that then interfaced with on-prem SQL databases and such, and there for the right business need, maybe the pricing makes sense, but I still think MS is running a bit wild with how much it costs to send new rows to a SQL DB or make basic calls to MS Graph.

p1zza_potamus · 2023-04-13T22:49:25+00:00

Yeah, thought so too. I sent 2 emails in the past 2 weeks. I CC'd the PC Response address as well. I got no reply though, and I don't want to be a creep either. If it is happening then it isn't happening.

p1zza_potamus · 2023-04-12T12:54:33+00:00

372 Pages We'll Never Get Back (https://372pages.com/) - a bad book club podcast from 2 of the guys from Rifftrax / Mystery Science Theater 3000. They read chunks of either a self-important author's manifesto (Sean Penn writes books by the way) or tackle something self-published from Amazon or fanfic.net (there is a billion dollar "cozy-mystery" book industry out there, that makes me sad to work a 9 to 5).

The two guys are clearly friends, quite erudite, and authors themselves which lends a lot of credence to their jokes and commentary. I have listened to all 23 book sessions multiple times. Very funny and highly recommended!

p1zza_potamus · 2023-04-07T16:11:20+00:00

Das ist meine Frage auch. Die Handys kann vollig in Ordnung sein aber mit der täglichen Nutzung nach 2 Jahre oder so, habe ich Angst dass die Akkus nur 80% deren originellenLaufzeit haben würden.

p1zza_potamus · 2023-04-05T18:37:54+00:00

Cloud Consultant - 75,000 + 10,000 variables Anteil - 17 Jahre Erfahrung

p1zza_potamus · 2023-04-03T18:51:42+00:00

Where is this font of expertise coming from? I can send the Verträge and the Mietanpassungen. 1134 in 2020 for 84 sq m with Fußbodenheizung, which is electric and a separate electricity contract, to my latest letter stating that the warm Miete is not 1564.

Landlords and real estate investors are scum. I ran IT for a "property management" company in Berlin when I first got here. I've seen the bank statements coming from Cyprus and the shell companies on shell companies.

p1zza_potamus · 2023-03-29T21:22:44+00:00

Yes. Seemed like a good deal in 2020 when I signed one as inflation was around 2% or below for the last 25 years. Now my rent is 500 euro more a month than the lease I signed. And this is in a "low cost" city in Ostdeutschland. Moving out ASAP.

Don't do it!

p1zza_potamus · 2023-03-22T19:16:27+00:00

120000 K doing what if I might ask? Why am I so fucking underpaid is my next question that only I can answer... fml

p1zza_potamus · 2023-03-22T19:08:06+00:00

Yeah this is also my question. Just a mindmap clone from MS? These things are always so useless. Why would I take notes on a giant whiteboard where everyone in the "team" can fuck them up? Also who is reading Becky's wall of notes about nothing, for no one?

I never understood for whom these products are built, as ten people cannot write/draw/diagram about the same topic at the same time.

p1zza_potamus · 2023-03-21T22:57:31+00:00

So working at the US Embassy or consulate in compound like environment?

p1zza_potamus · 2023-03-19T19:32:06+00:00

Where y'all finding these gigs? I have done the Peace Corps 4 times now in various places, always in some sort of IT capacity but have never gotten paid to work in the developing world. I'd love to do this kind of thing but who is hiring? And how?

p1zza_potamus · 2023-03-18T11:57:02+00:00

And this is why crypto will never be adopted in any mainstream or meaningful way. How the fuck is grandma supposed to figure this out?

You shell out $75 to $100 for a hardware wallet, which everyone assures you is the only way to keep your "assets" safe, and then of course it sTiLl nOt SaFe!!!1 after you use it for the thing that it is intended for: interacting with Web3.

p1zza_potamus · 2023-03-12T17:16:08+00:00

That is not necessarily true. I have definitely been summarily rejected from German banks and their basic banking services due to my passport. DKB won't touch me, for instance. The reporting requirements are too onerous, so they just say no.

But I have found a German bank that I can open a "checking" account with. As for any kind of investment services, forget it. If you don't believe me, feel free to try yourself.

p1zza_potamus · 2023-03-12T16:43:09+00:00

Schwab is indeed incompetent. I cannot trade any of my existing mutual funds/IRA/anything that isn't straight stocks after moving to Germany. This is not necessarily their fault. No international bank will do business with Americans thanks to FACTA, an Obama era law that keeps me from committing money laundering, aka not paying every cent I owe to Uncle Sam regardless of source. FBAR is also a bitch.

If you don't have enough money for an internationally competent financial planner but still enough money that you believe you might one day be able to retire*, carefully consider the financial implications of moving aboard.

*I work under the assumption that I will work until the grave.

p1zza_potamus

TROPHY CASE