Licensing of Response action

[peter_c]

Hi,

I'd like to get some clarification on the licensing changes to the HTTP actions mentioned in this post. Does this also affect the Response action?

According to this post it doesn't affect the Response action; however I'm getting conflicting opinions from people I talk to and I can't seem to find official documentaion that clarifies this.  Can someone who is responsible for Flow licensing please publish some official guidance on this.

Thanks.

[v-yamao-msft]

Hi @peter_c ,

From the blog provided in the post, HTTP custom actions integrated into Flow outside SharePoint and OneDrive will only be available with PowerApps and Flow Plan 1 and Plan 2.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Office-Retirement-Blog/UPDATED-Updates-to-Microsoft-Flow-and-...

From the Flow Plan doc, we know that connectivity to custom applications or with the HTTP connectors is not available for Office 365 licenses:

https://preview.flow.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/

Best regards,

Mabel

[peter_c]

Thanks Mabel.

The Response action appears to be the only way to return an array of items from Flow to PowerApps.  It's particularly important when using SQL Server with stored procedures because PowerApps doesn't currently support calling stored procedures.

With the licensing change, it seems we're now being forced to pay for a gap in the feature set.

[v-yamao-msft]

Hi @peter_c ,

Thanks for updating.

We could return an array from Flow to PowerApps using Response action:

https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/return-an-array-from-flow-to-powerapps-response-method/

About the licensing changes on the HTTP actions, I will help confirm it on my side.

By the way, there is another action Respond to PowerApps could be used to return data to PowerApps from a flow, the following blog for your reference:

https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/return-data-to-powerapps/

Best regards,

Mabel

[peter_c]

Thanks Mabel.  I look forward to hearing from you regarding the licensing changes.

In regards to the Respond to PowerApps action, unfortunately it doesn't support an array data type.  I've seen examples where people have returned a JSON string, but there currently isn't a JSON parser in PowerApps so you end up having to do a lot of string manipulation to extract the data.

[peter_c]

Hi @v-yamao-msft,

Just wondering if you have an update for this?

[Anonymous]

I am looking for the same? Any updates you got on this Peter!
Just wondering - Why is it made  so tough to have to go to a flow to call a stored procedure and then have no way to even read it's response without using a workaround and then take that response turn into a json using the response action which is now (premium) and then have it bind to a collection to be finally able to use it in powerapps. Powerapps should be directly able to call a stored procedure and read the response and display results.

Don't suggest to use views or tables, because I don't want to bring thousands of rows of data.

[peter_c]

Unfortunately, I didn't get an update on this, but from various posts I've seen, the consensus seems to be that the Response action is premium. 

Also, based on this post: "New licensing options for PowerApps and Microsoft Flow standalone paid plans" it looks like it's going to get more expensive to use.  Kathryn Birstein mentions the same issue in her comment of the article.

[ChinoDoesStuff]

Dear Microsoft,

Please add return types of 'Object' and 'Array' to the 'Respond to PowerApps' action or remove the 'Premium' requirement from the 'Response' action in Flow or add the ability to parse JSON within PowerApps.

I'd be happy with either one of these.

It kind of hurts PowerApps in general not having this feature widely available for use.