What language is used to build power automate flows for desktop/Cloud?

[Babybots]

Hi all,

I've done extensive research on the Power FX language used in power apps, but am having trouble getting a direct answer on whether or not it's actually what the "Power automate" portion of power apps is constructed on (I've read that it's being extracted form power apps to be used in flows, but does this mean it currently isnt being used? If so, then what is?).

Reason being - I have a client who's very intrigued with power automate, and is testing the waters on how far it can actually go regarding it's complexity. The use of expressions provides an obvious solution for many problems, but in the event something completely custom would need to be built it would be ideal to stick with the language that is being utilized in the platform (which i believe is power fx?). I understand the option of invoking scripts/codes of different languages, but would prefer to opt out of those

if possible.

Any insight would be much appreciated!

For reference: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/power-fx/overview

[ekarim2020]

Microsoft is open-sourcing the Power Fx language:

GitHub - microsoft/Power-Fx: Power Fx low-code programming language

"Microsoft Power Fx is a low-code general purpose programming language based on spreadsheet-like formulas. It is a strongly typed, declarative, and functional language, with imperative logic and state management available as needed.

Power Fx started with Power Apps canvas apps and that is where you can experience it now. We are in the process of extracting the language from that product so that we can use it in more Microsoft Power Platform products and make it available here for you to use. That's going to take some time and we will report on our progress here and on the Power Apps blog.

A start on the language documentation is available in the docs folder. As with the implementation, it is being extracted from the Power Apps documentation and generalized and that too is going to take some time."

Ellis

[Babybots]

Thank you for this Ellis

[molegris]

Hi @ekarim2020 ,

I'm confused about your answer.  As @Babybots said in his question, we know that Power FX is used in Power Apps but the syntaxe in Power Automate looks very different.

Power Fx looks like this :

While when you click on "Peek code" in Power Automate, you get something like this :

{
    "inputs": {
        "host": {
            "connectionName": "shared_excelonlinebusiness",
            "operationId": "GetItems",
            "apiId": "/providers/Microsoft.PowerApps/apis/shared_excelonlinebusiness"
        },
        "parameters": {
            "source": "groups/...1ee1",
            "drive": "b!U6kc...",
            "file": "01EXS...",
            "table": "t_connaissance"
        },
        "authentication": {
            "type": "Raw",
            "value": "@json(decodeBase64(triggerOutputs().headers['X-MS-APIM-Tokens']))['$ConnectionKey']"
        }
    },
    "metadata": {
        "01EX...": "/General/myFolder/myExcelFile.xlsx",
        "tableId": "t_connaissance"
    }
}

{
    "inputs": {
        "from": "@body('Parse_JSON')",
        "where": "@equals(item()['IDEtudiant'], items('Apply_to_each')?['IDEtudiant'])"
    }
}

So what is that Power Automate language/syntaxe ?   It looks like a bunch of JSON objects but I don't know where the functions like @equal() and item() come from.

Also in Power Automate, you get pop-ups everywhere to build Expressions.  Where are these functions come from? What language is this?

Thanks

--mo

[ekarim2020]

Power FX is language is currently used to develop canvas apps in , however, it is Microsoft’s vision that this will become the consistent language across the entire Power Platform. 

Power Fx Samples

Microsoft Power Fx is a low-code general purpose programming language based on spreadsheet-like formulas. It is a strongly typed, declarative, and functional language, with imperative logic and state management available as needed. Right now, you can use these Power Fx samples within your Power Apps canvas applications, but you'll be able to use Power Fx in more Microsoft Power Platform products in the future.

https://pnp.github.io/powerplatform-samples/samples/powerfx/

Yes, Power Automate functions are Excel-like. You can even use the Excel Formula Beautifier to format most Power Automate expressions: Online Excel Formula Beautifier

And yes, behind the scenes in Power Automate, it's JSON:

How to use Parse JSON action in Power Automate

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-pnp-blog/how-to-use-parse-json-action-in-power-...

Hope this helps.

Ellis

[molegris]

Hi @ekarim2020 

Thanks for your quick answer.  Then if those commands (see line in red below) are actually some kind of JSON functions, can you tell me where can I find documentation?  I trying google for "JSON functions" but I only get functions in other languages made to read/parse JSON files.  I didn't know JSON also had it's own sets of operations... I'm a bit shock to be honnest.

Just to be super clear... I'm looking for documentation about those functions :

• @json(), 
• @equals(),
• decodeBase64(),
• triggerOutputs().headers[] ,
• item()?[]

Exemple from Power Automate "Peek code" :

{

    "inputs": {

        "host": { ...        },

        "parameters": { ...        },

        "authentication": {

            "type": "Raw",

            "value": "@json(decodeBase64(triggerOutputs().headers['X-MS-APIM-Tokens']))['$ConnectionKey']"

        }

    },

    "metadata": { ...     }

}

Thank you

--mo

[ekarim2020]

This is the function reference :

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/logic-apps/workflow-definition-language-functions-reference

Ellis

[molegris]

Eureka! So that language is called : Azure Workflow Definition Language !

It makes so much more sense now.  I knew those functions were not from Power Fx nor JSON.  

Thank you so much for your patience!

have a nice day

--mo

[charles_ross_oh]

The answers don't apply to PAD (Desktop).  That seems to be a language named robin. Very scarce documentation on it.