Email Delay based on column update

[ThomasEarlS1]

Hi All,

Having moved my procurement process from an excel spreadsheet to a Sharepoint list, I have managed to obtain the email functionality that I was looking for using the flow process below.

The trouble I am having now is that an email is sent ANYTIME a column is updated which can lead to a bombardment of emails when in fact I would only like an email sent when the column 'Order Status' is updated. (See example below)

Is there anything I can do to help delay the email being sent until the Order Status is updated and ignore all other columns being updated?

I hope this makes sense.

Thank you so much in advance.

[efialttes]

Hi!

there are several approaches:

1.- Use either conditional triggers; or a condition inside your flow to verify if the content of your target column is what you are looking for; please note you need to design carefully since this can lead to infinite loops if your flow needs to update the item.

2.- Use an aux boolean Column to let users report when your logic should run and when it shouldn't. So SP list users manually set the flag to YES, your flows does the magic and automatically sets the flag to NO. You can combine this approach with approach#1 and this way avoid infinite loops

3.- Activate Version History on your SP list, so your flow compares current target column value and also last value stored by means of 'Send an HTTP request to Sharepoint'; in order to avoid infinite loops. This is the most precisa strategy, but also the most complex to implement. You will find an example here

Also you can get a good overview of the last two approaches in the following post and the links inside it

https://powernimbus.com/2019/06/microsoft-flow-avoiding-the-sharepoint-list-update-trigger-infinite-...


Next steps?
My humble suggestion is:

1.- To decide which of these three approaches is the most valid for your challenge

2.- To give it a try

Please let us know your progress! Thanx!

[ThomasEarlS1]

@efialttes Thank you for your response!

I am relatively new to Power Automate and have been handed some tasks to complete as part of my objectives for this quarter so trying to get to grips with it!

I have tried adding the following condition (not sure if this is what you meant?) which runs successfully when I update the order status but I still receive an email when I update any other column.

My flow does not need to update an item, this is done my myself manually as and when orders are received etc.

The only time an email needs to be sent to the relevant team member is when the request has been either, ordered, pending approval or has been delivered, which are my choices on my Procurement Tracker List.

Many thanks,

Thomas 

[efialttes · Accepted solution]

Hi again!

I am afraid your current strategy is not enough, becuase once you change status into 'Ordered' this status is kept, so if you change any other column but still keep 'Ordered' status your flow will be reexecuted.

Did you consider an extra status (let's call it 'Ordered and Notified')?

So whenever you manually set the item to 'Ordered' your flow is executed, then on your true branch you can add an 'Update item' whose purpose is to update status from 'Ordered' to 'Ordered and Notified'.

This means, flow will be reexecuted, but this time it will take false branch thus avoiding a neverending loop.

If this approach is according to your requirements, please take a try

Hope this helps

[ScottShearer]

@ThomasEarlS1 

If you store that data in a SharePoint list, here is a link to a blog post that I wrote that shows h...

Also, here is a link to another blog post that I wrote that shows how to avoid an infinite loop.

[Reimi]

Hi,

I'm afraid that the trigger you are using is older one because "when an existing item is modified" is not listed in my trigger list.

There are some case when we are using old trigger, there are latency for trigger to fire after the actual time item is modified.

I recommend you to use new one instead.

Here is a trigger list currently used in Power Automate.

https://docs.microsoft.com/ja-jp/connectors/sharepointonline/#triggers

I hope this will helpful to you.

thanks