Connectors in Power Automate

Introduction to Power Automate

Anushika Agarwal

Cloud Data Engineer

What are connectors?

Hub-and-spoke illustration of Power Automate as a central connector linking to email, calendar, chat, database, and spreadsheet services

A connector is the bridge between Power Automate and a service
Over 1,000 connectors: email, files, databases, enterprise systems
Each connector exposes one service's triggers and actions
Sign in once per connector (a few show Create instead). Power Automate remembers your credentials

Standard vs. Premium

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Standard → included with most Microsoft 365 plans
- Outlook, SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, and Forms
Premium → needs a Power Automate Premium license
- Salesforce, SAP, Dataverse, and custom connectors
Look for the PREMIUM badge in the connector gallery

The most common connectors

Outlook (V2) → sending and reading email
SharePoint → lists, files, libraries
Microsoft Forms → survey and form responses
Office 365 Users → profile lookups, user data
Microsoft Teams → messages, channels, notifications

Five connector logos in a row: Outlook (V2), SharePoint, Microsoft Forms, Office 365 Users, Microsoft Teams

Triggers vs. actions

Diagram showing a trigger as the first step of a flow, followed by a chain of actions

Trigger → how the flow starts, one per flow
Actions → what the flow does, as many as you need
A single connector usually offers both: the same connector can trigger one flow and act in another

Same connector, two roles

Outlook connector logo in the center with two parallel mini-flows fanning out, labelled AS TRIGGER on the left (an Outlook "When a new email arrives" card flowing into two action cards) and AS ACTION on the right (a manual-trigger card flowing into an Outlook "Send an email" card), emphasising that the connector is shared

The same connector can play both roles in different flows
Flow 1: Outlook as the trigger → fire on a new email
Flow 2: Outlook as an action → send an email

Adding a connector action

Power Automate Add an action picker open with the search field highlighted in red and SharePoint typed in it, a See more link highlighted in yellow on the right of the SharePoint category, and the first SharePoint action card highlighted in green as an example click target

Click the + below any card to open the picker
Search by connector or action name at the top
Filter by Built-in, Standard, Premium, or Custom
See more expands a long category list

Polling vs. Push (Webhook) triggers

Polling: scheduled checks, can lag, catches up on restart

nanobanana: half: Clean modern illustration on white background of PUSH/WEBHOOK for a Power Automate concept slide: a single rounded service icon on the left with a small notification bell overlay, a single lightning bolt arrow flying from it to a rounded target icon on the right showing instant delivery. Use the same calm blue and soft green palette as the polling counterpart, no labels or text

Push (Webhook): instant on event, misses anything while the flow is off

Best practices

Three best-practice tiles in a row, each with a green check badge: RENAME (name tag with pencil), SET TIME ZONE (globe with clock), TEST EARLY (bug with magnifying glass)

Rename every action: "Send approval email" beats "Send an email (V2)"
Set the time zone on Recurrence triggers: default is UTC, often worth changing
Test after each new action: catch errors early, not at the end

Let's practice!

Introduction to Power Automate