power automate attach browser with wildcard

Breiz Heurope

2 min read

·

10-03-2025

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Power Automate offers robust capabilities for automating tasks, including interacting with web browsers and handling files. One powerful technique is using wildcards to attach files that match a specific pattern from your browser to an email or other application. This article will guide you through this process.

Understanding the Challenge

Manually attaching files from a browser to an email or other application can be tedious, especially when dealing with numerous files. Power Automate provides a solution by automating this process. However, specifying each file individually isn't efficient. Wildcards allow for flexibility, enabling you to select multiple files based on a naming convention.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following:

• Power Automate Desktop: Installed and configured on your machine.
• A Web Browser: Chrome, Edge, Firefox, etc. – the specific steps might vary slightly depending on your browser.
• Files to Attach: Files in a consistent location and with a predictable naming pattern.

Steps to Attach Files Using Wildcards

Let's outline the steps to create a Power Automate flow that attaches files from a browser using wildcards:

1. Create a New Flow: Open Power Automate Desktop and create a new flow.

2. Open Browser Action: Add the "Open Browser" action. Specify the URL of the webpage containing your files. This might be a file explorer window or a cloud storage service.

3. Wait Action (Optional): Add a "Wait" action if the webpage takes time to load. This ensures the files are available before attempting to access them.

4. Get Files Action: This is crucial. This action finds files using a wildcard. Specify the following:

   • Folder Path: The location of the files you want to attach. This is crucial. Get the right path!
   • File Mask: This is where the wildcard comes in. For example:
     • *.pdf will select all PDF files.
     • report_*.xlsx will select all Excel files starting with "report_".
     • image*.jpg will select all JPG files starting with "image".
   • Recursive: Check this option if your files are in subfolders within the specified folder path.

5. Loop Through Files: Since you'll likely have multiple files, use a "For Each" loop. The loop will iterate through each file found in the previous step.

6. Attach File Action: Inside the "For Each" loop, add the "Attach File" action.

   • File Path: Use the dynamic content %CurrentItem% from the loop to get the path of each file.
   • Destination: This depends on where you are sending the files. It could be an email, a SharePoint document library, etc. Ensure this is the correct destination. If you're attaching to an email, you'll likely need an "Outlook Send Email" action before this.

7. Save and Test: Save your flow and thoroughly test it with various files to ensure it works correctly.

Example: Attaching PDF Reports

Let's say you have PDF reports named report_20240228.pdf, report_20240229.pdf, and so on. Your flow would include:

• Folder Path: C:\Reports (or your reports folder)
• File Mask: report_*.pdf

This would select only the PDF files matching that pattern.

Tips and Troubleshooting

• Accurate File Paths: Double-check your file paths carefully. An incorrect path will cause errors.
• Wildcard Syntax: Familiarize yourself with your operating system's wildcard syntax. Typically * matches any sequence of characters, and ? matches a single character.
• Error Handling: Add error handling (e.g., "Try Catch" blocks) to handle potential issues, such as files not found.
• Browser Compatibility: The specific actions and steps might vary slightly depending on your chosen web browser.

By mastering wildcards in Power Automate, you can significantly streamline your file attachment processes, saving time and effort in your daily workflows. Remember to thoroughly test your flows to ensure they work reliably.