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Power Platform Dojo

Getting started with Power Platform · Week 5 of 7

Power Automate: conditions, expressions and errors

A scheduled flow reminds people about overdue equipment and reports when something goes wrong.

1 Learn

Work through the modules in order and tick them off here. Microsoft Learn keeps track of your progress if you are signed in there.

Identify Microsoft Power Automate componentsMicrosoft Learn, 70 minOpen module: Identify Microsoft Power Automate components

2 Practise: Reminder when overdue

You do the exercise on a computer. If you are reading on your phone, take your progress along.

Create a scheduled flow that runs every weekday at 7 am.
Only retrieve items with status "On loan" whose "Until" date is before today. Set the filter directly in the "Get items" action.
Send each person an email with the device and the date in the format DD.MM.YYYY.
Put the steps into a scope "Try" and add a scope "Catch" that only runs on an error and sends you an email.
Add a trigger condition to the flow from week 4 so it only starts for status "Requested".

If you get stuck

This is the filter query in "Get items": Status eq 'On loan' and Until lt '@{formatDateTime(utcNow(), 'yyyy-MM-dd')}'. If a column has another name, use its internal name from the list settings.
The "Catch" scope never or always runs: open the "Run after" setting of "Catch" and select only "has failed" and "has timed out".

Done when a test run sends an email for an overdue entry with status "On loan", with the date in the format DD.MM.YYYY.

Hands-on task done

Matching tips

#PowerPlatformTip 15: try-catch-finallyTip on powerplatformtip.com
#PowerPlatformTip 45: Use ScopesTip on powerplatformtip.com
#PowerPlatformTip 11: Trigger ConditionTip on powerplatformtip.com
#PowerPlatformTip 59: Handle Dynamic ContentTip on powerplatformtip.com

Helpful tools

Free, run in your browser, no upload.

SharePoint OData Filter BuilderBuild the filter for "Get items" by clicking instead of guessing.
Trigger BuilderCreate trigger conditions with valid expressions.
Recurrence-Trigger ErklärerCheck when your scheduled flow really runs.

3 Self-test

Answer each question in your head or on paper first, then open the answer. Recalling sticks better than rereading.

What does formatDateTime(utcNow(), 'dd.MM.yyyy') return?

Today's date in UTC, for example 17.10.2026. MM is the month, mm would be minutes.

Why filter in "Get items" instead of afterwards?

SharePoint then only returns matching items. That is faster and you don't hit limits with large lists.

When does your "Catch" scope run?

Only if the "Try" scope failed or timed out. You set that under "Run after".

From week 4: where do you see exactly what a flow did in a run?

In the run history. Open a run there and you see the inputs and outputs of every step.

Take the optional online test again. Goal: orange belt. Go to the powerautomate.ninja dojo

Did you not know an answer? Open the matching module above again before you tick this off.

I could answer the questions

4 Connect optional

Stuck? Write to your Sensei or bring the question to the user group. The Power Platform User Group Deutschschweiz (German-speaking Switzerland) meets online every two weeks on Friday from 1 to 2 pm, free and in German.