Melbourne UG Presentation - UI Flow for Power Automate

Melbourne UG Presentation - UI Flow for Power Automate

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  Introducing UI Flowsfor Microsoft Flow Power Automate Andre Margono - CCI
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  2 • Robotic ProcessAutomation (RPA) capability that is added to Power Automate • Targeted to automate repetitive tasks on Windows and/or Web based applications • Designed to work with applications that don’t provide necessary API to be called • Storing the automation script in a secure cloud environment • Integrating the UI-based automation with the API-based automation • Currently in Preview, expected to be in General Availability in the first half of 2020 WHAT IS UI FLOWS?
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  3 WHEN SHOULD WEUSE UI FLOW?
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  4 • From myopinion, this is the decision process in deciding the feature of the Power Automate capabilities: WHEN SHOULD WE USE UI FLOW? Doesn t have good API capability? UI Flow Need to run as a scheduled process? Main use case = Process Guidance? Business Process Flow Scheduled Flow Need to run on demand from mobile device? Button Flow Automated Flow Y N N N N Y Y Y
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  5 • There are2 supported “interfaces” for the UI Flow: • Desktop applications in Windows – Compatible with Windows 10, Windows Server 2016, or Windows Server 2019 machines running 64-bit operating systems. • Web sites / applications – Compatible with web sites in the next version of Microsoft Edge (based on Chromium) or Google Chrome. • What’s under the hood? • Desktop: Windows UI Automation: https://docs.microsoft.com/en- au/dotnet/framework/ui-automation/ui-automation-overview • Web: Selenium: https://www.seleniumhq.org/ UI FLOW IN (SLIGHTLY) MORE DETAILED VIEW
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  6 • There are2 different ways of the RPA/UI Flow is run: • Attended automation is when the flow runs inside an existing user’s session on their PC.  Useful to automate ad-hoc repetitive tasks. • Unattended automation is when the flow runs on a separate machine that does not have a user logged in. [Currently in private preview]  Useful for fully automated tasks. UI FLOW IN (SLIGHTLY) MORE DETAILED VIEW
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  7 • OS: Windows10, Windows Server 2016 or 2019 • Browser: Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge (Chromium based) • Power Automate plan + CDS instance • Install UI Flow via the Installer • Activate the Browser Extension • Install Selenium IDE • Install on-premise Data Gateway (optional for actual deployment) UI FLOW SETUP PREPARATIONS
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  Demo
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  9 • UI automationis not a rocket science (read: a new shiny unknown piece of technology). • Both UI Automation Framework and Selenium has been used quite commonly in the past for Coded UI Testing. • UI Flow = Coded UI Test, without the Testing component (pass/failed flags based on the test cases). UI Flow allows you to pass some parameters (Input) and use the execution outcome (Output). (SIDE-TRACKED) UI FLOW AND CODED UI TEST
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  10 • A broaderoffering coming up from the (now) Power Automate • A potential feature that filling the current gap • Pay attention to the current limitations (though some of them might be irrelevant in GA version of the feature). • TL;DR; UI Flow = Running Macros on the cloud • Looking forward for the GA! CONCLUSION Low budget automation ;)
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  11 • https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/end-to-end-enterprise- automation-with-power-automate-ui-flows/ • https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/robotic-process-automation- now-in-preview-in-microsoft-power-automate/ •https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/flow/ui-flows/overview REFERENCES
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  12 Questions?