Welcome to the “Introducing” series. In the previous blog post, we introduced workbooks. In this blog post, we will introduce a “low code” or “no-code” option for developed called Logic Apps.

What does “low-code” or “no-code” mean?

Traditional development is done by writing software (IE code) to perform the actions that you want to take. As an example, the browser you are currently using to access this website is an application that was written with code. The concepts of “low-code” or “no-code” provide a method to develop an application without having to write code through using a graphical user interface and providing configurations within the user interface. This approach is often embraced by people who are not developers, such as an IT professional like me.

What is Azure Logic Apps & what are common uses for it?

Azure Logic Apps is an automation platform that provides a graphical user interface and pre-built components (called connectors) that you can use to build automation, in most cases without having to write code.

We utilize Logic Apps to automate the delivery of scheduled reports, to gather data from different sources and act upon that data, or to perform automation that occurs when a specific situation is identified with other Microsoft solutions such as Azure Sentinel.

The graphic below shows a simple example of Logic App which on a scheduled basis queries information from a data source (Log Analytics in this case), and then sends an email with the relevant information. We utilize Logic Apps on our managed automation team to provide delivery of scheduled reports to our customers.

Logic Apps can also be used for more complex tasks such as gathering data from an external Application Programming Interface (API). The graphic below shows a completed Logic App which queries to gather data from an API. In the example below this is querying to gather current weather data from the OpenWeather API. This could be used for any type of API.

What are connectors?

Connectors are pre-built components that can be used to assemble automation. They are triggered in some way (such as a scheduled to run on a specific recurrence, or when a web request is made), and they act after they are triggered. There are a variety of connectors for Logic Apps which are documented here and here.

How are Logic Apps priced?

Logic Apps pricing is based on the number of actions that you perform and the connectors that you use within your automation. Details on pricing for Logic Apps is available here.

Is Logic Apps related to Flow?

If you have ever seen Power Automate or Microsoft Flow, Logic Apps may look very familiar. This is logical because Flow is built on top of Logic Apps, they both share the same designer user interface, and they can share connectors. If you have worked with Flow you should find Logic Apps very simple to work with.

Additional Reference material:

• Overview for Azure Logic Apps – Azure Logic Apps | Microsoft Docs
• Low-code development platform – Wikipedia
• No-code development platform – Wikipedia
• Pricing – Logic Apps | Microsoft Azure
• Converting an existing Logic App to a nested Logic App – Catapult Systems
• Solved: Re: Logic apps vs Flows – Power Platform Community (microsoft.com)

Series Navigation:

• Go back to the previous article in the series: Introducing Workbooks
• Continue to the next in this series: Introducing Azure Sentinel