Tag: Whats New

#TGIF Episode 6: UI Flows (RPA) in Power Automate (Both desktop & web app)

Hello Readers and Viewers

In this episode we will learn about the business use cases of robotic process automation or UI Flows. If you want to learn about setting up UI flows, please read this post https://diyd365.com/2019/12/11/everything-you-need-to-run-a-ui-flow-power-automate

We will look at both desktop and web app.

I have taken two business scenarios:

  1. Automation Testing of Dynamics 365– As a functional consultant and business user, we always perform unit testing manually. So I will demonstrate a scenario where we can automate it with the help of UI Flows. Our test scenario is; As a salesperson, I must be able to login to MS Dynamics 365 with office credentials and be able to create a customer/account.
  2. MYOB AccountRight integration with Dynamics 365– As a functional consultant and business user I don’t know a straight forward integration between MYOB and Dynamics 365. So I will demonstrate that whenever you create an invoice in Dynamics 365, UI Flow will create a customer and then invoice in MYOB AccountRight.

Video here:

I hope both my scenarios add some value to your business and daily work life. You can obviously extend it to any level.

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Everything you need, to run a UI Flow (Power Automate)

Hello Readers

In this post I will take you through the setup required to run a UI Flow (Robotic Process Automation) RPA. Now you might not need it if you running your flow manually and it is not triggered by a button, event etc.

Step 1: Log on to flow.microsoft.com

Screen Shot 2019-12-08 at 12.11.41 pm.png

Step 2: Go to My Flows>>UI Flows (tab)

Screen Shot 2019-12-08 at 12.12.20 pm.png

Step 3: Get a CDS subscription

If you don’t have a CDS subscription yet, you need to get it to be able to create UI flows.

Step 4: Once you’ve got the CDS subscription, you will be able to create a UI flow by clicking on ‘+New’ at the top or ‘Create a UI Flow’ at the bottom of your screen.

Screen Shot 2019-12-08 at 12.16.33 pm.png

Step 5: Select an app to create your UI Flow. There are two types of app present, you can select based on what you want to automate.

Desktop App: Example- if I want to automate customer creation in MYOB AccountRight (Accounting Application)

Web App: Example- if I want to automate account creation in Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement

Select your UI app and click ‘Next’

Screen Shot 2019-12-08 at 12.23.41 pm

Step 6: Download the UI Flows Installer and run it

6a. UI flow installer here https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2102613

6b. Activate UI flow browser extension

6c. Install Selenium IDE https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2107665

That’s all you need to get started.

Note: The above steps are complete if you are running UI flow manually every time

Run a UI flow from a button, business process flow or an event

To do this, you will have to follow additional set up steps:

Note: This would differ based on which app you’ve selected desktop or web but you would not need any other steps than the one mentioned below. For web app, you will be asked to select a browser from Edge chromium or google chrome.

Step 7: Create another Flow from which you want to trigger UI flow (or include Ui flow as a step in there)

Step 8: Connection

When you add the UI flow step, you will be asked about connection with following attributes:

Connection name: Name it anything logical

Username: “domain/name” this is the username of your machine/laptop. Just in case you’re using a personal laptop and don’t know about your domain name or username, you can check it by going windows start button and type cmd. Next type %username%

Screen Shot 2019-12-08 at 12.52.55 pm.png

Password: This is your machine’s/laptops password

Gateway: Click on new gateway if you’ve not created one yet and move to Step 9.

Screen Shot 2019-12-08 at 12.59.48 pm.png

Step 9: Install On-premise data gateway https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/data-integration/gateway/service-gateway-update?WT.mc_id=BA-MVP-5003605

Email, username and password while setting this up would be the same which you used to login to flow.microsoft.com (in most cases). This will establish your connection with azure

Make sure that assign permissions  to ‘NT Service\PBIEgwService’  for this folder/path C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\PBIEgwService\Documents\Power BI Desktop\Custom Connectors

Screen Shot 2019-12-08 at 12.45.04 pm

As of today, that’s all you need to run a UI flow. This feature is still in preview so please expect enhancements and changes.

If you want to see how to make a UI Flow, please stay tuned as I will release a video soon.

Hope it helps!

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#TGIF Episode 5: Business Process Flows in Power Automate

Hello Readers and Viewers

In this episode we will try to understand all about  Business Process Flows (BPFs). Let’s first look at types of Flow available in Power Automate:

  • Flow
    • Team Flow (when you share a flow)
  • Business Process Flow
    • Immersive
    • Non-Immersive/Original/Old
  • UI Flow (RPA)

Screen Shot 2019-11-30 at 2.20.04 pm.png

What are Business Process Flows?

Business process flows provide a guide for people to get work done. They provide a streamlined user experience that leads people through the processes their organization has defined for interactions that need to be advanced to a conclusion of some kind. This user experience can be tailored so that people with different security roles can have an experience that best suits the work they do.

Source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/customerengagement/on-premises/customize/business-process-flows-overview?WT.mc_id=BA-MVP-5003605

Immersive vs Original/Non-Immersive

Screen Shot 2019-11-30 at 2.23.44 pm.png

Creating Business Process Flows for Model Driven Apps

BPF in Dynamics 365 Part I

BPF in Dynamics 365 Part II

Adding BPFs in a Model Driven App

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/model-driven-apps/add-edit-app-components?WT.mc_id=BA-MVP-5003605

Video here:

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#TGIF Episode 4: Understanding ‘Scope’ in Flows (Power Automate)

Hello Readers and Viewers

In this episode we will try to understand ‘Scope’ in flows. This is a comparatively short episode as I have used visuals to explain scope.

Scope is available in following categories:

  • User
  • Business Unit
  • Parent Child Business Unit
  • Organisation
  • Custom (Yes, you can enter a custom value)

Dynamics 365 people, does it reminds you of something? Yes, you guessed it right. This is coming from scope of native D365 workflows. But in Power Automate scope is only available if you’re using Common Data Services (CDS) as a data connection. I am providing some screenshots below which might help:

Screen Shot 2019-11-23 at 10.34.04 amScreen Shot 2019-11-23 at 10.35.14 amScreen Shot 2019-11-23 at 10.37.06 amScreen Shot 2019-11-23 at 10.38.26 am

Video here:

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Using Timer Control In PowerApps (with problem scenarios and Business use cases)

Hello Readers and Viewers

This blog/video is part of my quick tip series. We are going to look at how we can force a screen to be visible to a user irrespective of the transition, in other words delay screen transition.

Skip to the video, if you don’t want to read

Example Problem 1: if we want to Navigate to more than one screen back to back only the last screen mentioned in navigate formula is visible to the user; that means one navigate screen is skipped. for e.g. look at the formula below:

Select(Parent);SubmitForm(checkinform_1);ResetForm(checkinform_1);Navigate(Success,ScreenTransition.Fade);Navigate(lstMembers)

If you apply the above formula to your Power Apps, users will always end up seeing “Navigate(lstMembers)” and the success screen is skipped.

Example Problem 2: if we remove the last bit of the formula and have only one ‘navigate’ as shown below:

Select(Parent);SubmitForm(checkinform_1);ResetForm(checkinform_1);Navigate(Success,ScreenTransition.Fade)

if you apply the above formula, users will have to touch on the success screen somewhere to be able to see any other screen. (assuming success button in below screen will have navigate formula)

b1

Solution to both the example problems: First of all remove the last navigate from the formula and only have one navigate, shown below:

Select(Parent);SubmitForm(checkinform_1);ResetForm(checkinform_1);Navigate(Success,ScreenTransition.Fade)

Note: I am not saying you must use the exact same formula as above, you need to change the formula as per your need but only have one navigate in the formula.

Now on your success screen add a timer by going to Insert>>Input>>Timer

b2.JPG

Set AutoStart to true

Set the duration of the timer by clicking on the timer on screen (Completely on your requirements, for how long you want a user to see a screen)

1000=1 second 5000=5 seconds 30000=30 seconds

Set OnSelect to false

b3b4b5

Set the second navigation on your ‘TimerEnd’ property

b6

Now hide the timer, so your users can’t see it

b7

And all done, your users will now be navigated to the screen of choice without having to click anywhere.

Business Use Case: You want your users to see a success screen for ‘n’ seconds and then auto-redirect to a list or another form.

Video here:

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#TGIF Episode 3: Most Common ODATA Filter Queries

Hi Readers and Viewers

This episode is to summarise my blog post “Every Power Automate Filter Query You Ever Wanted To Know“.

We will look at the following combinations of ODATA queries:

Contains and does not contains for text fields

Contains and does not contains for Option Sets

  1. Is blank and is not blank
  2. Contains with OR/AND conditions
  3. Check two or more option set values
  4. Starts with/Ends with
  5. Greater than/Less than
  6. Greater than or equal to/Less than or equal to

Video here:

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Every Power Automate (MS Flow) Filter Query You Ever Wanted To Know As A Functional Consultant

Hello Readers

This blog is to help fellow consultants to start their journey on Power Automate. We all know how easy it is to create a flow (Watch #TGIF Episode 2 here, if not already).

I am sure as a Business user or a functional consultant, you must have had a situation where you needed someone technical to complete your flow. Most of this bottleneck is because as non-technical people we don’t know what ‘ODATA Query’ is?

Coming from Dynamics 365 background, I never required such filters for native workflows of D365. But here we are moving forward and learning together to be able to work with Flows.

This post will talk about the following two filter types you need while building a flow:

  1. ODATA filter query
  2. Filter array

Before we commence with the filters, i will try to explain you the components of ODATA filter query:

1.Field or Column Name 2.Operator 3.Field value you want to check/filter

Sequence: In most queries the sequence of the components remains like ‘fieldname operator fieldvalue’ but in some cases like contains/does not contains sequence and structure changes to ‘operator(fieldname,’fieldvalue’)’

A few operators: 

Operator Description
eq Equal to
ne Not equal to
contains contains
not contains Does not contains
gt Greater than
lt Less than
ge Greater than or equal to
le Less than or equal to
and And
or Or
startswith Start with the specified value
endswith End with the specified value

ODATA filter query

1.Contains for text fields

This one is for text fields like Topic, Subject, Phone, City, Street 1 etc.

Filter query= contains(textfieldschemaname,’value’)

e.g. if I have to check whether the ‘Subject/Topic’ of a Lead record contains ‘New’ in it; my filter would be contains(subject,’new’)

Screen Shot 2019-11-16 at 1.14.33 pm

2. Does not contains for text fields

This one is for text fields like Topic, Subject, Phone, City, Street 1 etc.

Filter query= not contains(textfieldschemaname,’value’)

e.g. if I have to check that the ‘Subject/Topic’ of a Lead record does not contains ‘New’ in it; my filter would be not contains(subject,’new’)Screen Shot 2019-11-16 at 1.15.24 pm.png

3.Contains data (Is not blank)

This one is for both text and option set fields

Filter query= textfieldschemaname ne null

Filter query= optionsetfieldschemaname ne null

e.g. if I have to filter where ‘Job title’  contains data or is not blank; my filter would be jobtitle ne null

e.g. if I have to filter where ‘Rating’  contains data or is not blank; my filter would be leadqualitycode ne null

4. Does not contains data (Is blank)

This one is for both text and option set fields

Filter query= textfieldschemaname eq null

Filter query= optionsetfieldschemaname eq null

e.g. if I have to filter where ‘Job title’  does not contains data or is blank; my filter would be jobtitle eq null

e.g. if I have to filter where ‘Rating’  does not contains data or is blank; my filter would be leadqualitycode eq null

5.Contains for option sets

This one is for option set fields like Rating, Lead Source, Industry, Type etc.

Filter query= optionsetfieldschemaname eq optionsetnumericvalue

e.g. if I have to filter lead’s with rating ‘Hot’ (value =1); my filter would be leadqualitycode eq 1

Note: As per my understanding, you can’t check option set label in ODATA filter but you can in filter array.

6.Does not contains for option sets

This one is for option set fields like Rating, Lead Source, Industry, Type etc.

Filter query= optionsetfieldschemaname ne optionsetnumericvalue

e.g. if I have to filter lead’s with rating ‘Hot’ (value =1); my filter would be leadqualitycode ne 1

7.Contains with ‘OR’ on same field

Filter query= contains(field1name,’value1′) or contains(field1name,’value2′)

Filter query= optionsetfieldname1 eq optionsetnumericvalue1 or optionsetfieldname1 eq optionsetnumericvalue2

e.g. if I have to filter where ‘Job title’  contains ‘Manager’ or ‘Consultant’; my filter would be contains(jobtitle,’manager’) or contains(jobtitle,’consultant’)

e.g. if I have to filter where ‘Rating’  contains either ‘Hot’ or ‘Warm’ data; my filter would be leadqualitycode eq 1 or leadqualitycode eq 2

8. Contains with ‘AND’ on same  text field

Filter query= contains(textfield1name,’value1′) and contains(textfield1name,’value2′)

e.g. if I have to filter where ‘Topic’  contains ‘New’ and ‘Interested’; my filter would be contains(subject,’new’) and contains(subject,’interested’)

9.Filter an option set checking two or more values

Filter query= optionsetfieldname1 eq optionsetnumericvalue1 or optionsetfieldname1 eq optionsetnumericvalue2

e.g. if I have to filter where ‘Rating’  contains either ‘Hot’ or ‘Warm’ data; my filter would be leadqualitycode eq 1 or leadqualitycode eq 2

Screen Shot 2019-11-16 at 1.16.25 pm.png

10. Filter by checking two different option sets

Filter query= optionsetfieldname1 eq optionsetnumericvalue1 or optionsetfieldname2 eq optionsetnumericvalue2

e.g. if I have to filter leads where ‘Rating’  contains ‘Hot’ and  ‘Lead Source’ contains ‘Advertisement’; my filter would be leadqualitycode eq 1 and leadsourcecode eq 1

Screen Shot 2019-11-16 at 1.17.15 pm

11.Starts with/Begins with

This is for text fields only

Filter query=startswith(fieldname,’startvalue’)

e.g. if I have to filter all Australian leads , I will look at ‘Business Phone’ starts with country code +61; my filter would be startswith(telephone1,’+61′)

e.g. if I have to filter leads from  Australia or New Zealand, I will look at ‘Business Phone’ starts with country code +61 or +64; my filter would be startswith(telephone1,’+61′) or startswith(telephone1,’+64′)

e.g. if I have to filter leads having ‘Business Phone’  from Australia but ‘Mobile Phone’ from New Zealand, I will look at ‘Business Phone’ starts with country code +61 and +64; my filter would be startswith(telephone1,’+61′) and startswith(mobilephone,’+64′)

12.Ends with

This is for text fields only

Filter query=endswith(fieldname,’endvalue’)

e.g. if I have to filter all leads where ‘Website’ ends with ‘.org’; my filter would be endswith(websiteurl,’org’)

e.g. if I have to filter all leads where ‘Website’ either ends with ‘.org’ or ‘.com’; my filter would be endswith(websiteurl,’org’) or endswith(websiteurl,’com’)

e.g. if I have to filter all leads where ‘Website’ ends with ‘.org’ and email ends with ‘.com’; my filter would be endswith(websiteurl,’org’) and endswith(emailaddress1,’com’)

13.Greater than

This is for Numbers and date fields only

Filter query=datefield gt ‘specificdate’

Filter query=datetimefield gt ‘specificdatetime’

Filter query=numberfield gt specificnumber              (No, ” here)

e.g. if I have to filter leads created after 10th August 2019

createdon gt ’10/08/2019′

e.g. if I have to filter leads created after 5AM on 10th August 2019; my filter would be

createdon gt ’10/08/2019 05:00′

e.g. if I have to filter leads created after 5:30AM on 10th August 2019; my filter would be

createdon gt ’10/08/2019 05:30′

Screen Shot 2019-11-16 at 1.18.15 pm.png

e.g. if I have to filter leads created after 5PM on 10th August 2019; my filter would be

createdon gt ’10/08/2019 17:00′

e.g.if I have to filter leads created after 5:30PM on 10th August 2019; my filter would be

createdon gt ’10/08/2019 17:30′

e.g. if I have to filter leads where annual revenue is more than $2000000

revenue gt 2000000 

e.g. if I have to filter leads where annual revenue is more than $2000000 and number of employees is more than 500

revenue gt 2000000 and numberofemployees gt 500

Screen Shot 2019-11-16 at 1.12.15 pm

14.Less than

This is for Numbers and date fields only

Filter query=datefield lt ‘specificdate’

Filter query=datetimefield lt ‘specificdatetime’

Filter query=numberfield lt specificnumber              (No, ” here)

e.g. if I have to filter leads created before 10th August 2019

createdon lt ’10/08/2019′

e.g. if I have to filter leads created before 5AM on 10th August 2019; my filter would be

createdon lt ’10/08/2019 05:00′

e.g. if I have to filter leads created before 5:30AM on 10th August 2019; my filter would be

createdon lt ’10/08/2019 05:30′

e.g. if I have to filter leads created before 5PM on 10th August 2019; my filter would be

createdon lt ’10/08/2019 17:00′

e.g.if I have to filter leads created before 5:30PM on 10th August 2019; my filter would be

createdon lt ’10/08/2019 17:30′

e.g. if I have to filter leads where annual revenue is less than $2000000

revenue lt 2000000 

e.g. if I have to filter leads where annual revenue is less than $2000000 and number of employees is less than 500

revenue lt 2000000 and numberofemployees lt 500

15.Less than or equal to and Greater than or equal to

This is for Numbers and date fields only

Filter query=datefield ge ‘specificdate’

Filter query=datetimefield ge ‘specificdatetime’

Filter query=numberfield ge specificnumber              (No, ” here)

Filter query=datefield lt ‘specificdate’

Filter query=datetimefield le ‘specificdatetime’

Filter query=numberfield le specificnumber              (No, ” here)

e.g. if I have to filter leads created after or on 10th August 2019

createdon ge ’10/08/2019′

e.g. if I have to filter leads created after or at 5AM on 10th August 2019; my filter would be

createdon ge ’10/08/2019 05:00′

e.g. if I have to filter leads created after or at 5:30AM on 10th August 2019; my filter would be

createdon ge ’10/08/2019 05:30′

e.g. if I have to filter leads created after or at 5PM on 10th August 2019; my filter would be

createdon ge ’10/08/2019 17:00′

e.g.if I have to filter leads created after or at 5:30PM on 10th August 2019; my filter would be

createdon ge ’10/08/2019 17:30′

e.g. if I have to filter leads where annual revenue is more than or equal to $2000000

revenue ge 2000000 

e.g. if I have to filter leads where annual revenue is more than or equal to $2000000 and number of employees is more than or equal to 500

revenue ge 2000000 and numberofemployees ge 500

e.g. if I have to filter leads created before or on 10th August 2019

createdon le ’10/08/2019′

e.g. if I have to filter leads created before or at 5AM on 10th August 2019; my filter would be

createdon le ’10/08/2019 05:00′

e.g. if I have to filter leads created before or at 5:30AM on 10th August 2019; my filter would be

createdon le ’10/08/2019 05:30′

e.g. if I have to filter leads created before or at 5PM on 10th August 2019; my filter would be

createdon ge ’10/08/2019 17:00′

e.g.if I have to filter leads created before or at 5:30PM on 10th August 2019; my filter would be

createdon ge ’10/08/2019 17:30′

e.g. if I have to filter leads where annual revenue is less than or equal to $2000000

revenue ge 2000000 

e.g. if I have to filter leads where annual revenue is less than or equal to $2000000 and number of employees is less than or equal to 500

revenue le ‘2000000’ and numberofemployees le 500

e.g. if I have to filter leads where annual revenue is less than or equal to $2000000 and number of employees is more than or equal to 500

revenue le ‘2000000’ and numberofemployees ge 500

Filter array

These are very much similar to what we get in D365 native workflows except for puttin the value ourselves.

1.Option set label

Select the label field dynamically and not the value field. Then specify your label value on the right.

Screen Shot 2019-11-16 at 1.25.11 pm

Screen Shot 2019-11-16 at 1.24.00 pm

2. Option set value

Select the value field dynamically and not the label field. Then specify your option set value on the right.

Screen Shot 2019-11-16 at 1.29.06 pm

3. Text fields

This one is for text fields like Topic, Subject, Phone, City, Street 1 etc.

Screen Shot 2019-11-16 at 1.30.32 pm.png

4. Number and date fields

This is for number and date fields.

Screen Shot 2019-11-16 at 1.32.31 pm.png

Screen Shot 2019-11-16 at 1.33.25 pm.png

Those are enough filters to get you started. 🙂

Hope you find this helpful!

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#TGIF Episode 2: Building Your First Flow

Hi Readers and Viewers

In this episode, we will deep dive into Power Automate and will create our first flow. We are also going to see different types of flows available within Power Automate. We will look at the following scenario to create our flow:

Scenario: Assign Territory to a customer based on the ‘Address 1: ZIP/Postal Code’ field in CDS/D365. (Address 1: ZIP/Postal Code is a text field)

Out of the box what’s available: Territories are related to ‘postal codes’ as 1: N relationship. Both Territory and Postal Code are available OOTB in CDS/D365. But on Account form, ZIP/Postal Code is a text field so how do we perform this action without any coding efforts.

Solution before Power Automate (MS Flow): If flow wasn’t there, we would have to create a plugin which will trigger post-operation/ record creation and check the value of ‘Address 1: ZIP/Postal Code’ in the data table of Postal Code and then pick up a related territory to update that territory on account form and the efforts required to that plugin would not be less than 4 hours.

Solution after Power Automate: Thank God it’s Flow! with the help of flow you can achieve the results in 5 minutes or less.

Watch the video here:

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Descriptive blog post here.

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TGIF Swag Shop is now live!

Hello Everyone

Thank God it’s Flow Shirts are now available.

Please note that it is in association with spreadshirts and I only get commission out of each shirt sold. And every cent of the commission earned will be donated to ‘Rural Aid Australia’

“Rural Aid is one of the largest rural charities in Australia. A nationwide charity, it was founded by Charles and Tracy Alder in 2015. Its focus is twofold – to provide support to farmers and rural communities in times of natural disaster as well as supporting the sustainability of the agricultural sector.”

*Shop here*

*All items here*

This is for a good cause and your support will be appreciated.

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#TGIF Episode 1: Getting Started With Microsoft Flow

Hi Readers and Viewers

In this episode of TGIF, we are going to see that how you and me can start our Flow journey. This is a short episodes and will cover the following:

  1. Licensing
  2. Sign up
  3. Start page
    • Enter a process name
    • Check templates
  4. Check out the mobile app
  5. Have you got the reason to use Flows yet?

I have covered licensing very briefly but there’s a lot of history and details about MS Flow licensing here by Jussi: https://jussiroine.com/2019/01/the-comprehensive-licensing-guide-to-microsoft-flow-and-powerapps/

or you can visit https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/?currency=AUD for more details

Here’s the video:

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