Logic Apps / Power Automate - V3 Designer Is Changing Code

[influential-eliot]

Describe the Bug with repro steps

I am not sure how to MAKE this happen, however it occurs when a workflow or flow has a filter action that uses a 'does not contain' condition (not(contains())) as the main filter and the user does NOT do anything to change that action. It just changes itself.

What type of Logic App Is this happening in?

Consumption (Portal)

Which operating system are you using?

Windows

Did you refer to the TSG before filing this issue? https://aka.ms/lauxtsg

Yes

Workflow JSON

Screenshots or Videos

Here is a link to a user experiencing this on Power Automate:

https://community.powerplatform.com/forums/thread/details/?threadid=91425803-3806-f011-bae2-7c1e52696149

I am experiencing it on business critical logic apps.

Browser

Chrome/Firefox/Edge

Additional context

The GUI should only affect changes that the user tells it to change … this is inherently not good … plus, now, users are being forced to use the new GUI, whether they like it or not.

[influential-eliot]

I have a workaround (not a fix! a workaround fixes a single occurrence of an issue, but does not look at resolving the cause) for this, and a potentially more concerning realisation.

Workaround

1. For each Filter that has this issue perform the following:
   1. Tap 'Edit in advanced mode'
   2. Tap ANYWHERE in the 'Filter Query' text
   3. Tap 'Edit in basic mode'
2. Save the flow/workflow

Concern

This raises a number of questions:

1. Has this affected all our production workflows and flows?
2. Has it only affected those that we have worked on within the new designer?
3. Disregarding the two previous points ... users are now conducting our own resolutions to sort this out, and ... if you do roll out something that resolves this ... ... will our workarounds themselves cause issues?

[influential-eliot]

This is affecting other elements, too, not just 'not(contains())' ... I have seen the following ...

This is not a change that I have made, yet this is affecting production processes.

[hartra344]

Are any of these changes (other than potentially the notcontains which I can't seem to reproduce, actually changing the functionality of the code? Designer doesn't just make changes to a workflow, it parses it out into a larger object and compiles it when you hit save. Not all code entered in code view is compatible with designer and this is by design, it's why we offer code view. We don't however suggest mixing code view editing and designer editing for this exact reason.

[influential-eliot]

Thanks for the reply, @hartra344 ...

Yep, the one pictured literally caused every run after the change to fail.
Before:

After 1:

After 2:

Etc, etc, up until today.

Pending tomorrow's run with that removed and a replacement workaround in place elsewhere.

This is because it is not creating the Compose values as readable JSON, and is, instead, making text that is formatted to look like JSON.

Almost as if it copied the wrong thing, perhaps. 🤔

[influential-eliot]

On the notcontains() issue, I literally replicated the Power Automate user's issues myself, in Power Automate and Logic Apps (since removed). So it definitely was happening, whether or not it is STILL happening, is not really something that I have had any time to test.

---

But if you want to replicate it, make a filter array and save it with the advanced where value of notcontains() (with whatever inside that) ... and it will save.

It (obviously) will not run, though.

That's two, very disparate, users, on two platforms, experiencing two (likely very differently complex) workflows / flows that randomly swapped in the same notcontains() behaviour.

---

Yes, I have affected the above example intentionally, no, the changes that occurred in both of our code happened whilst we were updating other actions, last week (edit - possibly the week prior, actually).

---

I was wondering if this had anything to do with some increased functionality that I have recently noted from the contains() function itself being pushed to PROD at MS.

[influential-eliot]

I may be wrong (not @'ing so as not to cause pointless notifications) but I think that what BaHAlexP is describing here seems like they also experienced this issue (specifically with the notcontains() version of events):

Also, it's interesting that you said you have been having issues with contain and the linked github bug you have reported re a not contains, does not work. Is actually the same experience i had (not contains, not working), which lead me to the above issue i reported, where i believe it's the underlying contains() function that's broken (as shown above), because the not(), is just reversing whatever is passed in from contains()

[influential-eliot]

Also, @hartra344, I'm slightly confused as to why "Code View" was brought up as I am pretty sure that I hadn't even mentioned it ... and even if I had, I certainly had not affected the changes with it.

That being said, I started to use it to find the errors that the Designer V3 GUI had changed, wrongly, in said code. Before quitting and using the activity log, which was much more helpful. Thank the maker.

Not all code entered in code view is compatible with designer and this is by design, it's why we offer code view. We don't however suggest mixing code view editing and designer editing for this exact reason.

[iainwyatt]

Just to say add that this morning I edited a flow in Power Automate, it contains a filter with not(contains()) but I changed a different section of the flow and it broke the filter. Changing it to contains and back to does not contain fixed it as per the other related bug. The error message I got was:

Error message - Action 'Filter_array' failed: The execution of template action 'Filter_array' failed: The evaluation of 'query' action 'where' expression '@notcontains(body('Select'),item())' failed: 'The template function 'notcontains' is not defined or not valid.'.

I copied and fixed it then exported to see what the difference was and effectively it appears to have changed not(contains(...)) into notcontains(...) for the filter query.

I hope that's of help -posting mainly as this thread helped me solve the issue. Thanks :)

[influential-eliot]

Thanks for adding another experience to this, @iainwyatt ... I've also managed to find two more examples of this happening simply by putting the search 'notcontains' into the Power Automate community.

https://community.powerplatform.com/forums/thread/details/?threadid=72ae1d5c-e3d1-ef11-8eea-7c1e52687c74

https://community.powerplatform.com/forums/thread/details/?threadid=9484ecc8-c1a6-ef11-8a69-6045bded42de

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