Best workflow for Form creation in M365 that doesn't lock the form to a specific user?
Posted by asedlfkh20h38fhl2k3f@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 13 comments
Keep running into situations where John Doe leaves the org and we have to use one tactic or another to transfer/rebuild a Form so it doesn't permanently break 30 days after we delete his account. In the scenario of full deletion of the Form's original creator, 1) is there even a way to transfer the Form without breaking it, and 2) moving forward what is a better way for the org to create Forms such that they're not locked to an individuals account?
I'm thinking it might be worthwhile to just create a dedicated licensed mailbox for Form creation, so that all forms live under this account, and then just manage the user permissions to this account accordingly (we have access to free E2 web-only licenses which would be sufficient for this, but if there's a cleaner method that doesn't require the addition of yet another mailbox I'd be interested to know)
FirstThrowAwayAcc1@reddit
We have a dedicated account for automations, which includes forms, etc..
CableManagedFarts@reddit
What is the workflow there? Grant user access, have them open the mailbox in a new tab and then create a Form from there, or does the staff member need to fully sign into the account in order to create the form? I suppose either way would work so long as the account's MFA is in a shared password vault.
FirstThrowAwayAcc1@reddit
Currently for business important workflow the form is created by IT who logs into the account and creates it plus all power automate linked work.
Then the business can see the form response to fill it in as needed
CableManagedFarts@reddit
Whatever works, every environment is different. In my role I can't be hand holding users like that through their workflows, creating even more reliance on IT for basic stuff. If you create the form in Sharepoint this seems to take care of the issue because the sharepoint site becomes the owner. I imagine in Google's ecosystem you'd create the survey in a team drive.
CableManagedFarts@reddit
I think I've figured out that sharepoint is the best path forward for forms to live in. People can nest forms in whatever Sharepoint site's they are in a group in, and it will nest the form in the sharepoint site and not their user account. You just go to documents, add a new document, select form, and that's basically it, the rest is pretty self explanatory from there. One thing probably worth noting is that an excel sheet doesn't seem to get created until you have collected a response. So it's worth answering your own form once or twice to generate the sheet, which then just lives right there in the sharepoint documents.
The tricky part with this method though is that users would expect to be able to get back into the form to edit via the same interface they created the form - which you can't. You can't get back into the form from within sharepoint, you can only get into the excel sheet from there. To get back into the form itself you have to go to the Forms app (via top left microsoft apps menu button) > shared with me > select the corresponding group/site > open the form from here. This is still preferable to any other method I've come across as of yet.
BeachBum_InPA@reddit
You can move the form to a group using the ellipses. I've done this with quite a few forms after a coworker left.
Valdaraak@reddit
Problem with that is that you can't target that form with a Power Automate flow if it's in a group. Unless they changed that.
BeachBum_InPA@reddit
My only experience with doing it this way is that I'm a member of the group that the form gets moved to. No issues with the connection between the flow and the form when doing it this way. We're a small company so when someone wants to have a form do things beyond just collecting responses, we create the form for them and also the flow in Power Automate.
CableManagedFarts@reddit
As the user, I can't even find the option to "Move to a group". That seems like an old screenshot, idk if that's even possible, unless the method now is to simply add the group via the collaboration menu.
piense@reddit
Need to make some forms myself, I’ll have to test this theory next week.
CableManagedFarts@reddit
Are you deleting those coworkers accounts or just deactivating them? Like does moving to a group move both the Form and Excel sheet to that group? Seems from what I read online it moves it from a permissions perspective but the actual form still technically is attached to the creator's account, idk maybe I'm wrong.
I'm OP btw, had trouble getting back into asedlfkh20h38fhl2k3f so created a burner account.
fireandbass@reddit
Create a non-interactive user account and assign it your forms.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/create-users#create-a-non-interactive-user-account
Gloomy_Stage@reddit
That is what a service account is for.