Announcing Flat File Schema Generation support in Azure Logic Apps Standard
We’re excited to announce the preview of Flat File Schema Generation for Azure Logic Apps Standard. This new built-in action helps integration teams move faster by generating BizTalk compatible flat-file XSD schemas directly from sample flat-file payloads, reducing the manual effort required to model CSV, delimited, and positional files before encoding or decoding them in workflows. Why this matters Flat files continue to power enterprise mission critical integrations, from partner feeds and batch exports to finance ledgers, operational reports, and legacy system exchanges. While Azure Logic Apps already helps teams encode and decode flat files, creating the required flat-file schema has often been a separate design-time step. With Flat File Schema Generation, you can now accelerate that onboarding experience by generating a starter schema from real sample data within the workflow itself. What’s new The new Flat File Schema Generation action generates a flat-file XSD schema from sample content that you pass into the action. The generated schema includes BizTalk-compatible flat-file annotations, making it suitable for downstream Flat File Encoding and Flat File Decoding actions in Azure Logic Apps Standard workflows. Runtime schema generation: Generate schemas directly from sample flat-file payloads in the workflow. Delimited and positional support: Create schemas for common CSV, semicolon-delimited, tab-delimited, and fixed-width files. BizTalk-compatible annotations: Use generated schemas with the existing flat-file processing model familiar to BizTalk and enterprise integration teams. Flexible naming: Configure root element names, namespaces, record names, delimiters, and field positions to match your integration needs. How it works You provide a representative sample payload, specify whether the file structure is delimited or positional, and configure the relevant parsing details such as field delimiters, record delimiters, header handling, or fixed-width field positions. Once you run the workflow, the action returns the generated XSD schema as XML output, which can then be passed into subsequent flat-file operations or stored as part of your onboarding flow. Get started To try the preview, add the Flat File Schema Generation action to a Logic Apps Standard workflow, provide a sample flat-file payload, choose the record structure, and configure the field or record settings that match your format. Use the generated schema output with Flat File Decoding or Encoding in the same workflow or incorporate it into your broader onboarding process for flat-file integrations. Reference document: Encode, Decode, or Generate Schemas for Flat Files - Azure Logic Apps | Microsoft Learn. A walkthrough of generating a flat-file schema from sample data Use the following walkthrough to try the preview end to end with a simple customer order file. The same pattern can be adapted for semicolon-delimited, tab-delimited, or fixed-width positional files. Delimited sample: For this example, assume a trading partner sends a comma-separated order file with a header row and repeating order records. Sample file: OrderId,CustomerName,OrderDate,Amount,Region 10001,Contoso Retail,2026-07-01,1250.75,North 10002,Fabrikam Foods,2026-07-02,890.00,West 10003,Northwind Traders,2026-07-03,2400.50,South Configuration values Parameter Example value Record Structure Delimited Has header Yes Record delimiter newline Field delimiter , Field delimiter order Infix Escape character Double quote, if the source file uses quoted values Root element name (Advanced Parameters) Orders Record name (Advanced Parameters) Order Target namespace (Advanced Parameters) http://schemas.contoso.com/orders In the Azure portal, open your Logic Apps Standard resource and select the workflow where you want to generate the schema. Add a trigger, such as When an HTTP request is received, or use any trigger/action that provides the sample flat-file content. Add a new action and search for Flat File. Select the Flat File Schema Generation action. In the action, provide the sample flat-file content. Select the file structure type. For this example, choose Delimited. Enter the schema metadata under advanced parameters, such as the root element name, record name, and target namespace. Configure the delimiter settings, including the field delimiter and record delimiter. If the first row contains column names, enable the option to use the first row as headers. Save and run the workflow. Open the workflow run history and review the action output. The action returns a generated XSD schema with flat-file annotations. Review the generated schema, validate field names and inferred data types, and use the schema with Flat File Decoding or Flat File Encoding in your workflow. Positional sample: Fixed-width customer order file Use this example when the source flat file doesn’t use delimiters. In a positional, or fixed-width, file each field starts and ends at a known character position. The schema generation action needs those field positions so it can split each record correctly. Sample positional file: 10001CONTOSO00120260701000125075NORTH 10002FABRIKAM0120260702000089000WEST· 10003NORTHWIND120260703000240050SOUTH Note: The dot symbol in the second record represents a trailing space used for fixed-width padding. Replace it with an actual space in your real sample payload. Field position map Field Start position Length Justification Example value OrderId 1 5 Right 10001 CustomerCode 6 10 Left CONTOSO001 OrderDate 16 8 Right 20260701 Amount 24 9 Right 000125075 Region 33 5 Left NORTH Configuration values for the positional sample Parameter Example value Record Structure Positional Has Header No Record delimiter newline Field positions Use the field names, lengths, and justification values from the field position map. Root element name (Advanced Parameters) Orders Record name (Advanced Parameters) Order Target namespace (Advanced Parameters) http://schemas.contoso.com/orders/positional Step-by-step walkthrough for positional files In the Azure portal, open your Logic Apps Standard resource and select the workflow where you want to generate the schema. Add a trigger, such as When an HTTP request is received, or use an existing action that provides the fixed-width file content. Add a new action and search for Flat File. Select the Flat File Schema Generation action. Paste the positional sample payload into the sample content input. Make sure every record has the same total length. For the structure type, choose Positional. Enter the schema metadata, including root element name, record name, and target namespace. Configure the record delimiter. For this example, use newline. Add the field positions in order: OrderId length 5, CustomerCode length 10, OrderDate length 8, Amount length 9, and Region length 5. Set justification for each field. Use Right for numeric or date-like fields and Left for text fields that may contain trailing space padding. Save and run the workflow. Open the workflow run history and review the generated XSD schema output. Confirm that the field names, order, lengths, and positional annotations match the source record layout. Use the generated schema with Flat File Decoding to parse incoming fixed-width files into XML, or with Flat File Encoding to generate outbound fixed-width files. Limitations and known issues Limitation Description Type inference uses a single record. The first non-empty data record determines column types. Single record type only The action generates one repeating record structure and doesn't support heterogeneous record layouts. No nested or hierarchical records The generated schema is flat, meaning you have a root element with one repeating child record and fields. Positional boundaries aren't automatically detected. You must provide exact field lengths in field Positions. UTF-8 code page only Generated schema sets codepage="65001" and doesn't expose encoding selection. Escape-character behavior is literal. Escape handling matches literal value and skips only the next single character. recordName default If unspecified, defaults to {RootElementName}_Record. Designer justification input fieldPositions[].justification supports only Left and Right. Looking ahead This preview is another step toward making Azure Logic Apps Standard, a more complete and productive platform for enterprise integration modernization. Whether you are onboarding new partner feeds, modernizing BizTalk-style flat-file processing, or automating recurring operational files, Flat File Schema Generation helps reduce setup friction and get integration workflows moving faster.Logic Apps Aviators Newsletter - June 2026
In this issue: Ace Aviator of the Month News from our product group News from our community Ace Aviator of the Month June 2026's Ace Aviator: Florian De Langhe LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/floriandelanghe/ What's your role and title? What are your responsibilities? Lead Expert/Team Lead for the Microsoft Integration team at delaware. I have a wide range of responsibilities: - People management - Resource planning - Design and operate our integration solutions at our customers, what we brand as "SmartLink". Next to this, as many of us, I follow the latest AI news closely to keep up to date and try to stay ahead of the curve. Can you give us some insights into your day-to-day activities? I wear many hats so no two days look the same. That is also what keeps it interesting. A typical day starts with reviewing resource planning across our active projects, followed by a technical design review for a new integration. Sprinkle some one-on-one coaching conversations and research into new technologies/features and you have my day. The balance between People leadership and hands-on technical work is what I enjoy most. What motivates and inspires you to be an active member of the Aviators/Microsoft community? I started out being an active member on the Microsoft Logic App forum 10 years ago. I remember going back and forth with Wagner through the forum posts trying to solve questions. Good times. Integration is one of those disciplines where you're constantly connecting systems, teams, and ideas. What motivates me is seeing how members of our community across different companies and countries solve similar problems in completely different ways. The Aviators community has that right mix of deep technical knowledge and willingness to help each other out. Since discovering Integration and the Microsoft community, I basically never left. Looking back, what advice do you wish you had been given earlier? Document everything and treat documentation as a deliverable, not an afterthought. Early in my career I saw documentation as the boring part that you do after the development work. Now I see it as the leverage point. A well-written design document doesn't just help the next person understand what you built, it compounds. It feeds code generation, easier onboarding of new members and validation with your customers on what and how to build it. What has helped you grow professionally? Two things: 1) Always challenge yourself and your implementations; everything can be better, so I am always pushing myself to keep learning, stay up to date, and think about every idea/solution posted in this community—how it could improve my way of thinking or solutions that I am building/have built. 2) Focus on understanding the integration concepts and patterns. At the end of the day everything is a pattern; it is how you implement where we make the difference. So knowing the base layer itself helps a lot when building integration solutions. If you had a magic wand that could create a feature in Logic Apps, what would it be? To be able to control scaling of the workflow service plans more fine grained. Being able to control this would unlock a lot of use cases, especially for the combination of Logic Apps and Service Bus concurrency and throughput. News from our product group Write Logic Apps in C#: introducing the Logic Apps Standard SDK This article introduces the Logic Apps Standard SDK (Microsoft.Azure.Workflows.Sdk), a code-first way to define Logic Apps Standard workflows in C#. Developers compose workflows using a fluent builder with strongly typed triggers and actions, including both built-in and managed connector operations. The SDK preserves the existing runtime, connectors, monitoring, and run history while changing only the authoring experience. It supports control flow constructs, custom C# code steps, and run-after conditions for fault handling. Guidance covers getting started in VS Code, project layout, local F5 execution, and preview limitations such as no service provider connectors and work-in-progress managed identity support. New AI gateway capabilities in Azure API Management Azure API Management expands its AI gateway with a Unified Model API (preview) that lets clients use a single OpenAI-style format across providers, plus model aliases and discovery. GA updates include support for Anthropic and Google Vertex AI and content safety for MCP and Agent-to-Agent (A2A) traffic. Token observability now tracks cached, reasoning, and thinking tokens in Application Insights. Foundry import adds Anthropic API operations. A2A APIs reach GA with richer diagnostics and availability in classic tiers. Together, these features standardize governance, security, and observability for multi-model, multi-protocol AI applications. 🎉 Automation just became a team sport. Meet Azure Logic Apps Automation. Azure Logic Apps Automation (public preview) is a new SKU that delivers a managed, SaaS-like experience for building and running workflow automations. It keeps the enterprise-grade Logic Apps engine while simplifying onboarding, collaboration, and governance with projects and applications, flexible permissions, and policy inheritance. The experience is AI-native with natural language authoring, first-class agents, tools via MCP, and managed sandboxes. It introduces a modern designer, draft mode, live run history, JavaScript expressions, elastic scale to zero, and knowledge-as-a-service integration—aimed at helping teams prototype quickly and operate securely at scale. 📢 Announcing Knowledge as a Service for Azure Logic Apps Knowledge as a Service (public preview) provides a managed knowledge layer for Logic Apps that turns documents into a ready-to-use knowledge base without building a custom RAG pipeline. The service handles ingestion (parsing, chunking, embeddings) and retrieval (query rewriting, semantic search, ranking) and integrates with agentic workflows in Logic Apps Standard and the Automation SKU. On Standard, teams bring their own vector store and models; on Automation, the platform hosts them on behalf of the user. It supports Entra authentication and focuses on secure, grounded responses for agents and workflows. Better Together: Build Agents in Microsoft Foundry, Automate them with Azure Logic Apps This post outlines a combined stack for agentic applications: Microsoft Foundry for building and hosting agents, and Azure Logic Apps for invoking and orchestrating them. New capabilities let teams create or select Foundry agents directly from the Logic Apps designer, pair any trigger with an agent for autonomous execution, and expose 1,400+ Logic Apps connectors and entire workflows as agent tools. The approach enables agents to act across systems, handle long-running processes, and integrate with enterprise events, making deterministic workflows and AI-driven reasoning work together in production. What's new in Azure API Management at Microsoft Build 2026 This roundup covers Build 2026 updates for API Management and API Center: GA for agent registration, assessment, and Git sync in API Center, plus a data plane MCP server for enterprise discovery. API Management adds GA support for JSON‑RPC agent‑to‑agent (A2A) APIs and extends content safety controls to MCP and A2A flows. Unified Model API enters preview to standardize client integration across model providers, and AI Gateway expands to Anthropic and Vertex AI with broader token metrics. Platform enhancements include multi‑domain and wildcard custom hostnames in v2 tiers and workspace support on the built‑in gateway. Azure Connector Namespaces: managed integration for any Azure compute Azure Connector Namespace (preview) offers a fully managed integration layer that brings the Logic Apps connector ecosystem to any Azure or self‑hosted compute without requiring a workflow engine. Apps call strongly typed SDKs for C#, Node.js, or Python to invoke actions and subscribe to triggers, while the namespace handles auth, token rotation, retries, throttling, and webhook delivery. It also projects connectors as MCP servers for agents, and supports hosted MCP servers like Playwright and Azure SQL. The post details building blocks, scenarios, security, governance, and preview limitations. What's new in Azure Logic Apps at Microsoft Build 2026 This Build 2026 overview highlights Logic Apps Automation (public preview), GA for the Logic Apps MCP Server to expose workflows as MCP tools, direct invocation of Microsoft Foundry agents from Logic Apps, Knowledge as a Service, and code‑first development with the Logic Apps Standard SDK (Codeful Workflows). It also introduces a Migration Agent to help modernize from legacy platforms. The theme is making enterprise‑grade automation more accessible while preserving governance, reliability, and operational controls for production use. Hosted MCP Servers in Connector Namespace (Preview) Hosted MCP servers in Connector Namespace let teams deploy managed, enterprise‑ready MCP servers from a curated catalog in minutes. The platform handles deployment, scaling, authentication (inbound with Entra ID, outbound with managed identity or on‑behalf‑of), availability, and observability via Application Insights. Preview servers include Playwright for browser automation and Azure SQL via Data API Builder, enabling agents to use reliable tools without the overhead of self‑hosting. The post explains setup, benefits over self‑hosted servers, and areas of ongoing investment like catalog expansion and VNet support. MCP Test Console and Git Repository synch in Azure API Center Azure API Center adds a built‑in MCP Test Console in the developer portal and Git repository synchronization for MCP servers and other assets. Developers can validate MCP tools interactively on the Documentation tab and browse server tiles with endpoints and schemas. Git sync keeps the API Center inventory aligned with source‑controlled definitions, with secure access via Key Vault and managed identity. Together, these additions streamline discovery, testing, and governance of MCP assets across the enterprise. Bringing all your Integration workloads to Logic Apps Standard This post outlines Microsoft’s guided path for moving enterprise integration workloads—especially BizTalk—to Azure Logic Apps Standard. It introduces the open-source Logic Apps Migration Agent, which delivers an AI‑assisted, stage‑gated process across discovery, planning, baseline conversion, and continuous validation with human‑in‑the‑loop checkpoints. The workflow integrates with VS Code and GitHub Copilot, supports incremental “flow‑group” migration, and accommodates existing black‑box tests. The article also previews mission‑critical capabilities arriving for Standard and Hybrid (HL7, MLLP, Rules Engine, MSMQ, Oracle DB, flat‑file generation, Integration Accounts, and more), giving teams a repeatable, auditable modernization path with reduced risk. Announcing Microsoft Host Integration Server 2028: Modern connectivity for IBM Mainframes Midranges Host Integration Server 2028 (HIS 2028) is the next HIS release, delivered as a standalone SKU decoupled from BizTalk. It modernizes platform foundations (.NET 10) and, for non‑SNA features, introduces Linux support. New investments include Foundry integration for agent scenarios, REST APIs for DB2 and Transaction Integrator workloads, Entra ID and Azure Arc for hybrid management, a move to Visual Studio Code for designers, and alignment with newer IBM middleware. The post also lists product cleanup and deprecations (e.g., 32‑bit, WMI/WCF, BizTalk adapters), helping enterprises secure, govern, and operate host connectivity for years ahead. Easy Auth Configuration for Logic App Standard through CI/CD Enabling App Service Easy Auth on Logic Apps Standard can break run‑history views because SAS‑based runtime calls are blocked before the Logic Apps engine can validate them. This article explains two remedies: allow unauthenticated requests (so the runtime enforces its own auth), or keep Easy Auth strict and exclude runtime endpoints (e.g., /runtime/*) using authsettingsV2. It provides CI/CD‑ready approaches via ARM/Bicep templates or a post‑deployment REST API call, and highlights key settings such as requireAuthentication, unauthenticatedClientAction, excludedPaths, and allowedApplications. The guidance restores run‑history usability while maintaining enterprise authentication policies. Run Javascript code on Agent Loop Azure Logic Apps Agent Loop now supports a JavaScript code interpreter, extending earlier code‑execution support and enabling reliable computations, validations, and transformations alongside LLMs. The runtime executes generated or pre‑written code inside a V8 isolate using the isolated‑vm library, providing memory limits, timeouts, and failure isolation (not a full sandbox) to reduce blast radius. A worked example shows expense‑validation with agent tools orchestrated in a workflow. For Consumption, attaching an Integration Account provides isolated compute for the interpreter. The capability helps teams combine deterministic steps with agentic reasoning to deliver robust, auditable outcomes. Bulk-configure diagnostic settings on Azure Logic Apps Consumptions LA‑BulkDiag is a single‑file PowerShell script that bulk‑applies diagnostic settings across Logic Apps Consumption in a resource group. It inventories workflows, supports quick scopes (bare/all/pick), verifies destinations, auto‑renames on name collisions, and ships with 129 Pester tests. Presets cover logs, metrics, and workflow‑runtime categories; selection grammar enables non‑interactive runs suitable for CI. The post includes quick‑start commands and clarifies scope: it targets Consumption only (not Standard) and doesn’t configure Event Hub sinks. The result is faster, consistent observability at scale without repetitive portal clicks or accidental overwrites. Clean up idle and always-failing Azure Logic App Consumption LA‑CleanUp is a PowerShell utility that scans a subscription for Logic Apps Consumption workflows, classifying them as Idle (no runs in N days) or AlwaysFailing (runs in the window with zero successes). It can export candidates to CSV, then guide per‑item deletion with y/N/q prompts, reporting final counts. Under the hood, it uses OData filters and $top=1 queries for fast server‑side checks, caches an ARM token once, and intentionally avoids cross‑subscription operations. Scope notes: it doesn’t touch Standard workflows or API connections. The tool reduces noise, costs, and operational drag from abandoned or broken apps. News from our community Spec2Integration Post by Balbir Singh Spec2Integration proposes a spec-driven approach to building Azure Integration Services solutions. The open-source toolkit guides teams from a product brief through specification, modeling, contracts, mapping, and architecture to a deployable implementation targeting Azure Logic Apps, Functions, and related services. It includes governance gates for idempotency, observability, retries, and PII handling, plus a VS Code extension that visualizes pipeline status and the integration representation. Templates and tooling support greenfield projects and BizTalk migrations. The result aims to standardize repeatable steps, reduce failure modes, and accelerate delivery while keeping architectural control outside individual workflows. Stateful Orchestration in Azure: When Logic Apps Break, and What to Do Instead Post by Al Ghoniem, MBA This article examines where stateful orchestration with Azure Logic Apps can fall short and how to design around those gaps. It differentiates execution state from business state and highlights common failure modes: long-running instances, retry-induced duplicates, partial completion across SAP/Oracle/APIs, lost correlation, and unowned DLQs. It then contrasts orchestration choices—stateful Logic Apps, Durable Functions, Service Bus–backed orchestration, and choreography—emphasizing idempotency, correlation, reconciliation, and compensation. The guidance steers architects toward a control and observability layer so production incidents can be traced, replayed, and recovered without relying on workflow run history alone. Logic Apps Announcements at Microsoft Build Video by Sebastian Meyer This video recaps Logic Apps announcements from Microsoft Build with insights from a member of the product team. It highlights newly introduced capabilities and shares resources for deeper dives. Viewers get a concise overview of what’s new, why it matters for integration practitioners, and where to learn more. The discussion points architects toward practical use cases and next steps, making it a useful primer for anyone assessing roadmap impacts on existing or upcoming Azure Integration Services projects. Logic Apps Standard vs. Consumption: Which Plan Should You Choose? Post by Chiranjib Ghatak The article compares Logic Apps Standard and Consumption, explaining differences in hosting models, pricing, networking, and development experience. It outlines when to pick each plan, noting Standard’s single-tenant model, VNet/private endpoints, built-in connectors, and local DevOps workflow, versus Consumption’s pay-per-execution model and simplicity for sporadic or low-volume workloads. It also covers performance trade-offs, stateful vs. stateless options available in Standard, and typical enterprise scenarios where Standard provides predictable costs and better throughput. Azure Connector Namespaces: Managed Connectors Beyond Logic Apps Post by Şahin Özdemir This post introduces Azure Connector Namespaces and previews managed connectors for Azure Functions, extending the Logic Apps connector ecosystem to more compute services. It explains the motivation, how namespaces decouple connectors from workflows, and the benefits: reduced custom code, consistent authentication via managed identity, and reuse of Microsoft-managed integrations. A step-by-step walkthrough shows creating a namespace, adding a managed connector, and using the Azure Connectors .NET SDK in Functions, illustrating how teams can standardize connectivity while keeping business logic in code. Stop working harder and start flowing smarter, with Logic Apps Automation Post by Sonny Gillissen Sonny Gillissen explores Logic Apps Automation, a new, governed experience for building enterprise automations. He explains the Project → Application → Workflow model, dedicated portal (auto.azure.com), and reusable Sandboxes for agent code. The post shows how the AI assistant can scaffold workflows from intent, with Knowledge sources to ground agents, while monitoring and analytics provide visibility. Benefits include familiar Logic Apps design, reduced operational overhead, and scale-to-zero. Current gaps are noted—OBO auth shift, occasional assistant syntax issues, managed vs. built‑in connector choices, no migration tooling yet, and pending VNet/private endpoint support. Stop Using Static Filters! Automate DIXF Exports with Logic App Post by Anitha Eswaran Anitha Eswaran demonstrates how to make DIXF exports in D365FO dynamic using Azure Logic Apps and a small X++ customization. A custom OData action updates the DIXF Definition Group filter at runtime based on a parameter such as Customer Group. A Logic App triggered by a business event parses the input, stores the value, calls the OData action, invokes the standard ExportToPackage API, and then retrieves the download URL via GetExportedPackageUrl to fetch the ZIP with a time‑limited SAS token. Screenshots and code samples illustrate the end‑to‑end flow and implementation details. Logic Apps Agent Loops: Master Class Video by Stephen W Thomas Stephen W Thomas compiles his full Logic Apps Agent Loop series into one master‑class video. It covers getting started with Agent Loop on Logic Apps Standard, a human‑in‑the‑loop pattern used to resolve failed code translations, interactive chat agents with secure website embedding via Easy Auth, and when to choose the Consumption tier for simpler, pay‑as‑you‑go deployments. The chaptered format lets viewers jump to relevant topics. The emphasis is on the orchestration pattern—agents that select and compose tools to achieve goals—offering a practical foundation for teams moving from deterministic workflows toward agentic automation. Forget Sampling — This One host.json Setting Cuts Logic Apps Telemetry Costs by 80% Post by Daniel Jonathan This article tackles high Application Insights ingestion costs in Logic Apps Standard and shows a data‑driven path to reduce spend. Through a controlled experiment, it demonstrates that switching Runtime.ApplicationInsightTelemetryVersion to v2 in host.json delivers ~80% reduction without sacrificing troubleshooting. Further options include disabling dependency tracking (eliminates AppDependencies with the trade‑off of losing per‑call HTTP detail) and using adaptive sampling for marginal additional savings, while excluding exceptions. It also explains why some run‑level telemetry bypasses sampling and how to toggle sampling via an environment variable for short‑term diagnostics. Production Is the Only Truth in Integration Post by Marcelo Gomes This piece reframes integration success through a production‑first lens. It argues that reliability emerges when systems are designed for failure as the norm, not the exception. The article urges separating orchestration from business logic—using tools like Azure Logic Apps for coordination and Azure Functions for rules and transformations—to keep retries safe and evolution predictable. It positions production‑readiness as a design concern, emphasizing idempotency, replay, observability, runbooks, and ownership. The practical outcome is reduced operational risk and cost, more predictable behavior, and greater business trust in automated processes. DevUP Talks #05 – Logic Apps Tips & Tricks with Sandro Pereira Video by Mattias Lögdberg In this session, Sandro Pereira distills practical guidance from real projects to help teams build more resilient Logic Apps. Topics include applying environment‑specific timer conditions, deploying Logic Apps in a disabled state to control activation during releases, and using User‑Managed Identity with Azure Service Bus in Logic Apps Standard. The video focuses on patterns that improve reliability, security, and operational control across environments, offering actionable advice for developers and architects working in Azure Integration Services who want fewer surprises in production and a smoother deployment lifecycle. Logic Apps: Service Bus with User‑Assigned Managed Identity Post by Sandro Pereira This best‑practices guide shows how to configure the Azure Service Bus connector in Logic Apps Standard to use a user‑assigned managed identity. Sandro Pereira explains why system‑assigned identities complicate CI/CD—RBAC can’t be fully declared until the identity exists—then demonstrates a pattern that keeps deployments reproducible. The approach uses app settings for the Service Bus namespace and identity resource ID, a custom serviceProviderConnections entry referencing those settings, and workflow actions bound to that connection. The result is secretless, declarative authentication that avoids RBAC timing issues across environments. Logic App Consumption Bulk Failed Runs Resubmit Tool Post by Sandro Pereira Sandro Pereira introduces a small .NET Windows utility that lists and bulk resubmits failed Logic Apps Consumption runs. After authenticating to Azure, users supply the Logic App name, resource group and subscription. The tool can optionally filter by a date range, otherwise it returns up to 250 failed runs for fast triage. It targets a common pain point the portal features don’t fully streamline and includes a link to the GitHub source so teams can adapt or integrate it into operational workflows. A concise “one‑minute brief” outlines the problem and practical benefits. Control the Initial State of Logic Apps Standard Workflows Post by Sandro Pereira This tip explains how to prevent Logic Apps Standard workflows from starting immediately after deployment—a common production risk. Instead of a state property in ARM/Bicep, the initial state is controlled via App Settings on the underlying App Service. By setting Workflows..FlowState to Disabled (in local.settings.json and/or app settings), teams ensure workflows deploy in a safe, non‑running state. The article outlines the rationale, differences from Consumption, and provides concrete examples and screenshots to adopt the practice across environments.Bringing all your Integration workloads to Logic Apps Standard
We recently announced the end of life of BizTalk Server and provided a path forward for our customers. As part of that commitment, we’re investing in tooling and guidance that reduces migration complexity and helps teams modernize confidently to Azure Logic Apps Standard. Because enterprise integration programs are rarely “lift and shift,” we’re pairing automation with best practices, reference architectures, and field-proven guidance to support you from assessment through cutover. In our December 2025 announcement, we outlined a long-term direction for enterprise integration: Azure Logic Apps is the successor to BizTalk Server. Customers can modernize at a pace that balances continuity with innovation—while moving to a cloud platform designed for scale, hybrid operations, DevOps, and AI-assisted automation. The strategy centers on three principles: a predictable BizTalk lifecycle runway, preservation of existing investments, and a practical, guided migration path to Logic Apps. What makes this strategy credible is not just the vision—but the concrete tooling and guidance that back it up. Announcing the Logic Apps Migration Agent: An Open-source project to provide an AI End-to-End Modernization Experience Today we’re announcing the Logic Apps Migration Agent—an open-source Microsoft project that delivers an AI-assisted, end-to-end modernization experience with a structured, stage-gated workflow. Built by the product group and shaped by direct field feedback, the agent operationalizes how migrations should be executed: discover what you have, plan what you’ll modernize, convert incrementally, and validate continuously. The result is a repeatable approach that helps customers (and partners) migrate from BizTalk and other integration platforms to Azure Logic Apps with greater speed and confidence—without compromising governance or correctness. The agent reinforces the modernization strategy through: Discovery → Planning → Conversion: Aligns to Microsoft modernization guidance so teams understand scope, dependencies, and gaps before committing to conversion. Human-in-the-loop checkpoints: Uses AI to accelerate analysis and baseline conversions while enforcing review and approval steps for mission-critical correctness and governance. VS Code + GitHub Copilot integration: Brings migrations into a code-first workflow—enabling developer-centric refactoring, DevOps practices, and consistent implementation patterns for Logic Apps. Incremental, flow-group migration: Modernize one logical unit at a time to reduce risk, support phased cutovers, and avoid big-bang rewrites. Bring-your-own black-box testing: Import existing files, test cases, and specifications to validate behavior and reduce custom test harness work. In short, the Migration Agent turns high-level modernization guidance into a repeatable, auditable process teams can trust. This alignment is critical for customers running mission‑critical integrations. It replaces uncertainty with a clear path: modernize incrementally, reuse what works, validate every step, and emerge on Azure Logic Apps with a platform ready for the next decade of integration and AI-driven automation. What you should focus on? Target architecture decisions: the agent will propose integration patterns, but will not choose partitioning strategy, reliability approach, or network topology—you will decide what “great” looks like. Semantic equivalence: The Agent will generate baseline artifacts, but domain-specific mapping, transformation nuances, error handling semantics, and edge cases still require human validation. Connector and parity gaps must be addressed: if a source platform capability has no 1:1 equivalent, the migration may require redesign (custom code, Local Functions, API Management, Service Bus patterns, or alternative connectors). Performance, security, and operations hardening remain essential: identity, secrets, policies, monitoring, cost controls, and SRE practices are not “one-click.” Cutover planning is outside the scope of automation: data/backlog reconciliation, dual-run strategies, and rollback plans remain project workstreams. More mission critical features for Logic Apps Standard and Hybrid We are weeks away from shipping the following features, aimed at any customers in the Enterprise Application Integration space: HL7 In-App operations in general availability. MLLP Receive/Send In-App connector in Public Preview. Rules Engine In-App operation for XML facts in Public Preview. MSMQ In-App connector in Public Preview. Oracle DB In-App connector in Public Preview. Flat File generation In-App operations in Public Preview. Support for local container registry (Hybrid deployment model). Integration accounts support (Hybrid On premises). NMS In-App connector in Public Preview. Improvements to our EDI capabilities. BizTalk Mapper to Data Mapper Migration path What about other integration platforms? Yes—the Logic Apps Migration Agent is designed to be customizable so you can migrate from any integration platform to Logic Apps (not just BizTalk). The open architecture lets you plug in new discovery, analysis, and conversion skills for the source product you’re modernizing, while keeping the same stage-gated workflow and human-in-the-loop checkpoints. We provide guidance and examples to help you extend the agent for other platforms than BizTalk —so you can tailor mappings, transformation rules, and validation to your customer’s standards and target patterns in Logic Apps. Benefits Faster time to value with a guided process: A structured discovery→planning→conversion workflow reduces uncertainty and helps teams move from assessment to execution with clear checkpoints. Higher confidence migrations: Human-in-the-loop validation, artifacts generation, and black-box testing support mission‑critical correctness and governance. Customizable for your source platform and standards: Extend the agent with product-specific discovery and conversion steps, tailor mappings and transformation rules, and align outputs with your target Logic Apps patterns and engineering conventions. Open-source transparency and control: Review how the tool works end-to-end, validate what it produces, and adopt changes at your pace without waiting for a closed release cycle. Community-driven innovation: Benefit from contributions across Microsoft, partners, and customers—new adapters, mapping packs, and best practices can be shared and reused. Lower total migration cost: Automating repeatable tasks reduces manual effort while preserving the ability to invest partner expertise where it matters most (architecture, governance, reliability, and operations). Reusable accelerators for partners: Partners can create differentiated offerings by packaging templates, validation suites, CI/CD pipelines, and domain-specific patterns on top of the agent. For companies providing professional services: this agent is meant to augment your delivery—not replace it. By automating repeatable groundwork (inventory, baseline conversion, and validation scaffolding), it frees your teams to focus on the higher‑value work customers rely on you for: defining target architecture, refining mappings and patterns, hardening security and governance, implementing CI/CD, performance tuning, and driving cutover and operating model changes. Because the project is open source and extensible, partners can also package reusable accelerators (templates, connectors, mapping packs, test harnesses) and build differentiated migration offerings on top of the same trusted process. Review our public documentation here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/logic-apps/migration/migration-agent-overview Recommendations: Consider the following recommendations when using the Agent: Structure your projects along with all dependencies in directories. Include bindings, MSIs. configuration files, source code, schemas, maps, pipelines, even documentation. Review each stage thoroughly. Suggest changes to tailor each stage to include all dependencies, and your architecture and requirements preference. While you can run the agent in any workstation with VSCode, if you want to test your Logic Apps solution, make sure your VSCode workstation has access to a test environment if you want the agent to test against any target system or dependencies. Make sure you increase the Maximum number of requests for the Copilot Chat as follows (we recommend changing the value from 60 to 1000) Check the following video for a demonstration on how the Agent works and let us know if you have any questions in the comments.Microsoft BizTalk Server Product Lifecycle Update
For more than 25 years, Microsoft BizTalk Server has supported mission-critical integration workloads for organizations around the world. From business process automation and B2B messaging to connectivity across industries such as financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, and government, BizTalk Server has played a foundational role in enterprise integration strategies. To help customers plan confidently for the future, Microsoft is sharing an update to the BizTalk Server product lifecycle and long-term support timelines. BizTalk Server 2020 will be the final version of BizTalk Server. Guidance to support long-term planning for mission-critical workloads This announcement does not change existing support commitments. Customers can continue to rely on BizTalk Server for many years ahead, with a clear and predictable runway to plan modernization at a pace that aligns with their business and regulatory needs. Lifecycle Phase End Date What’s Included Mainstream Support April 11, 2028 Security + non-security updates and Customer Service & Support (CSS) support Extended Support April 9, 2030 CSS support, Security updates, and paid support for fixes (*) End of Support April 10, 2030 No further updates or support (*) Paid Extended Support will be available for BizTalk Server 2020 between April 2028 and April 2030 for customers requiring hotfixes for non-security updates. CSS will continue providing their typical support. BizTalk Server 2016 is already out of mainstream support, and we recommend those customers evaluate a direct modernization path to Azure Logic Apps. Continued Commitment to Enterprise Integration Microsoft remains fully committed to supporting mission-critical integration, including hybrid connectivity, future-ready orchestration, and B2B/EDI modernization. Azure Logic Apps, part of Azure Integration Services — which includes API Management, Service Bus, and Event Grid — delivers the comprehensive integration platform for the next decade of enterprise connectivity. Host Integration Server: Continued Support for Mainframe Workloads Host Integration Server (HIS) has long provided essential connectivity for organizations with mainframe and midrange systems. To ensure continued support for those workloads, Host Integration Server 2028 will ship as a standalone product with its own lifecycle, decoupled from BizTalk Server. This provides customers with more flexibility and a longer planning horizon. Recognizing Mainframe modernization customers might be looking to integrate with their mainframes from Azure, Microsoft provides Logic Apps connectors for mainframe and midrange systems, and we are keen on adding more connectors in this space. Let us know about your HIS plans, and if you require specific features for Mainframe and midranges integration from Logic Apps at: https://aka.ms/lamainframe Azure Logic Apps: The Successor to BizTalk Server Azure Logic Apps, part of Azure Integration Services, is the modern integration platform that carries forward what customers value in BizTalk while unlocking new innovation, scale, and intelligence. With 1,400+ out-of-box connectors supporting enterprise, SaaS, legacy, and mainframe systems, organizations can reuse existing BizTalk maps, schemas, rules, and custom code to accelerate modernization while preserving prior investments including B2B/EDI and healthcare transactions. Logic Apps delivers elastic scalability, enterprise-grade security and compliance, and built-in cost efficiency without the overhead of managing infrastructure. Modern DevOps tooling, Visual Studio Code support, and infrastructure-as-code (ARM/Bicep) ensure consistent, governed deployments with end-to-end observability using Azure Monitor and OpenTelemetry. Modernizing Logic Apps also unlocks agentic business processes, enabling AI-driven routing, predictive insights, and context-aware automation without redesigning existing integrations. Logic Apps adapts to business and regulatory needs, running fully managed in Azure, hybrid via Arc-enabled Kubernetes, or evaluated for air-gapped environments. Throughout this lifecycle transition, customers can continue to rely on the BizTalk investments they have made while moving toward a platform ready for the next decade of integration and AI-driven business. Charting Your Modernization Path Microsoft remains fully committed to supporting customers through this transition. We recognize that BizTalk systems support highly customized and mission-critical business operations. Modernization requires time, planning, and precision. We hope to provide: Proven guidance and recommended design patterns A growing ecosystem of tooling supporting artifact reuse Unified Support engagements for deep migration assistance A strong partner ecosystem specializing in BizTalk modernization Potential incentive programs to help facilitate migration for eligible customers (details forthcoming) Customers can take a phased approach — starting with new workloads while incrementally modernizing existing BizTalk deployments. We’re Here to Help Migration resources are available today: Overview: https://aka.ms/btmig Best practices: https://aka.ms/BizTalkServerMigrationResources Video series: https://aka.ms/btmigvideo Feature request survey: https://aka.ms/logicappsneeds Reactor session: Modernizing BizTalk: Accelerate Migration with Logic Apps - YouTube Migration Agent (Complete refactoring from BizTalk to Logic Apps): Bringing all your Integration workloads to Logic Apps Standard | Microsoft Community Hub We encourage customers to engage their Microsoft accounts team early to assess readiness, identify modernization opportunities, and explore assistance programs. Your Modernization Journey Starts Now BizTalk Server has played a foundational role in enterprise integration success for more than two decades. As you plan ahead, Microsoft is here to partner with you every step of the way, ensuring operational continuity today while unlocking innovation tomorrow. To begin your transition, please contact your Microsoft account team or visit our migration hub. Thank you for your continued trust in Microsoft and BizTalk Server. We look forward to partnering closely with you as you plan the future of your integration platforms. Frequently Asked Questions Do I need to migrate now? No. BizTalk Server 2020 is fully supported through April 11, 2028, with paid Extended Support available through April 9, 2030, for non-security hotfixes. CSS will continue providing their typical support. You have a long and predictable runway to plan your transition. Will there be a new BizTalk Server version? No. BizTalk Server 2020 is the final version of the product. What happens after April 9, 2030? BizTalk Server will reach End of Support, and security updates or technical assistance will no longer be provided. Workloads will continue running but without Microsoft servicing. Is paid support available past 2028? Yes. Paid extended support will be available through April 2030 for BizTalk Server 2020 customers looking for non-security hotfixes. CSS will continue to provide the typical support. What is the end of sale date for BizTalk Server? We will announce an end of sale date for BizTalk Server on July 2026. What about BizTalk Server 2016 or earlier versions? Those versions are already out of mainstream support. We strongly encourage moving directly to Logic Apps rather than upgrading to BizTalk Server 2020. Will Host Integration Server continue? Yes. Host Integration Server (HIS) 2028 will be released as a standalone product with its own lifecycle and support commitments. Can I reuse BizTalk Server artifacts in Logic Apps? Yes. Most of BizTalk maps, schemas, rules, assemblies, and custom code can be reused with minimal effort using Microsoft and partner migration tooling. We welcome feature requests here: https://aka.ms/logicappsneeds Does modernization require moving fully to the cloud? No. Logic Apps supports hybrid deployments for scenarios requiring local processing or regulatory compliance, and fully disconnected environments are under evaluation. More information of the Hybrid deployment model here: https://aka.ms/lahybrid. Does modernization unlock AI capabilities? Yes. Logic Apps enables AI-driven automations through Agent Loop, improving routing, decisioning, and operational intelligence. Where do I get planning support? Your Microsoft account team can assist with assessment and planning. Migration resources are also linked in this announcement to help you get started. Microsoft CorporationService Bus SBMP Retirement: What BizTalk Server 2020 Customers Need to Know
On September 30, 2026, the Azure Service Bus team will retire support for the Service Bus Messaging Protocol (SBMP). This is important BizTalk Server 2020 customers who use the BizTalk Service Bus (SB-Messaging) adapter, as SBMP is the protocol that adapter relies on today. To help customers maintain continuity while planning their transition to Azure Logic Apps, we’ve released a BizTalk Server 2020 hotfix that adds support for Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) in the adapter. What’s changing SBMP support retires on September 30, 2026 in Azure Service Bus. A hotfix enables AMQP for the BizTalk Service Bus (SB-Messaging) adapter (request KB5091375 opening a support case). AMQP becomes the default transport with the hotfix installed, while SBMP remains available as an opt-in fallback for backward compatibility. The hotfix will be available for BizTalk Server 2020 CU6 and CU7. The current hotfix is based on the current Service Bus SDK (scheduled for deprecation in September 2026), and we expect an updated version in June based on the new Service Bus SDK. What you need to do If you plan to continue using the BizTalk Server 2020 Service Bus adapter, you should: Migrate your adapter configuration to AMQP. Install the hotfix well before September 2026, and run validation in a non-production environment. Validate your scenarios, including large message/file patterns and any operational fallback strategies you depend on. Decide whether to test now or wait for the June update: use the current hotfix to validate large file scenarios and fallback approaches, or wait for the June SDK-based refresh if you don’t need to install immediately. How to obtain the hotfix You can obtain the hotfix by opening a support case (request KB5091375) or by contacting your Microsoft account team. The hotfix enables AMQP support for the BizTalk Service Bus (SB-Messaging) adapter. A new KB article will be issued for the June update. Support and lifecycle context Microsoft remains committed to supporting BizTalk Server 2020 and its features in accordance with the official product lifecycle. Extended paid support will be available after April 2028. Closing thoughts If you’re using the SB-Messaging adapter today, now is the right time to plan your move to AMQP and schedule validation in a non-production environment. This keeps you ahead of the September 2026 retirement date and helps ensure a smooth path as you modernize toward Azure Logic Apps.Logic Apps Newsletter - May 2026
In this issue: Ace Aviator of the Month News from our product group News from our community Ace Aviator of the Month May 2026's Ace Aviator: Yahya Ajwad What's your role and title? What are your responsibilities? I work as Chief Architect and AI Lead at Epical. My role is centered around technical leadership, architecture, and advisory mostly within cloud adoption and transformation programs. I help customers design and implement integration platforms. I also support customers in navigating the AI landscape, with a focus on how integration platforms impact AI readiness and how AI can be used to create value in the platforms we build. Internally at Epical, I lead our Microsoft and Azure cloud integration offering, as well as our CoreAI team and AI initiatives. Can you give us some insights into your day-to-day activities? One moment it is about how we can utilize AI to deliver things cheaper and faster without compromising security, governance and quality. Next, a customer contacts us with an undocumented BizTalk environment asking us what to do next (that's where the fun begins). Usually followed up by the question about how much does their future integration platform in Azure will cost down to the last cent (good luck answering that 😜 hint: the right answer is always: "less than BizTalk"). And hey, public cloud might not be good enough for their security, so thank God for private connectivity. I also spend time helping customers identify the best cloud integration strategies and patterns and for their business needs, choosing the right platforms and components for specific use cases, and ensuring that the platforms we design are as secure, scalable, maintainable, and cost-efficient as possible. Increasingly, this also includes sprinkling AI so bosses are happy (joking I'm a true AI believer myself). Internally, I support Epical with technical business development and help ensure that we stay relevant. What motivates and inspires you to be an active member of the Aviators/Microsoft community? I honestly believe that IT in general would never have been the same without communities and the willingness to share knowledge and support one another. The Logic Apps and Azure Integration community is especially unique because it is both practical and open. People share real experiences which makes it incredibly valuable when trying to solve real-world challenges. What motivates me is the opportunity to learn by sharing, receive feedback, and be part of a community where everyone contributes to each other’s growth. Between us, I'm here for the stickers ;) Looking back, what advice do you wish you had been given earlier? Be kind, stay curious and be helpful. Share what you know, even if it feels small or irrelevant. Those small insights often help others more than you think and that will definitely help you grow. Also, focus on learning the fundamentals. Tools and platforms change quickly, and what is popular today might not matter in a few weeks. Strong basics will always stay relevant. Keep learning and try new things all the time. What has helped you grow professionally? Being around kind, skilled, and generous people both in the community and at work who are willing to teach, challenge my thinking, and share their knowledge. Also, finding mentors who are open to mentor me, listen to all my questions even the silly ones, and who are willing to guide me and correct me when I’m hallucinating. If you had a magic wand that could create a feature in Logic Apps, what would it be? I don’t need to wish for one, you guys (Shout-out to Harold, Dyvia and the team) have already created it: Logic Apps Migration Assistant Agents. That stuff is definitely magic. News from our product group Network Connectivity Check APIs for Logic App Standard This post introduces built-in network troubleshooting APIs for Logic App Standard when integrated with a virtual network. Three endpoints—connectivityCheck, dnsCheck, and tcpPingCheck—let you validate end‑to‑end connectivity to services such as Azure SQL, Key Vault, Storage, Service Bus, and Event Hubs, perform DNS resolution, and test TCP reachability from the actual worker hosting your workflows. It covers supported provider types, credential options including Managed Identity and app settings, example payloads, and known limitations (e.g., SMB port 445 cannot be tested). Step-by-step guidance shows how to call the APIs via Azure API Playground or CLI to quickly isolate network issues. Service Bus SBMP Retirement: What BizTalk Server 2020 Customers Need to Know Azure Service Bus will retire the Service Bus Messaging Protocol (SBMP) on September 30, 2026, impacting BizTalk Server 2020 customers using the SB‑Messaging adapter. Microsoft has released a hotfix that adds Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) support to the adapter for CU6 and CU7. With the hotfix, AMQP becomes the default transport while SBMP remains an opt‑in fallback; an updated hotfix based on the new Service Bus SDK is expected in June. Guidance includes migrating configurations to AMQP, installing and validating the hotfix in non‑production, and testing large message/file scenarios. The hotfix can be requested via support (KB5091375). Migrate Data Ingestion from Data Collector to Log Ingestion With the HTTP Data Collector API for Log Analytics deprecated and heading out of support in September 2026, this guide shows Logic Apps users how to move to the Log Ingestion API. It explains impacts—such as 403 errors for new Data Collector connections and missing data in newly created custom log tables—and provides a migration path using the HTTP action. Steps include creating a Data Collection Endpoint (DCE) and Data Collection Rule (DCR), deriving the full ingestion URL, mapping sample data to define schema, assigning the Monitoring Metrics Publisher role to the Logic App’s managed identity, and verifying success (HTTP 204). Introducing AI Skill Assessment in Azure API Center Azure API Center now includes automated AI skill assessment, providing governance and quality scoring for skills at scale using an “LLM‑as‑a‑judge” approach. The system evaluates outputs against defined criteria and ships with four default dimensions—Documentation Clarity, Help Completeness, Discoverability, and Safe Usage—each scored 1–5 with configurable thresholds. Developers get detailed reports showing pass/fail, per‑dimension scores, structural checks, and schema validation, helping them decide which skills are production‑ready. Platform administrators can extend or customize criteria to match organizational standards. The feature centralizes oversight and reduces manual review effort, improving confidence when adopting AI skills across integration solutions. Introducing the plugin marketplace for Azure API Center Azure API Center adds a plugin marketplace endpoint (public preview) that exposes a version‑controlled catalog of organizational AI plugins—such as MCP servers and skills—directly from your API Center data plane. Developers can discover and install plugins from familiar tools like Claude Code and GitHub Copilot CLI using simple marketplace commands. The endpoint inherits the API Center portal’s authentication model, ensuring governance and security while platform teams control publication. The article explains the problem it addresses, the marketplace.git URL format, quick start commands, and documentation to enable the feature—streamlining how teams curate, manage, and consume AI plugins in enterprise environments. News from our community Control the Initial State of Logic Apps Standard Workflows Post by Sandro Pereira This tip explains how to prevent Logic Apps Standard workflows from auto-starting after deployment, a risky default in production. Unlike Consumption, Standard doesn’t expose a state property in ARM. Instead, each workflow’s initial state is controlled via App Service application settings using the pattern “Workflows.<WorkflowName>.FlowState=Disabled.” The post shows how to define these keys in local.settings.json (or pipelines/Bicep), deploy with workflows disabled, and enable them when ready. It also notes acceptable values (Disabled/disabled) and clarifies that omitting the keys leaves workflows enabled by default—reducing unwanted executions and noisy alerts. 10 Azure Function App Limitations for Enterprise Integration Post by Tarun Garg The post outlines ten reasons Azure Function Apps may be a poor fit for enterprise integration workloads. Issues include cold-start latency, limited orchestration and state management, operational complexity at scale, and the need to hand-roll observability. It also highlights security and network isolation challenges, cost variability under heavy throughput, strong dependence on custom code, risks around versioning and breaking changes, and insufficient governance controls for integration use cases. The takeaway: Function Apps excel at granular compute, but integration programs often benefit from managed orchestration layers and patterns better aligned to enterprise requirements. Logic Apps Standard: how accidentally blocking access from Edge results in CORS errors Post by Şahin Özdemir Şahin Özdemir explains a troubleshooting case where Logic Apps Standard action inputs/outputs stopped loading in the Azure portal, appearing like a CORS issue. The root cause was a blocked “Local Network Access” permission in Microsoft Edge, not misconfigured CORS. The article advises checking Edge’s site permissions and re-enabling local network access before diving into CORS diagnostics. By validating browser settings first, engineers can avoid unnecessary changes to integration apps and resolve portal rendering failures quickly—saving time and reducing confusion when workflow views suddenly fail to load. Logic apps – Handling AND OR conditions Post by Anitha Eswaran Anitha Eswaran explains how to correctly implement combined AND/OR logic in Azure Logic Apps when the designer view becomes confusing. Using a real example—validating item numbers—she shows how to check for empty values or specific suffixes (W/WN) and when to terminate processing. The article demonstrates building expressions to explicitly control evaluation order and outcomes, avoiding unintended behavior from default AND logic. Practical screenshots and expression snippets help readers structure conditions, handle arrays from trigger data, and create maintainable workflows that reflect real business rules. Why Enterprises Are Migrating from Logic Apps (Consumption) to Logic Apps (Standard): Practical Insights from the Field Post by Kunal Saha Kunal Saha outlines why organizations reach an inflection point where Logic Apps Standard becomes a better fit than Consumption. Drawing from field experience, he highlights drivers like consolidated app-level management, richer local development workflows, environment isolation, and cost predictability for sustained workloads. The piece discusses when per-execution billing ceases to be efficient, how Standard’s hosting model supports enterprise governance, and migration considerations around triggers, connectors, and stateful patterns. The article encourages teams to evaluate workload characteristics and operational needs to determine the right time to modernize to Standard. Event Debouncing with Logic Apps and Azure Table Storage Post by Daniel Jonathan This article presents an event debouncing pattern for webhook-heavy systems using three Logic Apps and a single Azure Table Storage table. Incoming events are buffered by upserting rows keyed by entity ID, ensuring only the latest state is retained. A timer-driven workflow processes pending rows after a cooldown window, fetches fresh state from the source, and calls downstream APIs, deleting entries on success or resetting on failure. Benefits include implicit deduplication, reduced downstream load, and operational transparency in Storage Explorer. The pattern suits moderate scale without Service Bus, with caveats for strict ordering or very high throughput scenarios. XML to JSON in Logic Apps: Fixing the “Object vs Array” Trap Post by Prashant Singh Prashant Singh explains a common pitfall when converting XML to JSON in Logic Apps: json(xml(...)) yields an array when multiple nodes exist, but a single object when only one node is present—breaking For each loops. He outlines three remedies: debatch directly with xpath() to always return a node set; wrap the target node with array() to normalize object/array differences; or use coalesce() with array() to safely handle missing nodes. With clear examples and expressions, the post helps engineers avoid brittle assumptions and build resilient workflows that handle single, multiple, or absent records cleanly. DevUP Talks 02 - 2026 Q1 Reflections with Ahmed Bayoumy, Sebastian Meyer and Andrew Wilson Video by Mattias Lögdberg This 12‑minute panel discussion surveys how AI and automation are changing day‑to‑day engineering work. Mattias Lögdberg hosts Ahmed Bayoumy, Sebastian Meyer, and Andrew Wilson to share early field perspectives: the shift from experimentation to production, emerging testing responsibilities around AI‑assisted code, and how integration teams are adapting operating models and skills. The conversation favors practical observations over hype, offering a snapshot of what practitioners are seeing at the start of 2026. It’s a compact watch for leaders tracking real impacts rather than theoretical roadmaps. How low can you code? From ‘drag-and-drop’ dreams to try–catch reality Post by Sonny Gillissen Sonny Gillissen argues that early low‑code promised simplicity but often obscured complexity with visual designers and limited tooling. He suggests AI can shift low‑code from diagramming boxes to describing intent—letting teams express business behavior in natural terms, with systems generating implementations. The piece calls for focusing on domain clarity, robust data/APIs, and guardrails over chasing more drag‑and‑drop. For integration engineers, it frames a path where Logic Apps and related platforms become orchestration shells around AI‑assisted specifications, improving maintainability without hiding the hard parts. Legacy Integration to Azure: 40% Cost Savings and Faster Delivery Post by Adaptiv (post by Simon Clendon) This piece outlines lessons from migrating legacy integration platforms to Microsoft Azure. It details the discovery work needed to untangle historical integrations, the diplomacy required with stakeholders, and the engineering patterns that de-risk cutovers. Highlights include modernizing HR workflows, establishing clear migration decision trees, and treating AI as a force multiplier rather than a silver bullet. The article emphasizes measurable outcomes—around 40% cost savings and faster delivery—while cautioning against underestimating analysis, testing, and organizational change, and recommending experienced partners to accelerate the journey. Using the Right Tool Is Not Over‑Engineering Post by Marcelo Gomes Marcelo Gomes argues that many integration failures stem from tool misalignment rather than flawed logic. Using a market‑stall analogy, he outlines when to rely on API Management for exposure and control, where Logic Apps should orchestrate rather than absorb all work, and why Azure Storage underpins durable, production‑ready designs. The piece encourages architects to map responsibilities explicitly—governance at the edge, orchestration in workflows, compute where it belongs—so systems scale cleanly without masking complexity under a single service. Choosing fit‑for‑purpose components, he suggests, is discipline—not over‑engineering. Using Event Grid to detect deleted files and trigger Logic App Post by Sandro Pereira (author: Luis Rigueira) This walkthrough shows how to capture Azure Storage blob deletion events with Event Grid and invoke a Logic App for downstream actions like audit, recovery, or notifications. It explains why native Blob triggers don’t fire on delete, then sets up a System Topic on the storage account, configures a Logic App with the “When a resource event occurs” trigger for Microsoft.Storage.BlobDeleted, and parses the event payload for container, file name, content‑type, and timestamp. The post provides expressions and screenshots to build the flow end‑to‑end, enabling reliable reactions to file deletions without custom functions.A BizTalk Migration Tool: From Orchestrations to Logic Apps Workflows
As organizations move toward cloud-native architecture, this project addresses one of the most challenging aspects of modernization: converting existing BizTalk artifacts into their Azure Logic Apps equivalents while preserving business logic and integration patterns. Architecture and Components The BizTalk Migration Starter is available here: haroldcampos/BizTalkMigrationStarter and consists of four main projects and a test project, each targeting a specific aspect of BizTalk migration: BTMtoLMLMigrator - BizTalk Map Converter The BTMtoLMLMigrator is a tool that converts BizTalk Maps (.btm files) to the Logic Apps Mapping Language (.lml files). BizTalk maps define data transformations between different message formats, using XSLT and functoids to implement complex mapping logic. Input: Output: Key Capabilities: Parses BizTalk map XML structure to extract transformation logic. Translates BizTalk functoids (string manipulation, mathematical operations, logical operations, date/time functions, etc.) to equivalent LML syntax Preserves source and target schema references Generates Logic Apps-compatible Liquid maps that can be directly deployed to Azure Integration Accounts Core Components: BtmParser.cs: Extracts map structure, functoid definitions, and link connections from BTM files FunctoidTranslator.cs: Converts BizTalk functoid operations to Logic Apps Maps template equivalents LmlGenerator.cs: Generates the final LML output BtmMigrator.cs: Orchestrates the entire conversion process Models.cs: Defines data structures for representing maps, functoids, and links To convert a single map: BTMtoLMLMigrator.exe -btm "C:\BizTalkMaps\OrderToInvoice.btm" -source "C:\Schemas\Order.xsd" -target "C:\Schemas\Invoice.xsd" -output "C:\Output\OrderToInvoice.lml" To Convert all maps in a directory: Be mindful of having the right naming for schemas in the BizTalk maps to avoid the tool picking up the wrong schemas: BTMtoLMLMigrator.exe -batchDir "C:\BizTalkMaps" -schemasDir "C:\Schemas" -outputDir "C:\Output\LMLMaps" Recommendations and Troubleshooting: Make sure to use the real schemas, source and destination, and the corresponding map. Most BizTalk functoids are supported, however for those who don’t, like scripting, it will add the code into the lml file, expecting you to conduct a re-design of the scenario. Currently the Data Mapper does not have a direct function that replaces scripting functoids. We are exploring alternatives for this. Use GHCP agent to troubleshoot the tool if you run into issues. ODXtoWFMigrator - Orchestration to Workflow Converter The ODXtoWFMigrator tackles one of the most complex aspects of BizTalk migration: converting BizTalk Orchestrations (.odx files) to Azure Logic Apps workflow definitions. Orchestrations represent business processes with sequential, parallel, and conditional logic flows. It requires the orchestration and bindings file, exported from the BizTalk Application. If you don't have orchestration, for Content Routing Based scenarios, it uses the bindings file only. Go to BizTalk Central Admin. Select your BizTalk Application: Export all bindings. You can have multiple orchestrations in one binding file, so is important to export all the information available. Input: Output: Key Capabilities: Parses BizTalk orchestration XML to extract process flows, shapes, and connections Maps BizTalk orchestration shapes (Receive, Send, Decide, Parallel, Loop, etc.) to Logic Apps actions and control structures Generates connector configurations for common integration patterns Creates comprehensive migration reports documenting the conversion process and any limitations Produces standard Logic Apps JSON workflow definitions ready for deployment Core Components: BizTalkOrchestrationParser.cs: Analyzes orchestration structure and extracts workflow patterns LogicAppsMapper.cs: Maps BizTalk orchestration shapes to Logic Apps equivalents LogicAppJSONGenerator.cs: Generates the final Logic Apps workflow JSON OrchestrationReportGenerator.cs: Creates detailed migration reports. Schemas/Connectors/connector-registry.json: Registry of connector mappings and configurations Recommendations and Troubleshooting: Most BizTalk shapes are supported, however for those who don’t, it will default to compose actions and inject the code or a comment. It supports most BizTalk adapters. If you need to add support to a new Logic Apps connector/service provider, you can update the connector-registry.json file by adding the trigger or action following the pattern for the other entries. This tool has been tested with multiple patterns and orchestrations. Use GHCP agent to troubleshoot the tool if you run into issues. The following are some of the supported commands. Please run the command line and review the README files to see all supported commands. Command Sample Usage MIGRATE / CONVERT With output file ODXtoWFMigrator.exe convert "C:\BizTalk\InventorySync.odx" "C:\BizTalk\BindingInfo.xml" "C:\Output\InventorySync.workflow.json" With refactored generator ODXtoWFMigrator.exe migrate "C:\BizTalk\MessageRouter.odx" "C:\BizTalk\BindingInfo.xml" --refactor BINDINGS-ONLY Basic bindings-only ODXtoWFMigrator.exe bindings-only "C:\BizTalk\ProductionBindings.xml" With output directory ODXtoWFMigrator.exe bindings-only "C:\BizTalk\BindingInfo.xml" "C:\LogicApps\BindingsWorkflows" With refactored generator ODXtoWFMigrator.exe bindings-only "C:\BizTalk\BindingInfo.xml" --refactor REPORT / ANALYZE Basic HTML report ODXtoWFMigrator.exe report "C:\BizTalk\OrderProcessing.odx" With output file ODXtoWFMigrator.exe report "C:\BizTalk\OrderProcessing.odx" --output "C:\Reports\OrderProcessing_Analysis.html" BATCH REPORT Process directory ODXtoWFMigrator.exe batch report --directory "C:\BizTalk\Orchestrations" Short directory flag ODXtoWFMigrator.exe batch report -d "C:\BizTalk\ContosoProject\Orchestrations" BATCH CONVERT Basic batch convert ODXtoWFMigrator.exe batch convert --directory "C:\BizTalk\Orchestrations" --bindings "C:\BizTalk\BindingInfo.xml" Alternative migrate syntax ODXtoWFMigrator.exe batch migrate -d "C:\BizTalk\AllOrchestrations" -b "C:\BizTalk\BindingInfo.xml" Specific files ODXtoWFMigrator.exe batch convert --files "C:\BizTalk\Order.odx,C:\BizTalk\Invoice.odx" --bindings "C:\BizTalk\BindingInfo.xml" With output directory ODXtoWFMigrator.exe batch convert -d "C:\BizTalk\Orchestrations" -b "C:\BizTalk\BindingInfo.xml" -o "C:\LogicApps\Workflows" With refactored generator ODXtoWFMigrator.exe batch convert -d "C:\BizTalk\Orchestrations" -b "C:\BizTalk\BindingInfo.xml" --refactor GENERATE-PACKAGE Basic package generation ODXtoWFMigrator.exe generate-package "C:\BizTalk\OrderProcessing.odx" "C:\BizTalk\BindingInfo.xml" With output directory ODXtoWFMigrator.exe generate-package "C:\BizTalk\OrderProcessing.odx" "C:\BizTalk\BindingInfo.xml" "C:\Deploy\OrderProcessing" With refactored generator ODXtoWFMigrator.exe package "C:\BizTalk\CloudIntegration.odx" "C:\BizTalk\BindingInfo.xml" --refactor ANALYZE-ODX / GAP-ANALYSIS Analyze directory ODXtoWFMigrator.exe analyze-odx "C:\BizTalk\LegacyOrchestrations" With output report ODXtoWFMigrator.exe analyze-odx "C:\BizTalk\Orchestrations" --output "C:\Reports\gap_analysis.json" LEGACY MODE Legacy basic ODXtoWFMigrator.exe "C:\BizTalk\OrderProcessing.odx" "C:\BizTalk\BindingInfo.xml" "C:\Output\OrderProcessing.json" BTPtoLA - Pipeline to Logic Apps Converter BTPtoLA handles the conversion of BizTalk pipelines to Logic Apps components. BizTalk pipelines process messages as they enter or leave the messaging engine, performing operations like validation, decoding, and transformation. Key Capabilities: Converts BizTalk receive and send pipelines to Logic Apps processing patterns Maps pipeline components (decoders, validators, disassemblers, etc.) to Logic Apps actions Preserves pipeline stage configurations and component properties Generates appropriate connector configurations for pipeline operations Input: Output: Core Components: Pipeline parsing and analysis logic Connector registry (Schemas/Connectors/pipeline-connector-registry.json) for mapping pipeline components Logic Apps workflow generation for pipeline equivalents To convert a receive pipeline: BTPtoLA.exe -pipeline "C:\Pipelines\ReceiveOrderPipeline.btp" -type receive -output "C:\Output\ReceiveOrderPipeline.json" To Convert a send pipeline: BTPtoLA.exe -pipeline "C:\Pipelines\SendInvoicePipeline.btp" -type send -output "C:\Output\SendInvoicePipeline.json" BizTalktoLogicApps.MCP - Model Context Protocol Server The MCP (Model Context Protocol) server provides a standardized interface for AI-assisted migration workflows. This component enables integration with AI tools and assistants to provide intelligent migration suggestions and automation. Key Capabilities: Exposes migration tools through a standardized MCP interface Enables AI-driven migration assistance and recommendations Provides tool handlers for map conversion and other migration operations Facilitates interactive migration workflows with AI assistance Core Components: McpServer.cs: Main MCP server implementation Server/ToolHandlers/MapConversionToolHandler.cs: Handler for map conversion operations test-requests.json: Test request definitions for validating MCP functionality BizTalktoLogicApps.Tests - Test Project A complete test project ensuring the reliability and accuracy of all migration tools, with integration tests that validate end-to-end conversion scenarios. Key Capabilities: Integration tests for BTM to LML conversion across multiple map files Schema validation and error handling tests Batch processing tests for converting multiple artifacts Output verification and quality assurance Where to upload your data: Upload your BizTalk artifacts in the Data directory, and run your tests using the Test explorer. For a complete demonstration, watch the video below:Logic Apps Aviators Newsletter - April 2026
In this issue: Ace Aviator of the Month News from our product group News from our community Ace Aviator of the Month April 2026's Ace Aviator: Marcelo Gomes What’s your role and title? What are your responsibilities? I’m an Integration Team Leader (Azure Integrations) at COFCO International, working within the Enterprise Integration Platform. My core responsibility is to design, architect, and operate integration solutions that connect multiple enterprise systems in a scalable, secure, and resilient way. I sit at the intersection of business, architecture, and engineering, ensuring that business requirements are correctly translated into technical workflows and integration patterns. From a practical standpoint, my responsibilities include: - Defining integration architecture standards and patterns across the organization - Designing end‑to‑end integration solutions using Azure Integration Services - Owning and evolving the API landscape (via Azure API Management) - Leading, mentoring, and supporting the integration team - Driving PoCs, experiments, and technical explorations to validate new approaches - Acting as a bridge between systems, teams, and business domains, ensuring alignment and clarity In short, my role is to make sure integrations are not just working — but are well‑designed, maintainable, and aligned with business goals. Can you give us some insights into your day‑to‑day activities and what a typical day looks like? My day‑to‑day work is a balance between technical leadership, architecture, and execution. A typical day usually involves: - Working closely with Business Analysts and Product Owners to understand integration requirements, constraints, and expected outcomes - Translating those requirements into integration flows, APIs, and orchestration logic - Defining or validating the architecture of integrations, including patterns, error handling, resiliency, and observability - Guiding developers during implementation, reviewing approaches, and helping them make architectural or design decisions - Managing and governing APIs through Azure API Management, ensuring consistency, security, and reusability - Unblocking team members by resolving technical issues, dependencies, or architectural doubts - Performing estimations, supporting planning, and aligning delivery expectations I’m also hands‑on. I actively build integrations myself — not just to help deliver, but to stay close to the platform, understand real challenges, and continuously improve our standards and practices. I strongly believe technical leadership requires staying connected to the actual implementation. What motivates and inspires you to be an active member of the Aviators / Microsoft community? What motivates me is knowledge sharing. A big part of what I know today comes from content shared by others — blog posts, samples, talks, community discussions, and real‑world experiences. Most of my learning followed a simple loop: someone shared → I tried it → I broke it → I fixed it → I learned. For me, learning only really completes its cycle when we share back. Explaining what worked (and what didn’t) helps others avoid the same mistakes and accelerates collective growth. Communities like Aviators and the Microsoft ecosystem create a space where learning is practical, honest, and experience‑driven — and that’s exactly the type of environment I want to contribute to. Looking back, what advice would you give to people getting into STEM or technology? My main advice is: start by doing. Don’t wait until you feel ready or confident — you won’t. When you start doing, you will fail. And that failure is not a problem; it’s part of the learning process. Each failure builds experience, confidence, and technical maturity. Another important point: ask questions. There is no such thing as a stupid question. Asking questions opens perspectives, challenges assumptions, and often triggers better solutions. Sometimes, a simple question from a fresh point of view can completely change how a problem is solved. Progress in technology comes from curiosity, iteration, and collaboration — not perfection. What has helped you grow professionally? Curiosity has been the biggest driver of my professional growth. I like to understand how things work under the hood, not just how to use them. When I’m curious about something, I try it myself, test different approaches, and build my own experience around it. That hands‑on curiosity helps me: - Develop stronger technical intuition - Understand trade‑offs instead of just following patterns blindly - Make better architectural decisions - Communicate more clearly with both technical and non‑technical stakeholders Having personal experience with successes and failures gives me clarity about what I’m really looking for in a solution — and that has been key to my growth. If you had a magic wand to create a new feature in Logic Apps, what would it be and why? I’d add real‑time debugging with execution control. Specifically, the ability to: - Pause a running Logic App execution - Inspect intermediate states, variables, and payloads in real time - Step through actions one by one, similar to a traditional debugger This would dramatically improve troubleshooting, learning, and optimization, especially in complex orchestrations. Today, we rely heavily on post‑execution inspection, which works — but real‑time visibility would be a huge leap forward in productivity and understanding. For integration engineers, that kind of feature would be a true game‑changer. News from our product group How to revoke connection OAuth programmatically in Logic Apps The post shows how to revoke an API connection’s OAuth tokens programmatically in Logic Apps, without using the portal. It covers two approaches: invoking the Revoke Connection Keys REST API directly from a Logic App using the 'Invoke an HTTP request' action, and using an Azure AD app registration to acquire a bearer token that authorizes the revoke call from Logic Apps or tools like Postman. Step-by-step guidance includes building the request URL, obtaining tokens with client credentials, parsing the token response, and setting the Authorization header. It also documents required permissions and a least-privilege custom RBAC role. Introducing Skills in Azure API Center This article introduces Skills in Azure API Center—registered, reusable capabilities that AI agents can discover and use alongside APIs, models, agents, and MCP servers. A skill describes what it does, its source repository, ownership, and which tools it is allowed to access, providing explicit governance. Teams can register skills manually in the Azure portal or automatically sync them from a Git repository, supporting GitOps workflows at scale. The portal offers discovery, filtering, and lifecycle visibility. Benefits include a single inventory for AI assets, better reuse, and controlled access via Allowed tools. Skills are available in preview with documentation links. Reliable blob processing using Azure Logic Apps: Recommended architecture The post explains limitations of the in‑app Azure Blob trigger in Logic Apps, which relies on polling and best‑effort storage logs that can miss events under load. For mission‑critical scenarios, it recommends a queue‑based pattern: have the source system emit a message to Azure Storage Queues after each blob upload, then trigger the Logic App from the queue and fetch the blob by metadata. Benefits include guaranteed triggering, decoupling, retries, and observability. As an alternative, it outlines using Event Grid with single‑tenant Logic App endpoints, plus caveats for private endpoints and subscription validation requirements. Implementing / Migrating the BizTalk Server Aggregator Pattern to Azure Logic Apps Standard This article shows how to implement or migrate the classic BizTalk Server Aggregator pattern to Azure Logic Apps Standard using a production-ready template available in the Azure portal. It maps BizTalk orchestration concepts (correlation sets, pipelines, MessageBox) to cloud-native equivalents: a stateful workflow, Azure Service Bus as the messaging backbone, CorrelationId-based grouping, and FlatFileDecoding for reusing existing BizTalk XSD schemas with zero refactoring. Step-by-step guidance covers triggering with the Service Bus connector, grouping messages by CorrelationId, decoding flat files, composing aggregated results, and delivering them via HTTP. A side‑by‑side comparison highlights architectural differences and migration considerations, aligned with BizTalk Server end‑of‑life timelines. News from our community Resilience for Azure IPaaS services Post by Stéphane Eyskens Stéphane Eyskens examines resilience patterns for Azure iPaaS workloads and how to design multi‑region architectures spanning stateless and stateful services. The article maps strategies across Service Bus, Event Hubs, Event Grid, Durable Functions, Logic Apps, and API Management, highlighting failover models, idempotency, partitioning, and retry considerations. It discusses trade‑offs between active‑active and active‑passive, the role of a governed API front door, and the importance of consistent telemetry for recovery and diagnostics. The piece offers pragmatic guidance for integration teams building high‑availability, fault‑tolerant solutions on Azure. From APIs to Agents: Rethinking Integration in the Agentic Era Post by Al Ghoniem, MBA This article frames AI agents as a new layer in enterprise integration rather than a replacement for existing platforms. It contrasts deterministic orchestration with agent‑mediated behavior, then proposes an Azure‑aligned architecture: Azure AI Agent Service as runtime, API Management as the governed tool gateway, Service Bus/Event Grid for events, Logic Apps for deterministic workflows, API Center as registry, and Entra for identity and control. It also outlines patterns—tool‑mediated access, hybrid orchestration, event+agent systems, and policy‑enforced interaction—plus anti‑patterns to avoid. DevUP Talks 01 - 2026 Q1 trends with Kent Weare Video by Mattias Lögdberg Mattias Lögdberg hosts Kent Weare for a concise discussion on early‑2026 trends affecting integration and cloud development. The conversation explores how AI is reshaping solution design, where new opportunities are emerging, and how teams can adapt practices for reliability, scalability, and speed. It emphasizes practical implications for developers and architects working with Azure services and modern integration stacks. The episode serves as a quick way to track directional changes and focus on skills that matter as agentic automation and platform capabilities evolve. Azure Logic Apps as MCP Servers: A Step-by-Step Guide Post by Stephen W Thomas Stephen W Thomas shows how to expose Azure Logic Apps (Standard) as MCP servers so AI agents can safely reuse existing enterprise workflows. The guide explains why this matters—reusing logic, tapping 1,400+ connectors, and applying key-based auth—and walks through creating an HTTP workflow, defining JSON schemas, connecting to SQL Server, and generating API keys from the MCP Servers blade. It closes with testing in VS Code, demonstrating how agents invoke Logic Apps tools to query live data with governance intact, without rewriting integration code. BizTalk to Azure Migration Roadmap: Integration Journey Post by Sandro Pereira This roadmap-style article distills lessons from BizTalk-to-Azure migrations into a structured journey. It outlines motivations for moving, capability mapping from BizTalk to Azure Integration Services, and phased strategies that reduce risk while modernizing. Readers get guidance on assessing dependencies, choosing target Azure services, designing hybrid or cloud‑native architectures, and sequencing workloads. The post emphasises that migration is not a lift‑and‑shift but a program of work aligned to business priorities, platform governance, and operational readiness. BizTalk Adapters to Azure Logic Apps Connectors Post by Michael Stephenson Michael Stephenson discusses how organizations migrating from BizTalk must rethink integration patterns when moving to Azure Logic Apps connectors. The post considers what maps well, where gaps and edge cases appear, and how real-world implementations often require re‑architecting around AIS capabilities rather than a one‑to‑one adapter swap. It highlights community perspectives and practical considerations for planning, governance, and operationalizing new designs beyond pure connector parity. Pro-Code Enterprise AI-Agents using MCP for Low-Code Integration Video by Sebastian Meyer This short video demonstrates bridging pro‑code and low‑code by using the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to let autonomous AI agents interact with enterprise systems via Logic Apps. It walks through the high‑level setup—agent, MCP server, and Logic Apps workflows—and shows how to connect to platforms like ServiceNow and SAP. The focus is on practical tool choice and architecture so teams can extend existing integration assets to agent‑driven use cases without rebuilding from scratch. Friday Fact: The Hidden Retry Behavior That Makes Logic Apps Feel Stuck Post by João Ferreira This Friday Fact explains why a Logic App can appear “stuck” when calling unstable APIs: hidden retry policies, exponential backoff, and looped actions can accumulate retries and slow runs dramatically. It lists default behaviors many miss, common causes like throttling, and mitigation steps such as setting explicit retry policies, using Configure run after for failure paths, and introducing circuit breakers for flaky backends. The takeaway: the workflow may not be broken—just retrying too aggressively—so design explicit limits and recovery paths. Your Logic App Is NOT Your Business Process (Here’s Why) Video by Al Ghoniem, MBA This short explainer argues that mapping Logic Apps directly to a business process produces brittle workflows. Real systems require retries, enrichment, and exception paths, so the design quickly diverges from a clean process diagram. The video proposes separating technical orchestration from business visibility using Business Process Tracking. That split yields clearer stakeholder views and more maintainable solutions, while keeping deterministic execution inside Logic Apps. It’s a practical reminder to design for operational reality rather than mirroring a whiteboard flow. BizTalk Server Migration to Azure Integration Services Architecture Guidance Post by Sandro Pereira A brief overview of Microsoft’s architecture guidance for migrating BizTalk Server to Azure Integration Services. The post explains the intent of the guidance, links to sections on reasons to migrate, AIS capabilities, BizTalk vs. AIS comparisons, and service selection. It highlights planning topics such as migration approaches, best practices, and a roadmap, helping teams frame decisions for hybrid or cloud‑native architectures as they modernize BizTalk workloads. Logic Apps & Power Automate Action Name to Code Translator Post by Sandro Pereira This post introduces a lightweight utility that converts Logic Apps and Power Automate action names into their code identifiers—useful when writing expressions or searching in Code View. It explains the difference between designer-friendly labels and underlying names (spaces become underscores and certain symbols are disallowed), why this causes friction, and how the tool streamlines the translation. It includes screenshots, usage notes, and the download link to the open-source project, making it a practical time-saver for developers moving between designer and code-based workflows. Logic Apps Consumption CI/CD from Zero to Hero Whitepaper Post by Sandro Pereira This whitepaper provides an end‑to‑end path to automate CI/CD for Logic Apps Consumption using Azure DevOps. It covers solution structure, parameterization, and environment promotion, then shows how to build reliable pipelines for packaging, deploying, and validating Logic Apps. The guidance targets teams standardizing delivery with repeatable patterns and governance. With templates and practical advice, it helps reduce manual steps, improve quality, and accelerate releases for Logic Apps workloads. Logic App Best practices, Tips and Tricks: #2 Actions Naming Convention Post by Sandro Pereira This best‑practices post focuses on action naming in Logic Apps. It explains why consistent, descriptive names improve readability, collaboration, and long‑term maintainability, then outlines rules and constraints on allowed characters. It shows common pitfalls—default names, uneditable trigger/branch labels—and practical tips for renaming while avoiding broken references. The guidance helps teams treat names as living documentation so workflows remain understandable without drilling into each action’s configuration. How to Expose and Protect Logic App Using Azure API Management (Whitepaper) Post by Sandro Pereira This whitepaper explains how to front Logic Apps with Azure API Management for governance and security. It covers publishing Logic Apps as APIs, restricting access, enforcing IP filtering, preventing direct calls to Logic Apps, and documenting operations. It also discusses combining multiple Logic Apps under a single API, naming conventions, and how to remove exposed operations safely. The paper provides step‑by‑step guidance and a download link to help teams standardize exposure and protection patterns. Logic apps – Check the empty result in SQL connector Post by Anitha Eswaran This post shows a practical pattern for handling empty SQL results in Logic Apps. Using the SQL connector’s output, it adds a Parse JSON step to normalize the result and then evaluates length() to short‑circuit execution when no rows are returned. Screenshots illustrate building the schema, wiring the content, and introducing a conditional branch that terminates the run when the array is empty. The approach avoids unnecessary downstream actions and reduces failures, providing a reusable, lightweight guard for query‑driven workflows. Azure Logic Apps Is Basically Power Automate on Steroids (And You Shouldn’t Be Afraid of It) Post by Kim Brian Kim Brian explains why Logic Apps feels familiar to Power Automate builders while removing ceilings that appear at scale. The article contrasts common limits in cloud flows with Standard/Consumption capabilities, highlights the designer vs. code‑view model, and calls out built‑in Azure management features such as versioning, monitoring, and CI/CD. It positions Logic Apps as the “bigger sibling” for enterprise‑grade integrations and data throughput, offering more control without abandoning the visual authoring experience. Logic Apps CSV Alphabetic Sorting Explained Post by Sandro Pereira Sandro Pereira describes why CSV headers and columns can appear in alphabetical order after deploying Logic Apps via ARM templates. He explains how JSON serialization and array ordering influence CSV generation, what triggers the sorting behavior, and practical workarounds to preserve intended column order. The article helps teams avoid subtle defects in data exports by aligning workflow design and deployment practices with how Logic Apps materializes CSV content at runtime. Azure Logic Apps Translation vs Transformation – Actions, Examples, and Schema Mapping Explained Post by Maheshkumar Tiwari Maheshkumar Tiwari clarifies the difference between translation (format change) and transformation (business logic) in Logic Apps, then maps each to concrete Azure capabilities. Using a purchase‑order scenario, he shows how to decode/encode flat files and EDI, convert XML↔JSON, and apply Liquid/XSLT, Select, Compose, and Filter Array for schema mapping and enrichment. A quick reference table ties common tasks to the right action, helping architects separate concerns so format changes don’t break business rules and workflow design remains maintainable.Implementing / Migrating the BizTalk Server Aggregator Pattern to Azure Logic Apps Standard
While the article focuses on the migration path from BizTalk Server, the template is equally suited for new (greenfield) implementations any team looking to implement the Aggregator pattern natively in Azure Logic Apps can deploy it directly from the Azure portal without prior BizTalk experience. The template source code is open source and available in the Azure LogicAppsTemplates GitHub repository. For full details on the original BizTalk implementation, see the BizTalk Server Aggregator SDK sample. Why is it important? BizTalk Server End of life has been confirmed and if you have not started your migration to Logic Apps, you should start soon. This is one of many articles in BizTalk Migration. More information can be found here: https://aka.ms/biztalkeolblog. The migration at a glance: BizTalk orchestration vs. Logic Apps workflow The BizTalk SDK implements the pattern through an orchestration (Aggregate.odx) that uses correlation sets, receive shapes, loop constructs, and send pipelines. The Logic Apps Standard template replicates the same logic using a stateful workflow with Azure Service Bus and CorrelationId-based grouping. The BizTalk solution includes: Component Purpose Aggregate.odx Main orchestration that collects correlated messages and executes the send pipeline FFReceivePipeline.btp Receive pipeline with flat file disassembler Invoice.xsd Document schema for invoice messages InvoiceEnvelope.xsd Envelope schema for output interchange PropertySchema.xsd Property schema with promoted properties for correlation XMLAggregatingPipeline.btp Send pipeline to assemble collected messages into XML interchange The Azure Logic Apps Standard implementation The Logic Apps Standard workflow replicates the same Aggregator pattern using a stateful workflow with Azure Service Bus as the message source and CorrelationId-based grouping. The template is publicly available in the Azure portal templates gallery. Figure 2: The “Aggregate messages from Azure Service Bus by CorrelationId” template in the Azure portal templates gallery, published by Microsoft. Receives messages from Service Bus in batches, groups them by CorrelationId, decodes flat files, and responses with the aggregated result via HTTP. Side-by-side comparison: BizTalk Server vs. Azure Logic Apps Understanding how each component maps between platforms is essential for a smooth migration: Concept BizTalk Server (Aggregate.odx) Azure Logic Apps Standard Messaging infrastructure MessageBox database (SQL Server) Azure Service Bus (cloud-native PaaS) Message source Receive Port / Receive Location Service Bus trigger (peekLockQueueMessagesV2) Message decoding Receive Pipeline (Flat File Disassembler) Decode_Flat_File_Invoice action (FlatFileDecoding) Correlation mechanism Correlation Sets on promoted properties (DestinationPartnerURI) CorrelationId from Service Bus message properties Message accumulation Loop shape + Message Assignment shapes ForEach loop + CorrelationGroups dictionary variable Completion condition Loop exit (10 messages or 1-minute timeout) Batch-based: processes all messages in current batch Aggregated message construction Construct Message shape + XMLAggregatingPipeline Build_Aggregated_Messages ForEach + Compose actions Result delivery Send Port (file, HTTP, or other adapter) HTTP Response or any other regarding business need Error handling Exception Handler shapes + SuspendMessage.odx Scope + error handler actions Schema support BizTalk Flat File Schemas (XSD) Same XSD schemas in Artifacts/Schemas folder State management Orchestration dehydration/rehydration Stateful workflow with run history Key architectural differences Aspect BizTalk Server Azure Logic Apps Standard Processing model Convoy pattern (long-running, event-driven) Batch-based (processes N messages per trigger) Scalability BizTalk Host instances (manual scaling) Elastic scale (Azure App Service Plan) Retry logic Adapter-level retries Built-in HTTP retry policy (3 attempts, 10s interval) Architecture Monolithic orchestration Decoupled: aggregation + downstream processing Monitoring BizTalk Admin Console / HAT Azure portal run history + Azure Monitor Schema reuse BizTalk project schemas Direct XSD reuse in Artifacts/Schemas Deployment MSI / BizTalk deployment ARM templates, Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions How the workflow works 1. Trigger: Receive messages from Service Bus The workflow uses the built-in Service Bus trigger to retrieve messages in batches from a non-session queue. This is analogous to BizTalk's Receive Location polling the message source. 2. Process and correlate: Group messages by CorrelationId Each message is processed sequentially (like BizTalk's ordered delivery). The workflow: Extracts the CorrelationId from Service Bus message properties (equivalent to BizTalk's promoted property used in the Correlation Set) Decodes flat file content with zero refactoring using the XSD schema (equivalent to BizTalk's Flat File Disassembler pipeline component) Groups messages into a dictionary keyed by CorrelationId (equivalent to BizTalk's loop + message assignment pattern) 3. Build aggregated output Once all messages in the batch are processed, the workflow constructs a result object for each correlation group containing the CorrelationId, message count and the array of decoded messages. 4. Deliver results The aggregated output is sent to a target workflow via HTTP POST, following a decoupled architecture pattern. This is analogous to BizTalk's Send Port delivering the result to the destination system. You can substitute this action for another endpoint as needed. This, will depend on your business case. Azure Service Bus: The cloud-native replacement for BizTalk’s MessageBox In BizTalk Server, the MessageBox database is the central hub for all message routing, subscription-based delivery, and correlation. It’s the engine that enables patterns like the Aggregator — messages are published to the MessageBox, and the orchestration subscribes to them based on promoted properties and correlation sets. In Azure Logic Apps Standard, there is no MessaeBox equivalent. Instead, Azure Service Bus serves as the cloud-native messaging backbone. Service Bus provides the same publish/subscribe semantics, message correlation (via the built-in CorrelationId property), peek-lock delivery, and reliable queuing — but as a fully managed, elastically scalable PaaS service with no infrastructure to maintain. This is a fundamental shift in architecture: you move from a centralized SQL Server-based message broker (MessageBox) to a distributed, cloud-native messaging service (Service Bus) that scales independently and integrates natively with Logic Apps through the built-in Service Bus connector. Important: Service Bus is not available on-premises. However, RabbitMQ is available to cover these needs, on-premises. RabbitMQ offers a fantastic alternative for customers looking to replicate BizTalk message routing, subscription-based delivery, and correlation. Decode Flat File Invoice: Reuse your BizTalk schemas with zero refactoring One of the biggest concerns during any BizTalk migration is: “What happens to our flat file schemas and message formats?” The workflow template includes a Decode Flat File action (type FlatFileDecoding) that converts positional or delimited flat file content into XML — exactly like BizTalk’s Flat File Disassembler pipeline component. The key advantage: your original BizTalk XSD flat file schemas work as-is. Upload them to the Logic Apps Artifacts/Schemas folder and reference them by name in the workflow — no modifications, no refactoring. This means: Your existing message formats don’t change — upstream and downstream systems continue sending and receiving the same flat file messages Your BizTalk schemas are directly reusable — the same Invoice.xsd from your BizTalk project works seamlessly with the FlatFileDecoding action Migration effort is significantly reduced — no need to redesign schemas, re-validate message structures, or update trading partner agreements Time-to-production is faster — focus on workflow logic and connectivity instead of rewriting message definitions Notice that, if you need to process XML data, as your data might arrive in XML format, use the XML Operations: Validate, Transform, Parse, and Compose XML with schema. You can find more information at Compose XML using Schemas in Standard Workflows - Azure Logic Apps | Microsoft Learn. The message with correlation Id Each message in the Service Bus queue is a flat file invoice the same positional/delimited text format used in the BizTalk SDK sample. Here's an example: INVOICE12345 DestinationPartnerURI:http://www.contoso.com?ID=1E1B9646-48CF-41dd-A0C0-1014B1CE5064 BILLTO,US,John Connor,123 Cedar Street,Mill Valley,CA,90952 101-TT Plastic flowers 10 4.99 Fragile handle with care 202-RR Fertilizer 1 10.99 Lawn fertilizer 453-XS Weed killer 1 5.99 Lawn weed killer The message structure combines positional and delimited fields: Line 1: Invoice identifier (fixed-length record) Line 2: Destination partner URI — in BizTalk, this value is promoted as a context property and used in the Correlation Set to group related messages Line 3: Bill-to header (comma-delimited: country, name, address, city, state, ZIP) Line 4: Line items (positional fields: item code, description, quantity, unit price, notes) Why CorrelationId is essential In BizTalk Server, the orchestration promotes `DestinationPartnerURI` from the message body into a context property and uses it as the Correlation Set to match related messages. This requires a Property Schema, promoted properties, and pipeline configuration. In Azure Logic Apps Standard, correlation is decoupled from the message body. The `CorrelationId` is a native Azure Service Bus message property with a first-class header set by the message producer when sending to the queue. This means: No schema changes needed: the flat file content stays exactly the same No property promotion: Service Bus provides the correlation identifier out of the box Simpler architecture: the workflow reads `CorrelationId` directly from the message metadata, not from the payload Producer flexibility any system sending to Service Bus can set the `CorrelationId` header using standard SDK methods, without modifying the message body This is why the Aggregator pattern maps so naturally to Service Bus: the correlation mechanism that BizTalk implements through promoted properties and correlation sets is already built into the messaging infrastructure. Step-by-step guide: Deploy the template from the Azure portal The “Aggregate messages from Azure Service Bus by CorrelationId” template is publicly available in the Azure Logic Apps Standard templates gallery. Follow these steps to deploy it: Prerequisites Before you begin, make sure you have: An Azure subscription. If you don’t have one, sign up for a free Azure account . An Azure Logic Apps Standard resource deployed in your subscription. If you need to create one, see Create an example Standard logic app workflow . An Azure Service Bus namespace with a non-session queue configured. A flat file XSD schema (for example, Invoice.xsd) ready to upload to the logic app’s Artifacts/Schemas folder. A target workflow with an HTTP trigger to receive the aggregated results (optional, can be created after deployment). Step 1: Open the templates gallery Sign in to the Azure portal. Navigate to your Standard logic app resource. On the logic app sidebar menu, select Workflows. On the logic app sidebar menu, select Workflows. On the Workflows page, select + Create to create a new workflow. In the “Create a new workflow” pane, select Use Template to open the templates gallery and select Create button. Step 2: Find the Aggregator template In the templates gallery, use the search box and type “Aggregate” or “Aggregator”. Optionally, filter by: o Connectors: Select Azure Service Bus o Categories: All Locate the template named “Aggregate messages from Azure Service Bus by CorrelationId”. o The template card shows the labels Workflow and Event as the solution type and trigger type. o The template is published by Microsoft. Step 3: Review the template details Select the template card to open the template overview pane. On the Summary tab, review: o Connections included in this template: Azure Service Bus (in-app connector) o Prerequisites: Requirements for Azure Service Bus, flat file schema, and connection configuration o Details: Description of the Aggregator enterprise integration pattern implementation Source code: Link to the GitHub repository Select the Workflow tab to preview the workflow design that the template creates and when you are ready select Use this template. Step 4: Provide workflow information In the Create a new workflow from template pane, on the Basics tab: o Workflow name: Enter a name for your workflow, for example, wf-aggregator-invoices o State type: Select Stateful (recommended for aggregation scenarios that require run history and reliable processing) Select Next. Step 5: Create connections On the Connections tab, create the Azure Service Bus connection: o Select Connect next to the Service Bus connection. o Provide your Service Bus connection string or select the managed identity authentication option. For managed identity (recommended), make sure your logic app’s managed identity has the Azure Service Bus Data Receiver role on the Service Bus namespace. 2. Select Next. Step 6: Configure parameters On the Parameters tab, provide values for the workflow parameters: Parameter Description Example value Azure Service Bus queue name The queue to monitor for incoming messages invoice-queue Maximum batch size Number of messages per batch (1-100) 10 Flat file schema name XSD schema name in Artifacts/Schemas Invoice.xsd Default CorrelationId Fallback value for messages without CorrelationId NO_CORRELATION_ID Target workflow URL HTTP endpoint of the downstream workflow https://your-logicapp.azurewebsites.net/... Target workflow timeout HTTP call timeout in seconds 60 Enable sequential processing Maintain message order true 2. Select Next. Step 7: Review and create On the Review + create tab, review all the provided information. Select Create. When the deployment completes, select Go to my workflow. Step 8: Upload the flat file schema Navigate to your logic app resource in the Azure portal. On the sidebar menu, under Artifacts, select Schemas. Select + Add and upload your Invoice.xsd. Confirm the schema appears in the list. Notice that: for this scenario we are using the Invoice.xsd schema, you can/must use the schema your scenario needs. Step 9: Verify and test On the workflow sidebar, select Designer to review the created workflow. Verify all actions are configured correctly. Send test messages to your Service Bus queue with different CorrelationId values. Monitor the Run history to verify successful execution and aggregation. For more information on creating workflows from templates, see Create workflows from prebuilt templates in Azure Logic Apps. Conclusion The Aggregator pattern is a cornerstone of enterprise integration, and migrating it from BizTalk Server to Azure Logic Apps Standard doesn’t mean starting from scratch. By using this template, you can: Reuse your existing XSD flat file schemas directly from your BizTalk projects Replace BizTalk Correlation Sets with CorrelationId-based message grouping via Azure Service Bus Deploy in minutes from the Azure portal templates gallery Scale elastically with Azure App Service Plan Monitor with Azure-native tools instead of the BizTalk Admin Console The template is open source and available at: GitHub PR: Azure/LogicAppsTemplates#108 Template name in Azure portal: “Aggregate messages from Azure Service Bus by CorrelationId” Source code: GitHub repository Whether you’re migrating from BizTalk Server or building a new integration solution from scratch, this template gives you a solid, production-ready starting point. I encourage you to try it, customize it for your scenarios, and contribute back to the community. Resources BizTalk Server Aggregator SDK sample Create workflows from prebuilt templates in Azure Logic Apps Create and publish workflow templates for Azure Logic Apps Flat file encoding and decoding in Logic Apps Azure Service Bus connector overview BizTalk to Azure migration guide BizTalk Migration Starter toolLogic Apps Agentic Workflows with SAP - Part 2: AI Agents
Part 2 focuses on the AI-shaped portion of the destination workflows: how the Logic Apps Agent is configured, how it pulls business rules from SharePoint, and how its outputs are converted into concrete workflow artifacts. In Destination workflow #1, the agent produces three structured outputs—an HTML validation summary, a CSV list of InvalidOrderIds , and an Invalid CSV payload—which drive (1) a verification email, (2) an optional RFC call to persist failed rows as IDocs, and (3) a filtered dataset used for the separate analysis step that returns only analysis (or errors) back to SAP. In Destination workflow #2, the same approach is applied to inbound IDocs: the workflow reconstructs CSV from the custom segment, runs AI validation against the same SharePoint rules, and safely appends results to an append blob using a lease-based write pattern for concurrency. 1. Introduction In Part 1, the goal was to make the integration deterministic: stable payload shapes, stable response shapes, and predictable error propagation across SAP and Logic Apps. Concretely, Part 1 established: how SAP reaches Logic Apps (Gateway/Program ID plumbing) the RFC contracts ( IT_CSV , response envelope, RETURN / MESSAGE , EXCEPTIONMSG ) how the source workflow interprets RFC responses (success vs error) how invalid rows can be persisted into SAP as custom IDocs ( Z_CREATE_ONLINEORDER_IDOC ) and how the second destination workflow receives those IDocs asynchronously With that foundation in place, Part 2 narrows in on the part that is not just plumbing: the agent loop, the tool boundaries, and the output schemas that make AI results usable inside a workflow rather than “generated text you still need to interpret.” The diagram below highlights the portion of the destination workflow where AI is doing real work. The red-circled section is the validation agent loop (rules in, structured validation outputs out), which then fans out into operational actions like email notification, optional IDoc persistence, and filtering for the analysis step. What matters here is the shape of the agent outputs and how they are consumed by the rest of the workflow. The agent is not treated as a black box; it is forced to emit typed, workflow-friendly artifacts (summary + invalid IDs + filtered CSV). Those artifacts are then used deterministically: invalid rows are reported (and optionally persisted as IDocs), while valid rows flow into the analysis stage and ultimately back to SAP. What this post covers In this post, I focus on five practical topics: Agent loop design in Logic Apps: tools, message design, and output schemas that make the agent’s results deterministic enough to automate. External rule retrieval: pulling validation rules from SharePoint and applying them consistently to incoming payloads. Structured validation outputs → workflow actions: producing InvalidOrderIds and a filtered CSV payload that directly drive notifications and SAP remediation. Two-model pattern: a specialized model for validation (agent) and a separate model call for analysis, with a clean handoff between the two. Output shaping for consumption: converting AI output into HTML for email and into the SAP response envelope (analysis/errors only). (Everything else—SAP plumbing, RFC wiring, and response/exception patterns—was covered in Part 1 and is assumed here.) Next, I’ll break down the agent loop itself—the tool sequence, the required output fields, and the exact points where the workflow turns AI output into variables, emails, and SAP actions. Huge thanks to KentWeareMSFT for helping me understand agent loops and design the validation agent structure. And thanks to everyone in 🤖 Agent Loop Demos 🤖 | Microsoft Community Hub for making such great material available. Note: For the full set of assets used here, see the companion GitHub repository (workflows, schemas, SAP ABAP code, and sample files). 2. Validation Agent Loop In this solution, the Data Validation Agent runs inside the destination workflow after the inbound SAP payload has been normalized into a single CSV string. The agent is invoked as a single Logic Apps Agent action, configured with an Azure OpenAI deployment and a short set of instructions. Its inputs are deliberately simple at this stage: the CSV payload (the dataset to validate), and the ValidationRules reference (where the rule document lives), shown in the instructions as a parameter token (ValidationRules is a logic app parameter). The figure below shows the validation agent configuration used in the destination workflow. The top half is the Agent action configuration (model + instructions), and the bottom half shows the toolset that the agent is allowed to use. The key design choice is that the agent is not “free-form chat”: it’s constrained by a small number of tools and a workflow-friendly output contract. What matters most in this configuration is the separation between instructions and tools. The instructions tell the agent what to do (“follow business process steps 1–3”), while the tools define how the agent can interact with external systems and workflow state. This keeps the agent modular: you can change rules in SharePoint or refine summarization expectations without rewriting the overall SAP integration mechanics. Purpose This agent’s job is narrowly scoped: validate the CSV payload from SAP against externally stored business rules and produce outputs that the workflow can use deterministically. In other words, it turns “validation as reasoning” into workflow artifacts (summary + invalid IDs + invalid payload), instead of leaving validation as unstructured prose. In Azure Logic Apps terms, this is an agent loop: an iterative process where an LLM follows instructions and selects from available tools to complete a multi-step task. Logic Apps agent workflows explicitly support this “agent chooses tools to complete tasks” model (see Agent Workflows Concepts). Tools In Logic Apps agent workflows, a tool is a named sequence that contains one or more actions the agent can invoke to accomplish part of its task (see Agent Workflows Concepts). In the screenshot, the agent is configured with three tools, explicitly labeled Get validation rules, Get CSV payload, Summarize CSV payload review. These tool names match the business process in the “Instructions for agent” box (steps 1–3). The next sections of the post go deeper into what each tool does internally; at this level, the important point is simply that the agent is constrained to a small, explicit toolset. Agent execution The screenshot shows the agent configured with: AI model: gpt-5-3 (gpt-5) A connection line: “Connected to … (Azure OpenAI)” Instructions for agent that define the agent’s role and a 3-step business process: Get validation rules (via the ValidationRules reference) Get CSV payload Summarize the CSV payload review, using the validation document This pattern is intentional: The instructions provide the agent’s “operating procedure” in plain language. The tools give the agent: controlled ways to fetch the rule document, access the CSV input, and return structured results. Because the workflow consumes the agent’s outputs downstream, the instruction text is effectively part of your workflow contract (it must remain stable enough that later actions can trust the output shape). Note: If a reader wants to recreate this pattern, the fastest path is: Start with the official overview of agent workflows (Workflows with AI Agents and Models - Azure Logic Apps). Follow a hands-on walkthrough for building an agent workflow and connecting it to an Azure OpenAI deployment (Logic Apps Labs is a good step-by-step reference). [ azure.github.io ] Use the Azure OpenAI connector reference to understand authentication options and operations available in Logic Apps Standard (see Built-in OpenAI Connector) If you’re using Foundry for resource management, review how Foundry connections are created and used, especially when multiple resources/tools are involved (see How to connect to AI foundry). 2.1 Tool 1: Get validation rules The first tool in the validation agent loop is Get validation rules. Its job is to load the business validation rules that will be applied to the incoming CSV payload from SAP. I keep these rules outside the workflow (in a document) so they can be updated without redeploying the Logic App. In this example, the rules are stored in SharePoint, and the tool simply retrieves the document content at runtime. Get validation rules is implemented as a single action called Get validation document. In the designer, you can see it: uses a SharePoint Online connection (SharePoint icon and connector action) calls GetFileContentByPath (shown by the “File Path” input) reads the rule file from the configured Site Address uses the workflow parameter token ValidationRules for the File Path (so the exact rule file location is configurable per environment) The output of this tool is the raw rule document content, which the Data Validation Agent uses in the next steps to validate the CSV payload. The bottom half of the figure shows an excerpt of the rules document. The format is simple and intentionally human-editable: each rule is expressed as FieldName : condition. For example, the visible rules include: PaymentMethod : value must exist PaymentMethod : value cannot be “Cash” OrderStatus : value must be different from “Cancelled” CouponCode : value must have at least 1 character OrderID : value must be unique in the CSV array A scope note: “Do not validate the Date field.” These rules are the “source of truth” for validation. The workflow does not hardcode them into expressions; instead, it retrieves them from SharePoint and passes them into the agent loop so the validation logic remains configurable and auditable (you can always point to the exact rule document used for a given run). A small but intentional rule in the document is “Do not validate the Date field.” That line is there for a practical reason: in an early version of the source workflow, the date column was being corrupted during CSV generation. The validation agent still tried to validate dates (even though date validation wasn’t part of the original intent), and the result was predictable: every row failed validation, leaving nothing to analyze. The upstream issue is fixed now, but I kept this rule in the demo to illustrate an important point: validation is only useful when it’s aligned with the data contract you can actually guarantee at that point in the pipeline. Note: The rules shown here assume the CSV includes a header row (field names in the first line) so the agent can interpret each column by name. If you want the agent to be schema‑agnostic, you can extend the rules with an explicit column mapping, for example: Column 1: Order ID Column 2: Date Column 3: Customer ID … This makes the contract explicit even when headers are missing or unreliable. With the rules loaded, the next tool provides the second input the agent needs: the CSV payload that will be validated against this document. 2.2 Tool 2: Get CSV payload The second tool in the validation agent loop is Get CSV payload. Its purpose is to make the dataset-to-validate explicit: it defines exactly what the agent should treat as “the CSV payload,” rather than relying on implicit workflow context. In this workflow, the CSV is already constructed earlier (as Create_CSV_payload ), and this tool acts as the narrow bridge between that prepared string and the agent’s validation step. Figure: Tool #2 (“Get CSV payload”) defines a single agent parameter and binds it to the workflow’s generated CSV. The figure shows two important pieces: - The tool parameter contract (“Agent Parameters”) On the right, the tool defines an agent parameter named CSV Payload with type String, and the description (highlighted in yellow) makes the intent explicit: “The CSV payload received from SAP and that we validate based on the validation rules.” This parameter is the tool’s interface: it documents what the agent is supposed to provide/consume when using this tool, and it anchors the rest of the validation process to a single, well-defined input. Tools in Logic Apps agent workflows exist specifically to constrain and structure what an agent can do and what data it operates on (see Agent Workflows Concepts). - Why there is an explicit Compose action (“CSV payload”) In the lower-right “Code view,” the tool’s internal action is shown as a standard Compose: { "type": "Compose", "inputs": "@outputs('Create_CSV_payload')" } This is intentional. Even though the CSV already exists in the workflow, the tool still needs a concrete action that produces the value it returns to the agent. The Compose step: pins the tool output to a single source of truth ( Create_CSV_payload ), and creates a stable boundary: “this is the exact CSV string the agent validates,” independent of other workflow state. Put simply: the Compose action isn’t there because Logic Apps can’t access the CSV—it’s there to make the agent/tool interface explicit, repeatable, and easy to troubleshoot. What “tool parameters” are (in practical terms) In Logic Apps agent workflows, a tool is a named sequence of one or more actions that the agent can invoke while executing its instructions. A tool parameter is the tool’s input/output contract exposed to the agent. In this screenshot, that contract is defined under Agent Parameters, where you specify: Name: CSV Payload Type: String Description: “The CSV payload received from SAP…” This matters because it clarifies (for both the model and the human reader) what the tool represents and what data it is responsible for supplying. With Tool #1 providing the rules document and Tool #2 providing the CSV dataset, Tool #3 is where the agent produces workflow-ready outputs (summary + invalid IDs + filtered payload) that the downstream steps can act on. 2.3 Tool 3: Summarize CSV payload review The third tool, Summarize CSV payload review, is where the agent stops being “an evaluator” and becomes a producer of workflow-ready outputs. It does most of the heavy lifting so let's go into the details. Instead of returning one blob of prose, the tool defines three explicit agent parameters—each with a specific format and purpose—so the workflow can reliably consume the results in downstream actions. In Logic Apps agent workflows, tools are explicitly defined tasks the agent can invoke, and each tool can be structured around actions and schemas that keep the loop predictable (see Agent Workflows Concepts). Figure: Tool #3 (“Summarize CSV payload review”) defines three structured agent outputs Description is not just documentation—it’s the contract the model is expected to satisfy, and it strongly shapes what the agent considers “relevant” when generating outputs. The parameters are: Validation summary (String) Goal: a human-readable summary that can be dropped straight into email. In the screenshot, the description is very explicit about shape and content: “expected format is an HTML table” “create a list of all orderids that have failed” “create a CSV document… only for the orderid values that failed… each row on a separate line” “include title row only in the email body” This parameter is designed for presentation: it’s the thing you want humans to read first. InvalidOrderIds (String, CSV format) Goal: a machine-friendly list of identifiers the workflow can use deterministically. The key part of the description (highlighted in the image) is: “The format is CSV.” That single sentence is doing a lot of work: it tells the model to emit a comma-separated list, which you then convert into an array in the workflow using split(...). Invalid CSV payload (String, one row per line) Goal: the failed rows extracted from the original dataset, in a form that downstream steps can reuse. The description constrains the output tightly: “original CSV rows… for the orderid values that failed validation” “each row must be on a separate line” “keep the title row only for the email body and remove it otherwise” This parameter is designed for automation: it becomes input to remediation steps (like transforming rows to XML and creating IDocs), not just a report. What “agent parameters” do here (and why they matter) A useful way to think about agent parameters is: they are the “typed return values” of a tool. Tools in agent workflows exist to structure work into bounded tasks the agent can perform, and a schema/parameter contract makes the results consumable by the rest of the workflow (see Agent Workflows Concepts). In this tool, the parameters serve two purposes at once: They guide the agent toward salient outputs. The descriptions explicitly name what matters: “failed orderids,” “HTML table,” “CSV format,” “one row per line,” “header row rules.” That phrasing makes it much harder for the model to “wander” into irrelevant commentary. They align with how the workflow will parse and use the results. By stating “ InvalidOrderIds is CSV,” you make it trivially parseable (split), and by stating “Invalid CSV payload is one row per line,” you make it easy to feed into later transformations. Why the wording works (and what wording tends to work best) What’s interesting about the parameter descriptions is that they combine three kinds of constraints: Output format constraints (make parsing deterministic) “expected format is an HTML table” “The format is CSV.” “each row must be on a separate line” These format cues help the agent decide what to emit and help you avoid brittle parsing later. Output selection constraints (force relevance) “only for the orderid values that failed validation” “Create a list of all orderids that have failed” This tells the agent what to keep and what to ignore. Output operational constraints (tie outputs to downstream actions) “Include title row only in the email body” “remove it otherwise” This explicitly anticipates downstream usage (email vs remediation), which is exactly the kind of detail models often miss unless you state it. Rule of thumb: wording works best when it describes what to produce, in what format, with what filtering rules, and why the workflow needs it. How these parameters tie directly to the downstream actions The next picture makes the design intent very clear: each parameter is immediately “bound” to a normal workflow value via Compose actions and then used by later steps. This is the pattern we want: agent output → Compose → (optional) normalization → reused by deterministic workflow actions. It’s the opposite of “read the model output and hope.” This is the reusable pattern: Decide the minimal set of outputs the workflow needs. Specify formats that are easy to parse. Write parameter descriptions that encode both selection and formatting constraints. Immediately bind outputs to workflow variables via Compose/ SetVariable actions. The main takeaway from this tool is that the agent is being forced into a structured contract: three outputs with explicit formats and clear intent. That contract is what makes the rest of the workflow deterministic—Compose actions can safely read @agentParameters(...), the workflow can safely split(...) the invalid IDs, and downstream actions can treat the “invalid payload” as real data rather than narrative. I'll show later how this same “parameter-first” design scales to other agent tools. 2.4 Turning agent outputs into a verification email Once the agent has produced structured outputs (Validation summary, InvalidOrderIds , and Invalid CSV payload), the next goal is to make those outputs operational: humans need a quick summary of what failed, and the workflow needs machine‑friendly values it can reuse downstream. The design here is intentionally straightforward: the workflow converts each agent parameter into a first‑class workflow output (via Compose actions and one variable assignment), then binds those values directly into the Office 365 email body. The result is an email that is both readable and actionable—without anyone needing to open run history. The figure below shows how the outputs of Summarize CSV payload review are mapped into the verification email. On the left, the tool produces three values via subsequent actions (Summary, Invalid order ids, and Invalid CSV payload), and the workflow also normalizes the invalid IDs into an array (Save invalid order ids). On the right, the Send verification summary action composes the email body using those same values as dynamic content tokens. Figure: Mapping agent outputs to the verification email The important point is that the email is not constructed by “re-prompting” or “re-summarizing.” It is assembled from already-structured outputs. This mapping is intentionally direct: each piece of the email corresponds to one explicit output from the agent tool. The workflow doesn’t interpret or transform the summary beyond basic formatting—its job is to preserve the agent’s structured outputs and present them consistently. The only normalization step happens for InvalidOrderIds , where the workflow also converts the CSV string into an array ( ArrayOfInvalidOrderIDs ) for later filtering and analysis steps. The next figure shows a sample verification email produced by this pipeline. It illustrates the three-part structure: an HTML validation summary table, the raw invalid order ID list, and the extracted invalid CSV rows: Figure: Sample verification email — validation summary table + invalid order IDs + invalid CSV rows. The extracted artifacts InvalidOrderIds and Invalid CSV payload are used in the downstream actions that persist failed rows as IDocs for later processing, which were presented in Part 1. I will get back to this later to talk about reusing the validation agent. Next however I will go over the data analysis part of the AI integration. 3. Analysis Phase: from validated dataset to HTML output After the validation agent loop finishes, the workflow enters a second AI phase: analysis. The validation phase is deliberately about correctness (what to exclude and why). The analysis phase is about insight, and it runs on the remaining dataset after invalid rows are filtered out. At a high level, this phase has three steps: Call Azure OpenAI to analyze the CSV dataset while explicitly excluding invalid OrderIDs . Extract the model’s text output from the OpenAI response object. Convert the model’s markdown output into HTML so it renders cleanly in email (and in the SAP response envelope). 3.1 OpenAI component: the “Analyze data” call The figure below shows the Analyze data action that drives the analysis phase. This action is executed after the Data Validation Agent completes, and it uses three messages: a system instruction that defines the task, the CSV dataset as input, and a second user message that enumerates the OrderIDs to exclude (the invalid IDs produced by validation). Figure: Azure OpenAI analysis call. The analysis call is structured as: system: define the task and constraints user: provide the dataset user: provide exclusions derived from validation system: Analyze dataset; provide trends/predictions; exclude specified orderids. user: <csv payload=""> user: Excluded orderids: <comma-separated ids="" invalid=""></comma-separated></csv> Two design choices are doing most of the work here: The model is given the dataset and the exclusions separately. This avoids ambiguity: the dataset is one message, and the “do not include these OrderIDs ” constraint is another. The exclusion list is derived from validation output, not re-discovered during analysis. The analysis step doesn’t re-validate; it consumes the validation phase’s results and focuses purely on trends/predictions. 3.2 Processing the response The next figure shows how the workflow turns the Azure OpenAI response into a single string that can be reused for email and for the SAP response. The workflow does three things in sequence: it parses the response JSON, extracts the model’s text content, and then passes that text into an HTML formatter. Figure: Processing the OpenAI response. This is the only part of the OpenAI response you need to understand for this workflow: Analyze_data response └─ choices[] (array) └─ [0] (object) └─ message (object) └─ content (string) <-- analysis text Everything else in the OpenAI response (filters, indexes, metadata) is useful for auditing but not required to build the final user-facing output. 3.3 Crafting the output to HTML The model’s output is plain text and often includes lightweight markdown structures (headings, lists, separators). To make the analysis readable in email (and safe to embed in the SAP response envelope), the workflow converts the markdown into HTML. The script was generated with copilot. Source code snippet may be found in Part 1. The next figure shows what the formatted analysis looks like when rendered. Not the explicit reference to the excluded OrderIDs and summary of the remaining dataset before listing trend observations. Figure: Example analysis output after formatting. 4. Closing the loop: persisting invalid rows as IDocs In Part 1, I introduced an optional remediation branch: when validation finds bad rows, the workflow can persist them into SAP as custom IDocs for later handling. In Part 2, after unpacking the agent loop, I want to reconnect those pieces and show the “end of the story”: the destination workflow creates IDocs for invalid data, and a second destination workflow receives those IDocs and produces a consolidated audit trail in Blob Storage. This final section is intentionally pragmatic. It shows: where the IDoc creation call happens, how the created IDocs arrive downstream, and how to safely handle many concurrent workflow instances writing to the same storage artifact (one instance per IDoc). 4.1 From “verification summary” to “Create all IDocs” The figure below shows the tail end of the verification summary flow. Once the agent produces the structured validation outputs, the workflow first emails the human-readable summary, then converts the invalid CSV rows into an SAP-friendly XML shape, and finally calls the RFC that creates IDocs from those rows. Figure: End of the validation/remediation branch. This is deliberately a “handoff point.” After this step, the invalid rows are no longer just text in an email—they become durable SAP artifacts (IDocs) that can be routed, retried, and processed independently of the original workflow run. 4.2 Z_CREATE_ONLINEORDER_IDOC and the downstream receiver The next figure is the same overview from Part 1. I’m reusing it here because it captures the full loop: the workflow calls Z_CREATE_ONLINEORDER_IDOC , SAP converts the invalid rows into custom IDocs, and Destination workflow #2 receives those IDocs asynchronously (one workflow run per IDoc). Figure 2: Invalid rows persisted as custom IDocs. This pattern is intentionally modular: Destination workflow #1 decides which rows are invalid and optionally persists them. SAP encapsulates the IDoc creation mechanics behind a stable RFC ( Z_CREATE_ONLINEORDER_IDOC ). Destination workflow #2 processes each incoming IDoc independently, which matches how IDoc-driven integrations typically behave in production. 4.3 Two phases in Destination workflow #2: AI agent + Blob Storage logging In the receiver workflow, there are two distinct phases: AI agent phase (per-IDoc): reconstruct a CSV view from the incoming IDoc payload and (optionally) run the same validation logic. Blob storage phase (shared output): append a normalized “verification line” into a shared blob in a concurrency-safe way. It’s worth calling out: in this demo, the IDocs being received were created from already-validated outputs upstream, so you could argue the second validation is redundant. I keep it anyway for two reasons: it demonstrates that the agent tooling is reusable with minimal changes, and in a general integration, Destination workflow #2 may receive IDocs from multiple sources, not only from this pipeline—so “validate on receipt” can still be valuable. 4.3.1 AI agent phase The figure below shows the validation agent used in Destination workflow #2. The key difference from the earlier agent loop is the output format: instead of producing an HTML summary + invalid lists, this agent writes a single “audit line” that includes the IDoc correlation key ( DOCNUM ) along with the order ID and the failed rules. Figure: Destination workflow #2 agent configuration. The reusable part here is the tooling structure: rules still come from the same validation document, the dataset is still supplied as CSV, and the summarization tool outputs a structured value the workflow can consume deterministically. The only meaningful change is “what shape do I want the output to take,” which is exactly what the agent parameter descriptions control. The next figure zooms in on the summarization tool parameter in Destination workflow #2. Instead of three outputs, this tool uses a single parameter ( VerificationInfo ) whose description forces a consistent line format anchored on DOCNUM . Figure 4: VerificationInfo parameter. This is the same design principle as Tool #3 in the first destination workflow: describe the output as a contract, not as a vague request. The parameter description tells the agent exactly what must be present ( DOCNUM + OrderId + failed rules) and therefore makes it straightforward to append the output to a shared log without additional parsing. Interesting snippets Extracting DOCNUM from the IDoc control record and carry it through the run: xpath(xml(triggerBody()?['content']), 'string(/*[local-name()="Receive"] /*[local-name()="idocData"] /*[local-name()="EDI_DC40"] /*[local-name()="DOCNUM"])') 4.3.2 Blob Storage phase Destination workflow #2 runs one instance per inbound IDoc. That means multiple runs can execute at the same time, all trying to write to the same “ ValidationErrorsYYYYMMDD.txt ” artifact. The figure below shows the resulting appended output: one line per IDoc, each line beginning with DOCNUM , which becomes the stable correlation key. Destination workflow #2 runs one instance per inbound IDoc, so multiple instances can attempt to write to the same daily “validation errors” append blob at the same time. The figure below shows the concurrency control pattern I used to make those writes safe: a short lease acquisition loop that retries until it owns the blob lease, then appends the verification line(s), and finally releases the lease. Figure: Concurrency-safe append pattern. Reading the diagram top‑to‑bottom, the workflow uses a simple lease → append → release pattern to make concurrent writes safe. Each instance waits briefly (Delay), attempts to acquire a blob lease (Acquire validation errors blob lease), and loops until it succeeds (Set status code → Until lease is acquired). Once a lease is obtained, the workflow stores the lease ID (Save lease id), appends its verification output under that lease (Append verification results), and then releases the lease (Release the lease) so the next workflow instance can write. Implementation note: the complete configuration for this concurrency pattern (including the HTTP actions, headers, retries, and loop conditions) is included in the attached artifacts, in the workflow JSON for Destination workflow #2. 5. Concluding remarks Part 2 zoomed in on the AI boundary inside the destination workflows and made it concrete: what the agent sees, what it is allowed to do, what it must return, and how those outputs drive deterministic workflow actions. The practical outcomes of Part 2 are: A tool-driven validation agent that produces workflow artifacts, not prose. The validation loop is constrained by tools and parameter schemas so its outputs are immediately consumable: an email-friendly validation summary, a machine-friendly InvalidOrderIds list, and an invalid-row payload that can be remediated. A clean separation between validation and analysis. Validation decides what not to trust (invalid IDs / rows) and analysis focuses on what is interesting in the remaining dataset. The analysis prompt makes the exclusion rule explicit by passing the dataset and excluded IDs as separate messages. A repeatable response-processing pipeline. You extract the model’s text from a stable response path ( choices[0].message.content ), then shape it into HTML once (markdown → HTML) so the same formatted output can be reused for email and the SAP response envelope. A “reuse with minimal changes” pattern across workflows. Destination workflow #2 shows the same agent principles applied to IDoc reception, but with a different output contract optimized for logging: DOCNUM + OrderId + FailedRules . This demonstrates that the real reusable asset is the tool + parameter contract design. Putting It All Together We have a full integration story where SAP, Logic Apps, AI, and IDocs are connected with explicit contracts and predictable behavior: Part 1 established the deterministic integration foundation. SAP ↔ Logic Apps connectivity (gateway/program wiring) RFC payload/response contracts ( IT_CSV , response envelope, error semantics) predictable exception propagation back into SAP an optional remediation branch that persists invalid rows as IDocs via a custom RFC ( Z_CREATE_ONLINEORDER_IDOC ) and the end-to-end response handling pattern in the caller workflow. Part 2 layered AI on top without destabilizing the contracts. Agent loop + tools for rule retrieval and validation output schemas that convert “reasoning” into workflow artifacts a separate analysis step that consumes validated data and produces formatted results and an asynchronous IDoc receiver that logs outcomes safely under concurrency. The reason it works as a two-part series is that the two layers evolve at different speeds: The integration layer (Part 1) should change slowly. It defines interoperability: payload shapes, RFC names, error contracts, and IDoc interfaces. The AI layer (Part 2) is expected to iterate. Prompts, rule documents, output formatting, and agent tool design will evolve as you tune behavior and edge cases. References Logic Apps Agentic Workflows with SAP - Part 1: Infrastructure 🤖 Agent Loop Demos 🤖 | Microsoft Community Hub Agent Workflows Concepts Workflows with AI Agents and Models - Azure Logic Apps Built-in OpenAI Connector How to connect to AI foundry Create Autonomous AI Agent Workflows - Azure Logic Apps Handling Errors in SAP BAPI Transactions Access SAP from workflows Create common SAP workflows Generate Schemas for SAP Artifacts via Workflows Exception Handling | ABAP Keyword Documentation Handling and Propagating Exceptions - ABAP Keyword Documentation SAP .NET Connector 3.1 Overview SAP .NET Connector 3.1 Programming Guide Connect to Azure AI services from Workflows All supporting content for this post may be found in the companion GitHub repository.
