Custom code for a custom connector is not packaged within the solution file. After importing a solution containing a custom connector, the custom code assembly must be deployed separately to the target environment using the Power Platform CLI (paconn update).

Importing a solution as managed locks its components, preventing further edits. Since using the CLI to upload the code is considered a modification, this action would fail on a managed connector. To resolve this, the solution must be deployed as unmanaged, which allows the connector component to be updated with the custom code in the target environment.

B. Deploy the solution as managed.

Deploying as managed is best practice for production but would lock the connector component, preventing the necessary post-import step of uploading the custom code via the CLI.

C. Publish the connector in the development environment.

Publishing a connector makes it available for use within the source environment but does not affect how its custom code is packaged or deployed to other environments.

D. Import a new solution with the custom connector.

Simply re-importing the solution will not fix the issue, as the custom code is fundamentally not part of the solution package and requires a separate deployment step.

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1. Microsoft Learn. (2023). Add custom code to a custom connector.

Section: "Deploy the connector"

Content: "When you import a solution that contains a custom connector with custom code, the code isn't deployed automatically. You need to deploy the code separately." This document establishes that a separate step is required outside of the solution import process.

2. Microsoft Learn. (2023). Managed and unmanaged solutions.

Section: "Managed solutions"

Content: "You can’t directly edit the components within a managed solution." This principle explains why the post-import CLI command to upload code would fail against a managed component, as it is an editing action.

3. Microsoft Learn. (2023). Solution concepts - Power Platform ALM.

Section: "Unmanaged solutions"

Content: "Unmanaged solutions are used in development environments while you make changes to your application. [...] You can export an unmanaged solution from a development environment and import it into another development environment as an unmanaged solution." This supports using unmanaged solutions to enable changes in the target environment.

For SAP, Power Automate Desktop (PAD) utilizes VBScript as the primary scripting language to interface with the SAP GUI COM object via the SAP GUI Scripting API. For websites, the action Run JavaScript function on webpage is the specific command used to execute scripts within a browser instance to manipulate the DOM or extract data. PowerShell is the native Windows administrative language, making it the most direct choice for system tasks like creating scheduled tasks via the ScheduledTasks module. To silently run console applications, VBScript is used via the WScript.Shell object; setting the intWindowStyle parameter to 0 allows the application to run without a visible command prompt window.

Microsoft Learn: Automate SAP GUI-based applications in Power Automate Desktop. Section: "SAP GUI Scripting". Official Documentation

Microsoft Learn: Scripting actions reference - Run JavaScript function on webpage. Section: "Action Properties". Official Documentation

Microsoft Learn: Scripting actions reference - Run PowerShell script. Section: "Usage for Windows Administration". Official Documentation

Microsoft Documentation: WshShell.Run Method. Section: "intWindowStyle 0 (Hidden)". Windows Script Host Reference

SAP Help Portal: SAP GUI Scripting API - Scripting Language Support. Official Vendor Documentation

To allow another user to modify a desktop flow, they must be granted Co-owner permissions. The process begins at the Power Automate portal (https://www.google.com/search?q=flow.microsoft.com). While desktop flows are created in Power Automate for desktop, sharing and permission management are handled through the web portal. Selecting the flow and clicking Share opens the sharing pane. Choosing Co-owner (instead of User) is the critical step, as it grants the recipient rights to edit, manage, and share the flow. The "User" access type only allows others to run the flow via local or cloud orchestration without modification rights.

Microsoft Learn: Manage desktop flows - "Share a desktop flow" section. This documentation specifies that to share a flow, you must sign in to Power Automate and navigate to "My flows" > "Desktop flows".

Microsoft Power Platform Documentation: Share a desktop flow - Details the distinction between "User" (Run only) and "Co-owner" (Edit, rename, delete, and share).

Microsoft Support: Collaboration in Power Automate - Confirms that the Power Automate maker portal is the central location for managing security principals and sharing settings for both cloud and desktop flows.

Official Power Automate Desktop Guide: Section on "Sharing and Collaboration," which identifies that Power Automate for desktop is the authoring tool, but the governance and sharing actions occur within the Dataverse-backed web portal.

When a Power Automate desktop flow fails to populate a text field on a web page, the two most common root causes are incorrect UI element selectors or incompatibility with the web page's client-side scripts.

1. Modify selectors (E): The most frequent cause of failure in UI automation is the inability to locate the target element. This can happen if the web page's structure has changed. Modifying the UI element's selector to be more robust and accurate is a fundamental and primary troubleshooting step.

2. Configure error handling (B): While not a direct fix for the action itself, configuring the Populate text field action's error handling to continue running is a valid strategy to resolve an issue where a field is optional or intermittently present. If the DataCollector flow must process many records and some might be missing a specific field, this prevents the entire flow from halting, thus achieving the overall goal of data collection.

A. Add an If web page contains action...: This is a valid but less direct approach than built-in error handling. It adds complexity by requiring an extra action to check for the element's existence before attempting to populate it.

C. Replace the Populate text field... with the Send keys action...: While Send keys can resolve issues with JavaScript-heavy pages, it is generally slower and can be less reliable if the target window loses focus. It is a valid alternative but not always a superior solution to fixing the selector or handling the error gracefully.

D. Remove the Focus text field...: The Populate text field action inherently handles focusing the element. Adding an explicit Focus action is redundant. Removing it might solve a self-created conflict, but this addresses a specific implementation flaw rather than a general, common issue.

1. Microsoft Learn. (n.d.). Manage UI elements. Power Automate Documentation. In the section "Update a UI element selector," the documentation explicitly states, "To resolve this issue, you can update the selector manually." This confirms that modifying selectors is a primary method for resolving element identification issues. Retrieved from https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/desktop-flows/manage-ui-elements#update-a-ui-element-selector.

2. Microsoft Learn. (n.d.). Handle errors in desktop flows. Power Automate Documentation. This document outlines the importance and methods of error handling. The "Configure the on-error property of actions" section details how to set an action to continue execution upon failure, which is a key strategy for building resilient automation that can handle expected variations in data or applications. Retrieved from https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/desktop-flows/errors.

3. Microsoft Learn. (n.d.). Web automation actions. Power Automate Documentation. The parameters for the Populate text field on a web page action include the "On error" property, confirming that configuring this behavior is an intended feature for managing how the flow responds to issues with the action. Retrieved from https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/desktop-flows/actions-reference/webautomation#populatetextfieldonwebpage.

Attended mode is designed for processes that run on a user's workstation while they are logged in, often triggered by the user to assist with manual tasks. Scenario 1's requirement for an "active user session" identifies it as Attended. Unattended mode runs without human supervision on remote or virtual machines. Scenario 2 requires parallel execution, which is a primary use case for unattended scaling across multiple sessions. Scenario 3 is triggered by a system event (the completion of an approval flow); such automated back-office updates are best handled by Unattended bots to ensure they execute independently of any specific user’s presence or active desktop session.

Microsoft Learn: Run attended and unattended desktop flows. Section: "Attended vs Unattended". (Official Vendor Documentation).

Microsoft Learn: Desktop flow run modes. Section: "Run a desktop flow". (Official Vendor Documentation).

Microsoft Power Platform Guidance: Automation CoE Strategy - Execution Models. (Standard Architecture Reference).

The error "path to the file does not exist" for UserB, even though the file is on their desktop, indicates the desktop flow contains a hardcoded file path specific to UserA's profile (e.g., C:\Users\UserA\Desktop\file.txt). This path is invalid when UserB executes the flow. To resolve this, the file should be moved to a location that is not tied to a specific user profile, such as C:\Automation\InputFiles\. The flow must then be updated to reference this static, shared path. This makes the automation portable and ensures it can be run successfully by any authorized user on the machine.

A. Delete and recreate the file.

This action does not alter the incorrect, hardcoded path inside the flow, so the automation will continue to fail.

B. Change access rights for the file to allow read operations for the PAD process.

The error message is "path... does not exist," which points to an incorrect path, not an "access denied" or permissions issue.

D. Modify the action to retry if the process cannot find the file.

A retry mechanism is for intermittent or transient errors. It will not resolve a persistent configuration error like a fundamentally incorrect file path.

1. Microsoft Learn, Power Automate Documentation, "Use environment variables in Power Automate for desktop." This document emphasizes avoiding hard-coded input parameters. It states, "To avoid hard-coding connection strings and input parameters, you can use environment variables." Using a static, non-user-dependent path (as suggested in option C) is a direct application of this principle to make the automation's configuration independent of the execution environment or user.

2. Microsoft Learn, Power Automate Documentation, "Build resilient automation with Power Automate for desktop." In the "Best practices" section, it advises on creating automations that can handle different environments. A key aspect of this is ensuring that dependencies, such as file paths, are not specific to the developer's machine or user profile, which directly supports using a common, accessible path.

3. Microsoft Learn, Power Automate Documentation, "Error handling in Power Automate for desktop." This document details error handling strategies. The "Retry action if an error occurs" option is designed for actions that "might occasionally fail due to different reasons, such as network drop-downs." It is not intended to fix a static configuration error like an invalid path.

Desktop flow: Used for Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to automate legacy web applications that lack APIs by mimicking user UI actions (signing in and clicking download).

File system connector: This connector allows Power Automate to connect to local network file systems via an On-premises Data Gateway to read or write files.

Outlook connector: Specifically designed to integrate with Office 365 Outlook or Outlook.com to automate email tasks, including sending messages with attachments like CSV files.

Microsoft Learn: Introduction to desktop flows (ID: power-automate/desktop-flows/introduction).

Microsoft Learn: File System Connector Reference (ID: connectors/filesystem/).

Microsoft Learn: Office 365 Outlook Connector Reference (ID: connectors/office365connector/).

Microsoft Learn: Power Automate architecture: UI flows for legacy integration (Section: RPA vs. API-based automation).

The Web recording mode is specifically designed for web-based elements, including those nested within iFrames, as it captures HTML attributes. The Standard mode is the default for native Windows applications, utilizing UI framework properties (like MSAA or UI Automation) to identify controls. Java applets (and other legacy or non-standard frameworks like Citrix or Delpni) often do not expose their internal UI tree to standard Windows inspection tools; therefore, the Recorder falls back to Image based recording, which uses image recognition to identify and interact with elements on the screen.

Microsoft Learn Documentation: "Record desktop flows" - Section: Recording modes and supported technologies. This outlines the use of Web mode for browsers and Standard for Windows apps. [Document ID: power-automate/desktop-flows/recorder]

Microsoft Learn Documentation: "Automate Java applications" - Section: Automation approach. Explains that when UI elements are not accessible via standard selectors, image-based automation is the required fallback.

Microsoft Power Platform Guidance: "Best practices for desktop flows" - Chapter: UI Automation vs. Image Recognition. Discusses how the recorder switches to image-based mode for environments where the UI tree is opaque (like Java or Remote Desktops).

University of New South Wales (UNSW): Courseware on Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Principles - Module 4: "Surface Automation and Selectors". Validates that iFrames are treated as web elements, while legacy frameworks often require coordinate or image-based interaction.

The HTTP with Azure AD connector is the standard action for application permissions, as it allows for service principal authentication required by Microsoft Graph and SharePoint when no user is present. Conversely, the Office 365 groups send an HTTP request action is a specialized wrapper designed to call Microsoft Graph and Office 365 Management APIs using the delegated permissions of the connection owner. While the generic HTTP action can perform these tasks, it is not considered a "standard action" for these endpoints because it requires manual header configuration and token management. The Send an HTTP request to SharePoint action is the most specific, native method for interacting with SharePoint REST APIs using delegated context.

Microsoft Learn: "HTTP with Azure AD" connector documentation, Section: Authentication types (Service Principal/Application Permissions).

Microsoft Learn: "Office 365 Groups" connector documentation, Action: "Send an HTTP request" (specifically identifying support for Microsoft Graph and Management API URI segments).

Microsoft Learn: "SharePoint connector" documentation, Action: "Send an HTTP request to SharePoint," Section: Execution context and Delegated permissions.

Microsoft Power Platform Documentation: "Standard vs Custom Connectors," Section: Built-in HTTP actions for Azure resources.

To perform maintenance such as installing Windows updates on machines used for desktop flows, the correct procedure is to place the machine group into maintenance mode. This action prevents the Power Automate scheduler from assigning any new desktop flow runs to any of the machines within that group. It ensures that maintenance can be performed safely without interrupting or causing failures in running flows, which is the intended purpose of this feature.

B. Enable maintenance mode on all machines. This is imprecise. The action should be targeted at the specific group of machines used for the flows, not necessarily all machines in the environment.

C. Disable the banker desktop cloud flow. Disabling the flow only stops new triggers but does not manage the state of the machines. Other flows could still target them, and it's not the standard procedure for machine maintenance.

D. Enable maintenance mode on each machine separately. While technically possible, this is inefficient. Managing the group is the intended and most effective method when dealing with a pool of machines.

E. Update the connected environment on the running machines. This is not a valid or recognized action. Machine maintenance involves updating the machine's operating system or software, not an abstract "connected environment."

1. Microsoft Learn. (2023). Manage machine groups. Power Automate Documentation. Retrieved from https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/desktop-flows/manage-machine-groups.

Reference Details: In the section titled "Maintenance mode for machine groups," the documentation states, "Maintenance mode for machine groups allows you to stop all desktop flow runs on the machines that belong to it. This feature is useful when you need to do installations or deployments on the machines and avoid run failures." This directly supports using the group's maintenance mode for updates.