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Getting Started With Microsoft Flow

Microsoft flow is a cloud-based workflow engine, Using Flow end users can create cross application workflows (no code workflows).  Flow is a part of office 365 E3 suite. It is a successor of SharePoint designer workflows. Complex level Flows can be promoted to an Azure logic app.

Microsoft Flows Vs SharePoint Designer Workflows

Anatomy of Microsoft Flow

• Flow Designer
• Connectors, Triggers & Actions
• Variables & Data Flow
• Expressions
• Branching, Error Handling & Scopes

Flow Designer – Create a Flow from Browser or Mobile Application

Desktop Version:

• Go to https://flow.Microsoft.com
• Sign-in with Office 365 Account
• Start from existing template or import from disk or create from scratch (both in desktop & mobile browsers)

Mobile Version:

• Install flow mobile app, sign in
• Create new flow (template or from scratch).

Connectors

Connectors Wrapper around an API that allows Flow to talk with other services.It exposes Triggers & Actions.

• Standard Connectors – included as part of E3

  • Microsoft Connectors (SharePoint, Azure Blob storage, SQL Server.)
  • Non-Microsoft Connectors (Twitter, Slack.)
  • https://us.flow.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/?filter=&category=standard

• Premium Connectors – additional cost

  • Microsoft Connectors (HTTP with Azure AD.)
  • Other Connectors (Salesforce, MySQL.)
  • https://us.flow.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/?filter=&category=premium

• Custom Connectors – additional cost , development

  • ISV, System Integrators, End users can create custom connectors to integrate any system/application/service.
  • https://us.flow.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/?filter=&category=custom

Triggers

• Run based on user action or event

  • From other apps in office 365 – PowerApps, SharePoint, etc.
  • From SQL
  • From dedicated Flow button

• Run on a schedule

  • Flow also run based on time schedule, From every minute to 1 am on Days.

• Run by HTTP GET/POST to URL generated by flow

  • Call another Flow
  • Call from any application/service/agent that can make HTTP calls

Scenarios & Types of Triggers

• Triggers – Scenarios

  • Simple: Flows start with a Trigger.
  • Advanced: Flows can have more than 1 trigger (async actions)
  • Custom: Flows can have custom triggers

• Types:

  • Polling Trigger:
    • Periodically checks the service
    • Checks count as executions
  • Push Triggers :
    • Listen for data on an endpoint or wait for event.

Actions

• Execute CRUD operations with workflow context
  • SharePoint: Create Item, Delete Item, Create File.
  • SQL: Insert Row, Update Row, Delete Row, Get Row.

• Transform Data

  • Inline – using expressions (e.g. string operations, math operations.)
  • Other services – Html to text.

• Send Notification

  • Send mobile notification, send email notification etc.

• Call other Flow

  • Chain Flows to create complex Flows.

Variables

• Use Variables connector*
• Initialize & then set value
• Supported value types (Boolean, String, Object, Array, Float).

Variables are NOT always necessary!

• Why variables are not always necessary?

  • Data Flows from each step and is available for all later steps
  • ‘Add Dynamic Content’ allows us to select outputs from previous steps
  • Certain outputs show up based on the types of the inputs and outputs.

Expressions:

• Expressions can be used in most of the fields to transform data inline
• IntelliSense available as you type

Convert Type

String to Integer

Int (triggerBody())

String Manipulation

Claims to UPN

replace(triggerBody()?['Author']?['Claims'],'i:0#.f|membership|','')

Date Time Manipulation

Add 1 day

Get month

adddays(utcnow(), 1)

formatDateTime(utcnow(), 'MMMM')

Arithmetic

Add numbers

Add(11,22)

Generate data

Create GUID

guid()

Branching

• If-then-else

• Switch

• For-Each

  • By default, parallel
  • Parallel (20 exec)
  • Supports sequential

• Do-Until

  • Emulate State machines
  • Help in approvals & more

• Parallel branches

Error Handling

• Actions can be set to run if previous action fails/times out.

Scopes

• Logically group actions
• Allow advanced error handling for a group of actions
• Scope boxes are in brown boxes.

CONCLUSION:

Johnsi Jayasingh

Co-Founder & Product Owner

Fortune 500 companies use SharePoint. It's the preferred choice of intranet for most enterprises, offering powerful tools for communication and collaboration, extensive document management capabilities, sweeping search features