Attach Files when approving

[cadone]

Hi

In my flow I have an custom approval action.

I want approver to “attach” files when he approves.

No need to attach if he “Rejects”. 

Possible?

Thanks 

C1

[DAllen365]

I'm sorry I don't think you can do what you want with the approvals.  The Flow approval action is not customizable in that way to say require someone to attach files if they click a certain response.  All you get is custom response buttons and collect text as far as I am aware.  You could certainly have the flow email the user in that case to say they need to go to the item and attach a file.  If you really need this functionality, then I would consider only using Flow for the emails and having a form like a Power App with rules that require the attachment control based on certain criteria.  

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[cadone]

@DAllen365 

Thanks. I thought so too, but wasn’t sure. 

you mentioned email. I only know the send email action. I wish there was a ‘receive email’ or ‘reply email’ action. 

i will look into to use the approver custom text. 

Happy new year 😊

[DAllen365]

Hello @cadone,

I apologize maybe I misunderstood, you mentioned a "custom approval action" so I assumed you were referring to the custom responses of the approval action.  There are triggers for receiving email that you would have to have filters but even then, you can't require someone to attach a file.  Perhaps you can describe your desired process a bit more we could try to provide some guidance on something that would help you out.  Happy New Year as well!

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[cadone]

@DAllen365 

No you did not misunderstand. I did start off the route of custom approval. 

This flow I am working on will send pdf document for approval. . 
I want to allow the Approver to be able to send a ‘supporting document’ related to the approved pdf.

 
That’s I was looking for attaching files when approving. In realized approval action might not have that feature, then perhaps the approver could send an email back to the flow with attachments.

Hope this explains my requirements. 

Thanks

 C1

[DAllen365]

@cadone,

I understand but it just doesn't seem like an efficient way to do it.  I am not even sure what you are planning to do with the reference file once you get it via email or whatever.  I would assume you have this PDF that needs approval is sitting in a SharePoint doc library.  Then your approval flow is either triggered automatically on upload or manually on select.  Either way, it fires and requests approval, but it might need to store some reference files.  One way is to have another library to store these reference files, and either have these lookup to the parent, or just create a folder for each file getting approval.  So the approval Flow when it starts it creates a folder with the name of the file's ID.  Then in your approval action, in the body provide a link to this folder with instructions (e.g. If this approval has reference files, upload them here).  

[Den74]

Dear @cadone ,

I faced the same issue, as you are describing above half a year ago...

Did you find the way of how to attach file during the approval process?

If so, be so kind to share. Even shortly.

Looking forward,

Denis

[cadone]

Denis,

Yes, I was able to attach files to approval action.

The trick is to adjust the ContentBytes for the variable.

See below.

Hope it works.

Thanks

C1

[naveenatk]

Hi, 

I already have get attachments variable in the beginning of flow. But during the approval process when one of my user attach the file, it is not going to the next approver. Can i still use Get attachments there or what is the other option to use?

Thanks,

N

[DAllen365]

@naveenatk The flow approval email doesn't support the ability to have attachments by default.  You can review this previous discussion on a similar topic that might help.  I see 2 ways of doing this that involves not attaching these supporting files to the approval email.  You could pre-create a folder in a library that matches each approval, or you could link to the SP item and have the user attach the supporting file to that then respond to the approval.  Or you could make a power app that handled all the approvals then you could have full control of the process to accept new attachments during the approval stage.  Something like this from Reza or this from Shane.

I also looked into adaptive cards if you wanted to do your own custom approval email but it doesn't look like it has a file control input.  Hope one of the other options gives you a workable solution.

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