4 nordic
12-13 April, 2024

Days of Knowledge Nordic 2024

Days of Knowledge is a Directions for Partners event focused on educating consultants and developers, sharing knowledge and upgrading Business Central professionals to enable quality customer solutions. Training and acquiring knowledge are the magic words at Days of Knowledge.

 

12-04-2024

Avoiding Web UI Scraping: Unlock Efficiency with Exposed APIs in Power Automate Flows

16:15 - 17:00 7+8 Back to event schedule

WHAT: Join an enlightening session designed for Power Automate enthusiasts, exploring a game-changing approach to web automation. Discover the power of leveraging exposed APIs rather than mimicking user actions on web interfaces. This session will equip you with the skills to seamlessly integrate with hidden APIs, enhancing the efficiency and robustness of your Power Automate flows. WHY: Automating web actions through the user interface is common in Robotic Process Automation (RPA), but it comes with challenges. Web page GUIs frequently change, without any prior notice, leading to disruptions in automated flows. The solution lies in tapping into "exposed APIs" — undocumented but publicly accessible APIs used by some web pages. This approach brings higher efficiency, greater stability, and lower development costs, making it a game-changer for advanced Power Automate developers, also making it possible to do the same thing in cloud flows that previously absolutely required the use of RPA. HOW: Learn the step-by-step process to integrate exposed APIs into your Power Automate flows: - Utilize browser developer tools to uncover hidden APIs used by web pages. - Understand parameters required for API requests, such as custom headers, date stamps, pagination, etc.. - Utilize appropriate Power Automate actions to send requests, mimicking browser behavior. - Parse the JSON responses retrieved from the API. TAKEAWAYS: Upon completing this session, you will: - Learn to build more efficient and faster flows by tapping into exposed APIs. - Gain insights into why exposed APIs result in more stable flows with less frequent maintenance. - Acquire hands-on skills in identifying, reverse-engineering, and implementing exposed APIs in Power Automate flows. The session will show how to use Power Automate cloud flows to tap into an exposed API instead of using desktop flows to scrape a web page UI. The same can also be done in desktop flows just as well, but APIs make much more sense in the cloud. We will explain why during the session.

Speakers:

Agnius Bartninkas

Chief Operating Officer at Definra

5+ years of successfully leading a process improvement and automation agency, specializing in RPA using MS Power Automate (and the suite by Softomotive prior to 2020). Over a 100 projects delivered to more than 50 clients worldwide either personally or via a directly managed team of developers. Over 5 million EUR in accumulated savings reported by clients due to these projects. Personally trained over 10 RPA developers to work with the Power Platform and related software.