Power Apps frustations

[Mattpst]

I have just started using Power Apps and I am finding it one of the most frustrating things ever!

I have trying to create an app (I'm told this can't be done in a Form) that I can attach a file and create a Teams Approval flow using:

1. The currently logged on user as the requestor.
2. The current users line manager in AAD as the approver, or a selection of users from a combo box)
3. Press a submit button to start the flow

I can do number 2 and use a static value for number 1, but am really struggling to do such a simple task of creating a flow using the values from the app - simple I thought!

I would greatly appreciate if anyone could point me to some useful articles or examples as there are plenty out they, but none that I can either get to work or are not a 100% match to my requirements.

Thanks in advance,
Matt

[zuurg]

Here is an example of a Power Apps trigger and the flow to generate a PDF document.  This is the code for my OnSelect of the control that launches the flow:

UpdateContext(
    {
        varPDFSuccess: ProjectConcept.Run(
            Concatenate(
                varEditConcept.Title,
                ".html"
            ),
            HtmlTextConceptSummary.HtmlText
        ).fileexists
    }
);
If(
    varPDFSuccess="True",
    Notify(
        "PDF Export successful!  Please check your OneDrive folder!",
        NotificationType.Success,
        5000
    ),
    Notify(
        "PDF Export failed.  :(",
        NotificationType.Error,
        5000
    )
);

 And here's what my ProjectConcept flow looks like:

Notice that the filename and file contents are being passed to the Flow as the 2 arguments: Concatenate(varEditConcept.Title,".html") and htmlTextConceptSummary.HTMLText.  

If the flow makes it all the way through to the end, that means that the file exists so it sends a "True" back to the original call.  If it fails mid-flow, it'll never make it to the end and therefor won't return the word "True".

Hope this helps!

[Mattpst]

Thank you but it's clear as mud to me🤣

What I am struggling with is how to reference an object in the app with dynamic content in the flow.

I can't see any references in your flow screenshot that reference your app fields (I'm guessing the are VarConcept.Title and HTMLTextConceptSummary.HTMLText?)

[zuurg · Accepted solution]

Anything that you're passing to the flow through the call from PowerApps will show up as an option for Dynamic content when you're editing the flow's step:

There's a pretty basic Flow template in Power Automate called "Click a button in Power Apps to send an email" that is receiving parameters from the .Run function in Power Apps to know who to send an email to, what the subject should be, and the email's body.  You might want to try to create that flow to add to your flows, then try adding to your App, and add a button on there to call the flow.  Might make more sense if you see it in action on your side.

[TheRobRush]

To answer your question more specifically...

open powerautomate

Name your Flow, then select

Add text input name, UserName

Add Another, lets call it  AlsoAddList

Below this add a ParseJSON

It's content is secodn text inoput we added, and it's schema is

{
    "type": "array",
    "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
            "Value": {
                "type": "string"
            }
        },
        "required": [
            "Value"
        ]
    }
}

Now we have two ways we can use this data, here's first  possibility

Here we initialize a variable (calling it htmlEmail here)

then we add an apply to each referencing

body('Parse_JSON')

inside that we append to string variable, and use Value from the apply to each followed by a ; to separate each result with a ;

you can then reference

these emails in the to: line of an email to email all matchign results (everyone selected as additional add ons from your combo box)

then you an get that users manager with

you will then have all the users managers info in the dynamic useable info liek so

you can also, instead of only combining the email addresses, look up every use on the add list like so

that handles breaking down all your data on the power automate side.

Once back in powerapps click the powerautomate symbol, then add flow, and search for the one you jus tmade and add it

i then put in a button and run my flow with the necessary variables like so

Clear(emailList);
Collect(emailList, 
        ForAll(ComboBox1.SelectedItems As emailsToAdd, {Value: emailsToAdd.Mail}));
testMGR.Run(User().Email,JSON(emailList,JSONFormat.Compact))

[TheRobRush]

forgot to mention, in your two apply to each, the value is this

items('Apply_to_each')['Value']

and in 2nd

items('Apply_to_each_2')['Value']

[Mattpst]

Thank you Zuurg, makes sense now - I was coming it from the other way around. Now just need to explorer the actual structure of the flow.