What is Triggers and Actions

Once you established a data source and configured your connector, there are two types of operations you can use, triggers or actions.

Triggers are only used in Power Automate and prompt a flow to begin. Triggers can be time based, such as a Power Automate flow that begins every day at 8:00 am. They could be based off an action like creating a new row in a table or receiving an email. You always need a trigger to tell your workflow when to run.

Actions are used in Power Automate and Power Apps. Actions are prompted by the user or a trigger and allow interaction with your data source by some function. For example, an action would be sending an email in your workflow or app writing a new line to a data source.

Now that you understand what connectors are and how to use them, examine the different connectors available.

Types of connectors

Standard Connectors

Standard tier connectors are connectors that are included in your standard Microsoft 365 subscription. Standard connectors cover many of the most used data sources such as SharePoint, OneDrive, and Power BI and third-party data sources such as Google Drive, Twitter, GitHub, and more.

Premium Connectors

While standard connectors are available with a standard Microsoft 365 subscription, premium connectors are only available when you have the appropriate standalone plans. These plans include a Power Apps per user plan, or a Power Automate per user plan. The main advantage of premium connectors is that they allow you to connect to a larger number of services. Most premium connectors cover external applications such as Salesforce, DocuSign, Survey Monkey, Amazon, and so on. There are several Microsoft applications that use premium connectors such as Dynamics 365. The premium stamp identifies premium connectors.