In this tutorial, we’ll discuss how we can use UI Flow outputs to extract information from our Power Automate workflows. This is mainly used for third-party applications that don’t have connectors or APIs to connect to.
Outputs are used if we want to record our UI flow then save a value from it.
Creating A UI Flow
As an example, we’ll make a UI flow that opens up the weather app on our desktop, and copies the temperature or the current condition on the weather app to output it.
First, let’s make another UI flow.
We’ll use a windows recorder again, then click Next.
Let’s set the name of the flow to “UIFlowWithOutput” and click Next.
Let’s not set any inputs because we’re just working on outputs for now. So, just click Next.
Then click New step.
After that, open up the recorder.
Then choose Record app.
Let’s launch our recorder.
Then click Record.
We should now open up the weather app.
Working With UI Flow Outputs
After opening the application that we want to use the output for (in this case, the weather app), select Outputs then click Select text on screen.
We can simply highlight the text that we want it to extract.
Then, it’ll set the Sample value to what it was able to fetch. In this case, it has picked up Current condition: 52°. Let’s set the variable name to Temperature and click Save.
Let’s now close our weather application.
Then click Done.
So now we have our UI flow. Let’s see how it works.
Understanding And Testing UI Flow Outputs
First, it launches the weather app. Then, it captures the text that we selected.
Let’s then click Next.
As we can see, we now have a temperature output and the action name (Get_text_1) that it is related to. Let’s click Next and try it out.
Click Test now.
Then click Test.
Make sure not to interact with your screen. As you can see, it automatically opened up then closed the weather application.
As a result, it was able to get 52° as an output.
***** Related Links *****
Power Automate UI Flow: An Introduction
UI Flow Inputs In Microsoft Power Automate
Workflow Inputs In Microsoft Power Automate
Conclusion
To sum up, we’re able to create an example of a UI flow that opens up an app and captures the output to save it. This is just a simple example, but generally, this is mainly used for getting access or information to desktop applications that don’t have any connectors or any third-party APIs.
That’s what you would really use UI flow outputs for. Hopefully, you were able to understand how and where you can possibly use it.
All the best,
Henry
