The ask, address a Power Automate cloud flow that needlessly continues to run even when there's no data to process. This particular flow is an Automated cloud flow, and it runs daily, emailing a dynamic list of people a digest report of SharePoint Online list items created the day prior. The flow is triggered, then … Continue reading Power Automate: Cloud Flows | Terminate Unnecessary Runs
Power Automate
Power Automate: Cloud Flow + Better Readability (Scope Controls)
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)
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 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 | Update Document Set Metadata
The ask, update the metadata of a document set using a Power Automate cloud flow. In this ask, the document sets are created when certain conditions are met in an external source system. Post-creation, that metadata is kept in sync, receiving updates as changes are made in the source system. So, creating the document set … Continue reading Power Automate: SharePoint Online | Update Document Set Metadata
Power Automate: SharePoint Online | Check If Document Set Exists
Document sets aren't new to SharePoint Online (SPO), but plenty of organizations are just discovering them as they're a great way to bundle related documents. And document sets allow organizations to group and manage these related files as a single entity, defining metadata for the entity instead of individual files. Figure 1 - SharePoint Online … Continue reading Power Automate: SharePoint Online | Check If Document Set Exists
Power Automate: SharePoint Online | Folders to Document Sets
Nested folders are abundant in many, many SharePoint Online (SPO) tenants. Largely because a lot of organizations aren't ready to adopt a flat content architecture. Fortunately, plenty of their root directories adhere to strict folder naming conventions, so several of those root folders can be recreated as document sets. One perk of document sets is … Continue reading Power Automate: SharePoint Online | Folders to Document Sets
Power Automate: Application Lifecycle Management | Housekeeping
Power Automate cloud flows are environment specific when they're created. Power Platform application lifecycle management controls the management of cloud flows as solution assets, and proper management guides the deployment and maintenance of these solutions. Whether the solutions are managed or unmanaged, flows are deployed from one environment to another. Typically, makers create and test … Continue reading Power Automate: Application Lifecycle Management | Housekeeping
Power Automate: Understanding | mod()
Modulus (or modulo) is another of the math expression available in Power Automate. Similar to the add(), sub(), mul(), and div() expressions, mod() accepts two parameters, but instead only returns whole numbers, so no decimals. Likely an over-simplified explanation, but in computing, modulo is essentially the calculated remainder of a division calculation. Figure 1 - … Continue reading Power Automate: Understanding | mod()
Power Automate: Generate Custom GUID(s)
Yes, there is a guid() expression available in Power Automate. The provided expression doesn't accept parameters though, so for some people, there isn't an easy way to control the GUID formatting. With that in mind, it might be worth creating your own GUID value: Figure 1 - Power Automate cloud flow logic. After the cloud … Continue reading Power Automate: Generate Custom GUID(s)
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