How to Automate Loop with Task Rules (Microsoft Loop and Power Automate)

Microsoft Loop continues to expand its feature set and its integration with the rest of Microsoft 365 I recently published a video linked below looking at the new integration into one node and today I want to look at something a little different which is the ability to add rules to tables in Loop workspaces to create simple automations if you've watched any of my Loop videos you'll know I'm not really all in on the loop bandwagon yet but I still think it's important to stay aware of developments with this technology as much of what we're seeing probably does at least in part represent a possible future that is more broadly available across Microsoft 365 as is my normal Focus I'm going to dig beneath the surface of this feature a little to really understand what's going on and how we can mold it into something that might be useful in different use cases as always the demos you'll see in this video have been set up specifically for that purpose and you never to see anyone's private information first though a quick introduction my name is Nick dorsi I'm the owner of bright ideas agency a digital transformation consulting company focused on the needs of small and medium-sized businesses I'm also the author of who's in the co-pilot seat a guide book for smaller Business Leaders on how to adopt AI technology if you're interested in learning more about working with me or getting a copy of my book there are links below where you can get more information so jumping into to the loop app I have a new workspace and a blank page and I'm going to create a new progress tracker table this is the component I'm going to use but it can be any type of table so I'm just going to simplify this a little by getting rid of everything but the work area and Status columns just to make it a little easier to see what's going on we now have a new option for rules in this table and this is an important step forward for Loopers while you may enjoy the convenience of using Loop based assets like tables or task lists because they're easy to share across Services as components compared to more robust and structured data storage tools like lists there's a lot of features missing you gain robustness in collaboration but lose a lot in standardization and automation this is where rules come in the rules feature allows you to set up simple messaging automations in teams or Outlook to alert you or another user when a specific change happens in the table imagine you want to get an email each time an item is completed this functionality allows you to do that but the exciting aspect of this new feature for me Isn't the basic set of automations it supports in Loop but the fact that the back end of this automation capability is power automate having Loop connected to power automate could be a game Cher and another step along the journey to become a real competitor to notion or other similar products so now on my news simpler table I'm going to add a rule I select the column I want to apply the rule to in this case the status column and I'm going to select that when that status equals blocked I want to automate sending a teams chat you then press continue you're then asked to sign into any connectors you haven't already established in power automate because this tool uses power automate in the back end then click next you then choose a recipient I'm just going to select a Dell's account in this tenant and then click create flow you can now see your new rule has been added to the list of Rules from here and you can edit it you can trash it or turn it off equally if you want to set up rules that send email group chats or even Channel messages you can do so here too the process is essentially the same as building a flow with a template over in power automate so now that we've set that up let's jump over to power automate you can see the first flow is the send a message on chat flow that we just created if I jump into edit my flow we have a flow of three steps the trigger for Loop an action to get the message content and the posting of that message in a chat using the teams connector let's create the condition for this flow to run and see what happens so I'm going to jump back into Loop set a work area and then set the status to blocked let's refresh our flow run history and see what happened you can see the flow succeeded and so next we're going to jump into this run to understand how this works better before we look at this flow in more detail if you're enjoying this video and it's bringing you value please do hit the like button to help it get in front of a wider audience and if you're not subscribed to the Channel please do so to see more like this the only output that you get from the trigger is this strange series of numbers and then you jump into the action and see that the same strange series of numbers is passed as a parameter as unpassed message body and what we get out is the message and all that message shows is that the status was modified to blocked by a user the time and a link to the loop file this is the message displayed to Adele in her teams it definitely does the basics but the way this works right now you don't even really have the ability to rearrange or reword that message if you have any clue what that long series of numbers actually represents please let me know in the comments it certainly doesn't seem to map directly to the characters in the message it isn't character mod I'm completely out of ideas as to what it is and neither co-pilot nor chat GPT have any idea either now if I wanted to step into this flow and edit it I could for example I could modify the flow to add a parallel branch and add another set of actions for Simplicity I'll just add a compos step and put the same message in it and run the flow again but conceptually you could do lots of stuff here you could add that change to an audit log in lists or data verse you could send the message to m multiple people via different channels the sky is the limit because you're using power automate however while I do have to acknowledge that this is a preview feature it is disappointing the potential for this integration into Power automate is so limited by the fact that the loop connector doesn't pull the useful contextual data that would be needed to do most things from Loop it doesn't pull in the name of the table it doesn't pull in the content of the row that's been acted on and it's not like there's a lot more going on in a more expansive Loop connector to allow me to add actions to do this as it stands you get a weird series of numbers and a fairly static message it's no exaggeration for me to say I'm struggling to think of another Microsoft 365 app or service that integrates with power automate where it isn't a simple one or two-step process when a change triggers a flow to grab the context of that change so you have your data in your flow to work with this is how it works for Microsoft lists trigger and then grab an item for forms trigger and then grab a response for shifts in teams for PBI goals even for Microsoft bookings or be it with a slightly strange way of doing it as the trigger itself brings over the context Microsoft's model for its connector triggers and actions is to initiate a flow and then allow you to bring the relevant data into the flow but not with Loop right now and while yes this is a preview as I've said the documentation for the loop connector itself doesn't indicate that it's a preview and even in the announcements connected to this feature it's strongly implied if not outright stated that a secondary purpose here is to be able to work with these rule-based actions from Power automate what I heard about this feature and the fact that it was backed by power automate I was delighted but it seems once again Microsoft Loop is completely out on its own in doing something that is pretty standard across Microsoft 365 in a completely different way that is objectively less useful next we'll consider the implications of how this new Loop feature is designed but first I want to share how I can help you with your digital transformation Journey getting the best from Microsoft 365 or from AI tools like co-pilot for Microsoft 365 requires gaining new knowledge getting good advice and having the right plan with my company bright ideas agency I offer a whole set of options to help you focused on achieving more with technology right now now I have pre-registration open for my brand new live training get to know co-pilot for Microsoft 365 extensibility but I also have options for a one-on-one coaching Group Training and workshop facilitation and strategic planning and implementation Consulting Services if you're interested in learning more there are links below for these services or reach out for a chat using the contact form on my website at this point I'm seriously starting to wonder whether the focus for the Microsoft Loop team is building something that integrates well into Microsoft 365 at all issues I've brought up in previous videos like using one drive storage for Loop components has pretty clear-cut guidance on when it's the right path and when it's not the value of Microsoft 365 groups as the basis for access management inside Microsoft 365 is fairly well established these are things where it seems there is a right answer architecturally that most technical experts on Microsoft 365 would tend to agree with for a product that is part of the suite and loop tends to do the opposite and this example of power automate integration is yet another step on this path in my view but if you think I'm wrong drop a comment down below I'm open to different opinions on this and as I've said before I want to be excited by loop I just keep running into these things that make me scratch my head in terms of how they fit across the broader Microsoft 365 ecosystem what's interesting is if Loop is supposed to be Microsoft's version of notion just take a look at the type of Integrations you can build on zapia with notion I understand that notion is a far more established product but I also think given that Loop is built on SharePoint embedded it's unlikely that building Loop's power automate triggers and actions so they align with other SharePoint based experiences could possibly be that much harder than what has been built here if at all is there a rational explanation for why everything in Loop just seems to be done differently for the sake of it we might never know and many of you may even disagree with the premise of that question now what the ultimate direction of this set of features may be is unknown right now it seems that Loop development is really stepping into gear and it is nice to see something like this that isn't to do with co-pilot and loop is certainly not the first Microsoft product to get an unsatisfactory Power Platform connector out of the gate though it is the first I recall to grow about automation while that was the case for some basic use cases what is here right now might be all you need but for Loop to feel like a truly integrated part of Microsoft 365 requires access under the hood for integration in areas such as these as there are very many scenarios where organizations are used to having powerful integration options for workloads that Loop is now being set up to absorb my opinion is that Power Platform ation should not be a secondary consideration when rolling out features across Microsoft 365 low code extensibility is a core part of the Microsoft 365 offer and a strong differentiator and product team should ensure that new features are regularly made available to makers for those connected experiences I'll certainly be keeping an eye on where this goes and this is definitely a set of loop features I'm excited about particularly to see where it develops out by the point of being out of preview what do you think is this a good feature for you are you disappointed by the lack of ability to customize and power automate let me know in the comments thanks for watching through to the end until the next video bye-bye

Channel: Bright Ideas Agency

Views: 1,341

Keywords: microsoft 365, microsoft loop, power automate, microsoft loop app, microsoft teams, microsoft flow, microsoft loop workspaces, loop app, new loop features to use today, new loop changes, how to use loop, microsoft loop tutorial, how to use microsoft loop, m365, loop, power automate flow, power automate loop, loop power automate, loop features, what is microsoft loop

Id: YjhcQgR6Dcs

Length: 12min 29sec (749 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 25 2024