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How to execute an command from value returned from MS Flow "Respond to PowerApps" action.

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Posted on by martinav

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I need to execute refresh commands after a flow reports back as "true". I have the flow setup, and returning the value "true", but I cannot find a way to get that value to trigger a refresh.

I tried putting the refress in a button "OnSelect", then in an input text box, having the OnChange=Button1.Pressed. The Text field of the TextInput=First(MSFlow).finised. <-- equals true when the flow is finished. However, the OnChange does not execute.

Any ideas?

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Building Power Apps

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Mr-Dang-MSFT Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi @martinav,

How and where are you executing the Flow? Since actions run in a series unless you use Concurrent, you can check the result of the flow and refresh accordingly right after the flow.
martinav 3,347 on at

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@Mr-Dang-MSFT,

Thank you for your reply.

This issue is that the screen needs to be refreshed with the value that is returned from the "Respond to PowerApps" action from flow. I have been sucessful in using returned values in visible actions, to make things visible turn on/off, but.. there is no way that I can find to execute a refresh command. Simply putting refresh() after my run command will not work. The flow can take 10-20 seconds to execute before returning a value. There is no feedback to tell the command in powerapps to wiat for the flow to complete. Once it executes, it moves on to the next command. There is no concurrent() being used.

This is my command for running my flow.

UpdateContext({ShowKDLPostPopup:false}); ClearCollect(FileInObs,KDL_File_Management.Run(ECN_ERelease_BrowseGallary.Selected.Rev-1,ECN_ERelease_BrowseGallary.Selected.Part_x0020_Number,LookUp(Drawing_Vault,DV_PartNumber=ECN_ERelease_BrowseGallary.Selected.Part_x0020_Number And DV_RevisionNumber=Value(ECN_ERelease_BrowseGallary.Selected.Rev),ID)))
Adding a Refresh() at the end of that line will not wait for the returned value from the Flow. It will refresh the screen immediately after the flow runs, not after the flow is finished.

It would work to use a timer, but you would have to put a delay in there long enough to cover the longest wait time for the flow to finish. That has too much variability, so there would be a lot of unnecessary wait time for most cases. I want the refresh to occurr exactly when the flow is completed, no sooner, no later.

Respond to Powerapps works great for visible controls because I can have it return a true/false value which will fit perfect in the Visible control.
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Mr-Dang-MSFT Microsoft Employee on at

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@martinav wrote:

Simply putting refresh() after my run command will not work. The flow can take 10-20 seconds to execute before returning a value. There is no feedback to tell the command in powerapps to wiat for the flow to complete. Once it executes, it moves on to the next command. There is no concurrent() being used.

@martinav, Can you share about what your flow is doing? Are you delaying any actions in flow?

PowerApps will not move onto the next action until the flow is complete. You can test this by using a variable to count up after the flow. The count does not increase until the flow completes.

Can you check that your flow is successful?

Are you only expecting true to return from flow to PowerApps, or are you returning a table?

What is in the collection FileInObs?

Below is a screenshot where I'm inserting a row using flow. I increase runcount by 1 each time the flow successfully runs. Then I refresh the table so that the flow's changes to the table appear.

@martinav wrote:

This issue is that the screen needs to be refreshed with the value that is returned from the "Respond to PowerApps" action from flow.

What do you mean by "the screen needs to be refreshed?" What is being refreshed?

Tables can be refreshed by Refresh(). Is there something else you are trying to refresh?
martinav 3,347 on at

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Oh! I had no idea the clearcollect() would wait on the flow to complete. That is super good news! Wow, thanks so much! I do feel a little stupid for not trying it, but I just assumed...

Thank you!
poozr 2 on at

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I have tried this, but my flow takes more than 90 seconds and the PowerApp times out waiting on the flow. So then the flow fails when it cannot return the value to the PowerApp because the connection is closed. I can't seem to get past the 90 second timeout. Any help would be appreciated.
Magra on at

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@Mr-Dang-MSFT , @martinav

I'd like to add that this only seems to work if PowerApps gets some kind of feedback from the flow.

In my case the flow creates a PDF file which PowerApps is supposed to open afterwards with the launch command. A workaround for the still missing print function in PowerApps. However even with ClearCollect PowerApps kept opening a new window with a "File not found" error. Means it clearly didn't wait for the flow to finish.

The solution was to insert a "Respond to PowerApps" component into my flow and have it return some dummy value to PowerApps. Now it works like a charm.

So, nevertheless, ClearCollect really saved my day.