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Power Automate Cloud Connectors: Connecting Your Enterprise
Power Automate connectors are the bridges that connect your flows to external services. Understanding how to use them effectively is key to building robust automation solutions.
Connector Categories
Standard Connectors
Included with most Power Platform licenses:
popular_standard:
- Microsoft 365:
- Outlook
- SharePoint
- Teams
- OneDrive
- Excel Online
- Common Services:
- HTTP
- RSS
- SMTP
- FTP
- Data:
- SQL Server
- DataversePremium Connectors
Require Power Automate Premium or per-flow license:
popular_premium:
- Azure:
- Azure Blob Storage
- Azure SQL Database
- Azure Key Vault
- Azure DevOps
- Business Apps:
- Salesforce
- SAP
- ServiceNow
- Dynamics 365
- Advanced:
- HTTP with Azure AD
- Custom ConnectorWorking with Common Connectors
SharePoint
{
"actions": {
"Get_files": {
"type": "ApiConnection",
"inputs": {
"host": {
"connection": {
"name": "@parameters('$connections')['sharepointonline']['connectionId']"
}
},
"method": "get",
"path": "/datasets/@{encodeURIComponent('https://company.sharepoint.com/sites/documents')}/tables/@{encodeURIComponent('Documents')}/items",
"queries": {
"$filter": "Modified ge '@{addDays(utcNow(), -7)}'",
"$select": "FileLeafRef,Modified,Author/Title",
"$expand": "Author"
}
}
},
"Create_file": {
"type": "ApiConnection",
"inputs": {
"host": {
"connection": {
"name": "@parameters('$connections')['sharepointonline']['connectionId']"
}
},
"method": "post",
"path": "/datasets/@{encodeURIComponent('https://company.sharepoint.com/sites/documents')}/tables/@{encodeURIComponent('Documents')}/items",
"body": {
"Title": "@{variables('fileName')}",
"FileContent": "@{body('Get_file_content')}"
}
}
}
}
}Microsoft Teams
{
"actions": {
"Post_message": {
"type": "ApiConnection",
"inputs": {
"method": "post",
"path": "/v1.0/teams/@{parameters('teamId')}/channels/@{parameters('channelId')}/messages",
"body": {
"body": {
"contentType": "html",
"content": "<h2>Weekly Report</h2><p>@{variables('reportContent')}</p>"
},
"importance": "high"
}
}
},
"Post_adaptive_card": {
"type": "ApiConnection",
"inputs": {
"method": "post",
"path": "/v1.0/teams/@{parameters('teamId')}/channels/@{parameters('channelId')}/messages",
"body": {
"body": {
"contentType": "html",
"content": "<attachment id=\"card1\"></attachment>"
},
"attachments": [
{
"id": "card1",
"contentType": "application/vnd.microsoft.card.adaptive",
"content": "@{variables('cardJson')}"
}
]
}
}
}
}
}Azure Blob Storage
{
"actions": {
"List_blobs": {
"type": "ApiConnection",
"inputs": {
"method": "get",
"path": "/v2/datasets/@{parameters('storageAccount')}/blobs",
"queries": {
"prefix": "incoming/",
"maxResults": 100
}
}
},
"Upload_blob": {
"type": "ApiConnection",
"inputs": {
"method": "post",
"path": "/v2/datasets/@{parameters('storageAccount')}/files/@{encodeURIComponent('processed/', variables('fileName'))}",
"body": "@{body('Get_file_content')}",
"headers": {
"Content-Type": "application/octet-stream"
}
}
},
"Delete_blob": {
"type": "ApiConnection",
"inputs": {
"method": "delete",
"path": "/v2/datasets/@{parameters('storageAccount')}/files/@{encodeURIComponent(items('Apply_to_each')?['Path'])}"
}
}
}
}HTTP Connector
{
"actions": {
"HTTP_GET": {
"type": "Http",
"inputs": {
"method": "GET",
"uri": "https://api.example.com/data",
"headers": {
"Authorization": "Bearer @{body('Get_secret')?['value']}",
"Content-Type": "application/json"
},
"queries": {
"page": "@{variables('pageNumber')}",
"limit": "100"
}
},
"runtimeConfiguration": {
"contentTransfer": {
"transferMode": "Chunked"
}
}
},
"HTTP_POST": {
"type": "Http",
"inputs": {
"method": "POST",
"uri": "https://api.example.com/submit",
"headers": {
"Authorization": "Bearer @{body('Get_secret')?['value']}",
"Content-Type": "application/json"
},
"body": {
"name": "@{triggerBody()?['name']}",
"email": "@{triggerBody()?['email']}",
"data": "@{variables('processedData')}"
}
},
"retryPolicy": {
"type": "exponential",
"count": 3,
"interval": "PT10S",
"minimumInterval": "PT5S",
"maximumInterval": "PT1H"
}
}
}
}Connection Management
Service Principal Connections
{
"connections": {
"azureblob": {
"connectionId": "/subscriptions/{sub}/resourceGroups/{rg}/providers/Microsoft.Web/connections/azureblob",
"connectionName": "azureblob",
"connectionProperties": {
"authentication": {
"type": "ManagedServiceIdentity"
}
}
}
}
}Shared Connections
# Share connection with service account
$connectionId = "shared_sharepointonline-1234"
# Update connection permissions
Set-AdminPowerAppConnectionRoleAssignment `
-ConnectionName $connectionId `
-EnvironmentName "Default-{tenant-id}" `
-RoleName "CanEdit" `
-PrincipalType "User" `
-PrincipalObjectId "{service-account-object-id}"Pagination and Large Datasets
{
"actions": {
"List_all_items": {
"type": "ApiConnection",
"inputs": {
"method": "get",
"path": "/v2/datasets/@{encodeURIComponent('default.cds')}/tables/@{encodeURIComponent('accounts')}/items"
},
"runtimeConfiguration": {
"paginationPolicy": {
"minimumItemCount": 5000
}
}
}
}
}Manual Pagination
{
"actions": {
"Initialize_results": {
"type": "InitializeVariable",
"inputs": {
"variables": [
{
"name": "allResults",
"type": "array",
"value": []
},
{
"name": "nextLink",
"type": "string",
"value": ""
}
]
}
},
"Do_until_all_pages": {
"type": "Until",
"expression": "@empty(variables('nextLink'))",
"limit": {
"count": 100,
"timeout": "PT1H"
},
"actions": {
"Get_page": {
"type": "Http",
"inputs": {
"method": "GET",
"uri": "@{if(empty(variables('nextLink')), 'https://api.example.com/data', variables('nextLink'))}"
}
},
"Append_results": {
"type": "AppendToArrayVariable",
"inputs": {
"name": "allResults",
"value": "@{body('Get_page')?['value']}"
}
},
"Set_next_link": {
"type": "SetVariable",
"inputs": {
"name": "nextLink",
"value": "@{body('Get_page')?['@odata.nextLink']}"
}
}
}
}
}
}Error Handling
Retry Policies
{
"actions": {
"Reliable_API_call": {
"type": "Http",
"inputs": {
"method": "POST",
"uri": "https://api.example.com/endpoint"
},
"retryPolicy": {
"type": "exponential",
"count": 5,
"interval": "PT10S",
"minimumInterval": "PT5S",
"maximumInterval": "PT30M"
}
}
}
}Scope-Based Error Handling
{
"actions": {
"Try_scope": {
"type": "Scope",
"actions": {
"Risky_operation": {
"type": "Http",
"inputs": { }
}
}
},
"Catch_scope": {
"type": "Scope",
"runAfter": {
"Try_scope": ["Failed", "TimedOut"]
},
"actions": {
"Log_error": {
"type": "ApiConnection",
"inputs": {
"method": "post",
"path": "/tables/@{encodeURIComponent('error_logs')}/items",
"body": {
"ErrorMessage": "@{result('Try_scope')?['error']?['message']}",
"FlowRunId": "@{workflow()['run']['name']}",
"Timestamp": "@{utcNow()}"
}
}
}
}
}
}
}Performance Optimization
Parallel Execution
{
"actions": {
"Parallel_branch": {
"type": "Parallel",
"actions": {
"Branch_1": {
"type": "ApiConnection",
"inputs": { }
},
"Branch_2": {
"type": "ApiConnection",
"inputs": { }
}
}
}
}
}Concurrency Control
{
"actions": {
"Apply_to_each": {
"type": "Foreach",
"foreach": "@body('Get_items')?['value']",
"runtimeConfiguration": {
"concurrency": {
"repetitions": 20
}
},
"actions": {
"Process_item": {
"type": "Http",
"inputs": { }
}
}
}
}
}Connector Best Practices
- Use managed identity when possible: Avoid storing credentials
- Implement retry logic: Handle transient failures
- Paginate large datasets: Don’t rely on defaults
- Monitor connector limits: Stay within throttling thresholds
- Share connections carefully: Use service accounts for shared flows
- Cache when appropriate: Reduce API calls
Conclusion
Power Automate connectors enable powerful integrations with minimal code. Understanding connection management, error handling, and performance optimization is key to building production-ready automation.