Introduction to Power Automate and UI Flows

In this unit, you will gain practical experience in creating, managing, and optimizing UI flows using Power Automate online.

Setup Instructions

Prerequisites

1. Microsoft Account: Ensure you have a Microsoft account. Sign up if you don't have one.
2. Office 365 Account: You need an Office 365 subscription to use Power Automate.
3. Microsoft Edge or Chrome Browser: Ensure you have one of these browsers installed.

Accessing Power Automate

1. Navigate to Power Automate:

   • Open your browser and go to Power Automate.

2. Sign In:

   • Sign in using your Microsoft or Office 365 account.

Creating a Basic UI Flow

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Go to My Flows:

   • From the left-hand menu, click on "My flows".

2. Create a New UI Flow:

   • Click on "New" and select "UI flow (preview)".

3. Select a Flow Type:

   • Choose "Web App" or "Desktop App" depending on where you want to record the actions.

4. Configure UI Flow Setup:

   • For Desktop App:
     • Give your UI flow a name.
     • Click "Next".
     • Install the required software (WinAutomation) if prompted.
   • For Web App:
     • Provide a name.
     • Click "Create".

5. Start Recording:

   • Click the "Record" button to start recording your actions.
   • Perform the desired actions in the respective application or website.

6. Stop Recording:

   • Click the "Stop" button once you are done recording.

7. Edit Recording:

   • Review and edit the steps if necessary.
   • Configure additional actions such as wait times or input data modifications.

8. Save and Test:

   • Save your UI flow.
   • Test the flow by clicking on "Run".

Managing UI Flows

Editing an Existing Flow

1. Navigate to My Flows:

   • From the left-hand menu, click on "My flows".

2. Select the Flow:

   • Choose the UI flow you want to edit.

3. Edit the Flow:

   • Click the "Edit" button.
   • Make necessary changes to the flow steps.

4. Save Changes:

   • Save your changes.
   • Run the flow again to ensure it works as expected.

Optimizing UI Flows

Best Practices

1. Clear and Concise Actions:
   • Ensure each step in your UI flow is clear and easy to understand.
2. Error Handling:
   • Implement error handling steps to manage potential issues.
3. Testing:
   • Regularly test your UI flows after making changes.
4. Documentation:
   • Maintain proper documentation for each flow for future reference.

Adding Conditions and Loops

1. Navigate to Edit Mode:

   • Open the flow in edit mode.

2. Add Condition:

   • Click on "New step" and search for "Condition".
   • Define the condition and add actions based on the condition's outcome.

3. Add Loop:

   • Click on "New step" and search for "Apply to each".
   • Define the array or list to loop through and add the steps inside the loop.

By following these steps, you can effectively create, manage, and optimize UI flows using Power Automate.

Setting Up Your Environment for UI Flows with Power Automate

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Preparation

Ensure you have completed the following preparations:

• Microsoft Power Automate account.
• Necessary permissions are set up (Administrator rights might be required for certain actions).
• Browser environments configured (Chrome/Edge).

2. Creating a New UI Flow

1. Access Power Automate Portal:

   • Navigate to Power Automate and sign in with your credentials.

2. Start Creating a New UI Flow:

   • From the sidebar, select My flows.
   • Click on + New > UI flow.

3. Choose UI Flow Type:

   • Select either Desktop or Web based on the application type you need to automate.

3. Configure the UI Flow

1. Record Actions:

   • Click on the Record button.
   • Perform the tasks you want to automate. The recorder will capture all interactions.

2. Review Recorded Actions:

   • Once the recording is complete, review the captured steps.
   • Edit any steps if necessary using the inbuilt editor tools.

3. Add Inputs and Outputs:

   • Define any necessary inputs that dictate how the flow should operate.
   • Configure outputs to capture data from the automated process.

4. Testing the UI Flow

1. Run a Test:

   • Before saving, test your flow by running it.
   • Make sure to watch the flow running and ensure all steps are executed as expected.

2. Review and Optimize:

   • If there are issues, go back to the editor, make adjustments and retest until the flow works smoothly.

5. Save and Manage UI Flow

1. Save the UI Flow:

   • Once satisfied with the test results, save your UI Flow.

2. Manage UI Flows:

   • Go back to My flows where you can see all your created flows.
   • Perform actions like edit, share, and delete from this dashboard.

6. Using UI Flow in a Power Automate Process

1. Create a New Power Automate Flow:

   • Go to My flows.
   • Click on + New > Instant cloud flow or any other type based on your requirement.

2. Add Actions and Conditions:

   • Configure the regular triggers and conditions.
   • Add UI Flow as an action in your flow and select the one you created.

3. Run and Monitor:

   • Run the composed flow.
   • Monitor from the Run history to ensure everything is functioning as expected.

7. Optimizing UI Flow

1. Error Handling:

   • Implement error handling mechanisms (e.g., retry actions, delays).

2. Efficiency Improvements:

   • Optimize the steps by removing redundancies and ensuring performance efficiency.

3. Documentation:

   • Document every part of your flow setup for future reference and team collaboration.

By following these steps, you will have a fully set up environment for creating, managing, and optimizing UI Flows in Power Automate.

Creating Your First UI Flow in Power Automate

Our objective is to create a UI Flow to automate a simple task. We assume you have already completed the steps in the "Introduction to Power Automate and UI Flows" and "Setting Up Your Environment for UI Flows" units.

Step 1: Access Power Automate

1. Open your web browser and navigate to Power Automate.
2. Sign in using your Microsoft account credentials.

Step 2: Create a New UI Flow

1. In the left navigation pane, select My flows.
2. Click on New at the top.
3. Choose UI flow.

Step 3: Define Flow Information

1. Provide a suitable name for your UI flow, e.g., "Automate Notepad Example".
2. Choose Desktop app if you are automating a desktop application. For this guide, we will choose Desktop app.
3. Click Next.

Step 4: Install the Necessary Tools (If Not Already Installed)

Skip this step if you already installed the necessary tools in the setup unit.

Step 5: Record Actions

1. Click Launch recorder.
2. The recorder dialog will open. Click on Record.
3. Perform the following actions to automate opening Notepad and typing text:
   • Open Notepad.
   • Type "Hello, World!".
4. Once you are done with the actions, click Done in the recorder dialog.

Step 6: Add AI Builder Automation (Optional)

If you want to include AI capabilities (for example, extracting text from an image), you can integrate AI Builder:

1. Click on + Add an action.
2. In the search bar, type AI Builder.
3. Select the relevant AI model (e.g., Extract text from images).
4. Configure the AI model based on your requirement.

Step 7: Define Output (If Necessary)

• Click on + Add an action.
• You can add various posterior actions (e.g., sending an email, creating a record in a database, etc.).

For simplicity, we skip this in our example.

Step 8: Save and Test Your UI Flow

1. Click on Save.
2. After saving, select Test.
3. Choose Manually and then click Test again.
4. Follow the on-screen prompts and confirm that the flow opens Notepad and types "Hello, World!".

Step 9: Close and Deploy

1. Click Close after verifying that the flow works as intended.
2. You can now share, export or automate this flow as part of a larger Power Automate workflow.

Conclusion

You have successfully created your first UI flow in Power Automate that automates the task of opening Notepad and typing text. Use similar steps to automate more complex tasks in your applications.

Advanced UI Flow Techniques and Best Practices with Power Automate

Table of Contents

1. Dynamic Data Handling in UI Flows
2. Exception Handling in UI Flows
3. Optimizing Performance of UI Flows
4. UI Flow Maintenance and Best Practices

1. Dynamic Data Handling in UI Flows

To handle dynamic data within UI Flows, you can utilize actions like "Set Variable" and "Condition" to process and control the flow based on the data.

Example: Automate the entry of items from a list:

1. Retrieve Data Using Excel Connector:

   // Action: List rows present in a table
   Excel.ListRows(TableID: 'your-table-id')

2. Loop Through Each Item:

   foreach (var row in Excel.Rows)
   {
       // Retrieve values from the row
       var itemName = row["Item Name"];
       var itemPrice = row["Item Price"];
      
       // Insert your logic to handle the items
       
       UIFlows.WebAutomation.NavigateToURL("http://your-app-url.com");
       UIFlows.WebAutomation.EnterText(Selector: '#itemNameInput', Text: itemName);
       UIFlows.WebAutomation.EnterText(Selector: '#itemPriceInput', Text: itemPrice);
       UIFlows.WebAutomation.Click(Selector: '#submitButton');
   }

2. Exception Handling in UI Flows

Proper exception handling is crucial to ensure workflows handle unexpected scenarios gracefully and provide meaningful feedback or take corrective actions.

Example: Implementing try-catch blocks:

1. Try-Catch in UI Flows:

   try {
       UIFlows.WebAutomation.Click(Selector: '#submitButton');
   }
   catch (Exception ex) {
       // Log the exception message
       UIFlows.Console.WriteLine("An error occurred: " + ex.Message);
       // Optionally, perform a fallback action
       UIFlows.WebAutomation.Click(Selector: '#retryButton');
   }

3. Optimizing Performance of UI Flows

Optimization of performance can be achieved by minimizing unnecessary steps, using effective waits, and managing parallel job executions.

Example: Using effective waits:

1. Use Conditional Waits Instead of Static Delays:

   // Instead of using a delay of 10 seconds
   UIFlows.Delay(10000);
   
   // Use a conditional wait
   UIFlows.WebAutomation.WaitUntilElementExists(Selector: '#elementID', Timeout: 10000);

4. UI Flow Maintenance and Best Practices

Proper maintenance and following best practices ensure that UI flows are scalable, readable, and easy to debug or modify.

Best Practices:

1. Use Descriptive Names:

   // Instead of this:
   var a = "Item Name";
   
   // Use this:
   var itemName = "Item Name";

2. Modularize Your Flows: Create reusable sub-flows for repetitive tasks such as logging in or error handling.

   // Sub-flow example for logging into a web application
   UIFlows.SubFlows.Login()
   {
       UIFlows.WebAutomation.NavigateToURL("http://your-login-page.com");
       UIFlows.WebAutomation.EnterText(Selector: '#usernameInput', Text: 'your-username');
       UIFlows.WebAutomation.EnterText(Selector: '#passwordInput', Text: 'your-password');
       UIFlows.WebAutomation.Click(Selector: '#loginButton');
   }

3. Documentation: Add comments within your flows for better understanding and future reference.

   // Step to navigate to the home page
   UIFlows.WebAutomation.NavigateToURL("http://homepage.com");

Applying these advanced techniques and best practices will help you create efficient, maintainable, and robust UI Flows using Power Automate.

Monitoring and Optimizing UI Flows for Efficiency

Monitoring UI Flows using Power Automate

Power Automate provides built-in analytics and monitoring tools to help you track the performance and efficiency of UI flows. Follow these steps to monitor your UI flows:

1. Access Monitor Dashboard:

   • Go to Power Automate portal.
   • Navigate to the Monitor section from the left-hand menu and select Analytics.

2. View Run History:

   • Under the Analytics section, select Runs.
   • View detailed information about each run of your UI flow such as status, duration, and time of execution.

3. Filter and Sort Runs:

   • Use filters to sort runs by status (e.g., Succeeded, Failed), date range, and flow name.
   • This helps identify patterns and pinpoint issues.

4. Detailed Run History:

   • Click on an individual run to view a timeline of actions and detailed step-by-step execution logs.
   • Check for action failures and error messages.

Optimizing UI Flows

To optimize UI flows for efficiency, focus on eliminating bottlenecks and improving execution speed:

1. Parallel Branching:

   • Whenever possible, split your flow into parallel branches.
   • This allows multiple actions to execute simultaneously, reducing overall execution time.
   • Example:

     parallel_branch {
       action1()
       action2()
       action3()
     }

2. Implement Error Handling:

   • Use Scope actions to group actions and set up error handling.
   • Example:

     scope {
       action1()
       action2()
       action3()
     } onError {
       notifyAdmin()
       retryScope()
     }

3. Delay Reduction:

   • Optimize delays by reducing unnecessary waits between actions.
   • Check flow logic to ensure there are no redundant or repetitive steps.

4. Use Direct Queries:

   • Replace slow, looping data retrievals with direct data queries when accessing databases or APIs.

5. Optimize Condition Checks:

   • Use efficient condition checks to branch logic effectively.
   • Example:

     if (condition1) {
       action1()
     } else {
       action2()
     }

6. Monitor API Call Limits:

   • Be aware of and manage API limitations to avoid throttling.
   • Implement pagination and partial calls when necessary.

Sample Code to Optimize a UI Flow

Assuming you have a flow that processes items from a database and sends notifications, an optimized version could look like this:

mainFlow {
  
  // Step 1: Retrieve items from database in bulk instead of looping
  items = getDatabaseItems(query) // Direct query optimization
  
  // Step 2: Process items in parallel
  parallel_process {
    items.forEach(item) {
      processItem(item)
    }
  }
  
  // Step 3: Send Notifications
  items.forEach(item) {
    if (item.status == 'ready') {
      sendNotification(item)
    }
  }
  
  // Step 4: Error handling for notification failures
  onFailure(notification) {
    retrySendNotification(item)
  }
  
}

Continuous Improvement

1. Analyze Metrics Regularly:

   • Review run analytics regularly to identify bottlenecks and performance issues.
   • Look for trends in failure rates or increasing execution times.

2. Feedback Loop:

   • Establish a feedback loop to continuously refine and optimize your flows.
   • Involve end-users to gain insights into performance from their perspective.

By following these steps and utilizing the built-in tools effectively, you can ensure your UI flows are continually monitored and optimized for greater efficiency in Power Automate.