Power Automate Attach Browser With Wildcard Rul

Caroline Mae

2 min read

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01-01-2025

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Power Automate's browser automation capabilities are incredibly powerful, allowing you to interact with web applications in your workflows. However, efficiently managing multiple browser instances, especially when dealing with varying URLs, can be tricky. This is where wildcard rules become invaluable. This post will explain how to effectively leverage wildcard rules within Power Automate's "Attach Browser" action to streamline your automation.

Understanding the Challenge

Manually specifying the browser title or URL for each "Attach Browser" action becomes cumbersome when dealing with dynamic URLs or multiple tabs within a single browser window. For example, imagine automating a process involving a website with multiple pages – each requiring interaction within the same browser instance. Listing each URL individually would be inefficient and error-prone.

The Wildcard Solution

Power Automate's "Attach Browser" action supports wildcard characters, offering a flexible way to connect to browsers based on partial matches. Using wildcards, you can attach to browsers based on a portion of the title or URL, significantly improving automation robustness and maintainability.

Wildcard Characters

• * (asterisk): Matches any sequence of characters (including zero characters).
• ? (question mark): Matches any single character.

Practical Application

Let's consider an example. Suppose you're automating a process that interacts with pages within the domain example.com. Instead of specifying each page URL individually, you could use a wildcard:

• Incorrect (Inefficient): Separate "Attach Browser" actions for https://example.com/page1, https://example.com/page2, and so on.
• Correct (Efficient): A single "Attach Browser" action using the wildcard https://example.com/*. This action will successfully attach to any browser window with a URL starting with https://example.com/.

Similarly, if the browser title contains a consistent element but varies in other parts, you can use wildcards. For instance, if your browser titles consistently start with "Application X - ", you could use Application X - * to attach to the correct browser.

Best Practices

• Specificity: While wildcards provide flexibility, aim for sufficient specificity to avoid accidental attachments to unintended browsers.
• Testing: Thoroughly test your wildcard rules with various scenarios to ensure accurate browser attachment.
• Error Handling: Implement error handling mechanisms within your workflow to manage situations where the browser is not found. This might involve retries or alternative actions.

Conclusion

Employing wildcard rules within Power Automate's "Attach Browser" action offers a significant advantage when automating processes involving multiple browser windows or dynamic URLs. By carefully crafting your wildcard patterns, you can build more robust, efficient, and maintainable automations. Remember to prioritize testing and error handling for optimal results.