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The 5 best things about Power Automate Part four of a six-part series of blogs
A separate blog lists the 5 worst things about Power Automate; this more positive blog lists its 5 best features! The 5 best things about Power Automate 1 - The scope of Power Automate 2 - The concept and implementation of triggers 3 - Testing flows (this blog) 4 - Consistency 5 - Waiting for approvals

The 5 best things about Power Automate

Part four of a six-part series of blogs

A separate blog lists the 5 worst things about Power Automate; this more positive blog lists its 5 best features!

The 5 best things about Power Automate
1 - The scope of Power Automate
2 - The concept and implementation of triggers
3 - Testing flows (this blog)
4 - Consistency
5 - Waiting for approvals

Posted by Andy Brown on 29 October 2022

3 - Testing flows

Given that most flows run as a consequence of triggers, how can you test them? Microsoft have developed a really elegant solution to this.

For example, here's a basic flow to email me whenever someone adds a file to the OneDrive root folder:

The flow probably works; but how can I test it?

If you try testing it, you get this:

You can't run the flow until it's run once.

So I chose to test the flow manually, and added a file to OneDrive:

The new workbook I've just added.

My flow now runs in Power Automate:

I can click on each action to see its output if I want.

But the clever thing is that from now on I can choose to run the flow by simulating the trigger:

I could choose this option, for example, to run the flow the last time it succeeded, with the same starting conditions (Power Automate will run the flow exactly as if I were adding a file to OneDrive with the same name as before).

It's hard to see how Microsoft could have done this better: an ingenious solution!

Parts of this blog
The 5 best things about Power Automate 1 - The scope of Power Automate 2 - The concept and implementation of triggers 3 - Testing flows (this blog) 4 - Consistency 5 - Waiting for approvals