Error Handling in Power Automate and Logic Apps

Power Automate and Logic Apps are two cloud-based services that allow users to create workflows and automate tasks across various applications and systems. However, like any software, these workflows may encounter errors or failures due to various reasons, such as network issues, invalid inputs, authentication errors, or unexpected responses from external services. Therefore, it is important to implement error handling strategies in Power Automate and Logic Apps to ensure the reliability and robustness of the workflows.

Types of Errors in Power Automate and Logic Apps

There are two main types of errors that can occur in Power Automate and Logic Apps: action errors and workflow errors.

• Action errors are errors that occur within a specific action in the workflow, such as a failed HTTP request, a timeout, or a bad gateway. Action errors can be handled by using the Configure run after setting in the action settings, which allows users to specify the conditions under which the action should run, such as is successful, has failed, is skipped, or has timed out. By using this setting, users can create conditional branches or fallback actions to handle different scenarios of action errors.
• Workflow errors are errors that affect the entire workflow, such as a trigger failure, a workflow cancellation, or a workflow timeout. Workflow errors can be handled by using the Run After trigger in the workflow settings, which allows users to specify a trigger condition for the workflow to run after another workflow has completed, such as Succeeded, Failed, Cancelled, or Timed Out. By using this trigger, users can create follow-up workflows to handle different scenarios of workflow errors.

Best Practices for Error Handling in Power Automate and Logic Apps

Here are some best practices for error handling in Power Automate and Logic Apps:

• Use scopes to group actions and handle errors at the scope level. Scopes are containers that can hold one or more actions in the workflow. Scopes have their own status and can be configured to run after certain conditions, similar to actions. By using scopes, users can group related actions together and handle errors at the scope level, rather than at the individual action level. This can simplify the workflow design and improve the readability and maintainability of the workflow.
• Use the Terminate action to end the workflow with a specific status and message. The Terminate action allows users to end the workflow with a specific status, such as Succeeded, Failed, Cancelled, or Unknown, and an optional message. By using the Terminate action, users can explicitly indicate the outcome of the workflow and provide useful information for troubleshooting or auditing purposes.
• Use the Run After trigger to create follow-up workflows for workflow errors. As mentioned earlier, the Run After trigger allows users to create workflows that run after another workflow has completed with a specific condition, such as Succeeded, Failed, Cancelled, or Timed Out. By using the Run After trigger, users can create follow-up workflows to handle workflow errors, such as sending notifications, logging errors, retrying workflows, or performing compensating actions.
• Use the Retry Policy setting to configure the retry behavior for actions. The Retry Policy setting allows users to configure the retry behavior for actions that may fail due to transient errors, such as network issues or service outages. Users can choose from three options: None, Fixed Interval, or Exponential Backoff. The None option means that the action will not retry if it fails. The Fixed Interval option means that the action will retry a fixed number of times with a fixed interval between each retry. The Exponential Backoff option means that the action will retry a fixed number of times with an increasing interval between each retry, based on a formula. By using the Retry Policy setting, users can improve the resilience and reliability of the workflows.
• Use the Secure Input and Secure Output settings to mask sensitive data in the workflow. The Secure Input and Secure Output settings allow users to mask sensitive data in the workflow, such as passwords, tokens, or keys, from being displayed or logged in the workflow history or the run details. By using these settings, users can protect the privacy and security of the data and prevent unauthorized access or leakage.