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Quickstart: Create an integration workflow in multi-tenant Azure Logic Apps using the Azure portal

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  • 11 minutes to read

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 resource and workflow that runs in global, multi-tenant Azure Logic Apps.

Note

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

The workflow that you create uses the RSS connector and the Office 365 Outlook connector. The RSS connector provides a trigger that checks an RSS feed, based on a 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 among the 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 runs in multi-tenant Azure Logic Apps.
  • Select the blank logic app 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 resource using other tools, review these other Azure Logic Apps 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, select Add.

    Screenshot showing the Azure Logic Apps page and "Add" selected.

  4. On the Create Logic App pane, make sure that you first choose the plan type for your logic app resource.

    Go to the Plan section, and then for the Plan type, select Consumption, which shows only the settings for a Consumption logic app resource. The Plan type property specifies the logic app resource type and billing model to use.

    Plan type Description
    Standard This logic app type is the default selection, which runs in single-tenant Azure Logic Apps and uses the Standard billing model.
    Consumption This logic app type runs in global, multi-tenant Azure Logic Apps and uses the Consumption billing model.

  5. Now 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 My-First-LA-RG.
    Logic App name Yes <logic-app-name> Your logic app name, which must be unique across regions and can contain only letters, numbers, hyphens (-), underscores (_), parentheses ((, )), and periods (.).

    This example creates a logic app named My-First-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 this version:

    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 app, 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 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 instance is created nor run. You can start a workflow by choosing from many different triggers.

This example uses an RSS trigger that checks an RSS feed, based on a schedule. If a new item exists in the feed, the trigger fires, and a new workflow instance starts to run. If multiple new items exist between checks, the trigger fires for each item, and a separate new workflow instance runs for each item.

  1. Under the designer search box, select All.

  2. In the designer search box, enter rss. 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. For 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. Collapse the trigger's details for now by clicking inside its title bar.

    Screenshot that shows the collapsed trigger shape.

  5. On the designer toolbar, select Save to save your logic app, which instantly goes live in the Azure portal.

    The trigger doesn't do anything other than check the RSS feed. So, you need to add an action that defines what happens 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, add 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.

    Screenshot that shows sign-in prompt for Office 365 Outlook.

    Note

    This example shows 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 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 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 click 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 select 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 this 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 logic app. 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 set schedule. Or, you can manually run the workflow from the designer toolbar.

  • Open the Run Trigger menu, and 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 then 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 your first 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