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Creating a Power Automation Desktop Flow Programmatically

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Posted on by nikhil_c_mehta

We are trying to create UI automation workflow through Power automate Desktop programmatically. We tried to export a sample flow, but if we see the workflow folder, inside which is the flow definition json, it is coming in a format which seems to be binary (encoded) and therefore not readable. If we could get the API/SDK from Microsoft regarding this, it would be ideal. However, if it does not exist at all, is there any other approach that can be used ?

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MichaelAnnis 5,727 Moderator on at

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You can go to any subflow, select all, copy, and paste as text. It won't convert anything to binary, it will just be raw PAD code, like this:

DateTime.Local DateTimeFormat: DateTime.DateTimeFormat.DateOnly CurrentDateTime=> CurrentDateTime4
SET KnownFriday TO $'''11/05/2021'''
DateTime.Subtract FromDate: CurrentDateTime4 SubstractDate: KnownFriday TimeUnit: DateTime.DifferenceTimeUnit.Days TimeDifference=> DateDifference
SET Weeks TO DateDifference / 7
Variables.GetIntegerPart Number: Weeks Result=> WeeksTruncated
DateTime.Add DateTime: KnownFriday TimeToAdd: WeeksTruncated * 7 TimeUnit: DateTime.TimeUnit.Days ResultedDate=> ResultedDate
Text.FromCustomDateTime DateTime: ResultedDate CustomFormat: $'''MMddyyyy''' Result=> FormattedDateTime4
Display.ShowMessage Title: $'''Result''' Message: FormattedDateTime4 Icon: Display.Icon.None Buttons: Display.Buttons.OK DefaultButton: Display.DefaultButton.Button1 IsTopMost: False ButtonPressed=> ButtonPressed6

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nikhil_c_mehta 5 on at

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Thanks @MichaelAnnis for the prompt response. While this helps, is there a way we can programmatically do this through file uploads / api / any other mechanism, rather than the manually copying and pasting of the data ?

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MichaelAnnis 5,727 Moderator on at

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Look here:
C:\Users\mannis\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Power Automate Desktop\Console\Workspace

Replace your username. I only have 2, but part of me thinks that is because these were both back when I had a paid subscription, so if you have a paid subscription, it's possible that all of yours would be saved there.

Each one is a folder:
Inside of that, you want the "script.robin" and it has everything like the copy and paste but more because it's all inclusive. Also, per files, it looks like the imgrepo and appmask files are important per flowID, I would make sure you have all 3 as a solid backup.

I found 5 more of my flows here, in the designer folder:
C:\Users\mannis\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Power Automate Desktop\Designer\Temp

I don't know what the difference is between designer and console, but I have 38 flows, and can only find 7, so hopefully you have better luck.

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nikhil_c_mehta 5 on at

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Thanks once again @MichaelAnnis . You have been extremely helpful!. With the above information, we will still struggle to create the process programmatically. We are trying to do something which is illustrated in this video by another product (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5ffNpoZtJg - See from 9:20 - 10:00). Please let me know if you have any bright ideas or alternative way to achieve this.

Thanks once again.

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MichaelAnnis 5,727 Moderator on at

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So, when you say you are trying to create one programmatically, I am not sure want you mean. I thought you were saying that you wanted to find a systematic way to export one. If you are just looking for a sample, so you can create your own text version, those script.robin text files are the ones you need to follow. I recently learned, in PAD, you can open a flow, and a temp file will go here:
C:\Users\mannis\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Power Automate Desktop\Designer\Temp
The flow has to be physically opened in PAD. There might be a few files/folders lingering in there (maybe I closed PAD without closing the open flow first; however, using today's date as the "last modified", I could easily find the temp folder for my flow. Inside were the 3 files required:
Bring the script.robin into notepad and you can start to learn how to create a PAD from just text. I'm sorry if I'm not understanding your needs. Good luck!

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MichaelAnnis 5,727 Moderator on at

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Check out this link, apparently, there is a response regarding programmatically creating flows based off other triggers:
https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Power-Automate-Ideas/programmatically-create-a-flow/idi-p/112491

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