Microsoft Flow For Developers

February 10-13, 2019  Austin, TX USA
Microsoft Flow for Developers
Prashant G Bhoyar
Solution Architect
WithumSmith+Brown, PC

February 10-13, 2019  Austin, TX USA@pgbhoyar
Who AM I ?
• Born and raised in India
• Came to United States of America in 2007 for studies
• University of Maryland College Park Alumni
• Co-Author of the book “PowerShell for Office 365”
• Technical Reviewer of the book “Pro : SharePoint 2013 Administration”
• Founder and Organizer of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning User Group
and DC-Metro Office 365 User Group
➢ Monthly in person & online event
➢ https://www.meetup.com/ArtificialIntelligenceAndMachineLearning/
➢ http://www.meetup.com/DC-Metro-Office-365-User-Group/
• Organizer of
➢ SharePoint Saturday Baltimore (SPSBMORE)
http://www.spsevents.org/city/baltimore
➢ Organizer of SharePoint Saturday DC ( SPSDC )
➢ http://www.spsevents.org/city/DC/
➢ Azure Data Fest
➢ AI Fest
➢ Global AI Bootcamp
Prashant G Bhoyar
(PGB)

Who AM I ?
• Recipient of Antarctic Service Medal
• Microsoft MVP ( Most Valuable
Professional)
• Solution Architect at Withum Smith
and Brown PC
➢https://digital.withum.com
➢Former Portal Solutions
➢Focus on Microsoft Solutions and
Services
➢Works in Bethesda, Maryland Office
Prashant G Bhoyar
(PGB)

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• Modern workplace
• Office 365 Implementations/
Migrations
• Turnkey Intranet Solution
• Managed Services
• Data Analytics
• Enterprise Mobility + Security
• Business Process Automation
• Dynamics 365
• Azure
Withum Microsoft Solutions and Services

5 years in the making backed by 14 years of SharePoint Intranet design and deployment expertise
Intranet-as-a-Service
Solution
Integrate Most Office 365
Workloads
All the Modern Intranet
Features
Built from the Ground Up
for Office 365
Deploy in less than 45
days

• 100 Level Session
• What is Microsoft Flow?
• Where does it Fit?
• How to call SharePoint REST APIs Using Microsoft Flow?
• How to call Web Services Using Microsoft Flow?
• Microsoft Flow and Microsoft Graph APIs
• Microsoft Flow and Azure Functions
• How to trigger Microsoft Flow from a web service?
• Demos
• Key Takeaways
• Q&A
Agenda

Audience Poll
• How many of you are IT pros?
• How many of you are business users?
• How many of you are Power Users?
• How many of you are Developers?
• How many of you are using Microsoft Flow?
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WithumSmith+Brown, PC | BE IN A POSITION OF STRENGTH
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@pgbhoyar #SPTechCon
Common Options/Tools to create Workflows in
SharePoint Online
User
Interaction?
• OOTB
• SharePoint Designer 2013
• Visual Studio
2012/2013/2015/2017
• Microsoft Flow
• Logic Apps
• Actionable Messages
• Third Party Products
• OOTB
• SharePoint Designer 2013
• Visual Studio
2012/2013/2015/2017
• Microsoft Flow
• Logic Apps
• Third Party Products
• Remote Event Receivers
• Azure Functions
• SharePoint Web Hooks
• Remote Timer Jobs
• Custom Web Service
Yes
No

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Business
Application Platform
Innovate faster
Business app innovation with
Microsoft Flow and PowerApps

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Power users who understand their
business challenges the best can now
quickly build and deliver solutions without
writing code.

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Professional developers can now easily
extend capabilities for power users and
take advantage of rich platform services
with the full power of Azure.

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The common data service and
connectors make it possible to get
more value out of the data and
services you’re already using.

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Microsoft Flow
▪ “Work Less, Do More!!!!!!”
• https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/welcome-to-microsoft-flow/
▪ Microsoft made the official announcement in April 2016
• https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/introducing-microsoft-flow-and-
announcing-the-public-preview-of-powerapps/
▪ SaaS offering – Successor to SharePoint 2013 Designer Workflows
▪ In-built connectors are available and you can publish your own as well
• https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/
▪ You can use templates or start from Scratch
• https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/
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Source :https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/app-service-logic-what-are-logic-
apps/

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Microsoft Flow
▪ Mobile App is available to track, manage and create Flows
• https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/mobile-ios-launch/
▪ On-Premise Gate way is available
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/flow/gateway-reference
▪ New Features are getting added frequently
▪ Create Workflows using Office 365
products/services, Microsoft Products and other
third party Products
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apps/

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Flow vs SharePoint Designer 2013 Workflows
Flow SharePoint Designer 2013 Workflows
• Create workflows using Office 365
Products/Services, Microsoft Products, Third
Party Products
• Pay as per the usage
• Packaging and deployment
• Trigger a Flow on Delete Event
• New features are getting added frequently
• Create workflows for SharePoint
• Free
• Manual Option or custom code
• Not Available
• I don’t expect any new features will get
added

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Licensing
Personal
Automation
Power Users
Friendly
Developer
Friendly
Integration
with Third
Party Systems
Overall
SharePoint
Designer
Workflows
Microsoft Flow
Comparison of SharePoint Designer Workflows vs.
Microsoft Flow
The following visualization demonstrates the spectrum of options
between the SharePoint Designer Workflows and Microsoft Flow.

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Microsoft Flow for Developers
• Build Custom Connectors
– Develop custom connectors to connect to your organization's data and web services
through Microsoft Flow
• Build Azure Functions
– Craft Azure Functions to extend apps with custom server-side logic
• Embed Microsoft Flow
– Embed Microsoft Flow directly into your website experiences to create integrated
solutions, surfacing workflows or processes where people in your organization already do
their work
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Source :https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/flow/dev-enterprise-intro

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Triggers
Run manually based on user action
From dedicated Flow button
From other apps – PowerApps, SharePoint…
Run on a schedule
From every minute to 4am on Saturdays
Run based on an event that happens in
a cloud or on-prem service

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Actions
Any number of steps that run after
the trigger
Connect to any cloud service or via
the on-prem data gateway
Connect to any HTTP endpoints if
there’s no out-of-box connector
Some actions may not even use
connections – just manipulate data
locally

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Flowing data
Data ‘flows’ from each step and is
available for all later steps
Use Add Dynamic Content to select
outputs from previous steps
Certain outputs show up based on the
types of the inputs and outputs

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Using expressions
Many reasons to use expressions:
Convert types
Perform simple, inline calculations
like string manipulation or arithmetic,
or date/time manipulation
Generate data like the current
time, a GUID or a random number
Handling optional values
“If” conditional statements
Working with lists

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How to create expressions
Add Dynamic Content
Action name
replace(…)

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Data types and formats
Text – aka Strings
Normal – 'Example string'
Email, URL, phone number, etc…
Base64
Binary content
Data URI
URI component
Floating-point number – 9.0
Integer number – 137
Boolean – true or false
Array – a list of items
Object – a record with key-value pairs
XML content

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Handling content conversion
• Some conversion is automatic
• In some cases, a conversion
expression is automatically added by
the UI
• Other conversions you’ll need to
author an expression for directly
▪ The expression is named for the destination type
▪ For example to convert to base 64, use the
base64() expression

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Working with strings
• Combine strings together with
concat()
• Take a substring – like LEFT() in Excel
• Replace certain parts of a string
• Convert casing with toLower() or
toUpper()
• Find the location of text, or if it starts
with or ends with certain text

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Arithmetic
Unlike Excel you cannot currently use
the arithmetic operators you expect
like +, -, *, /
Instead you’ll use expressions
For example to say X + Y * Z
You would write add(X,mul(Y,Z))

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Date and time
• addToTime() to add times together
• convertTimeZone() to handle
local times
• formatDateTime() for displaying
in emails
• dayOfWeek() to extract specific
date segments

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Expressions in conditions
1. First, build what you can in the simple mode
2. Then select Edit in advanced mode
3. Finally, enter the expression – use any of the
Boolean expressions
NOTE: Unlike in Add Dynamic Content, you must begin with
the @ character

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What are Arrays?
A few different classes
of things you may need:
Repeat an action over each list item
Get a single item from a list
Filter a list down
Make a list work with a different action

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Demo
Microsoft Flow Connectors

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Demo
Microsoft Flow & SharePoint REST APIs

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Demo
Microsoft Flow and Microsoft Graph

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Flow Pricing – As of February 13th 2019 ☺
Features Free Flow for Office 365 &
Flow for Dynamics 365
Flow Plan 1 Flow Plan 2
Create unlimited automated workflows and powerful multi-
step processes
Maximum number of runs per month (per user) 750 2000 4500 15000
Maximum flow frequency 15 minutes 5 Minutes 3 Minutes 1 Minute
Access your flows on native apps for iOS and Android
Create flows from thousands of templates available in the
public gallery
Publish flows to the public gallery
SLA Not
Available
99.9% 99.9% 99.9%
Source :https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/

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Features Free Flow for Office 365 &
Flow for Dynamics 365
Flow Plan 1 Flow Plan 2
Connect to Office 365, Dynamics 365, Azure SQL, and other
Microsoft services
Connect to common cloud-based services like Twitter and
Wordpress using standard connectors
Connect to line of business services like Salesforce and Oracle
using premium connectors
Access on-premises data using on-premises data gateway
Create custom connectors to connect to your own systems
Create environments to deploy your flows ( per user ) Two
Invite others to share ownership and run flows
View flow usage across your company
Establish environment policies regarding the usage of different
connections and flows

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▪ Flow Free
▪ Flow Plan 1
• USD 5/per user/month
▪ Flow Plan 2
• USD 15/per User/month
▪ For these plans the number of flow runs is aggregated across all users
in the company.
▪ If your company exceeds more than the included runs per month per
user, you can buy an additional quota of runs per month:
• For every additional: 50,000 runs
• Added cost / month: USD $40.00
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apps/

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Flow Pricing – Latest Changes
▪ Effective February 1, 2019, the following capabilities will only be available with PowerApps and
Flow Plan 1 and Plan 2:
• Creation and publication of custom connectors in PowerApps and Microsoft Flow
• HTTP custom actions integrated into Flow outside SharePoint and OneDrive
• Integration of on-premises data through the on-premises data gateway
▪ Customers with active users of these features will get an automatic extension until January 31,
2020 or the expiration of their existing Office 365 subscription term (whichever is longer).
▪ Otherwise, if you have no active usage but still would like to use the features listed above, you
can submit a ticket to request an extension via Microsoft Support before January 31, 2019 to
ensure uninterrupted service. Extensions will run for twelve months or the expiration of your
existing Office 365 subscription term (whichever is longer).
▪ Your ability to request an extension will expire on April 30, 2019. After that, unless previously
extended, use of these services will require PowerApps and Flow Plan 1 or Plan 2.
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apps/
Source :https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Office-Retirement-Blog/UPDATED-Updates-to-Microsoft-Flow-and-PowerApps-for-Office-365/ba-p/289589

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Flow Pricing – Latest Changes
▪ Although makers do not require a specific license to create PowerApps and Flows that use
custom or premium connectors, users of Apps and Flows that are based on custom or premium
connectors require Plan 1 or Plan 2 licenses.
▪ Office 365 users and makers do not require elevated licensing to access Office data from the
Graph through Flow. We have key scenarios for Graph exposed to Flow and PowerApps users
through our standard Graph connectors. These are available to all Office 365 users. Advanced
developers who want to connect to Graph via a raw HTTP call have been able to do so since
September 2017 with the premium HTTP with Azure AD connector. This has been a premium
connector since its release and we have no plans to change this requirement at this time.
▪ Office 365 users and makers do not require any additional licensing to access on premises data
from Power BI through the on premises data gateway; additional licensing is only required for
users using PowerApps and Flow against on premises data.
▪ Office 365-licensed users and makers do not require any additional licensing to use HTTP
custom actions inside the SharePoint connector.
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apps/
Source :https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Office-Retirement-Blog/UPDATED-Updates-to-Microsoft-Flow-and-PowerApps-for-Office-365/ba-p/289589

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Demo
Microsoft Flow and Azure Functions

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Demo
Trigger Microsoft Flow From REST API
CALL

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Growing up to Logic Apps
Each flow can be exported
to a Logic Apps template JSON
Create a new template deployment to
create a Logic app from this template,
and select the template JSON

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Microsoft Flow vs. Logic Apps
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apps/
Microsoft Flow is a SaaS
service for automating
workflow across a number
of apps and SaaS services!

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Demo
Convert Flow into Logic App

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▪ Sign up for Office 365 Developer
Program at http://dev.office.com/
▪ Get 1 year of Office 365
subscription for free
▪ Excellent for personal
development use
▪ 1 Month Trial
▪ https://products.office.com/en-
us/business/compare-office-365-
for-business-plans
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How to get personal Office 365
Developer Tenant?

How to get personal Azure
Subscription?
• If you have MSDN Enterprise subscription
▪ You can get $150/month Azure credits for free
• Sign Up for Free trial : https://azure.microsoft.com/
▪ Credit Card is required
• Microsoft Imagine
▪ Former Dreamspark
▪ No credit card required
▪ Valid .edu account from participating school/institution
▪ Limited feature sets
47

• What is Microsoft Flow?
• Where does it Fit?
• How to call SharePoint REST APIs Using Microsoft Flow?
• How to call Web Services Using Microsoft Flow?
• Microsoft Flow and Microsoft Graph APIs
• Microsoft Flow and Azure Functions
• How to trigger Microsoft Flow from a web service?
• Demos
• Q&A
Recap

Key Takeaways
• Hopefully the contents we covered today made you to
explore Microsoft Flow and you will go home and play
with it ☺
– https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/
– https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/flow/dev-enterprise-
intro
• Sign up for Developer Program using
https://dev.office.com/

References
▪ https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/
▪ https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/flow/dev-enterprise-intro
▪ https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Office-Retirement-Blog/UPDATED-
Updates-to-Microsoft-Flow-and-PowerApps-for-Office-365/ba-p/289589

Upcoming Microsoft Flow Session at SPTechCon
Austin 2019
• PowerApps and Flow - A One-Stop Shop for
Social Media Communication
– Daniel Christian, Microsoft MVP, Business
Applications
– Wednesday, February 13, 2019; 11:30 AM - 12:45
PM CST; Salon G
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Q&A

Questions? Feedback? Contact me:
▪ Email: pgbhoyar@gmail.com
▪ Twitter: @PGBhoyar
▪ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pgbhoyar/
▪ Slides :https://www.slideshare.net/pgbhoyar
▪ Blog: http://pgbhoyar.com
▪ Free Consulting/ Q&A: https://pgbhoyar.com/free-question-answer-session/
▪ Feedback : Please provide feedback
▪ Event App
▪ Email
Thank You
Organizers, Sponsors and You for Making this Possible.

Microsoft Flow For Developers

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