Power Automate Beginner

In this video, Jonathon will show you how to get started with Power Automate, a Microsoft tool that lets you create automated workflows. He will introduce himself and his background as a Power Platform specialist and a former teacher. He will also explain the agenda of the course, the topics that will be covered, and the requirements and resources that you will need to follow along.

In this video, Jonathon will show you how to use Power Automate, a Microsoft tool that lets you create automated workflows for various tasks and applications. He will explain the different types of Power Automate options, such as cloud flows, desktop flows, and mobile flows, and how they are triggered by different events. He will also give you an overview of the Power Automate cloud portal, where you can create, manage, and test your flows, and how it is connected to the Power Platform and Dataverse.

In this video, Jonathon will show you how to use Power Automate template flows and the describe it to design it feature. He will explain how template flows are pre-built workflows that you can modify and customize to suit your needs. He will also demonstrate how to use Copilot to generate a flow based on a natural language description of what you want to achieve.

In this module, Jonathon will guide you through the intricacies of Power Automate, starting with the creation of a custom automated cloud flow. You'll learn how to harness Microsoft Forms as a trigger, accurately capture response details, and neatly organize them into a SharePoint list. Furthermore, Jonathon will demonstrate the process of sending tailored emails to responders, while sharing valuable insights on managing dynamic content, data types, and connectors. Advancing to instant cloud flows, he'll reveal the various methods to initiate a manual trigger, ranging from a simple button in Power Apps to more complex triggers in Power BI or Power Automate itself. You'll gain hands-on experience in adding inputs to these triggers and utilizing them as dynamic content within an Excel action. Lastly, Jonathon will take you through setting up a scheduled cloud flow with a recurrence trigger, detailing how to customize its settings for optimal timing and frequency, and culminating in the automation of weekly messages posted in a Microsoft Teams channel via the flow bot. This comprehensive module is designed to elevate your automation skills and streamline your workflow with Power Automate.

In this module, Jonathon will equip you with the skills to masterfully navigate Power Automate's control features. You'll delve into the use of condition controls to direct the flow of your workflows, setting up conditions based on data inputs like the cost of a device request, and sending tailored emails based on the outcomes. Jonathon will also guide you through the switch control, teaching you how to handle various scenarios that arise from choice-driven data entries, and how to efficiently manage your flows by copying, editing, and testing. Lastly, you'll explore the apply to each control, which allows you to loop through lists and perform actions on each item, such as integrating data from an Excel file into a SharePoint list. This module is designed to enhance your understanding of Power Automate's controls, enabling you to create more dynamic and responsive workflows.

In this module, Jonathon will introduce you to the transformative capabilities of Power Automate's data operations. You'll discover how the Compose data operation can streamline your workflow, allowing you to validate and format data with precision. Jonathon will guide you through adding this operation as an action in your steps, testing it with various inputs and outputs, and leveraging dynamic content in subsequent actions. Additionally, you'll learn to efficiently filter arrays using conditional statements, specifically focusing on reducing SharePoint list items based on cost criteria. Jonathon will demonstrate how to return items with costs under 100, clarify the distinctions between the filter array and Odata filter query, and utilize the parse JSON data operation to access individual columns of the filtered array. This module is crafted to enhance your data management skills within Power Automate, ensuring you can handle data operations with confidence and ease.

In this video, Jonathon will show you how to work with variables in Power Automate. He will explain what variables are, how to initialize them, and how to manipulate them using different actions. He will also demonstrate how to use a do until loop to increment a variable until a certain condition is met.

In this video, Jonathon will show you how to use some basic expressions in Power Automate, such as concat, split, if, equals, format number, and format date time. He will explain the syntax and logic of these expressions and demonstrate how to apply them in different scenarios using compose actions and variables. He will also give you some tips and best practices for working with the workflow definition language in Power Automate.

In this video, Jonathon will show you how to create and use approvals in Power Automate. He will explain the different types of approvals and how to set up an approval process using the Power Automate approval connector. He will also demonstrate how to add conditions, update SharePoint items, and send emails based on the approval outcome.

In this module, Jonathon will take you through the collaborative and management aspects of Power Automate workflows. You'll learn how to share a workflow with colleagues, understanding the roles and permissions associated with co-owners and run-only users. Jonathon will demonstrate the process of sharing via email or SharePoint and guide you on how recipients can access and execute the shared flow. Additionally, you'll explore how to export and import workflows using packages and solutions, gaining insights into the advantages of managing your workflows' lifecycle through solutions. Jonathon will walk you through creating publishers, setting up connection references, and the steps to export a solution as an unmanaged package for import into different environments. This module is crafted to enhance your collaborative skills and streamline your workflow management in Power Automate.

Congratulations on completing our Introduction to Power Automate course! You should now have a good grasp on Power Automate and how to use it as a citizen developer. Feel free to refer back to this course to refresh on the basics and attain a further mastery with the fundamentals behind this powerful tool.