Updates to the Azure File Storage and Excel Online (Business) connectors

We are excited to announce improvements to the Azure File Storage and Excel Online (Business) connectors to make them more useful and robust.   Additionally, we have re-arranged the features between these two connectors for greater clarity and ease of use.  These changes will be available in all regions by the end of April.

Azure File Storage Connector

The Azure File Storage connector allows users to interact with their files in an Azure Storage account.   We have removed the “blob” designation from this connector.  This designation blocked Power Apps users from getting at the actions available for the connector.   Now that this designation has been removed, users can now simply use the Azure File storage connector directly to store and display media files.  Previously, as a work-around in order to use media files, users would use an Excel file with Azure File storage as a cloud storage service.

For Power Apps:

• Azure File Storage is no longer a supported cloud storage service when you generate a Power App for Excel.
• You can now invoke actions in the Azure File Storage connector directly in Power Apps

Excel Online (Business) Connector (some features in Preview)

The Excel Online (Business) Connector allows users to work with Excel files in document libraries that are supported by Microsoft Graph (OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Sites [Preview], and Office 365 Groups).  There were several limitations of the old Excel connector including the fact that only a single user could work with the Excel file at a time and that you could not access files on a SharePoint Site (Preview).

The updated Excel Online (Business) Connector is faster, more robust, allows for multiple users, and can work with all standard document libraries (One Drive for Business, SharePoint Sites [Preview], and Office 365 Groups.)

For Power Apps:

The updated connector is available when you add a data source in the Data  Pane in Power Apps.  It is not currently yet available when you use the ‘Start from Data’ experience.

Other FAQs

• What specific parts of the updates for the Excel Online (Business) Connector are in Preview?

Support for Share Point sites (i.e., Document Libraries) is Preview.  Files on One Drive are fully supported.  Note that ‘Start from Data’ still uses the One Drive connector to connect to Excel.  If you want to use the new Excel Online (Business connector) you must directly add the connector in the data pane.

• How does this impact my existing application? 

Existing app will continue to work.  However, you will not be able to add additional Excel tables in PowerApps if those Excel files are in Azure File Storage.

• Does this impact Power Automate?

No, existing Power Automate flows will continue to work.

• Does this impact Logic Apps?

No, it only impacts Excel connector usage – which is not available in Logic Apps.

• Will we make similar changes to other file connectors like Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, etc?

We are planning changes for FTP, SFTP, SFTP with SSH, Azure File and File System connectors in the future.