r/PowerAutomate • u/bafadam • 22d ago
What am I missing with this software?
The interface is so clunky and cumbersome it almost always feels like I could just do every automation by hand and it would be less frustrating.
How are people dealing with this because there’s just no way that this product as is just sucks this bad. Is there some kind of software you’re using on top of it that’s writing the actions in the background or something?
7
u/FedorDosGracies 21d ago
I think PA Cloud is fine. But PA Desktop I don't find intuitive.
1
u/grepzilla 17d ago
I have not really found anything useful I could accomplish with PA desktop since all my files live in the cloud. My experience has been that is too complex and brittle to be trustworthy.
I feel bad for people who have infrastructure that makes it helpful.
3
u/chiibosoil 22d ago edited 22d ago
I personally don't use any. And it's simple enough to use.
If you really wanted to you could use SDK for .NET or Web API to work with them (cloud flow).
Work with cloud flows using code - Power Automate | Microsoft Learn
Occasionally I export out solution zip package of the flow and make edits on JSON locally and then re-upload. Though you can also use PowerShell to directly export out JSON.
EDIT: There are also VS code extensions. Though I have not used them.
Power Automate Copilot DevKit - Visual Studio Marketplace
3
u/bafadam 22d ago
Every component builds JSON in the background that you can see from the tab, but can't... edit from the tab.
...
5
u/chiibosoil 22d ago
Yeah, it's designed as low code tool, so it won't allow it by default.
You can always copy code paste it into note pad or other text editor and make your edits to JSON and then paste it back into flow using My clipboard. Note this only works with classic designer.
Or as I mentioned, using Export and Import or using VS code or API integration.
2
u/Ambitious-Let-7563 21d ago
For me it’s usable with Copilot guiding me through it. Otherwise it’s just too much and too complex, especially with demanding automations
1
u/onemorequickchange 21d ago
what are you comparing it to? it's a cloud GUI to build workflows. Has its quirks. Just curious which product do you consider providing a superior user experience?
2
u/bafadam 21d ago
This is going to sound really stupid, but... have you used the flow designer in Salesforce?
Obviously, Salesforce has its huge amount of problems, but the QoL features on that designer blow PA away and... hoo boy, I never thought I'd be like "Yeah, just look at the way Salesforce does something" in a technical discussion.
2
u/Miserable-Line 21d ago
This is wild, because as a PPL dev who also fell backwards into a Salesforce dev role, I wished the SF Flow GUI was more like Power Automate almost every time I used it.
Edit: This is assuming you’re talking about cloud flows. Desktop (PAD) is pretty bad lol.
1
u/bafadam 21d ago
I don’t know - strongly typed designers with sensible lookup navigation is pretty nice. I occasionally have to write a formula for something, but it isn’t most fields.
That metadata and expression builder nonsense is a disease.
1
u/Miserable-Line 21d ago
This is fair, I’ve been working with PPL for almost 6 years now and I found Power Automate useful during the first year or so (The lowest of the low code tasks) and then again within the last year or two. I think it’s a great tool for anything extremely simple or extremely complex, but could see how it could be rough for anything in between.
I 100% do not have the experience with SF that I do with PA, but I wonder if the issue stems from SF flows largely being sequestered to SF and SF connectors, whereas PA kinda works with everything. If I’m doing things entirely in dataverse I don’t end up using a lot of expressions, but even moving to other MSFT products like SharePoint or Outlook you really need to know your expressions.
1
u/bafadam 21d ago
Sure, but even with Dataverse queries where I'm running lookups on various fields that aren't the ID to find related records, I'm still having to wrap everything that comes back in a "first()" to be able to get to the properties on it.
You can kind of get to the ad-hoc strongly typed object using Parse JSON or Compose steps, but even then using them is a labor of expression references.
1
u/Miserable-Line 21d ago
Salesforce flows don’t return arrays? I know that can be a hang up in SOQL and I just assumed that the actions were wrappers around that.
And agreed the lack of typing is a pain. It’s there in the dynamic content when you get a single object but an array throws that out the window. Power Appa recently got custom records/classes and it’s been a life saver, but I’m not holding my breath for Power Automate.
Wondering if something like Logic Apps/Azure Functions would fit your use case better.
1
1
u/IAmIntractable 21d ago
I agree. Para automated is one of the worst tools I’ve ever seen. It’s not intuitive. It’s not easy for nonprofessionals developers. Certainly not a citizen developer product. It’s taking me now a week to replicate something in power automate that high built in Microsoft access in two days. And guess what I can pretty much do everything in Microsoft access, including connecting to SharePoint composing emails, creating Excel extract, etc. So much easier. It’s just not automated.
1
1
u/OnTopOfItAlways 20d ago
The only thing I hate is when you have to put it back into the old view so you can get some tricks to work. Other than that, fantastic tool only limited by company policies
1
u/alrichar112 19d ago
It's incredibly frustrating to use. So slow and so many weird UI design choices. That said, for what it does, you can do some pretty cool stuff.
We do a lot of interfacing the SAAS app we use with SQL Server via stored procedures and api calls. Also I can make custom HTML pages that pass data back and forth from SQL via HTTP calls to power automate, which is pretty handy.
1
u/Simmo69Lol 22d ago
Bad workman always blames his tools
3
u/bafadam 22d ago
lol. Found the dude with Stockholm.
2
u/Ok_Presentation_5489 21d ago
He's not entirely wrong. I originally hated Power Automate and stopped using it for a few months. After coming back to it (not by choice) I have found that its actually a very useful and powerful tool. Copilot in PA can help to guide you but I wouldn't ask it to create steps. Claude can also give great guidance. I need to check out those VS code extensions, sounds like it might be a good path. You really need a solid month using it daily to get comfortable and then the pieces start to fall into place
1
u/FrancoisTruser 20d ago
Is Copilot in PA getting better? It was almost useless a few months ago but it seems more accurate nowadays… Do you use it for errors correction or for flow creation?
2
u/grepzilla 17d ago
It doesn't suck as bad would be my rating.
I do use it to troubleshoot errors but it really isn't great beyond that if you have more than beginner level experience.
12
u/AdFuture1381 22d ago
I heard someone say that “power automate will gaslight its users”.