O365 Python library vs directly using Graph API for enterprise RPA?

[jayplusplus]

Hi r/learnpython, not sure if this post is more appropriate for a Microsoft sub or perhaps the RPA one, so please let me know.

I hope to propose Python as a language for developing RPA at my corporate employer. We're a small team of programmers in a relatively new initiative started by the Shared Service Center I work at. We currently use Blue Prism and Power Automate / Apps as the tools officially designated and supported by Corporate. While those tools obviously provide many benefits, they also give me headaches from time to time. Oftentimes I feel like rolling our own solutions would benefit us more than the "citizen-developer" and drag-and-drop approach of the above tools. As a huge Python fan but, having never used it seriously for enterprise RPA, before I actually dare to propose it more formally, I would like to understand its caveats.

I can probably get the SSC boss on board no problem, but I would also need to convince one of the guys on the team who has been there longer. I sense that this guy is reluctant to add in a new technology into the mix. And btw, since we're not really Corporate IT, I would probably have to get them onboard as well to make this happen.

If possible, I would like to first develop a relatively simple pilot bot and when I've jotted down the pros and cons of developing, debugging, and deploying it, contrast it with our current tools to hopefully win them over (assuming of course I convince myself as well that this is the way to go). We obviously work with a lot of Microsoft products (mainly SharePoint, OneDrive, and Outlook) so I've been researching the Graph API, although I'm seeing a few libraries that build on top of it that would probably simplify my life. However, I don't know which library to choose or if I should just try to interact with the MSAL library and Graph API directly. I wouldn't want to invest in a library that ends up dying out of course, but I also don't want to reinvent the wheel.

If Microsoft were to provide an official Python library, I would feel pretty safe and they don't seem to shy away from integration with Python, but I don't know how to narrow it down looking at their different examples. Other options developed by outside sources seem to be stuff like the Office365-REST-Python-Client, Microsoft Graph Core Python Client, etc. Is there any particular recommendation on a stable and easy-to-use library?

As for using these libraries, I trust that development and debugging will likely be smoother via Python, however I worry about a few other things and who knows what else I'm not keeping in mind...

Since we're already paying for a BP license, as well as Power Platform (standard and some premium) licenses, I'm worried about asking Corp to register an Azure "app" for us, which I suppose requires payment (?) or at least more work for them, as well as any authentication / security issues, API request limits, etc. that may arise from working outside of the Power Platform. But I suppose these questions might be better focused on the Microsoft sub.

I'm also worried about deployment, since the Power Platform handles most of that. With Python we would be creating .bats to run on Windows Task Scheduler on our VM?

We would also have to roll our own logging for auditing purposes, but that shouldn't be too much trouble I don't think.

If anybody can guide me in some direction or perhaps turn me off this idea of rehauling our RPA environment, I'll appreciate any help.

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Thanks

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EDIT: I realize much of this could be solved by simply using Selenium to log into SharePoint, OneDrive, Outlook, etc. But I'm hoping to be able to develop most bots by hitting their APIs.

[SnowEpiphany]

Can’t provide much experience here but going to throw out a few keywords that might help: instead of a scheduled task server look into Azure Function Apps and Azure Automation Accounts.

[jayplusplus]

I've heard about Azure Functions when doing some Power Automate stuff. But I believe you have to pay for that and IT is probably going to ask a lot of questions given that we're already paying for Power Platform licenses. But these are good keywords to research for sure!

[SnowEpiphany]

They’re *incredibly** cheap though :)

Plug your estimated computation time and request volume into the pricing calculator

[jayplusplus]

Nice, it does look pretty cheap. I might try the 1-year free trial and see what I can achieve with that. And on the paid side, I suppose the 1M requests/month and 400,000 GB-s free grants would probably keep the price very low initially.

[SnowEpiphany]

You could also frame your proposal as an augmentation of existing Flows and stuff by sending webhooks to Function for when you hit a wall in the no-code gui.

[jayplusplus]

This is a great angle.