In this final part of the Intro to Power Apps series, we’ll look at Power Automate and how you can use it to move data and perform actions from your Power App.

We’ll start with our Hello World app. Open the tab on the left and select Power Automate. If you see references to “Flow,” that is because Power Automate was previously called Flow. From here, you can add an existing flow to your app or create a new one. Power Automate includes templates for common functions such as:

• Asking for approvals through Teams
• Creating new projects
• Sending emails using SharePoint data
• Executing SQL queries

For this example, we’ll create a flow that sends an email directly from Power Apps.

Set up the flow and connection

When you create the flow, you’ll be prompted to give it a name. Flows are typically named based on their trigger or what they do. You’ll also see the account being used for the connection. In this example, the flow connects to an Outlook account. The account selected here matters because it determines which account the flow uses to perform its actions. If you need to use a different account, add a new connection, sign in with the appropriate Microsoft account, and approve the connection. Be careful about which users are selected for your connections. Users need the appropriate rights for the actions the flow will perform.

Edit your flow

You can edit the flow from within Power Apps using the advanced editor. For simple flows, the embedded editor can work well, but longer flows can be easier to work with in the regular Power Automate interface because there is more screen space. Remember to save changes while editing a flow. If you attempt to leave without saving, Power Automate will warn you that changes since your last save will be lost. Once the flow is connected to your app, use the options next to the flow to:

• Remove it from the app
• Refresh the flow metadata
• Edit the flow

Understand triggers and steps

A flow starts with a trigger. In this example, Power Apps is the trigger. After the trigger comes the body of the flow. The body can contain as many steps as necessary to transform data or perform actions, such as sending emails or pulling and pushing data. You can continue adding actions with the New Step button.

Work with dynamic content

Flow steps can use data produced by earlier steps. Power Automate exposes that information through the Dynamic Content window so you can map data and move it where it needs to go. If the data you need does not appear as dynamic content, Power Automate cannot recognize it for use in that location.

Power Automate also provides built-in functions for transforming data. These can be accessed alongside the Dynamic Content options.

Pass a custom value from Power Apps

You can add inputs to the Power Apps trigger when you need to send additional information into your flow. In this example, we add a text input called “extra body.” Once that input has been created, it becomes available as dynamic content elsewhere in the flow. By inserting the new value into the email body, whatever Power Apps supplies for that parameter can be included when the flow sends the email. Save the flow after making your changes.

Run the flow from a button

To let a user run the flow from your Power App, add a button to the app and configure its OnSelect property. Start typing the name of the flow and select the option ending in .Run. When you open the parentheses for the Run function, Power Apps displays the required parameters. These parameters are required. If one is missing, the function will show an error. The parameters can include static values as well as information already loaded into the app. In this example, the email uses the selected name from Gallery1 as dynamic content and supplies another text value using the custom input created earlier.

Test the flow

Once the button is configured, run the Power App and select the Send an Email button. The resulting email demonstrates that information can be passed dynamically from the app into the flow. It includes both the name selected in the app and the custom parameter added to the trigger. You can add more parameters as needed to send additional data. For more technical scenarios involving larger amounts of data, data can be packaged into a single JSON string for processing.

Open the flow in Power Automate

You don’t have to edit the flow inside the Power Apps editor. After saving and exiting the app, navigate to Flows and select the flow you created. From there, you can edit it in the standard Power Automate interface. The underlying flow is the same, but the full Power Automate interface gives you more room to work and lets you explore additional actions and connections.

Explore more Power Automate connections

Power Automate can connect with many different applications and services. Examples shown in the class include Shopify, Adobe, Dataverse, and SQL. For services with an API, you can also explore using a custom HTTP connector. Searching through the available connections and actions is a good way to start thinking about what you could automate within your own Power Apps.

Putting it all together

In this class, we connected a new Power Automate flow to a Power App, passed information from the app into the flow, and triggered the flow with a button. This is only an introduction to the options available when combining Power Apps and Power Automate, but it provides a starting point for experimenting with your own apps and automations.