New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2023 Wave 2: Channel Entry Point for Teams Workflows

Power AutomateThis post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2023 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Power Automate 2023 Wave 2.

The 9th of the new functionality in the Cloud Flows section is channel entry point for Teams workflows.

Enable users to seamlessly create flows from within Microsoft Teams.

Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: Oct 2023
General Availability: Nov 2023

Feature Details

This feature enables a new entry point in Microsoft Teams that lets you create flows from Teams channels.

This is a convenient way to automate tasks and get notifications from tools and services that your team or organization uses. You can access this feature from the channel menu, where you can choose from a variety of templates or create your own custom flow.

My Opinion

This sounds like the functionslity added for Business central, which is a good way of adding flows to specific areas of the system.

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New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2023 Wave 2: Manage Unpublished Solution-aware Cloud Flows Using Admin APIs

Power AutomateThis post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2023 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Power Automate 2023 Wave 2.

The 7th of the new functionality in the Cloud Flows section is manage unpublished solution-aware cloud flows using admin APIs.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 This allows admins to see unpublished solution cloud flows, share solution cloud flows, and view the ownership of solution cloud flows.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: –
General Availability: Nov 2023

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 Admins can see unpublished solution cloud flows, share solution cloud flows, and view the ownership of solution cloud flows.

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New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2023 Wave 2: Use Versioning for Solution Cloud Flows

Power AutomateThis post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2023 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Power Automate 2023 Wave 2.

The 6th of the new functionality in the Cloud Flows section is use versioning for solution cloud flows.

Currently, you don’t have versioning for solution cloud flows, so you lack the ability to revert to a previous version. With this feature, you can view and restore past versions of solution cloud flows. This can save you time in re-creating flows when you encounter new errors or alter plans. This ensures that your business always has a working version.

Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: –
General Availability: Nov 2023

Feature Details

With this feature, you can use a panel in the flow designer to view and restore previous versions of solution cloud flows if something goes wrong, or you change your mind. The draft state and version history are stored in Microsoft Dataverse. This is part of a platform-wide approach to versioning, with solution cloud flows being the first solution component to add this Dataverse-backed versioning support. This won’t provide source control integration.

My Opinion

It will be interesting to see the frequency of the versioning which this new function records. I often click save when working on a flow as I make changes and test; will each of these saves be a new version?

Although, on reflection, the announcement references it to versions of a solution so the incremental changes I make may not be recorded and the versioning only take place when the solution is published?

Lots of unanswered questions on this function which I will need to answer when I can get hands on with this function.

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New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2023 Wave 2: Make Changes in Draft Mode for Solution Cloud Flows

Power AutomateThis post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2023 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Power Automate 2023 Wave 2.

The 5th of the new functionality in the Cloud Flows section is make changes in draft mode for solution cloud flows.

Users have told us that they’re unable to begin creating or editing a flow until they have a large amount of time available because they can’t pause halfway through. Makers can now make changes to solution cloud flows in draft mode and publish when changes are complete. This allows the flexibility to create and edit regardless of the amount of time available, so you can concentrate on other tasks.

Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: –
General Availability: Nov 2023

Feature Details

Currently, makers can’t save a flow with errors and can’t save a draft version of a flow. With this feature, makers can make changes to solution cloud flows in draft mode, including when there are errors and publish when changes are complete.

My Opinion

Now this is the feature I have been wanting since I started working with Power Automate. It’s such a basic thing, that I have been amazed that you couldn’t save a flow part way through working on it and come back to finish it later.

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New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2023 Wave 2: Use the New Cloud Flows Designer with Copilot

Power AutomateThis post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2023 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Power Automate 2023 Wave 2.

The 4th of the new functionality in the Cloud Flows section is use the new cloud flows designer with Copilot.

With the cloud flows designer with Copilot, Power Automate cloud flow makers are able to create and edit flows that are scalable, robust, and modern.

Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: –
General Availability: Oct 8, 2023

Feature Details

You can create, configure, and customize your cloud flows with the classic designer or the cloud flows designer with copilot capabilities. Makers can create and edit their flows in the new cloud flows designer with Copilot experience by default.

My Opinion

I’ve not been hands on with any of the copilots yet, so it will be interesting to see how well this works, and how good the flows it designs are.

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New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2023 Wave 2: Use OAuth Support for HTTP Request Triggers

Power AutomateThis post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2023 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Power Automate 2023 Wave 2.

The 3rd of the new functionality in the Cloud Flows section is use OAuth support for HTTP request triggers.

Makers can use enhanced security measures for HTTP request triggers. For example, makers can restrict what users can trigger in this workflow by ensuring that only authenticated users can trigger this workflow. They can further define the security scope by choosing among three modes for the authentication parameter.

Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: –
General Availability: Oct 8, 2023

Feature Details

Prior to this feature, when makers created a flow that had an HTTP request trigger, the flow generated a shared access signature (SAS) URL. This URL was typically used by developers to trigger workflows from within their own applications or services. This feature provides added security to this trigger by enabling developers to limit who can trigger this workflow.

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New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2023 Wave 2: Store Cloud Flow Execution History in Microsoft Dataverse

Power AutomateThis post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2023 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Power Automate 2023 Wave 2.

The 2nd of the new functionality in the Cloud Flows section is store cloud flow execution history in Microsoft Dataverse.

You can use your Dataverse instances to build custom, longer-term reports based on the flow execution history.

Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: Nov 2023
General Availability: –

Feature Details

With this feature, you can use Dataverse to store your flow execution data. This enables you to:

  • Build custom reports for automation ROI (return on investment), monitoring, and more.
  • Retain flow execution records for longer than 30 days.
  • Centralize the automation execution storage data across cloud and desktop flows.

My Opinion

It will be interesting to see how this works, but on the surface this sounds like it should be useful.

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New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2023 Wave 2: Monitor Performance for Cloud and Desktop Flow Activities

Power AutomateThis post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2023 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Power Automate 2023 Wave 2.

The 1st of the new functionality in the Cloud Flows section is monitor performance for cloud and desktop flow activities.

You can use a central consolidated view to monitor and understand the executions across cloud and desktop flows.

Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: Nov 2023
General Availability: –

Feature Details

With this feature, you have a single consolidated view to understand the automation performance across your cloud and desktop flows. This feature enables you to:

  • Understand the top trends across all of your automation assets (for example, success and failure) across different time periods.
  • Understand top errors and their trends.
  • Understand top flows with specific errors.
  • Seamlessly switch between cloud and desktop flows activity.

My Opinion

This sounds like it should be a very good enhancement, giving you better ability to monitor flows and see where errors are happening. As the number of flows in use grows, it can become harder to keep track of individual ones, so improved monitoring seems to be really good.

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New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2023 Wave 2: Series Index

Power AutomateThis post is part of a series on the new functionality announced for Wave 2 of Microsoft Power Automate 2023. There are two release waves for Power Automate each year, with functionality being released over the six months of the wave.

In this series of posts, I am going to take a look at what is new with Power Automate in this release wave. My understanding is the announced new functionality will become available in the six months of the wave, so not all of it will be available immediately. When posting about some new functionality, I’ll try to indicate where something will be available in October or later. Microsoft do reserve the right to withdraw announced functionality before release; when this happens, I’ll try to publish an article on the removed functionality and update the original article I published to state it has been removed from that release wave.

This series index, below (assuming you’re reading this on ), will automatically update as each post in the series goes live, so make sure you bookmark this post so you can see keep up-to-date with this series.

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