PVA Preview version - data type issue

[webmonkee]

I have an existing flow that does work with my current bot but does not work in Preview. This flow checks the user-inputted ID against Azure AD and returns their contact ID and name to PVA. If they are NOT found, the contact ID returns as blank, and the name returns as null.

In my current bot, if the contact ID "has no value" then it kicks them back to ask for their ID again. In the preview bot, "has no value" is not an operator option anymore. I have tried using "is blank" and "is not blank" as contact ID options to send the user down one path or the other. For the name value, I have also tried "is null." No matter what I do, the PVA bot errors and says that the variable "
evaluated to type ‘BlankType’ , expected type ‘StringDataType’".
The output from PA shows the data is sent as a string, but PVA Preview is interpreting that as "BlankType." All works fine as long as the user ID is found in AAD. I am not sure what else to try or if this is a bug. Thanks!

[HenryJammes]

Hi @webmonkee,

Can you try to use "Change to formula" on your condition node, and use something like this?

[webmonkee]

Hi Henry,

I tried the formula approach with the same result. We can certainly do a workaround where we add a condition in the PA flow to return a non-empty value when the user is not found, then work the PVA condition off that result, but it feels buggy to me still, since an empty string is still a string. I don't think the "is/is not Blank" function is usable for strings as it stands?

But certainly not a show-stopper issue. 

[HenryJammes]

I'm not sure I fully understand what's not working here.

Can you share a few screenshots of the Power Automate cloud flow run outputs (with empty values) and of your PVA condition node?

[webmonkee]

Yessir -thanks!

PA Output:

PA Raw Output:

PVA Node: (Note, I did try it as a formula too with same result, and also tried evaluating the name variables  instead)

PVA Error:

[HenryJammes]

I still can't repro.
I create bot that asks for the user email:

I then query for users with such emails using Power Automate, and return a couple of attributes for the first matching record:

In a flow run that returns 0 results, I get this:

In PVA, using "is Blank" in my condition works as expected for both cases where I get a match or not:

[webmonkee]

Hunh, you're returning all blanks, and two of mine are returning nulls. I need to figure out why I'm returning nulls. Very helpful - thank you for testing!

[HenryJammes]

That's odd - not sure how you managed to return nulls, even when I try to force a null with an expression like this:

The output sent to PVA is actually blank:

[webmonkee]

I guess I have mad skillz - just not useful ones. 🙂 Haven't had a chance to work on it yet, but will see what I can do to eliminate the null returns.

[webmonkee · Accepted solution]

The solution was indeed to eliminate the null returns. I now have my flow return a blank by literally setting the value to one space-bar tap. PVA then recognizes it as an empty string instead of a null, and operates as expected.