Trigger Conditions in Power Automate

In this Power Automate tutorial, we will see how to use trigger conditions in Power automate. And also we will discuss the below points:

• What is trigger condition in Power Automate
• Various expression in Power Automate trigger
• How to configure trigger condition in Power Automate
• Verify the Conditional triggering with SharePoint Online list
• Trigger conditions power automate contains
• Trigger conditions power automate or
• Trigger conditions power automate null
• Trigger conditions power automate greater than
• Trigger conditions power automate empty

What is trigger condition in Power Automate

In Power Automate the trigger condition takes the format of an expression and must evaluate to either true or False. If the trigger condition is true then the flow will run, else it will ignore the trigger event.

The Trigger condition is the solution for the few power automate problem, like the infinite trigger loop. If your Microsoft flow is running too often like infinite looping then we can set up the trigger condition to stop the infinite loop.

For example, if we use a trigger called ‘When an item is created or modified”, the flow will trigger with each update. But probably we don’t want the Power Automate to do something on each update.

Sometimes most of the flow run but do nothing, they will just consume flow run while waiting for the specific update. This is the case, where you can use the trigger condition.

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Various expression in Power Automate trigger

Here we will see the various expressions in the Power Automate trigger.

In trigger conditions, the Dynamic content menu is not available, so the user must use the available function to create an expression.

Whatever condition we will add in the trigger condition, should return a boolean value i.e. True or False.

A non-null value like an Integer or Object, won’t allow the flow to run at all. Below you can see some examples i.e. whether the expression is valid or not.

Expression	Result Data type	Valid Condition
@true	Boolean	Valid
@add(1,0)	Integer	Not valid
@json(triggerBody())	Object	Not valid
@equal(1,1)	Boolean	Valid

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Configure trigger conditions in Power Automate for Choice Column

Here we will see how to configure trigger conditions in Power automate.

I have a task list in SharePoint where a task is assigned to the user based on the technology. There is one column in the list that is Previous technology (single-line text) which stores the previous value of the technology field (choice field).

If the previous technology field value is not equal to the technology field value, then, only trigger will occur.

For this, I have created a Power automated named ‘Update item’.

In the above Power automate, I have selected a trigger template i.e. When an item is created or modified, then I have added condition control action in which it will check technology is equal to SharePoint, if yes then it will update an item, or else it will check another condition.

While updating items it will assign a person based on technology and also it will update the previous technology field.

For each update, the flow will trigger, but sometimes we don’t want that the flow to do something on each update, so for this, we will add a trigger condition.

Let’s go to the First trigger template i.e. When the item is created or modified, click on the three dots then click on settings.

Now setting for ‘when an item is created or modified’ will open. Enable the Split on, once we enable the split on, we can see that @triggerOutput()?[‘body/value’] is displayed in the array.

Then we will add a trigger condition, in the trigger condition section, click on Add icon.

The trigger condition is when the value of the technology field is not similar to the previous technology field value, at that condition trigger will occur.

So, I have created an expression to add to the trigger condition, if this condition is true then only it will trigger otherwise it will not trigger.

This is the trigger condition for the choice field:

@not(equals(triggerBody()?['Technology']?['Value'], triggerOutputs()?['body/PreviousTechnology']))

After adding trigger conditions, then click on Done.

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Trigger Conditions in Power Automate using Single line text

In the same way, we can create a condition for a single line of the text field in the trigger condition in flow.

Let’s say we have a title column if the title column contains Power Bi then only it will trigger otherwise it will not trigger. So, for this, we will write the below condition:

@contains(triggerBody()?['Title'], 'Power Bi')

And also we can add multiple trigger conditions for multiple columns using OR and AND Relations.

Using AND Relations

• All the trigger conditions on all the lines must return true for the flow to trigger.
• If you want that multiple conditions repeat the same process for each of them and place them on separate line in trigger condition.

Let’s say the flow will trigger when the title contains ‘Power Bi’ and when the status value is set to ‘Not started’.

So for this, we will add the two conditions when both the conditions are true, then, only flow will trigger.

@contains(triggerBody()?['Title'], 'Power Bi')

@equals(triggerBody()?['Status']?['Value'], 'Not started')

Using OR Relations

• Using OR in trigger condition is bit more complicated.
• As we have already mentioned the lines have AND relation between them. But if we want to use OR then we must put everything in a single line.
• So, the syntax for OR is

@or(condition1, Condition2, Condition3,...)

The Flow will trigger if the title contains ‘Power Bi’ else the status is set to ‘Not completed.

@or(contains(triggerBody()?['Title'], 'Power Bi'), equals(triggerBody()?['Status']?['Value'], 'Not started'))

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Verify the Conditional triggering with SharePoint Online list

Here we will verify the conditional triggering for the choice field in Power Automate with the SharePoint Online list.

Now save the flow, and then we will test the flow manually, to test the flow we modify the task in the task list.

So here I have modified the technology field to SQL from SharePoint for power bi sum.

Now the flow must be triggered because the technology value is not equal to previous technology.

And also you can see in ’28 day run history’ in power automate whether your flow ran successfully or not and also you can check the number of times flow triggered.

Now we will check when both the value is same in the technology field and previous technology field the flow will trigger or not. But as per our condition, the flow should not be triggered

Here I have changed only the title to Union from power bi sum.

Now we can check ‘ 28 days run history’, that flow is not triggered, and it is showing the last flow succeed when we change the technology value to SQL.

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Trigger conditions power automate contains

Here we will see how to use contains function in the Power automates trigger condition with an example.

As we know trigger conditions just need true or false values to trigger the flow, So we will check whether the title column in the Sharepoint task list contains “Power Automate”.

If the title contains Power Automate text, then the output will be true and flow will run/trigger else it will not trigger.

@contains(triggerBody()?['Title'], 'Power Automate')

Trigger conditions power automate or

Here we will see how to use Or operation in the Power automate trigger condition.

As we know by using Or operation we can combine more than one condition into one single line condition.

So here the flow will trigger if the title contains Power Bi text or Power automate using Or operator. If the title contains any of the text then the output will be true and flow will trigger.

@or(contains(triggerBody()?['Title'], 'Power Automate'),contains(triggerBody()?['Title'], 'Power Bi') )

Trigger conditions power automate null

Here we will see how to use null in the Power automate trigger condition.

So here to trigger the flow the status column contains some data it should not be null.

If the status columns contain value then the output will be true or else it will not trigger.

So for this, the trigger condition is:

@not(equals(triggerBody()?['Status']?['Value'], null))

Trigger conditions power automate greater than

Here we will see how to use greater operator in the power automate trigger condition.

We have a no of days column is there in the Sharepoint list, which counts the dates between the start date and end date.

So the trigger will flow if the number of days is greater than or equal to 10 days else flow will not trigger.

@greaterOrEquals(triggerBody()?['Days'],10)

Trigger conditions power automate empty

Here we will see how to use the empty function in the power automate trigger condition.

We will check whether the title column is empty or not. If the title is empty then the flow will trigger else the flow will not trigger.

@empty(triggerBody()?['Title'])

And also if you want to check for not empty or not

@not(empty(triggerBody()?['Title']))

You may like the following Power Automate tutorials:

• Share organization new employee details in Twitter using Microsoft flow
• Send an Email when Item added in a SharePoint list using Microsoft Flow
• Failed to create connection for connection id while setting up push notification in Microsoft Flow in Office 365
• Microsoft Flow Examples: Send a customized email when a new SharePoint list item is added
• Power Automate Create a CSV Table
• How to update SharePoint Multiselect column in Power Automate

In this Power Automate tutorial, we learned about the Microsoft flow trigger condition. And also we discuss the below points:

• What is trigger condition in Power Automate
• Various expression in Power Automate trigger
• How to configure trigger condition in Power Automate
• Verify the Conditional triggering with SharePoint Online list
• Trigger conditions Power automate contains
• Trigger conditions Power automate or
• Trigger conditions power automate null
• Trigger conditions Power automate greater than
• Trigger conditions Power automate empty