The ask, suggest some structural changes for a few Power Automate cloud flows to improve readability. The flow makers are already adding comments and notes to their controls, but their flows still come across as unstructured. The proposed solution, add and nest flow actions into Scope controls: Figure 1 - Power Automate cloud flow with … Continue reading Power Automate: Cloud Flow + Better Readability (Scope Controls)
Author: Charles
Power Automate: Cloud Flow | Filter Datasets Better
The ask, improve a long running cloud flow's performance. It has a Get files (properties only) action querying 2,000 recent items which are filtered using a Condition block. Because the library already has 100K+ items, OData filters can be hit or miss, so the maker is iterating each returned item, causing the flow loop to … Continue reading Power Automate: Cloud Flow | Filter Datasets Better
Power Automate: Cloud Flows | Is the Array Empty?
The ask, suggest some alternative Power Automate logic for a group of non-dev cloud flow makers. Arrays and functions are new concepts to them, but they understand variables. So, instead of using the length() function to determine whether or not an array is empty, they would like some "more intuitive" logic for their Condition blocks: … Continue reading Power Automate: Cloud Flows | Is the Array Empty?
Power Automate: Cloud Flows + Better(er) Error Reporting
The ask, build on the better error reporting and share the actual error message when a cloud flow action fails. Earlier, the cloud flows were generating way too many error messages, one for each failed action, which was resolved using an array variable to store custom messages specified by the maker, then generating a single … Continue reading Power Automate: Cloud Flows + Better(er) Error Reporting
Power Automate: Cloud Flows + Better Error Reporting
The ask, introduce some better error reporting for a troublesome production cloud flow. The maker just recently deployed their solution to PROD, with some pretty good error handling, but this flow is experiencing some quirks not seen in DEV or QAT, so there are more errors than expected. And unfortunately, each error handled action sends … Continue reading Power Automate: Cloud Flows + Better Error Reporting
SharePoint Online: Appended Comments + Canvas Apps + Cloud Flows
The ask, get the appended comments of a SharePoint Online (SPO) list item. One of the makers is working on a Power Apps canvas app and their data source is an existing SPO list. In this list, the maker has a "Comments" column with the Append changes to existing text setting enabled. Per the project … Continue reading SharePoint Online: Appended Comments + Canvas Apps + Cloud Flows
Power Apps: User Defined Functions (UDF) | Calculate Days in Month
The ask, evaluate user-defined functions (UDFs), an experimental feature of canvas apps. Can the client's existing solutions benefit from UDFs whenever they become generally available (GA)? The short answer is yes. UDFs would allow app makers to create their own Formulas to be used throughout their respective canvas apps. This becomes helpful because as solutions … Continue reading Power Apps: User Defined Functions (UDF) | Calculate Days in Month
Power Automate: Cloud Flows + Complex Conditional Logic
The ask, see if there is a better way to conditionally update a Salesforce record whenever there is a value mismatch between it and SharePoint Online (SPO), the source system. There is already a Condition block with a nested Update record action, but can the condition logic be improved? Figure 1 - Power Automate cloud … Continue reading Power Automate: Cloud Flows + Complex Conditional Logic
Power Automate: Cloud Flow Gotchas | Infinite Loops
The ask, figure out why a maker's cloud flow is running more than expected. Their flow was only recently enabled for PROD, but they reported receiving an email (Figure 1) that their flow was "performing slow" shortly afterwards. Shortly after that, they received a second email (Figure 2) that their flow was "running too many … Continue reading Power Automate: Cloud Flow Gotchas | Infinite Loops
SharePoint Online: Column Indexes + Power Automate
The ask, figure out why a maker's Send an HTTP request to SharePoint flow action runs long without returning anything. The action just hangs even though it was running perfectly just a few days ago. Copying and testing the REST API directly in a browser, the maker reported a threshold error message: Figure 1 - … Continue reading SharePoint Online: Column Indexes + Power Automate
Power Automate: SharePoint Online | Check If Document Set Exists [ v3 ]
The ask, find another, another way to determine whether a document set exists or not. Still using the Deal ID value as the unique identifier, instead of adding the Get files (properties only) action [ option #2 ], use the Send an HTTP request to SharePoint action. This particular HTTP request action takes advantage of … Continue reading Power Automate: SharePoint Online | Check If Document Set Exists [ v3 ]
Power Automate: Do While Loop | Calculate Binary Of
The ask, convert a whole number to binary. The approach, use a do-while loop and the cloud flow to calculate the power of a number, calling it as a child flow. At some point, this flow may also be used as a child flow, so create it using the Respond to a Power App or … Continue reading Power Automate: Do While Loop | Calculate Binary Of
Power Automate: SharePoint Online | Check If Document Set Exists [ v2 ]
The ask, determine whether or not a document set exists before Power Automate tries to create one. Otherwise, the cloud flow will run long, appear stuck, and eventually fail. The flow could check for an existing document set by Name, but because SharePoint Online (SPO) isn't the source of truth system. this column value isn't … Continue reading Power Automate: SharePoint Online | Check If Document Set Exists [ v2 ]
Merry New Year | 2025
Cheers to 2025! Quickly recapping 2024, I wrapped the year with 11 speaking events: 10 in-person and 1 virtual. Among the in-person events, I taught my first workshop in MN, traveled to Montreal, QC for an event, and visited 6 different states, speaking in 8 different cities. I still blogged quite a bit but slowed … Continue reading Merry New Year | 2025
Power Automate: Do While Loop | Calculate Power Of
The ask, create a Power Automate cloud flow to calculate exponentiation, a base value taken to the power of an exponent value. Ultimately, this flow will be one of many flows filling in where Microsoft hasn't yet provided an expression. For this ask, create a new cloud flow and choose "When Power Apps calls a … Continue reading Power Automate: Do While Loop | Calculate Power Of
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