Better way to enter parameters

(0) Share

Report

Posted on by DuginOz

Hey all,

I'm new here (apologies in advance for naïve questions).

I have a very simple business problem and I can't help but feel I am missing something, because the Power Platform (~Power Automate) seems to make it so hard/time consuming to do what I thought would simple things.

I have an excel workbook that users enter data in. The data is then transformed using a Power Query. I then want to out save the transformed data to a CSV file in a location (using a variable name in from the workbook entry). In VBA this is a walk in the park. I'm trying to modernise and use the power platform, but I feel like I have been thrown into an Apple inspired dystopia ("we know best, follow these pretty GUI buttons with pretty colours - don't try to think") !!

So I have a the transformed data in table in the workbook. My understanding is that my "simple" save as CSV file, is the following flow:

Ok, a bit convoluted, but fair enough. Then I find that to specify each and every column as a parameter within the Select action, AND I have to this graphically (Really??). Is there any other way?

The code view is nice (almost comforting), until you try to edit. I dabbled with text mode - but it still has blobs of graphics in it. When I try to copy code (from the viewer, or the text tips for the graphical field representation) into here, it spits the dummy about my JSON syntax.

Am I missing something, or is this the new world? 20 or 30 columns, 20 or 30 (x3 or 4) mouse clicks and then swap to text entry, oops then back to mouse...

Cheers Dug

ps: Sorry if I sound disillusioned, and I am all for no-code, low-code solutions, but this strikes me as super tedious (hope I am just so new at using it, I am doing it the slow way).

Categories:

Building flows

I have the same question (0)

All responses (2)

Answers (1)

Sort by

Verified answer

Rhiassuring 8,692 Moderator on at

Like (0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

You aren't missing anything. You joined at a bad time, with Microsoft just having "updated" the Designer. Lots of folks very unimpressed with it at the moment. I don't mind the graphic But it was more (I think?) graphic-y before, but it's probably just what I'm used to. (If you're curious, click in the top right hand corner ellipses, then Switch to Classic Designer.)

Regarding the "graphical" text, it will always appear in the UI itself, yes. However, if you'd rather just type it, you can type it in notepad and paste it in easily enough. It usually just looks a bit different - ie, wrapped by an @{} for a piece of dynamic content or expression. But if you're more comfortable doing that than clicking around and selecting and so forth, you can get around it by doing it outside of the editor and pasting it in.

For example in your "Select" action there, copy out all the data from Map, and put it in a Notepad -- you'll see how it's all .. code-ified. Then, paste that text back in, and it'll automatically "graphic" it.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
DuginOz 10 on at

Like (1)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Thanks for the reply. That's what I was after. I was trying that but must have malformed the syntax somehow.

I just realised I don't need the Select action anyway - but great to know for future. (I also realise I had my mapping back-to-front 🙄)

Thanks.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No