Append to String Variable Not Working

[fernandosilva]

Hi all,

I'm building a flow coming from an action in Power Virtual Agent that get the data of the customer and display on the chatbot.

The first block is the "Get Row" where I connect to the database, table name and row.

Until that point is fine, so after that I use the "Initialize variable" to store the data and the "Append to string variable".

The latest is not working as the dropdown is blank and I cannot place a name manually. When I click on the arrow down, nothing comes up and I can't fill up the "Name" field.

See screenshot below:

Any help with that would be great.

Also, after that step, how do I get the data from the variable and show it on the chatbot from Power Virtual Agent?

That will also be a great help if someone can do it.

Kind regards,

Fernando

[Pstork1]

Can you show a screenshot of the Initialize Variable action for the variable you are trying to reference?  Also a screenshot showing where it is in the flow in relationship to the append action.

[fernandosilva]

HI @Pstork1 ,

See screenshot below.

The Append to string variable is faulty as I can't write a name manually, but also when pressing the arrow-down, it's all blank.

If you need more info, please let me know.

 

I know these Microsoft tools are quite new and I'm a newbie, so Microsoft tutorials are not fully helpful.

Any help would be great.

[Pstork1]

The problem is you initialize the variable as an array but want to append to a string.  Either change the initialize to a string variable or use the append to array action.  Do you want the variable to be an array or a string when you are done?

[fernandosilva]

Hi @Pstork1 ,

The final data would a string, so I changed to string.

Now, on the "Append string to variable" dropdown, the name of the variable created above is showing up. Is that the name that I need? I don't know as the value is the same of the name.

Quite frustrating. 

[Pstork1]

You pick the name of the variable you want to append to in the dropdown.  The value should be whatever value it is that you want to append.  Right now you are trying to append an empty string variable to itself, so I doubt that is what you want.  I assume what you want is to append some value from the SQL rows that you retrieved.

[fernandosilva]

Hi @Pstork1 ,

I managed to get it right.

Now, when I'm on the chatbot and i want to display a message with the value of the variable, the chat keeps in a loop. I guess that is another subject... 😕 ....frustration....

[fernandosilva]

That's the point the data is not passing through:

No idea why is not passing through.

[Pstork1]

As a troubleshooting measure, try adding a compose that contains the value you are appending to the string variable right before you append it inside the loop.  Then after a run you'll be able to see what the actual value was that was being appended to the string.

Also, your original screenshot shows a Return value to PVA action, but there is no data in it.  Make sure you add the variable to that or it won't return anything.  When you get back to the bot you can display the returned value in a message.

[fernandosilva]

Hi @Pstork1 ,

I have done it all.

Can't get my head around these blocks.

I could easily do the same process with gulp and an Ajax call to the server, but as I need to connect to PVA, this is my only way to do it and I can't get the value to show on PVA or even the flow to work properly.

Microsoft tutorials are not really helpful and they seemed to think everyone is a developer and knows all the languages, which is why they advertise the PVA for non developers...lol

As soon as I make one value to pass through PVA, I'm happy, so I can make all the data I need to pass through.

This is my latest set up.

[Pstork1]

I had meant to put the Compose inside the same Apply to Each loop as the Append to String, but your current setup should also work.  When you look at a previous run how many loops are the Apply to each making?  What values are you seeing in the Compose loop?  What does the string being returned to PVA contain?  What issue are you having?

I'll be happy to help, but your setup looks like it should work.

[fernandosilva]

Hi @Pstork1 ,

What I'm trying to achieve:

I'm creating a flow from Power Virtual Agent for a Insurance company and when the customer place their policy number I want to retrieve the Policy from the sql database with the following details:

Policy Number

Full name

Email

Phone number

Package (insurance package)

After retrieve the data from the sql server, I want to display on the chat bot.

I know that if I can retrieve one single data, the other ones are gonna be easier.

As I'm new to Power Automate, I'm struggling to pass a single data for now hehe.

[Pstork1]

So when you look at a previous run of the flow what are you seeing as values in the Compose statements in the Apply to each loop?  Is it showing Policy numbers?  And are they being appended to the string variable?

[fernandosilva]

@Pstork1 

Hi there, I managed to make it work initializing the variable before the server request, adding the compose block and the parse jason block before adding to a string variable and returning that variable to PVA. 

I works better with HTTP as I'm doing an api call.

Thank you for all your support.