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 […]
Tip #1443: Let SharePoint deal with rogue data
Using Power Automate to import data into an existing SharePoint list is fairly straightforward, except when the data isn’t very clean. For instance, if a number column contains blank values or some non-numerical garbage, SharePoint connector will flip out. OpenApiOperationParameterTypeConversionFailed The ‘inputs.parameters’ of workflow operation ‘Create_item’ of type ‘OpenApiConnection’ is not valid. Error details: Input […]
Tip #1437: Duplicate property names in JSON objects in Power Automate
From time to time you may be forced to deal with JSON objects in Power Automate that contain duplicate property names. Consider this object, for example: To make this object maker-friendly, the common approach is to use Parse JSON action and derive schema from the data itself. When done, maker can use properties as dynamic […]
Tip #1435: Update Dataverse user photo from Office 365 profile
If you think that the title looks suspiciously close to Tip #1378: Update Common Data Service user photo from Office 365 profile, you’d be absolutely right. Why? Because historically Power Platform is renowned for two traits: renaming things and changing behaviors of those things. I’ve taken care of the former by replacing Dataflex Common Data […]
Tip #1434: Can you count OR how to add index to array in Power Automate
When developers like Mike! start their sentence with “this is probably really simple”, you know that it rarely is. (No idea why he’s so excited about his name though, I suspect there is some math flex in here). This is probably really simple, but anyone know how I would add an index to an array […]
Tip #1432: Create records in Power Automate without mandatory fields
I really like mini truck stops when two or more MVPs brainstorm a random problem, usually because they are bored 😈. Help me understand scenarios where one would use a guid() expression in flow when creating new rows. Antti Pajunen What Antti left out was (reasonably) common wisdom that explicitly setting identifiers for new records […]
Tip #1431: Power Automate loops without variables
EDIT: Added range method. Thanks Natraj Yegnaraman for fixing my brain fart! When makers need a loop with a counter in Power Automate, say from 1 to 20 (or 0 to 19 for all of you developers out there), the immediate reaction I’ve observed is to reach for a gun variable: You don’t have to […]
Tip #1430: Add Power Automate flows into solution like a boss
You didn’t think I was waffling about replacing triggers in Power Automate flows for no reason, did you? Not once but twice, in fact. The technique of painlessly replacing triggers is more like a kata before you master the art of breaking bricks with your head 🧱🤕. Enter the world of solutions where nine out […]
Tip #1429: Replace Power Automate triggers without breaking too much, Part 2
By now you know not to trust triggers and recapture their output in the step immediately after the trigger. That way you fix only one step when trigger is replaced. Do not use trigger output beyond the first step in your flow Sulking Enabler But do you want more? Do you want to keep the […]
Tip #1428: Replace Power Automate triggers without breaking too much, Part 1
Always stash trigger output into variables or compose before continuing with the flow. If your trigger output contains a record from the underlying storage (Dataverse, SharePoint, etc) get that record and use the output of the get step downstream. Why? Because when you need to replace or recreate a trigger (happens more often than you […]