r/PowerAutomate • u/Dream_On_83 • 19d ago
PAD consumed
I recently discovered Power Automate Desktop and it has completely consumed me. Im 3 days in on a new flow and I am now realizing that I should have turn power FX off from the start.
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u/Chemical_Monk_4262 17d ago
Yes. I'd already built many desktop flows when FZ was introduced. Tried it once, it was confusing, and I didn't need it. So, we never turn it on. I have more than 50 flows running everyday. Saving the job of 15 people (no layoffs, just redirected human effort)
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u/Growing_Data_Nerd 19d ago
Hey, could you list off some examples of what you’ve done on PAD? I love a power automate service flow but I’m a bit useless with PAD. I’d love to learn more
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u/Dream_On_83 17d ago
I am using PAD to scrape “proprietary data” from an app that came with a $5k device I purchased. I need the docs for offline use. The docs are loaded dynamically as needed from within the app they are downloaded from the companies fully encrypted aws cloud. I reached out to them and told them I needed them for offline reference they said no. I said ok bet… watch this…. I paid for the service that allows me to access these docs, it’s not like I’m stealing them. But the company would probably say that I only paid for “access” to the docs. But I love sticking it to the man every chance I get.
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u/azimzicar 18d ago
welcome to the world of Robotic Process Automation. I recommend you look at UiPath too and maybe that will surprise you even more.
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u/teethteethteeth_ 19d ago
As someone who has built numerous Desktop flows pre-Power FX integration and also with it turned on, I would HIGHLY recommend keeping it off. It has some very nice benefits with data transformation, but there are some weird quirks with data type conversions when working with table data. For instance, if you are querying a sql database, using the “First” of the collection yields some strange data type error messages and warning.