Microsoft Power Platform

Last in the series: The latest updates from Power Automate

By 1st July 2022 No Comments

Power Automate, an online workflow provision charged with automating activities over services and apps, can send reminders on outstanding jobs, hand over arranged business data among systems, talk to over 275 data sources, and even automate duties on local computers. Power Automate allows all with an insight into company processes to make a repeatable flow.

The Microsoft Power Automate for desktop platform is made up of two key parts that allow users to design and operate flows: the console and the flow designer.

The console is considered to be the central control panel of the platform and from which users are able to use the flow designer in order to produce or change flows. Additionally, within the console’s choices, users are also able to remove, retitle, and operate any current flows.

The second component: the flow designer is the dev environment of Power Automate for desktop. This is where users can create flows and carry out any debugging. To create the flow, users can drag and drop in the main space of any of the offered actions.

Just like every product in Microsoft Power Automate, the Power Automate for desktop console allows users to pick a development environment, manage and control all flows in it, and then allows the capability to build new ones.

To manage an active flow, users can right-click it and then decide between beginning, rewriting, renaming, or removing it.

When users choose to create or edit a flow, Power Automate for desktop launches the flow designer.

The flow designer, the platform’s principal development tool, allows users to build flows that utilize actions. The flow designer comprises seven parts enabling users to manage all parts of the development process.

The actual development occurs in the workspace, which is the key element of the window. Through utilizing the workspace, users create flows that can run successively, or they can modify the run path by applying conditionals, loops, and flow control actions.

Whilst automating corporate procedures, users may develop intricate flows that include several actions. Power Automate for desktop permits them to streamline these flows, making testing simpler through subflows: a set of actions that users may refer to as a group inside other subflows.

Each action that is employed in a flow assumes a number of input parameters and keeps its results in brand new variables. The platform shows all created variables in the Variables window. This is where users may look for variables, change their name, find their usages, etc.

In those situations where users might use the UI and web automation resources of Power Automate for desktop, users can take advantage of the UI element tab in order to control any current UI elements or to build new ones. Any UI elements that the flow retrieves are accumulated on this tab.

The final element of the flow designer is the Images tab, the tab where all images employed in installed actions are kept. This allows all users to easily get hold of and manage any image.

Microsoft is excited to announce that June 2022 brings a new update for Power Automate for desktop: the latest version (2.21)!

The latest features include:

  • Additional data types are now supported for input and output variables
  • Desktop flows can be activated via an external link
  • For custom objects, lists, and data tables, an implanted UI tool has been employed to help users provide default values, whilst also supporting the subsequent JSON format.
  • Java automation in SWT framework applications
  • Power Automate for desktop supports Java-specific UI automation in Java apps and applets that are built on the SWT framework.
  • A new screen for editing the selectors of a UI element

Interested in learning more about Power Automate and its latest releases? Then get in touch with us today and find out what Power Automate and the Power Platform could bring to your company, whilst also learning how the latest Microsoft announcements could benefit your organisation. Get the added bonus of seeing how a highly regarded, certified Microsoft partner with vast experience using all the Power Platform will enhance your business!

Sharon Sumner

Author Sharon Sumner

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