Power Automate Development

Expert guidance for cloud flows, desktop flows, expressions, custom connectors, and error handling patterns.

Triggers

Use this skill when you see:

• power automate, cloud flow, desktop flow

• flow expression, trigger outputs, compose action

• custom connector, openapi connector

• dataverse connector, flow trigger

• child flow, environment variable, connection reference

• run after, scope try catch, error handling flow

Instructions

Flow Types

Type Description Use Case

Automated Triggered by an event Dataverse row created, email received

Instant Triggered manually Button press, Power Apps call

Scheduled Runs on a schedule Daily report, hourly sync

Desktop RPA for desktop apps Legacy app automation, file processing

Dataverse Connector Actions

Trigger: "When a row is added, modified or deleted"

• Change type: Added / Modified / Deleted / Added or Modified
• Table name: Accounts, Contacts, etc.
• Scope: User / Business Unit / Parent-Child BU / Organization
• Filter rows: statecode eq 0
• Select columns: name,revenue,accountid

Actions:

• List rows: Table name: Accounts Filter rows: revenue gt 1000000 and statecode eq 0 Select columns: name,revenue,primarycontactid Order by: revenue desc Row count: 50

• Get a row by ID: Table name: Accounts Row ID: triggerOutputs()?['body/accountid'] Select columns: name,revenue

• Add a new row: Table name: Tasks Body: { "subject": "Follow up", "regardingobjectid_account@odata.bind": "/accounts(ID)" }

• Update a row: Table name: Accounts Row ID: triggerOutputs()?['body/accountid'] Body: { "revenue": 5000000 }

• Delete a row: Table name: Accounts Row ID: triggerOutputs()?['body/accountid']

Expression Functions

// Trigger and action outputs triggerOutputs()?['body/accountid'] triggerBody()?['name'] outputs('Get_Account')?['body/revenue'] body('HTTP_Request')?['value'] items('Apply_to_each')?['name']

// String functions concat('Hello, ', triggerBody()?['name']) substring('Hello World', 0, 5) // "Hello" replace(triggerBody()?['description'], '\n', ' ') toLower(triggerBody()?['email']) split('a,b,c', ',') // ["a","b","c"] trim(triggerBody()?['name'])

// Date/time functions utcNow() addDays(utcNow(), 7) formatDateTime(utcNow(), 'yyyy-MM-dd') convertTimeZone(utcNow(), 'UTC', 'Eastern Standard Time') ticks(utcNow())

// Conditional and null handling if(equals(triggerBody()?['status'], 'Active'), 'Yes', 'No') coalesce(triggerBody()?['phone'], triggerBody()?['mobile'], 'No phone') if(empty(triggerBody()?['email']), 'No email', triggerBody()?['email'])

// Collection functions length(body('List_rows')?['value']) first(body('List_rows')?['value']) last(body('List_rows')?['value']) union(variables('arrayA'), variables('arrayB')) intersection(variables('arrayA'), variables('arrayB'))

// Type conversion int(triggerBody()?['quantity']) float(triggerBody()?['price']) string(triggerBody()?['accountid']) json(body('HTTP_Request')) base64(body('Get_File_Content'))

// Variables variables('myVariable') // Set via "Initialize variable" and "Set variable" actions

Custom Connectors from OpenAPI

OpenAPI spec for custom connector

openapi: 3.0.0 info: title: Contoso API version: 1.0.0 servers:

• url: https://api.contoso.com/v1 paths: /orders/{orderId}: get: operationId: GetOrder summary: Get order by ID parameters: - name: orderId in: path required: true schema: type: string responses: '200': description: Order details content: application/json: schema: type: object properties: id: type: string status: type: string total: type: number /orders: post: operationId: CreateOrder summary: Create new order requestBody: required: true content: application/json: schema: type: object properties: customerId: type: string items: type: array items: type: object properties: productId: type: string quantity: type: integer responses: '201': description: Order created

Create custom connector from OpenAPI

pac connector create --api-definition ./openapi.yaml --environment "https://myorg.crm.dynamics.com"

Or import via Power Platform maker portal:

Data > Custom Connectors > New > Import from OpenAPI file

Error Handling Patterns

Configure Run After

Action: "Send notification email" Configure run after: ✓ Is successful ✗ Has failed → Route to error handler ✗ Is skipped ✗ Has timed out → Route to error handler

Scope Try/Catch Pattern

Flow Structure: ├── Scope: Try │ ├── Action 1: Get data from API │ ├── Action 2: Process data │ └── Action 3: Update Dataverse │ ├── Scope: Catch (Configure run after: "Try" has failed) │ ├── Compose: Error Details │ │ Expression: result('Try') │ ├── Action: Log error to table │ │ Body: { │ │ "error": outputs('Compose_Error_Details'), │ │ "flowRunId": workflow()?['run']?['name'], │ │ "timestamp": utcNow() │ │ } │ └── Action: Send alert email │ └── Scope: Finally (Configure run after: "Catch" is successful OR skipped) └── Action: Cleanup / audit log

Child Flows Pattern

Parent Flow: ├── Initialize variable: Results (Array) ├── Apply to each: Items │ └── Run a Child Flow: "Process Single Item" │ Input: Current item │ Output: Processing result │ → Append result to Results array ├── Compose: Summary of results └── Send notification with summary

Child Flow (separate flow): ├── Trigger: "Manually trigger a flow" (with input parameters) ├── Process item logic ├── Error handling (Scope try/catch) └── Respond to a PowerApp or flow (output parameters)

Environment Variables and Connection References

Environment Variables:

• Use for: API URLs, feature flags, email addresses, lookup IDs
• Types: String, Number, Boolean, JSON, Data Source
• Stored in Dataverse solution; values differ per environment
• Access in flow: Look up environment variable value dynamically

Connection References:

• Abstract connections from flows for ALM portability
• Each reference maps to a concrete connection per environment
• Created automatically when you add connectors to a solution
• Configure target connections during solution import

Best Practices

Practice Description

Error handling Always use Scope try/catch pattern for critical flows

Pagination Use "List rows" with pagination settings for large datasets

Concurrency Set Apply to each concurrency (1-50) based on API limits

Child flows Break complex flows into reusable child flows

Environment variables Store environment-specific config, not hardcoded values

Connection references Use solution connection references for portability

Expression readability Use Compose actions to name intermediate expressions

Run history Add tracked properties to actions for debugging

Throttling Implement retry policies for HTTP actions (429/503)

Naming Prefix actions descriptively: "Get_Account_Details" not "Get_a_row"

Common Workflows

Dataverse Event Processing

• Trigger on Dataverse row change (filter to specific columns)

• Get related records if needed

• Apply business logic with conditions

• Update records or send notifications

• Handle errors with Scope try/catch

API Integration Flow

• Trigger (scheduled or event-based)

• Authenticate to external API (HTTP action with OAuth)

• Retrieve data with pagination loop

• Transform data with Compose/Select actions

• Upsert to Dataverse

• Log results and handle errors

Custom Connector Development

• Author or obtain OpenAPI spec

• Import via maker portal or pac connector create

• Configure authentication (API key, OAuth 2.0, etc.)

• Test actions in connector test pane

• Use in flows and canvas apps

• Add to solution for ALM