Workflow Variables in Microsoft Flows

[AJGilbey]

Has anyone found the ability to add and use workflow variables in the new Microsoft Flows?

[Anonymous]

I have managed to work with functions by putting them between quotes, like so:

"@{addhours(utcnow(),4)}"

[merwan]

Variables within the flow are not currently supported, but will be added in an upcoming release. Thanks for the feedback!

[patrickabel]

@merwan what's the status on this feature? I'm trying to do some simple calendar event creation and am not able to leverage the same syntax I see in existing templates.

[merwan]

Hi Patrick, we're working on this functionality and plan to release it soon. Thanks for your patience and feedback. 

[patrickabel]

Thanks @merwan! I was able to get past the above issue leveraging a time API (www.timeapi.org) and HTTP request but variables and inline-functions would be greatly appriciated!

[kinobijei]

Hello, are there news on this feature??

[RKushner]

Any updates? This seems like a more fundamental and essential business feature for minimal workflow, much more than connecting to twitter!!!

[merwan]

Adding a first class function editing experience in Flow continues to be on our backlog and something we plan to address in the future. However, in the meanwhile, here's a workaround you can employ. 

1. In your flow, add a compose card. 

2. In the Compose card, you can execute workflow functions specified here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/logic-apps/logic-apps-workflow-definition-language

3. An example to get today's date in the format of 2017-05-16, I would do: "@utcnow('yyyy-MM-dd')"

[efialtes]

I just found new actions: "Initialize variable", "set variable" and "increment variable". When initializing a variable, the following fields must be filled: name, type (boolean, integer, floating, string, object, matrix) and optionally value. I guess "Increment variable" is only valid for integers and floats, according to https://flow.microsoft.com/es-es/blog/error-handling/

However, when dealing with "set variable" there seems to be a bug according to https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/I-Found-A-Bug/Error-Variables-Set-Variable-quot-The-request-cont...

[vfortes]

I'm trying to use "Set variable" without success.

Do you know how it works?

[efialtes]

@vfortes

First you have to include the action to initialize it. 

Hope this helps!

[TravisB]

Hi @vfortes,

SetVariable is currently bugged and isn't really working for anyone right now, unfortunately. We're hoping to get a fix out with next week's deployments starting on June 5th.

I'll be bumping the following thread with updates on the issue:

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/I-Found-A-Bug/Error-Variables-Set-Variable-quot-The-request-cont...

Thanks for letting us know about this issue! We appreciate the help!

Best,

Travis

[Anonymous]

There has been some time passed since the last post in this discussion, but I managed to make my WDL expression work in InitializeVariable by putting a space symbol before it. 

 @{outputs('Authorize')['headers']}

Without the space before the expression it doesn't work at all. God, this is so buggy product 😞

[LozzieD]

"God, this is so buggy product"

One does get the feeling that there is a huuuuge (with much Trumpian emphasis) disconnect between the MS development teams and the senior management.

The senior management even have to ask partner organisations like Lenovo to discover that MS developer output is rubbish, and the developers have been lying and blaming others to cover their tracks ...

https://www.thurrott.com/mobile/microsoft-surface/132832/heres-microsoft-saying-internally-surface-q...

"A diificult computer sicence problem", my rse.