Tip #1444: New Power Automate UI unearths hidden property

Today’s tip is from Matt Collins-Jones. (Have a tip of your own? Send it to jar@crmtipoftheday.com)

I (MCJ that is – t.j) was building a flow yesterday and I was using the manual flow trigger and wanted to upload a document/file. I was in the classic UI and I noticed I couldn’t get the name of the file via dynamic content. I thought this was a strange limitation, but I was only building something for demo purposes.

The image shows a screenshot of a Power Automate action configuration titled "Add attachment". It is part of a flow setup where fields for 'Site Address', 'List Name', 'Id', 'File Name', and 'File Content' are displayed with corresponding input fields. The 'File Name' and 'File Content' fields contain dynamic content represented by icons, labeled 'file.name' and 'FileUpload', respectively. There is a red arrow pointing to the 'File Name' field, suggesting attention is needed there. On the right side of the screenshot, there is a panel labeled "Dynamic Value" with a search bar, below which are listed other dynamic content options like 'Country/Region', 'City', 'State', 'Street', 'Postal code', and 'FileUpload'. At the bottom, the user has added multiple question marks, indicating confusion or the need for assistance regarding what dynamic content to select or enter for the 'File Name' and 'File Content' fields.

I came back to the flow and after having saved my flow, it had opened up in the new UI. When I went to look at the dynamic content, I noticed the name of the file content was different, so I opened the dynamic content pane and found a property not found in the classic UI.

The image is a screenshot of a Power Automate modern action setup interface for "Add attachment" within a flow. The interface is displaying fields for 'Site Address', 'List Name', 'Id', 'File Name', and 'File Content'. The 'File Name' and 'File Content' fields are both filled with a dynamic content token labeled 'FileUpload'. There is a red arrow pointing from the 'Manually trigger a flow' sidebar on the right, highlighting the dynamic content 'FileUpload name' as the likely input for the 'File Name' field. The sidebar also shows 'FileUpload contentBytes', suggesting this as the input for the 'File Content' field.

The property appears in the JSON for the trigger, but not in the classic UI, so maybe the new UI is just smarter at reading the JSON schema to produce its list of dynamic content than the old UI. We may find more previously hidden properties in the new UI.

The image displays a JSON schema code snippet used to manually trigger a flow in Power Automate. The schema defines an object type with properties for a file, which is itself an object. The file object includes properties such as "title" with the value "File Content", and a description prompting to "Please select file or image". There are hints indicating the content type expected is a file, with further nested properties for "name" as a string and "contentBytes" as a string with a format specified as "byte". The "required" field at the bottom of the schema is an empty array, suggesting there are no required properties for this trigger.

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Name/contentBytes duo looks familiar for anyone who ever sent attachments in Power Automate. No longer having the property [accidentally?] hidden goes a long way to create a maker-friendly UI. A small plus for new UI (game is still on though!).

Cover image is a courtesy of a conversation with AI. First, it generated a dramatic image then the description to go with it. Level of drama is unbearable.

The image illustrates a stark contrast between two versions of the Power Automate maker interface. On the left side, ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs are carved into a stone wall, bathed in a warm, golden glow emanating from a sun-like source, representing an ancient user interface. On the right side, a futuristic and advanced user interface is depicted with vibrant neon circuitry, transparent screens, and augmented reality elements, all glowing against a dark background, symbolizing cutting-edge technology. The two sides are dramatically juxtaposed to highlight the evolutionary leap in technology from past to future.

The image illustrates a stark contrast between two versions of the Power Automate maker interface. On the left side, ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs are carved into a stone wall, bathed in a warm, golden glow emanating from a sun-like source, representing an ancient user interface. On the right side, a futuristic and advanced user interface is depicted with vibrant neon circuitry, transparent screens, and augmented reality elements, all glowing against a dark background, symbolizing cutting-edge technology. The two sides are dramatically juxtaposed to highlight the evolutionary leap in technology from past to future.