Never Forget A Birthday Using Power Automate - Power Platform for Educators

Matthew Peterson, a trainer at Pragmatic Works, presents an insightful tutorial in episode four of the "Power Platform for Educators" series, demonstrating how to automate birthday email notifications using Power Automate. This automation ensures students receive personalized birthday messages, making them feel valued while showcasing the versatility of Power Automate for date-based automation tasks.

Using a SharePoint List for Birthday Records

Matthew begins by setting up a SharePoint list containing three columns:

• Student Name: Stored in the Title column.
• Birthdate: A date column used for filtering.
• Student Email: The recipient's email address.

He explains that the same process can be applied using Excel files but highlights the ease of working with SharePoint lists for this type of automation.

Creating the Flow in Power Automate

Next, Matthew demonstrates how to create a scheduled cloud flow in Power Automate:

1. Open Power Automate and create a Scheduled Cloud Flow.
2. Name the flow (e.g., "Daily Birthday Email").
3. Set the schedule to run every day at 7:30 AM.

He switches to the classic designer for better clarity, explaining how the recurrence trigger works to automate the flow on a daily schedule.

Retrieving Student Records with Today's Birthday

To filter the students whose birthdays match the current date, Matthew introduces an OData filter query. Key steps include:

• Select the Get Items action to retrieve records from the SharePoint list.
• Apply an OData filter to return only records where the birthday matches the current date.
• Navigate to SharePoint list settings to find the correct internal column name for filtering.

Matthew demonstrates how to write an expression using the UTCNow() function and the formatDateTime expression to match the date format correctly.

Composing the Birthday Email

Once the filtered records are retrieved, Matthew adds an email step:

1. Use the Send an Email action.
2. Insert the Student Email field as a dynamic value.
3. Write a custom birthday message using the student's name dynamically.

He explains how Power Automate automatically applies a "for each" loop, ensuring every matching student receives a personalized birthday message.

Fixing Common Errors in OData Filters

Matthew deliberately introduces an error to demonstrate a common mistake: referencing a date column as a numeric value instead of a string. He resolves it by:

• Adding single quotes around the expression in the OData filter.
• Retesting the flow to ensure it runs correctly.

Upon correcting the filter, he shows the successful result with two birthday emails sent for students Jack and Lila.

Other Use Cases for Scheduled Flows

Matthew concludes by emphasizing that this Power Automate flow can be adapted for various educational scenarios:

• Sending reminders for certification expiration dates.
• Notifying students of upcoming project deadlines.

He teases an upcoming episode where he will demonstrate how to automate the population of a SharePoint list using Microsoft Forms and Power Automate, making it even easier for educators to manage student data without manual data entry.

Conclusion

This tutorial offers a clear, step-by-step guide for educators looking to leverage Power Automate for personalized student communication. By automating birthday emails, educators can build stronger student relationships while also learning the fundamentals of date-based automation in the Power Platform.

Don't forget to check out the Pragmatic Works' on-demand learning platform for more insightful content and training sessions on Power Automate and other Microsoft applications. Be sure to subscribe to the Pragmatic Works YouTube channel to stay up-to-date on the latest tips and tricks.