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Desktop Equivalent to "List Rows Present in a table"

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Posted on by PatrickMcLeanGL

I have a spreadsheet with 3 columns: ID, Name, and URL.

I have a flow that launches Edge, navigates to the URL and prints it to PDF.

So I need to grab the ID of a row, append it to a pre-defined URL, and name the file the value from the Name column, and I need it to do that for every row in my spreadsheet.

I could do this in my sleep in a cloud Flow but unsure of how to do it in the desktop app.

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Power Automate Desktop

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sergiopereira83 25 on at

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I am considering that it is extracting all the text from Excel and that the columns are ordered with ID, Name and URL.
Pending the conversion from jpg to pdf, you can evaluate. I also don't understand if any fields in Excel need to be updated.
It looks something like this:

Excel.LaunchExcel.LaunchAndOpenUnderExistingProcess Path: $'''Test.xlsx''' Visible: True ReadOnly: False Instance=> ExcelInstance Excel.ReadFromExcel.ReadAllCells Instance: ExcelInstance ReadAsText: False FirstLineIsHeader: True RangeValue=> ExcelData LOOP FOREACH CurrentItem IN ExcelData WebAutomation.LaunchEdge.LaunchEdge Url: CurrentItem[2] WindowState: WebAutomation.BrowserWindowState.Normal ClearCache: False ClearCookies: False WaitForPageToLoadTimeout: 60 Timeout: 60 PiPUserDataFolderMode: WebAutomation.PiPUserDataFolderModeEnum.AutomaticProfile BrowserInstance=> Browser WebAutomation.TakeScreenshot.TakeScreenshotSaveToFile BrowserInstance: Browser File: CurrentItem[1] FileFormat: WebAutomation.FileFormat.Jpg WebAutomation.CloseWebBrowser BrowserInstance: Browser END Excel.CloseExcel.CloseAndSave Instance: ExcelInstance

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Deenuji_Loganathan_ 6,255 Moderator on at

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Hi @PatrickMcLeanGL,
Please find the below requested workflow where you can read data from excel file and append into existing URL.
Code Explanation:
Set the URL variable to 'https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/vwa/printers'.
Launch Excel and open an existing Excel file located at 'C:\Deenu\hp_Products.xlsx'. Save the instance of Excel as 'ExcelInstance'.
Read all cells from the Excel file using the Excel instance. The first line is considered as a header. Save the range value as 'ExcelData'.
Launch Google Chrome and navigate to the URL stored in the URL variable.
For each item in the ExcelData:
a. Navigate to a specific page on the HP website related to the current product using the 'ProductName' from the ExcelData.
b. Develop the logic to save the webpage as a PDF document. (Implementation details are not provided in the given code.)
6. Close the web browser instance.
7. Close and save the Excel instance.

Code:
SET URL TO $'''https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/vwa/printers''' Excel.LaunchExcel.LaunchAndOpenUnderExistingProcess Path: $'''C:\\Deenu\\hp_Products.xlsx''' Visible: True ReadOnly: False Instance=> ExcelInstance Excel.ReadFromExcel.ReadAllCells Instance: ExcelInstance ReadAsText: False FirstLineIsHeader: True RangeValue=> ExcelData WebAutomation.LaunchChrome.LaunchChrome Url: URL WindowState: WebAutomation.BrowserWindowState.Maximized ClearCache: False ClearCookies: False WaitForPageToLoadTimeout: 60 Timeout: 60 PiPUserDataFolderMode: WebAutomation.PiPUserDataFolderModeEnum.AutomaticProfile BrowserInstance=> Browser LOOP FOREACH CurrentItem IN ExcelData WebAutomation.GoToWebPage.GoToWebPage BrowserInstance: Browser Url: $'''%URL%/prnttyp=%CurrentItem['ProductName']%''' WaitForPageToLoadTimeout: 60 # #Develop the logic to save your website as a PDF document END WebAutomation.CloseWebBrowser BrowserInstance: Browser Excel.CloseExcel.CloseAndSave Instance: ExcelInstance

How to copy/paste the above code into your PAD?

How to save your webpage as pdf - Print or Save Webpage to PDF - Power Platform Community (microsoft.com)

Thanks,
Deenuji Loganathan 👩‍💻
Automation Evangelist 🤖
Follow me on LinkedIn 👥

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Agnius Bartninkas Most Valuable Professional on at

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Note that PAD also has a List rows present in a table action under the "Excel Online (Business)" action group, if your file is stored on SharePoint/OneDrive and is formatted as a table.

Other than that, Launch Excel in combination with Read from Excel spreadsheet and Close Excel is essentially what you need to read the data. Follow the suggestion by @Deenuji , as he explains it quite well.

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PatrickMcLeanGL on at

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Ok I followed the suggestion and it worked great, thanks.

One other issue I am having though, is that I want to open those URLs in Edge and then print them. I think the only way to do the printing is using the Recorder and recording myself pressing print, which works for the first iteration of the loop, but on the second iteration it fails saying it cant find the button to press (because the button press refers to a specific browser instance) and I am closing the window at the end of the loop before reopening it at the start.

Is there some other way to tell edge to print in PAD, or is there a way to keep the same window instance open and navigate to a new URL without closing the window?

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Deenuji_Loganathan_ 6,255 Moderator on at

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@PatrickMcLeanGL

Could you please first confirm which suggestion you followed and found effective? Based on that code, we can provide further assistance.

Thanks,
Deenu
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PatrickMcLeanGL on at

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Actually I found my problem and it's working perfectly now, thank you.

One last question, while this flow is running can I do other stuff on my pc or do I have to leave it alone? I have 1000+ records to go through in total so I may end up setting up PAD on a different computer to run this if that's the case.

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Agnius Bartninkas Most Valuable Professional on at

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If it's not interacting with any user interfaces, you can work on your machine. If it is interacting with a user interface, you may need to avoid interrupting it, or use the picture-in-picture mode. See here for reference: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/desktop-flows/run-desktop-flows-pip

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Deenuji_Loganathan_ 6,255 Moderator on at

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@PatrickMcLeanGL

I assume you are currently executing your flow manually by clicking run, ensuring that you don't disrupt your bot's activities by accessing for other tasks if your bots is interacting with any windows app or web application, as this could cause failures if their sequence is disturbed.

This is known as attended automation, where the bot operates while you are signed in to your system. If you wish to run the automation in the background or even when your system is locked, there is another type of automation known as unattended automation.

Difference between two types(Attended/Unattended):
Please look at the below table and link

Link: Attended and unattended scenarios for process automation - Power Automate | Microsoft Learn

Attended Bot - Requires Power Automate Premium license - $15 (per user/month).
In case if you want to run your bots in unattended mode you have to buy Power Automate Process
$150 per bot/month.

Read link for license - Power Automate Pricing & Subscription Plans | Microsoft Power Automate

Or as suggested by @Agnius you can also use PIP mode.

Thanks,
Deenuji Loganathan 👩‍💻
Automation Evangelist 🤖
Follow me on LinkedIn 👥

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If I've helped solve your query, kindly mark my response as the solution ✔ and give it a thumbs up!👍 Your feedback supports future seekers 🚀

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