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Quickstart: Create an example Consumption workflow in multi-tenant Azure Logic Apps with the Azure portal

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Applies to: Azure Logic Apps (Consumption)

This quickstart shows how to create an example automated workflow that integrates two services, an RSS feed for a website and an email account. More specifically, you'll create a Consumption logic app workflow that runs in multi-tenant Azure Logic Apps.

Note

To create a Standard logic app workflow that runs in single-tenant Azure Logic Apps instead, see Create a Standard logic app workflow - Azure portal. For more information about multi-tenant versus single-tenant Azure Logic Apps, see Single-tenant versus multi-tenant and integration service environment.

This example workflow uses the RSS connector and the Office 365 Outlook connector. The RSS connector provides a trigger that checks an RSS feed, based on the specified schedule. The Office 365 Outlook connector provides an action that sends an email for each new item. The connectors in this example are only two connectors among hundreds of connectors that you can use in a workflow. While this example is cloud-based, Azure Logic Apps supports workflows that connect apps, data, services, and systems across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments.

The following screenshot shows the high-level example workflow:

Screenshot showing the example workflow with the RSS trigger, "When a feed item is published" and the Outlook action, "Send an email".

As you progress through this quickstart, you'll learn the following basic steps:

  • Create a Consumption logic app resource that's hosted in multi-tenant Azure Logic Apps.
  • Select the blank logic app workflow template.
  • Add a trigger that specifies when to run the workflow.
  • Add an action that performs a task after the trigger fires.
  • Run your workflow.

To create and manage a Consumption logic app workflow using other tools, see the following quickstarts:

Prerequisites

Create a Consumption logic app resource

  1. Sign in to the Azure portal with your Azure account.

  2. In the Azure search box, enter logic apps, and select Logic apps.

    Screenshot showing the Azure portal search box with "logic apps" entered and "Logic Apps" selected.

  3. On the Logic apps page and toolbar, select Add.

  4. On the Create Logic App pane, choose your logic app resource's plan type first. That way, only the options for that plan type appear.

    1. Find the Plan section.

    2. For Plan type, select Consumption.

      The Plan type property not only specifies the logic app resource type, but also the billing model.

      Plan type Description
      Standard This logic app resource is the default selection and supports multiple workflows. These workflows run in single-tenant Azure Logic Apps and use the Standard billing model.
      Consumption This logic app resource type is the alternative selection and supports only a single workflow. This workflow runs in multi-tenant Azure Logic Apps and uses the Consumption billing model.

    Now, only the Consumption logic app resource settings appear.

  5. Provide the following information for your logic app resource:

    Property Required Value Description
    Subscription Yes <Azure-subscription-name> Your Azure subscription name.
    Resource Group Yes <Azure-resource-group-name> The Azure resource group where you create your logic app and related resources. This name must be unique across regions and can contain only letters, numbers, hyphens (-), underscores (_), parentheses (()), and periods (.).

    This example creates a resource group named Consumption-RG.
    Logic App name Yes <logic-app-resource-name> Your logic app resource name, which must be unique across regions and can contain only letters, numbers, hyphens (-), underscores (_), parentheses ((, )), and periods (.).

    This example creates a logic app resource named My-Consumption-Logic-App.
    Region Yes <Azure-region> The Azure datacenter region for storing your app's information. This example deploys the sample logic app to the West US region in Azure.
    Enable log analytics Yes No This option appears and applies only when you select the Consumption logic app type.

    Change this option only when you want to enable diagnostic logging. For this quickstart, keep the default selection.

    Note

    If you selected an Azure region that supports availability zone redundancy, the Zone redundancy section is automatically enabled. This preview section offers the choice to enable availability zone redundancy for your logic app. However, currently supported Azure regions don't include West US, so you can ignore this section for this example. For more information, see Protect logic apps from region failures with zone redundancy and availability zones.

    When you're done, your settings look similar to the following example:

    Screenshot showing the Azure portal and logic app resource creation page with details for new logic app.

  6. When you're ready, select Review + Create.

  7. On the validation page that appears, confirm all the information that you provided, and select Create.

Select the blank template

  1. After Azure successfully deploys your logic app resource, select Go to resource. Or, find and select your logic app resource by typing the name in the Azure search box.

    Screenshot showing the resource deployment page and selected button, "Go to resource".

    The designer's template page opens to show an introduction video and commonly used triggers.

  2. Scroll down past the video and the section named Start with a common trigger.

  3. Under Templates, select Blank Logic App.

    Screenshot showing the template gallery and selected template, "Blank Logic App".

    After you select the template, the designer shows an empty workflow.

Add the trigger

A workflow always starts with a single trigger, which specifies the condition to meet before running any subsequent actions in the workflow. Each time the trigger fires, Azure Logic Apps creates and runs a workflow instance. If the trigger doesn't fire, no workflow instance is created or run. Azure Logic Apps includes hundreds of connectors with triggers that you can use to start your workflow.

This example uses an RSS trigger that checks an RSS feed, based on the specified schedule. If a new item exists in the feed, the trigger fires, and a new workflow instance is created and run. If multiple new items exist between checks, the trigger fires for each item, and a separate new workflow instance runs for each item. By default, workflow instances created at the same time also run at the same time, or concurrently.

  1. In the designer, under the search box, select All. In the search box, enter rss.

  2. From the Triggers list, select the RSS trigger named When a feed item is published.

    Screenshot showing the workflow designer with "rss" in the search box and the selected RSS trigger named "When a feed item is published".

  3. In the trigger, provide the following information:

    Property Required Value Description
    The RSS feed URL Yes <RSS-feed-URL> The RSS feed URL to monitor.

    This example uses the Wall Street Journal's RSS feed at https://feeds.a.dj.com/rss/RSSMarketsMain.xml. However, you can use any RSS feed that doesn't require HTTP authorization. Choose an RSS feed that publishes frequently, so you can easily test your workflow.
    Chosen property will be used to determine No PublishDate The property that determines which items are new.
    Interval Yes 1 The number of intervals to wait between feed checks.

    This example uses 1 as the interval.
    Frequency Yes Minute The unit of frequency to use for every interval.

    This example uses Minute as the frequency.

    Screenshot showing the RSS trigger settings, including RSS URL, frequency, and interval.

  4. Hide the trigger's information for now by selecting inside the title bar to collapse the details window.

    Screenshot that shows the collapsed trigger shape.

  5. Save your workflow. On the designer toolbar, select Save.

    This step instantly publishes your logic app workflow live in the Azure portal. However, the trigger only checks the RSS feed without taking any other actions. So, you need to add an action to specify what you want to happen when the trigger fires.

Add an action

Following a trigger, an action is any subsequent step that runs some operation in the workflow. Any action can use the outputs from the previous step, which can be the trigger or another action. You can choose from many different actions, include multiple actions up to the limit per workflow, and even create different action paths.

This example uses an Office 365 Outlook action that sends an email each time that the trigger fires for a new RSS feed item. If multiple new items exist between checks, you receive multiple emails.

  1. Under the When a feed item is published trigger, select New step.

    Screenshot showing the workflow trigger and the selected button, "New step".

  2. Under the Choose an operation search box, select All.

  3. In the search box, enter send an email. To filter the Actions list to a specific app or service, select the icon for that app or service first.

    For example, if you have a Microsoft work or school account and want to use Office 365 Outlook, select Office 365 Outlook. Or, if you have a personal Microsoft account, select Outlook.com. This example continues with Office 365 Outlook.

    Note

    If you use a different supported email service in your workflow, the user interface might look slightly different. However, the basic concepts for connecting to another email service remain the same.

    Screenshot showing the "Choose an operation" list with the selected email service, "Office 365 Outlook".

    You can now more easily find and select the action that you want, for example, Send an email:

    Screenshot showing filtered actions for the email service, "Office 365 Outlook".

  4. If your selected email service prompts you to sign in and authenticate your identity, complete that step now.

    Many connectors require that you first create a connection and authenticate your identity before you can continue.

    Note

    This example uses manual authentication for connecting to Office 365 Outlook. However, other services might support or use different authentication types. Based on your scenario, you can handle connection authentication in various ways.

    For example, if you use Azure Resource Manager templates for deployment, you can increase security on inputs that change often by parameterizing values such as connection details. For more information, review the following documentation:

  5. In the Send an email action, specify the following information to include in the email.

    1. In the To box, enter the receiver's email address. For this example, use your email address.

      Note

      The Add dynamic content list appears when you select inside the To box and other boxes for certain input types. This list shows any outputs from previous steps that are available for you to use as inputs for the current action. You can ignore this list for now. The next step uses the dynamic content list.

    2. In the Subject box, enter the email subject. For this example, enter the following text with a trailing blank space: New RSS item:

      Screenshot showing the "Send an email" action and cursor inside the "Subject" property box.

    3. From the Add dynamic content list, under When a feed item is published, select Feed title.

      The feed title is a trigger output that references the title for the RSS item. Your email uses this output to show the RSS item's title.

      Screenshot showing the "Send an email" action and cursor inside the "Subject" property box with the open dynamic content list and selected trigger output, "Feed title".

      Tip

      In the dynamic content list, if no outputs appear from the When a feed item is published trigger, next to the action's header, select See more.

      Screenshot that shows the opened dynamic content list and "See more" selected for the trigger.

      When you're done, the email subject looks like the following example:

      Screenshot showing the "Send an email" action and an example email subject with the included "Feed title" property.

      Note

      If a For each loop appears on the designer, then you selected an output that references an array, such as the categories-Item property. For this output type, the designer automatically adds the For each loop around the action that references the output. That way, your workflow performs the same action on each array item.

      To remove the loop, on the loop's title bar, select the ellipses (...) button, then select Delete.

    4. In the Body box, enter email body content.

      For this example, the body includes the following properties, preceded by descriptive text for each property. To add blank lines in an edit box, press Shift + Enter.

      Descriptive text Property Description
      Title: Feed title The item's title
      Date published: Feed published on The item's publishing date and time
      Link: Primary feed link The URL for the item

      Screenshot showing the workflow designer, the "Send an email" action, and selected properties inside the "Body" box.

  6. Save your workflow. On the designer toolbar, select Save.

Run your workflow

To check that the workflow runs correctly, you can wait for the trigger to check the RSS feed based on the specified schedule. Or, you can manually run the workflow from the designer toolbar.

  • From the Run Trigger menu, select Run.

    Screenshot showing the workflow designer and the "Run" button selected on the designer toolbar.

If the RSS feed has new items, your workflow sends an email for each new item. Otherwise, your workflow waits until the next interval to check the RSS feed again.

The following screenshot shows a sample email that's sent by the example workflow. The email includes the details from each trigger output that you selected plus the descriptive text that you included for each item.

Screenshot showing Outlook and a sample email received for a new RSS feed item, along with item title, date published, and link.

Troubleshoot problems

If you don't receive emails from the workflow as expected:

  • Check your email account's junk or spam folder, in case the message was incorrectly filtered.

  • Make sure the RSS feed you're using has published items since the last scheduled or manual check.

Clean up resources

When you're done with this quickstart, delete the sample logic app resource and any related resources by deleting the resource group that you created for this example.

  1. In the Azure search box, enter resource groups, and select Resource groups.

    Screenshot showing the Azure portal search box with the search term, "resource groups".

  2. Find and select your logic app's resource group. On the Overview pane, select Delete resource group.

    Screenshot showing Azure portal with selected resource group and button for "Delete resource group".

  3. When the confirmation pane appears, enter the resource group name, and select Delete.

    Screenshot showing Azure portal with confirmation pane and entered resource group name to delete.

Next steps

In this quickstart, you created a Consumption logic app workflow in the Azure portal to check an RSS feed, and send an email for each new item. To learn more about advanced scheduled workflows, see the following tutorial:

Check traffic with a schedule-based logic app workflow