Power Automate Flows and Automation¶

Trigger: When an item is created (SharePoint)
Actions: Send email, update record, post to Teams

Trigger: Manual trigger (Power Apps, button)
Actions: User-selected operations

Trigger: Recurrence (daily at 9 AM)
Actions: Generate report, send summary

1. Trigger: When an item is created (SharePoint)
   - Site Address: https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/mysite
   - List Name: Tasks

2. Action: Send an email (V2)
   - To: Manager email
   - Subject: New task created: [Title]
   - Body: [Description]

Trigger: Recurrence
- Interval: 1
- Frequency: Day
- Time Zone: (UTC-08:00) Pacific Time
- At these hours: 9
- At these minutes: 0

Advanced Options:
- Start time: 2024-01-01T09:00:00Z
- On these days: Monday, Wednesday, Friday

Trigger: Manually trigger a flow
- Add inputs:
  - Text: Employee Name
  - File: Document to process
  - Yes/No: Urgent?

Actions: Process based on inputs

Trigger: PowerApps (V2)
- Ask in PowerApps: Item ID, Action Type

From Power Apps:
MyFlow.Run(Gallery1.Selected.ID, "Approve")

Site Address: [SharePoint site URL]
List Name: [List name]

Site Address: [SharePoint site URL]
List Name: [List name]
Advanced:
- Trigger Conditions: @equals(triggerOutputs()?['body/Status'], 'Approved')

Site Address: [SharePoint site URL]
Library Name: Documents
Folder: /Shared Documents/Invoices
Include Nested Items: Yes

Folder: Inbox
Advanced:
- From: specific.sender@contoso.com
- Has Attachment: Yes
- Subject Filter: "Invoice"
- Importance: High
- Include Attachments: Yes

Original Mailbox Address: shared@contoso.com
Folder: Inbox

Change type: Added or Modified
Table name: Accounts
Scope: Organization
Row Filter:
- Column: Status
- Value: Active

Site Address: [URL]
List Name: Tasks
Title: [Dynamic content]
Description: [Dynamic content]
Assigned To: [User email]

Site Address: [URL]
List Name: Tasks
Id: [Item ID from trigger]
Title: [Updated value]

Site Address: [URL]
List Name: Products
Filter Query: Category eq 'Electronics'
Order By: Title
Top Count: 100

Site Address: [URL]
File Identifier: [File identifier from trigger]
Infer Content Type: Yes

To: recipient@contoso.com;another@contoso.com
Subject: Order Confirmation - [Order Number]
Body: <p>Thank you for your order!</p><p>Order details: [Dynamic content]</p>
Advanced:
- From (Send as): shared@contoso.com
- CC: manager@contoso.com
- Importance: High
- Attachments: [File content from previous step]

To: approver@contoso.com
Subject: Approval Required
User Options: Approve, Reject, Need More Info

User (UPN): [User email]
Returns: Display Name, Job Title, Department, Manager

User (UPN): [User email]
Returns: Manager's email and details

Approval type: Approve/Reject - First to respond
Title: Expense Approval - [Amount]
Assigned to: [Manager email]
Details:
  Employee: [Name]
  Amount: [Amount]
  Description: [Description]

Next action based on:
Outcome: Approve or Reject

Approval type: Approve/Reject - Everyone must approve
Title: Purchase Order Approval
Assigned to: [Manager1];[Manager2];[Finance]

From SharePoint trigger:
- Title: triggerOutputs()?['body/Title']
- Created: triggerOutputs()?['body/Created']
- Author Email: triggerOutputs()?['body/Author/Email']

From "Get items" action:
- First item title: outputs('Get_items')?['body/value']?[0]?['Title']
- Count: length(outputs('Get_items')?['body/value'])

concat('Hello, ', triggerOutputs()?['body/Title'])
// Result: "Hello, My Title"

substring(triggerOutputs()?['body/Description'], 0, 100)
// First 100 characters

replace(triggerOutputs()?['body/Title'], 'Old', 'New')
// Replace text

toLower(triggerOutputs()?['body/Status'])
toUpper(triggerOutputs()?['body/Status'])

trim(triggerOutputs()?['body/Title'])
// Remove leading/trailing spaces

split(triggerOutputs()?['body/Tags'], ',')
// Split by delimiter

join(array, ', ')
// Join array elements

utcNow()
// Current UTC time: 2024-01-15T10:30:00Z

formatDateTime(utcNow(), 'yyyy-MM-dd')
// Format: 2024-01-15

formatDateTime(utcNow(), 'MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm tt')
// Format: 01/15/2024 10:30 AM

addDays(utcNow(), 7)
// Add 7 days

addHours(utcNow(), -5)
// Subtract 5 hours

startOfDay(utcNow())
// Beginning of today

dayOfWeek(utcNow())
// Day of week (0-6, Sunday=0)

ticks(utcNow())
// Timestamp in ticks

if(equals(triggerOutputs()?['body/Status'], 'Approved'), 'Yes', 'No')

and(greater(outputs('Get_amount'), 1000), equals(Status, 'Pending'))

or(equals(Status, 'Active'), equals(Status, 'Pending'))

not(empty(triggerOutputs()?['body/Description']))

empty(triggerOutputs()?['body/Title'])
// Returns true if null or empty

coalesce(triggerOutputs()?['body/Title'], 'Default Title')
// Returns first non-null value

length(outputs('Get_items')?['body/value'])
// Count of items

first(outputs('Get_items')?['body/value'])
// First item

last(outputs('Get_items')?['body/value'])
// Last item

contains(outputs('Get_items')?['body/value'], 'SearchValue')
// Check if contains

union(array1, array2)
// Combine arrays

intersection(array1, array2)
// Common elements

add(5, 3)  // 8
sub(10, 4)  // 6
mul(3, 4)  // 12
div(10, 2)  // 5
mod(10, 3)  // 1 (remainder)

max(5, 10, 3)  // 10
min(5, 10, 3)  // 3

rand(1, 100)  // Random number 1-100

Condition: Status equals Approved
If yes:
  - Send approval email
  - Update SharePoint item
If no:
  - Send rejection email
  - Log to tracking list

@equals(outputs('Get_amount'), 1000)
@greater(outputs('Get_amount'), 5000)
@and(greater(Amount, 100), less(Amount, 1000))

Switch: outputs('Get_status')
Case: Approved
  - Actions for approved
Case: Rejected
  - Actions for rejected
Case: Pending
  - Actions for pending
Default:
  - Actions for other statuses

Apply to each: outputs('Get_items')?['body/value']
  Current item: @{items('Apply_to_each')}

  Actions for each item:
  - Send email to @{items('Apply_to_each')?['AssignedTo']}
  - Update item status
  - Create task

Settings > Concurrency Control
- Degree of Parallelism: 50 (default)
- Reduce to 1 for sequential processing

Do until: @equals(variables('Status'), 'Completed')
  Actions:
  - Get item status
  - Set variable 'Status'
  - Delay for 5 minutes

Timeout: PT1H (1 hour)

Scope: Main Process
  - Action 1
  - Action 2
  - Action 3

Configure run after:
- Scope 1 succeeds → Run Scope 2
- Scope 1 fails → Run Error Handling Scope

Action 2 settings > Configure run after
Run after Action 1:
- ☑ is successful
- ☐ has failed
- ☐ is skipped
- ☐ has timed out

Scope: Try
  - Action 1
  - Action 2

Scope: Catch (Run after Try has failed)
  - Compose: @result('Try')
  - Send email notification
  - Log error

Terminate
Status: Succeeded / Failed / Cancelled
Code: HTTP status code (e.g., 200, 400, 500)
Message: "Process completed successfully" or error details

// Get error message from action
actions('Action_name')['error']['message']

// Get status code
actions('Action_name')['status']

// Result of scope
result('Scope_name')

// Check if action succeeded
equals(actions('Action_name')['status'], 'Succeeded')

1. Click "Test" in flow designer
2. Select "Manually" or "Automatically"
3. Trigger the flow
4. Review each step's inputs/outputs
5. Check for errors
6. Validate data transformations

1. Click button/link
2. Type into field
3. Select dropdown
4. Extract data from table
5. Save file
6. Close application

Text: EmployeeName
Number: RecordCount
Boolean: ProcessAll
File: InputDocument

Text: ConfirmationNumber
DataTable: ExtractedData
File: ProcessedDocument

- Click UI element
- Populate text field
- Press button
- Get details of UI element
- Wait for UI element
- Take screenshot

- Run application
- Terminate process
- Run DOS command
- Run PowerShell script
- Get environment variable

- Read from file
- Write to file
- Copy file
- Move file
- Delete file
- Get files in folder

- Launch Excel
- Read from Excel worksheet
- Write to Excel worksheet
- Close Excel
- Run Excel macro

On error:
- Continue flow
- Go to next action
- Repeat action
- Go to label
- Exit flow run

Label: Start
  Action 1
  Action 2
  On error: Go to ErrorHandler

Label: ErrorHandler
  - Log error
  - Send notification
  - Clean up

1. Trigger: When item created (SharePoint)
2. Condition: If Status equals "High Priority"
3. Action: Send email to manager
4. Action: Create task in Planner

1. Trigger: When item created
2. Action: Get manager
3. Action: Start and wait for approval
4. Condition: If approved
   Yes: Update status to "Approved"
   No: Send rejection email

1. Trigger: Recurrence (Daily at 9 AM)
2. Action: Get items (filter for yesterday)
3. Action: Create HTML table
4. Action: Send email with table

1. Action: Get items (SharePoint)
2. Apply to each: For each item
   - Send email
   - Update Dataverse
   - Log to table

Scope: Try
  - Main actions

Scope: Catch (Run after Try fails)
  - Compose error details
  - Send notification
  - Terminate with Failed status

- When an item is created (SharePoint)
- When a new email arrives (Outlook)
- When a row is added (Dataverse)
- Recurrence (Schedule)
- Manually trigger a flow
- PowerApps (V2)

- Create item (SharePoint)
- Send an email (Office 365)
- Start and wait for approval
- Compose (build JSON/text)
- Get items (SharePoint)
- Update a row (Dataverse)

// Current time
utcNow()

// Format date
formatDateTime(utcNow(), 'yyyy-MM-dd')

// Conditional
if(equals(Status, 'Active'), 'Yes', 'No')

// String manipulation
concat('Hello ', triggerOutputs()?['body/Title'])

// Get email
triggerOutputs()?['body/Author/Email']