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S. Prakash PradhanPower Platform and Dynamics 365 CE for Absolute Beginnershttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-8600-5_4

4. Working with Power Automate

Sanjaya Prakash Pradhan¹

(1)

Ganjam, Odisha, India

Microsoft Power Automate (previously known as Flow) helps you create automated workflows between your favorite cloud and on-premise apps. It provides services to synchronize files, get notifications, collect data, and more.

Power Automate is an important pillar of Microsoft Power Platform ecosystem that builds robust automation over cloud apps.

These days, most apps are available in the cloud, although some are still available from on-premise environments. Integrating these cloud systems is tricky, and using a no-code, less-code platform to do this is a real benefit. Power Automate solves these integration automation needs, regardless of the datasource’s location. Using connectors, you can connect practically any datasource to automate your business needs.

Power Automate’s Building Blocks

Power Automate has three building blocks. These are triggers, connectors, and actions. Every Flow must have a trigger and one or more connectors and actions.

Table 4-1 explains the concepts of triggers, connectors, and actions.

Table 4-1

Triggers, Connectors, and Actions

Building Block	Description
Triggers	Events that initiate a flow instance. For example, running a flow on-demand from a button click, or running a flow when a file is uploaded to SharePoint.
Connectors	Adaptors that communicate with other products or services. For example, if you want to create a file in OneDrive, you need a OneDrive Connector. If you want to read data from Dynamics 365, you can create a connector to the Dataverse. Connectors require authentication. You must have a subscription to the service you want to connect from Power Automate.
Actions	Operations that you define so that the Flow will perform them. For example, creating a file in SharePoint, deleting a record from the Dataverse, sending an email, etc.

Features of Power Automate

Automate quickly and more securely

With Power Automate, anyone can create automated processes using flows. You can automate repetitive, monotonous operations with ease, using low-code, drag-and-drop tools and hundreds of pre-built connectors.

Boost efficiency

With process adviser, you can record and visualize your end-to-end processes while getting guided advice for developing flows and detailed insights that take the guesswork out of deciding what to automate.

Enhance workflows with AI

With AI Builder, you can make your automation even smarter. Use document automation to quickly process forms, handle approvals, identify photos and text, and generate with pre-built models.

Connectors in Power Automate

A connector is a wrapper or proxy that allows an underlying service to communicate with Microsoft Power Automate, Microsoft Power Apps, and Azure Logic Apps. It allows users to link their accounts and use a library of pre-built actions and triggers to create apps and processes.

Microsoft has 200+ connectors you can use to automate business process and flows, but if a specific connector is not available, you can create your own custom connector. Figure 4-1 displays a list of connectors.

Types of Flows and Uses

There are five types of flow you can create. The type of trigger decides the type of flow. These are explained in Table 4-2.

Table 4-2

Types of Flows

Type	Description
Automated Cloud Flow	Triggered by designated events.
Instant Cloud Flow	Triggered manually as needed.
Scheduled Cloud Flow	You can choose when and how often it runs.
Desktop Flow	Automated processes on your desktop environment. Leverage Robotic Process Automation (RPA).
Business Process Flow	Guides users through a multi-step process.

Configure an Automated Cloud Flow

In this example, you see how to automatically trigger a Power Automate flow when an event occurs in the Dataverse.

Business Scenario

In this example, you see how to send an email to your manager when Lead annual revenue is more than $5,000 for notification purposes.

Solution

This solution requires a Power Automate configuration with an event trigger. The following steps show how to configure the flow.

Step 1: Use the Solution to Create a Flow

Open the solution and click the Add New option. Choose Automation then the Cloud Flow with Automated option. Figure 4-2 shows this process.

Figure 4-2
Adding an automated flow to the solution

Now specify a name and a trigger. Call it Send Email to Manager for Lead more than 5000 USD revenue. Call the trigger Dataverse and, in the list, choose When a row is added, modified, or deleted trigger. You can learn more about the Dataverse connectors from Microsoft at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/commondataserviceforapps/. Click Create. Figure 4-3 shows the trigger and the name of the flow.

Figure 4-3
Adding an automated flow to the solution

Step 2: Configure the Trigger

You will notice that the trigger is identified on the designer. Now set Change Type to Modified, Table Name to Leads, and Scope to Organization. Figure 4-4 shows the trigger.

Step 3: Add a Filter Expression to the Trigger

Now you’ll add a filter condition to the trigger to filter and trigger only when the annual revenue is more than $5,000. To do this, click the Show Advanced options of trigger.

In the Filter Rows box, specify annualrevenue gt 5000. Make sure to use the logical name of the field you are trying to compare with to the value. This expression is called an OData expression and it defines a filter condition while querying the Dataverse data. To learn more about OData syntax, see https://www.odata.org/documentation/odata-version-2-0/uri-conventions/. See Figure 4-5.

Step 4: Get the Current User Manager

Click +New Step and search Get My Profile. This creates a connection to Office 365 Users so that you can use Get My Profile. See Figures 4-6 and 4-7.

Click +New Step and search for the Get Manager trigger. Once you type get manager, it will display related triggers and actions that you can use. Figure 4-8 shows the Get Manager trigger.

Figure 4-8
The Get Manager trigger and action

Select the Get Manager action. This will sign in automatically and create a background connector with the Office 365 Users application using the current login user credential.

This Get Manager action requires a user email so that it can get the manager information.

In the User box, assign the Mail attribute from the Dynamics content so that it will pass the current user profile mail into the Get Manager action for which it will read manager information. This Mail attribute will be available in the Dynamic panel because of the Office 365 Users connector. To learn more about the Office 365 Users connector, see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/office365users/. See Figure 4-9.

Step 5: Send an Email

Now you can send a well formatted email to the manager. After the Get Manager step, add a new step called Send Email Using Gmail connector. Assign features to the subject body as needed using the Dynamic content panel. If the Dynamic content panel is not visible, click the blue icon labeled Add Dynamic Content. It will open the Dynamic panel. The Dynamic content panel displays the dynamic values that are part of the previous steps associated with different connectors. Figure 4-10 shows the process of assigning dynamic contents to the email send step.

Figure 4-10
Send an email and adding dynamic content

Now if you create a lead in the Dataverse and update the annual revenue with more than $5,000, the system will send an email to your manager from your Gmail Account. You can use the Outlook connector to send email as well.

Configure an Instant Cloud Flow

Instant flow creates a mobile button to click on demand and the actions will be performed as per the flow design. Say you want to send an email with an attachment to a person on demand via a button click.

Create an Instant Flow by Navigating to Power Automate

Open office.com, click All Apps, and choose Power Automate. You can also create the instant flow inside a solution, but it will not display the button on mobile devices. Figure 4-11 shows the Power Automate link.

On the Power Automate screen, click Environment and choose the correct environment. Figure 4-12 shows the environment change option.

Figure 4-12
Power Automate environment change

Click + Create and choose Instant Cloud Flow. Figure 4-13 shows the instant flow option.

Call this Send Email with File and, from the connector list, choose Manually Trigger a Flow. Figure 4-14 shows the button flow option.

Click Create. This will open the Power Automate designer window. Expand the trigger and add four input parameters—two text type parameters, one email type, and one file type. Figure 4-15 shows the instant flow parameters.

Click + New Step and search for the Gmail connector. Choose the Send Email action. To learn more about Gmail connector, see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/gmail/. Figure 4-16 shows the Gmail connector.

Click the Connect button, which will open the Gmail Login screen for authentication. Provide authentication and click OK. Using the Dynamic content panel, assign the To, Subject, and Body of the Gmail Send steps from the Parameter list. Figure 4-17 shows the process of assigning values to fields.

Figure 4-17
Assigning values from the Dynamic panel

For the File option, provide document.pdf for the Attachment Name and File for the dynamic content panel. For Content-Type, specify pdf. Figure 4-18 shows the file field assignment.

Now save Power Automate. Open your mobile device and install the Power Automate app from Google Play Store or Apple App Store. Once it’s installed, open the app and log in using your credentials. Follow the site at https://us.flow.microsoft.com/en-us/mobile/download/ to download the app and then install it. Select the correct environment. Now if you click the link at the bottom-center of the app, you will see the flow. Clicking the Send Email with File button will prompt you to provide a subject, message, email address, and a file to upload. Once you click Done, the email will be sent to the respective email account.

Configure a Scheduled Cloud Flow

Scheduled cloud flows can be used to run business logic repeatedly in a specific time interval. For example, if you want to run a flow everyday 10AM, you can configure scheduled cloud flow.

Let’s consider a business scenario. You want to send an attendance email every day at 10AM to all the students at your school. Follow these steps to configure Power Automate to do this.

Step 1: Create a Scheduled Flow by Navigating to Power Automate

Navigate to your Power Apps solution and open it. Click the + Add New command button and choose Automation ➤ Cloud Flow ➤ Scheduled. Figure 4-19 shows the process of adding a scheduled flow inside a solution.

Call this Send Reminder for Attendance Fillup. Select a starting date and time. Configure the Repeat Every option in the next screen. Figure 4-20 shows the recurrence configuration.

Click Create. This will open the Flow Designer, where you can add actions.

Step 2: Connect to the Dataverse to Get Students

Click +New Step. Because you want to send the email to all students from the Dataverse, you need the Dataverse connector. You must also choose the List Row action to read all student records from the Dataverse. Figure 4-21 shows the List Row action of the Dataverse. You can learn more about List Row action from the Dataverse connector topic at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/commondataserviceforapps/.

Figure 4-21
List Row action of the Dataverse

In the next step, add a new step and choose Control Connector ➤ Apply to Each Action. In the Select an Output from Previous Steps option, choose a value from the Dynamic content panel. Learn more about the loops action at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/apply-to-each. Figure 4-22 shows how to add a value object to a loop step.

Figure 4-22
Adding a value object to a loop

Inside Apply to Each Action, add a new step. Choose the Gmail connector and select the Send Email action. Specify Email in the To field using the Dynamic content panel. In the Subject field, specify the Reminder – Attendance Filling for the Day static value.

In the Email body, specify some content as you wish. For example, “Dear Student, please fill in the attendance now.” Figure 4-23 shows how to assign email fields.

Save the flow. Now the scheduled flow is ready. It will run every day at 10AM, as scheduled. You can check the run status using Details page of the Flow. Figure 4-24 shows the details option for flow.

In the Details page, you will see the Run History of Power Automate. Figure 4-25 shows the details run history of the flow.

This is how you create a scheduled flow for your business needs.

Configure a Business Process Flow

Business Process Flows (BPF) guide users to follow a predefined process with multiple stages in order to complete a specific task. For example, for a process called Student On-Boarding, your business might follow specific stages so that all users follow the same steps to complete the process. For more about BPF, visit https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/business-process-flows-overview.

A typical business process flow could be student on-boarding. Figure 4-26 shows details for this flow. The stages may include the following:

1.
Capture personal details
2.
Capture communication details
3.
Capture enrolled courses
4.
Record payment details

Figure 4-26
Details option for this flow

To configure a Business Process Flow (BPF), use the following steps.

Step 1: Use the Solution to Create a BPF

Open the Power Apps solution and choose + New ➤ Automation ➤ Process ➤ Business Process Flow. Figure 4-27 shows how to add a BPF inside a solution.

Figure 4-27
Adding a BPF inside a solution

Once you click the option, it will open a side panel where you can specify a display name and table for which you are going to create the BPF. For example, the “student on-boarding” BPF is connected to the Student table.

Choose Student from the table. The Name field will automatically fill in per the Display Name, but in all lowercase. Every BPF creates a table inside the Dataverse to store the stage and data step information that’s used in the BPF. Figure 4-28 shows the process of adding the BPF information.

Click Create. The BPF Designer will open in a new window. Use the right side component panel and drag four stages to the designer canvas. Four stages are required. Every stage contains one or more data steps, which point to the column of the specific table to which the stage is connected. Figure 4-29 shows the BPF designer.

You can add different components inside a stage, including:

Data steps
Workflows
Action steps
Flow steps

You can also add conditional branches inside a BPF for complex business processes. Read more about branching in BPF at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/customerengagement/on-premises/customize/enhance-business-process-flows-branching?view=op-9-1.

Step 2: Edit the Stages

Click First Stage and specify a name for the stage. Choose a category and click Apply. Notice that the first stage Entity option points to Student and is read-only. That means you cannot change this First Stage entity. Figure 4-30 shows the process of adding stages to the BPF.

Click the Details option in the First Stage and choose Data Steps #1. From the Properties panel, specify a data step name and select Data Field for the Name. You can select the Required flag if you want the data step to be mandatory. Users cannot move to the next stage until any mandatory data steps are complete. Click Apply. Figure 4-31 shows the process of adding a data step inside a stage.

Figure 4-31
Adding a data step inside a stage

Repeat this step to add multiple data steps. Use the Component panel and the drag-and-drop operation. Figure 4-32 shows the drag-and-drop process.

Figure 4-32
Dragging and dropping data steps

After you add more data steps, the first stage will look like Figure 4-33.

Figure 4-33
The final look of the first stage

Click the second stage and give it a name and a category and then set Entity to Student. Click Apply. Note that you can modify the Entity dropdown from the second stage onward. You are capturing communication details for the student, so choose Student as the Entity in this stage also. Figure 4-34 shows the process of adding a new stage.

Keep adding data steps inside the second stage. The completed second stage will look like Figure 4-35.

The third stage should connect to the Student Registered Course entity. Make sure to choose Relationship for the Student in the last dropdown. Click Apply. Figure 4-36 shows the stage properties.

The final version of the third stage will look like Figure 4-37.

Figure 4-37
Final look of the third stage

The fourth stage points to the Student Payment entity. After you add the necessary data steps, this stage will look like Figure 4-38.

Figure 4-38
Final look of the fourth stage

After adding all these stages and their data steps, validate and save the BPF. Now activate the BPF by clicking the Activate button. Figure 4-39 shows the final look of this BPF.

To test this BPF, navigate to Power Apps and open the Apps area. Choose the model-driven app of your choice, where the Student table is added to the sitemap. For this example, it’s Student App. Click School Management and choose Edit. Figure 4-40 shows the Edit the Model-Driven App option.

Figure 4-40
Edit the model-driven app option

This will open the Model App Designer window. Click Business Process Flow Area and select the BPF from the list. Unselect the other BPF. Figure 4-41 shows the BPF added to the model-driven app.

Figure 4-41
Adding the BPF to the model-driven app

Now save and publish the model-driven app. Click the Play button on the top-right corner.

The Student App will open. Click the Students sub-area and click the +New command to open a new form for the student.

Now you will see that the BPF is available on the top of the form. The BPF will display with all stages you designed. All these stages remain inactive until you visit and take action on every required data step.

To start the BPF, you need to first save the student record by providing the mandatory values; then you can work with the BPF.

Provide the student’s mandatory fields and click Save. If you then click the First Stage, you will see the data steps and you can specify data step values and click the Next Stage button. Figure 4-42 shows the BPF in stage 1.

Once you click Next Stage, the first stage will be complete. You’ll navigate to the second stage. Figure 4-43 shows the BPF in stage 2.

Complete the second stage and click Next Stage. This will show you a message that no records are found, as the student enrolled course record has not been created. Click +Create. This will open a new form to capture the course information for the student. Figure 4-44 shows the BPF in stage 2, notification.

Figure 4-44
BPF in stage 2. notification

From the new course enroll form, provide the mandatory values and click Save. Now you will find Next Stage button. Figure 4-45 shows the BPF in stage 3.

Now click the + Create option to create a new payment record for the student. Figure 4-46 shows the BPF in stage 4.

Click Save. The Finish button appears for the last stage. Click Finish to complete the student on-boarding process. Figure 4-47 shows the BPF in the final stage.

Now the BPF is complete. Figure 4-48 shows the completed BPF.

This way, users can ignore the complexity of tables and fields and simply follow the predefined stages to complete this business process.

You can enable BPF for specific security roles by using the Edit Security Role on the BPF Designer. You can read more about BPF and its security at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/customerengagement/on-premises/customize/business-process-flows-overview?view=op-9-1.

Configure a Desktop Flow

Desktop Flows are designed using Power Automate Desktop. Desktop Flows are also called Robotic Process Automation (RPA) flows. You can use them to configure automation for desktop and web application tasks.

For example, if you want to download an Excel sheet from a website, extract data from the Excel sheet, and put it in a file, you can use the Desktop Flow. Or if you want to back up certain folders on a regular basis, you can use the Desktop Flow.

You can use Desktop Flow in lots of real-world scenarios. To create Desktop Flows, download Power Automate Desktop. For more details about Desktop Flow, visit https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/desktop-flows/create-flow.

Log in to flow.microsoft.com using your credentials. Choose the correct environment. Figure 4-49 shows how to change the environment.

Click + Create and choose Desktop Flow. Figure 4-50 shows the Desktop Flow option.

Figure 4-50
Select the Desktop Flow option

A new popup will open; click the Download app. If you already downloaded it, click the Launch app. It will download an .EXE file. Double-click the setup file and install it in your desktop. After installation, click the Launch app from the popup. Figure 4-51 shows the launch Desktop Flow app option.

Figure 4-51
Launch Desktop Flow app option

The Launch app will open the Power Automate Desktop app. From the desktop app, click login and choose the correct environment. Click + New Flow. Figure 4-52 shows the Desktop Flow home screen.

Provide a name for the flow and click Create. Figure 4-53 shows the create a new Desktop Flow process.

This will open the Desktop Flow designer, where you can drag-and-drop actions to the main screen. The following example shows how to copy a folder with files from one location to another.

Use the Search Folder action and drag the Copy Folder step from the action pane to the main screen. Figure 4-54 shows the home screen of the Desktop Flow editor.

Figure 4-54
The home screen of the Desktop Flow editor

You now have to provide information about the folder you want to copy. Select the Folder to Copy, Destination Folder, and If Folder Exist options. If you want to override the folder, choose the Overwrite option and click Save. Figure 4-55 shows the Copy Folder action.

Now click the Run button to play the flow. After the flow run, you will see the folders copied from the source folder to the destination. Figure 4-56 shows the copy folder result.

You can create a Desktop Flow for web and desktop automation using actions and running it as needed.

Dynamic Values and Expressions in Flows

Power Automate allows you to use dynamic values and write expressions for more complex data operations. To any field value, you can assign a static field or use the Dynamic panel to choose dynamic data from the previous steps.

Figure 4-57 shows the process of adding dynamic values to a field.

Using expressions, you can do string operations, date operations, and so on, in Power Automate. Let’s consider an example here. You want to send renewal due date email to a student using an instant flow.

Create an Instant Flow in Power Automate

Open flow.microsoft.com and log in using your credentials. Choose the correct environment. Choose the +Create option and then choose Instant Cloud Flow. In the Manual Trigger area, add a Text parameter for the email field. In the next step, add a new action to send an email using the Gmail connector.

In the Email To, assign the Email parameter from the Dynamic content panel, which is part of the Manually Trigger a Button step. Specify the email subject as “Reminder – Student Renewal Pending” and, in the Email body, add “Dear Student, your renewal due date is”. After “is,” you’ll want to display the current date plus one year. So, for these types of scenarios, you need expressions.

Click the location where you want to add the expression and then click the Add Dynamic Content link, which will open the Dynamic panel.

Select the Expression tab from the Dynamic panel. You can type in expressions, as shown in Figure 4-58, which uses the addDays expression. The first parameter is the current date, so we used utcNow(). The second parameter is how many days you want to add to the current date. After these steps, click Update.

When you run the flow, the expression is evaluated in real-time and updated in the email body.

There are hundreds of expressions available. You can refer to all such expressions using the Microsoft knowledge base at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/logic-apps/workflow-definition-language-functions-reference.

Using Variables, Loops, and Conditions

You can use variables, loops, and conditions inside Power Automate as needed. Variables are a good way to store data temporarily in a placeholder.

Working with Variables and Conditions

Only use variables when required. For example, say you are sending multiple emails to a person in multiple steps and you do not want to specify the email of the same person in every email send action. You can store the email ID once in a variable and use the variable each time.

To achieve this, create a flow such as an Instant Cloud Flow. After the trigger, add a new step and search for Variable. Choose the Variable connector and select Initialize Variable Action. Figure 4-59 shows this process.

Specify a name for the variable and set the Type to String. You can choose a variable type of Boolean, Integer, Float, String, Object, or Array. Figure 4-60 shows the process of choosing the variable data type.

In the Value field, provide the email ID that you want to use in further steps. Figure 4-61 shows the process of assigning a value to a variable.

Figure 4-61
Assigning a value to a variable

You can add new steps to perform your additional actions, such as if Today Day is Monday, send email body “You have to work on consulting”; otherwise, send email body “Work on Training”.

Use a Condition Connector step and, to the Condition value, add the dayOfWeek expression. Inside that expression, pass utcNow. This will return the day of the week as an integer. If the current day is Monday, it will return 1. Figure 4-62 shows the assign expressions to condition process.

Figure 4-62
Assigning expressions to conditions

In the Yes condition, add a Send Email step. In the To field, choose a variable from the Dynamic content panel. Choose a subject and body as per the scenario. Figure 4-63 shows the process of assigning dynamic content to a field.

Figure 4-63
Assigning dynamic content to a field

Now add another Send Email action inside the No section. If the condition is not met, the step will execute. Figure 4-64 shows this condition branch.

You used the same variable in both steps. If you test this, you will get an email based on the current day of the week.

Working with Loops

You can use loops to read values from a list of items using iteration. For example, you can use loops to read all rows from an Excel sheet, you can use loops to insert data into the Dataverse from an Excel sheet, and so on.

Say you want to send an email to all the students of your schools stored in the Dataverse. For this scenario, you have to use a loop that will run every student record and send the emails.

Create an Instant flow and add two input parameters—Subject and Body—using the Text type. Add a new step and search the Dataverse. Choose the Students table and the List Row action to read all the students. Figure 4-65 shows the List Row action for the Dataverse.

Figure 4-65
List Row action for the Dataverse

Now add a new step and choose Control ➤ Apply to Each. Figure 4-66 shows the process of assigning a value list to a loop.

Figure 4-66
Assigning a value list to a loop

Inside the loop, add a Send Email action and assign the email from the List Row step to the To value. Figure 4-67 shows this process.

Figure 4-67
Assigning an email field value using dynamic content

This is how you use loops in Power Automate.

Working with Approvals in Power Automate

Approvals are important scenarios in every business. Say you want to send an approval to one or more people to approve an amount of student joining fees when the amount is less than $200.

To achieve this business scenario, previously you had to write lots of code. Now you can achieve this with no-code. Use the following steps to do this.

Make sure you have an Office 365 Outlook license for your employees to use approvals.

Step 1: Add an Automated Cloud Flow

In your Power Apps solution, add an automated cloud flow named Send Approval for Student Payment Less Than 200 USD. Choose Connector for the Dataverse and the When A New Row Added trigger. Set the Scope to Organization. Set the Table name to Student Payments. Figure 4-68 shows the Dataverse trigger after a new row has been added.

Figure 4-68
The Dataverse trigger when a new row has been added

Add a new step and search for a connector called Approval. Figure 4-69 shows the Approval connector.

From the list of actions, select Start and Wait for an Approval. You can choose Create an Approval or Wait for an Approval also, depending on your needs. The approval will raise and wait until the approver takes action so that the payment record will be updated. Figure 4-70 shows the Approval action type.

It will automatically create a connection for the Approval connector. Set the Approval Type to Approve/Reject – First to Respond. Figure 4-71 shows the approval types.

Approval Types

Approve/Reject – Everyone must approve: Select this when you want all approvers to have to approve this action.
Approve/Reject – First to respond: Select this when you want your approval to be completed by the first approver to take action.
Custom Response – Wait for all responses: Select this when you want your approval to be completed by all approvers with a custom action.
Custom Response – Wait for one response: Select this when you want your approval to be completed by at least one approver with a custom action.

Once you have chosen the approval type, specify other information, such as a title, who it’s assigned to, any details, an item link, and a description. Figure 4-72 shows the process of assigning values during the approval stage.

Figure 4-72
Assigning values during the approval stage

Step 2: Check the Approval Status

Add a new step to check if the approver has taken action—either approved or rejected the approval. In the Condition value, choose the Responses Approver response. It will create a loop automatically, as the Responses field contains multiple responses from approvers. Figure 4-73 shows the Read Approval response.

Expand the Condition Inside loop and, in the Condition value, specify Approve. If the Response is Approve, then send an email as approved. Otherwise, the email will be rejected. Figure 4-74 shows the conditional approval branch.

Figure 4-74
The conditional approval branch

Now save the flow and create a student payment record with less than $200. The flow will trigger. Figure 4-75 shows the student payment form.

Check the flow status in the Flow Details page. It’s showing in running status. Figure 4-76 shows the flow status.

If you click the item, it will display in run mode and that you can check where it is waiting. Figure 4-77 shows the flow status in progress.

Now it’s waiting for the approver’s response. The approver will open their Outlook to see the approval email. Figure 4-78 shows the approval email received.

Figure 4-78
The approval email was received

If the approver clicks Approve, it will resume the flow. It will open a confirmation page, where the approver can click Confirm. Figure 4-79 shows the approval taking action.

Now the flow will resume and complete. The approval email will be sent.

Business Scenarios, Use Cases, andImplementations

You can work on the following business scenarios for practice.

1	The system must provide a process to streamline the student on-boarding process and capture general information, communication information, and course information.	Configure Business Process Flow using Power Automate.
2	As soon as a student is created, the system should send a welcome email to the student and create a task to collect payment from the student after three days.	Use Automated Cloud Flow using Power Automate.
3	Automatically send a timesheet fillup email and link the Power Portal to students to fill in the timesheet daily.	Use Scheduled Flow in Power Automate.
4	Fetch the latest currency exchange rates from a third-party WEB API currency layer and display them on a Canvas app.	Use Power Apps Trigger Flow.
5	Whenever a lead is created in the Dataverse with more than $50,000 annual revenue, send approval for the manager and wait for approval. After approval, update the lead for qualification process.	Approvals in Power Automate

Summary

In this chapter, you learned about the following concepts:

Power Automate building blocks
Connectors in Power Automate
Types and uses of flows
Dynamic values and expressions in flows
Using Variables, loops, and conditions
Working with approvals in Power Automate
Business scenarios, use cases, and implementations

In the next chapter, you will learn about the following:

Concept of Power Virtual Agent
Building blocks of Power Virtual Agents
Configuring a sample Power Virtual Agent
Deploying a Power Virtual Agent in public websites/portals
Business scenarios, use cases, and implementations

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