Author: Ian Grieve

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2024 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Power Automate 2024 Wave 1.

The 16th of the new functionality in the Cloud Flows section is Cloud flows are automatically defined in Dataverse solutions.

Cloud flows defined in Dataverse solutions simplify administration and application lifecycle for customers by allowing use of concepts like environment variables, connection references, solutions, and more. These also help deliver delightful maker experiences like drafts and publishing, versioning, and more.

Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview:  Mar 21, 2023
Early Access: –
General Availability: Jun 2024

Feature Details

Many benefits are available when cloud flows are added to Dataverse solutions, including the ability to use features like environment variable and solutions. This simplifies the deployment process between environments, for example for development, test, and production. Solutions also make it easier to organize and manage a large number of flows by providing a natural grouping. Having flows defined in Dataverse also unlocks new functionality like support for drafts and versioning.

Currently, makers create non-solution cloud flows by default that aren’t stored in Dataverse. With this change, cloud flows are stored in Dataverse by default. We’ll provide an ability to migrate flows outside solutions to solutions, to simplify the administration process, and unlock new maker experiences.

My Opinion

I want to see this one in practice, but it sounds like it could add some good functionality, such as versioning, which is currently lacking.

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2024 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Power Automate 2024 Wave 1.

The 13th of the new functionality in the Cloud Flows section is Manage unpublished solution-aware cloud flows using admin APIs.

Power Automate admin APIs now have full support for solution cloud flows. This allows admins to see unpublished solution cloud flows, share solution cloud flows, and view the ownership of solution cloud flows.

Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: –
Early Access: –
General Availability: Apr 2024

Feature Details

Currently, Power Automate admin APIs don’t fully support the management of solution-aware cloud flows because flows that have never been published (turned on) aren’t visible. With this feature, Power Automate admin APIs can now fully support the management of solution-aware cloud flows using Power Automate Management connector, the Power Automate for Admins connector, PowerShell for Power Platform Administrators, and the Power Platform admin center. Admins can see unpublished solution cloud flows, share solution cloud flows, and view the ownership of solution cloud flows.

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2024 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Power Automate 2024 Wave 1.

The 14th of the new functionality in the Cloud Flows section is Cancel all flow runs for a version of a flow.

This feature helps to reduce incidents and feedback for the limited number of flows that users can resubmit and cancel on the My flows page in Power Automate.

Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: –
Early Access: –
General Availability: May 2024

Feature Details

Prior to this update, you were limited to canceling 20 runs per flow at a time. This was too restrictive as some users may need to be able to cancel more at a time. This feature now enables you to cancel as many flow runs that you’d like.

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2024 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Power Automate 2024 Wave 1.

The 15th of the new functionality in the Cloud Flows section is Create a flow on a file in Teams.

This feature allows you to create a flow on a file in Teams using one of the templates that are available to be done to a file. You can also use AI to create your flow from scratch.

Enabled for: Users, automatically
Public Preview: –
Early Access: –
General Availability: May 2024

Feature Details

This feature allows you to set up and use workflows in Teams on files. You can create a flow on a file in the overflow menu of the Workflows app. Improve your productivity by using one of the templates that are available to be done to a file, or by using AI to create your flow from scratch.

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2024 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Power Automate 2024 Wave 1.

The 12th of the new functionality in the Cloud Flows section is use a simplified OData editor in actions like Get items and Get files.

You can avoid writing complex OData queries with a simplified condition action-like editor to filter items.

Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: –
Early Access: –
General Availability: Jun 2024

Feature Details

Prior to this feature enhancement, if you as a maker needed to filter out data that your ‘Get items’, ‘Get files’, or ‘List rows’ SharePoint and Excel actions by a certain rule (column name, and others), you needed to write an OData query yourself. With this enhancement, you can use a simplified OData editor, which doesn’t require you to write complex OData queries yourself. You can use the visual editor to build your OData query.

My Opinion

This could be useful as the syntax of OData is not something I know very well.

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2024 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Power Automate 2024 Wave 1.

The 11th of the new functionality in the Cloud Flows section is Use copy-paste for container actions like Scope, Condition, and Apply to each.

You can use copy-paste for any action between flows in the same or different solution or environment.

Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: –
Early Access: –
General Availability: May 2024

Feature Details

Prior to this feature enhancement, you could copy and paste an action only with single actions like Get items, Compose, and more, but not with container actions like Scope, Apply to each, or Condition. With this feature enhancement, you can use copy-paste for any action to copy and paste actions between flows. For example, you can copy-paste actions like Scope, Condition, and Apply to each, which weren’t supported previously.

My Opinion

In theory this should be a good enhancement, but copy/paste of actions generally doesn’t work very well at the moment. Hopefully this has been improved as part of this enhancement to make this actually useful.

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2024 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Power Automate 2024 Wave 1.

The 10th of the new functionality in the Cloud Flows section is Use undo and redo while you build cloud flows in the designer.

You can confidently build flows with Copilot, or experiment knowing that you can undo any of your actions.

Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: –
Early Access: –
General Availability: Jun 2024

Feature Details

You can undo a change you make to your flow manually or through Copilot. If you change your mind and want to return it to your flow, you can use redo to bring back the change you removed with undo.

My Opinion

The ability to undo changes could be very useful, although I tend to find I want to undo changes after running the flow, which I suspect I’ll find can;t be undone.

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2024 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Power Automate 2024 Wave 1.

The 9th of the new functionality in the Cloud Flows section is view two action properties panes simultaneously.

Makers can view two action properties panes simultaneously, facilitating copying and moving values, comparing the properties across two actions, and taking a screenshot of the flow.

Enabled for: –
Public Preview: –
Early Access: May 2024
General Availability: Jan 1900

Feature Details

With this feature, you can pin an action properties pane, which allows you to open another action pane side-by-side to the pinned one. This allows you to easily compare the properties of one action to another. You can also copy values across panes and take screenshots of the flow.

My Opinion

This enhancement sounds like it should be very useful. I’ve had a few flows recently where I wanted to copy settings from one action to another and found only having one property pane open at a time very frustrating.

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2024 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Power Automate 2024 Wave 1.

The 8th of the new functionality in the Cloud Flows section is create Power Automate flows in Excel.

Makers can quickly create useful flows from the Automate tab in Excel. Excel is one of the most popular data tools in the world, with hundreds of millions of people using it for work and personal purposes across various industries. It has advanced features for teamwork, simplicity, flexibility, and automation. Power Automate simplifies the automation of tasks and processes from Excel.

Enabled for: Users, automatically
Public Preview: –
Early Access: –
General Availability: Jun 2024

Feature Details

This feature improves the Automate work button by adding ready-made templates to the ribbon that give access to prebuilt templates and let users make workflows easily and quickly. This feature helps users start quickly in Excel. The prebuilt templates allow users to make workflows by entering information into the parameters. Makers can also view and manage their flows from Excel.

My Opinion

On balance this is probably a good addition, but I think that organisations need to have a clear plan about by whom and how Power Automate flows will be built, and ensure they stick to best practice around ALM (Application Lifecycle Management).