Lesson 4.1 · M4 Build Flows to Manage User Information

Instant Flows & User Input

Lab 5 builds an instant flow — the pattern for anything a person kicks off on demand, with structured inputs feeding straight into a Dataverse write.

7 min read

Why "instant" flows exist

Automated and scheduled flows react to something that already happened. Sometimes you want the opposite: a person decides, in the moment, that something should happen now — logging a quick sales lead, requesting time off, flagging an issue. An instant cloud flow, triggered by Manually trigger a flow, is built for exactly that, and it can be launched from the Power Automate mobile app, a Teams button, or a SharePoint command.

Input types on the manual trigger

Text — free-form string, used for the Customer Name and Comments fields in Lab 5
Number — numeric-only input, used for Potential Sale
Boolean — a yes/no toggle
File — lets the user attach a file when starting the flow

Each input becomes dynamic content available to every later step — that's how Lab 5's Add a new row action maps Customer Name straight into the Dataverse row's Customer field, without any intermediate variable.

Expressions vs. dynamic content

Not every value comes from a prior step or user input. Lab 5 sets Estimated Close Date using the expression utcNow() — a function evaluated at run time rather than a value passed in. Expressions cover dates, math, string manipulation, and conditionals; dynamic content covers "reuse something a step already produced." Knowing which one a field needs is most of what makes flow-building feel fluent.

Connections matter here too. The first time a flow uses a new connector — Dataverse, in Lab 5 — you'll be prompted to sign in and authorize it. That authorization is saved as a reusable connection, so later flows using the same connector under the same account won't ask again.