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Power Automate - General Discussion
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BOT Attended/unattended?

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Posted on 20 Aug 2021 21:48:02 by

very good day, please answer a question if I have a flow that starts when saving a document in a folder and then open the document, extract information and send an email (this whole process would count as an attended or unattended bot)? The trigger would be to place the file in a folder.

  • Community Power Platform Member Profile Picture
    on 23 Aug 2021 at 15:47:12
    Re: BOT Attended/unattended?

    @poweractivate Thank you so much.

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    poweractivate Profile Picture
    11,078 Most Valuable Professional on 20 Aug 2021 at 23:39:55
    Re: BOT Attended/unattended?

    @Anonymous 

     

    You can check the types of Flows when going to https://us.flow.microsoft.com/ and going to My Flows -> then clicking on New Flow

     

    82021-flw-04.png

     

    One type is an Automated Cloud Flow

    These are probably the ones you are calling "unattended bot"

     

    For example, if the Flow starts  when the document is saved, that is an Automated Cloud Flow, because it is starting automatically rather than explicitly.

     

    82021-flw-01.png

     On the other hand, an Instant Cloud Flow

     is a type of Flow that is run explicitly with user input.

    The most prominent type is Manually trigger a Flow

    This kind also includes the PowerApps - which is triggered when something is done from a PowerApps Canvas App.

     

    This also includes Triggers from Microsoft Products that require user input from the product, usually something like selecting one or more records from the product, then selecting something like "Run Flow on selected records" from a drop-down or some equivalent. For example, "For a Selected message" (Teams), "For a selected file" (OneDrive for Business) and so forth, would involve the person selecting something first, and then selecting the Flow to run from that product. These are also Instant Flows. 

     

    These are probably what you are calling "attended bot". 

     

    82021-flw-05.png

    There is also another kind called Scheduled Flows

     

     

     

     

     

    82021-flw-02.png

     This is always just the Recurrence Trigger - this is the only kind of Trigger for this kind of Flow.

    82021-flw-03.png

     

    This is the only kind of Trigger. Unlike Automated Cloud Flows which are the most common type of Triggers, for example, When a file is created in OneDrive, when an item is modified in SharePoint, etc., the Scheduled Cloud Flow type has only the Recurrence Trigger

     

    This is probably another of what you call an "unattended bot" as it will start automatically on a schedule and keep starting again on each interval of time specified with no manual user input or manual trigger required.

     

    Note that whether you select Automated, Instant, or Scheduled, you can change the Trigger later to any of the other kinds within these three types. Note that if you started using Dynamic Content from the Trigger in Actions, you should remove them as well.

     

    When using a concept known as a child Flow

    then it is easier to change the Trigger of the "parent Flow" - and may be useful if a Flow starts to get a lot of steps and/or is being used by multiple kinds of triggers. Note that if doing this, you must select a "Solution" first under "Solutions" - and make sure to create the Flow from inside the solution rather than from just "My Flows", or else the Action for Run Child Flow will not be shown when searching for it, if just creating it under My Flows rather than creating it in a Solution.

     

    To summarize, "unattended" and "attended" bot are not really the right names for these, but for the case of a Flow that starts when a document is saved in a Folder, e.g. a Trigger like "When a File is created" - this is considered an "Automated Cloud Flow" which is very crudely approximated by the term you call "Unattended Bot". 

     

    The term "Unattended versus Attended Bot" is not the best name, because there are also Desktop Flows which have to do with Robotic Process Automation - this kind of Flow is very different form the Cloud Flows, because it involves automation of a robotic process on the desktop side, such as certain steps being performed in a web browser for example. These are a bit more like "bots" - but "attended versus unattended" might not quite capture the essence of what a Desktop Flow is.

     

    Since I believe you were probably asking about the three types of Cloud Flows, you can sort of think of Automated and Scheduled as "unattended bot" and Instant as "attended bot" - it's not exactly accurate though, but if it helps you think of the core differences, then you can try and see if this concept works for you. 

     

     

     

     

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