Unanswered

Pressing 'Enter' to begin search

(0) Share

Report

Posted on by TimD-V

Hi there,

I am brand new to Power Automate Desktop and automation software in general. I have almost, I think, built my first flow in PAD. However, a seemlingly simple step is keeping me from finishing the flow. I have made a flow where I collect invoice appendix numbers from a table in a Cloud-based ERP-system. I then go to the inbox of said system to search for those invoices based on the appendix number. In order to search for them I have to type in the appendix number in the search box and press 'Enter', there is no search button I can click instead. The pressing 'Enter' part is, however, causing me a lot of head ache. I have used the 'Populate web form' action to type in the appendix number in the search bar and I have then added the 'Send keys' action to press 'Enter', but when the flow runs the 'Send keys' action is just clears the typed appendix number and THEN begins the search which of course returns a zero result search. I have tried using the 'Remove focus' function in the 'Popupate web form' action, but that just renders the 'Send keys' action useless. Below you will see a screen dump on the inbox with the search bar.

I am really hoping that a kind soul out there can help me.

Best regards,

Tim

Categories:

Power Automate Desktop

I have the same question (0)

All responses (8)

Answers (0)

Sort by

ShanKM 45 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hi @TimD-V ,

That's possible.

Use "Populate text field in window" action to type the search keyword

Add some delay here also

and after that,
Use "Send keys" action to Hit enter as follows,

Make sure you enabled the "Send text as Hardware key"

Try it out.
Happy Automation. 🙂

Thanks,
Shan KM

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
TimD-V 2 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hi Shan.

I appreciate your input but I seem unable to make it work. First of all; I can't select the right window with the given command? Why the window command rather than the web one?

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
ShanKM 45 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hi @TimD-V ,

My mistake, i tried on a windows app instead of web browser 😶.

Have you tried the Web Recoder for recording your task? So the appropriate Action will be selected by PA itself

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
StevenT 4 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

I am having a similar issue, with PAD acting a little flaky and behaving differently when walking through the Flow line by line vs. using the run button. I'm using PAD to populate the Southwest Airlines flight lookup. The Actions are as follows:
When walking through line by line, it populates the fields correctly, but when I press the "Search" button, the "Arrival Airport" field is cleared out. The "Search"button is being pressed because I get a message back that the "Arrival Airport" field is missing. Adding to my confusion, when I just execute it with the PAD "Run" button, both the "Arrival Airport" AND the Passengers dropdown have issues. The "Arrival Airport" is wiped out, and the "Passengers" field is set to the default of 1 when the "Search" button is pressed - I can see the fields populated, and then cleared out when the button is pressed.

See output below - Arrival Airport is cleared out and Passengers is set back to 1.

I would be thankful for any help. I'm just getting started on learning PAD.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Community Power Pla... Microsoft Employee on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Regarding differences in step-by-step vs run button results, try a higher 'run delay' at the bottom of the page (default is 100ms, try something like 300ms or 500ms). If that solves the issue, consider adding delays after each action, as a previous post suggested.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
StevenT 4 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Thanks for the suggestion, but it solved neither issue. I went as far as delaying for 5 seconds, and I still had different results between stepping through the flow and using the "Run" button.

Also, still having fields cleared out when pressing the submit button.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
kmshan 3 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
ShanKM 45 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hii @StevenT ,
you can see the demo here > https://youtu.be/z0mA95fCX_Q

Please follow the steps,

I've used "Switch" here, instead of that you can impplement the same logic by using "Loop" Action.

Thanks,
Shan K M

Was this reply helpful? Yes No