Generic MS Flow

[RamyaNarasimhan]

Hi, 

I have built an approval MS flow for a specific channel in MS Teams.The flow steps are -

1. Whenever a new file is created in a team's channels folder in Sharepoint, a trigger kicks of a flow.

2. Flow notifies the respective channel in MS Teams.

3. Flow sends an email to the approver from the list in sharepoint.

4. Once approved, MS Teams channel has been notified 

5. Email has been sent to the requester.

6. And the approved document will moved to an "approved" folder under the channel's folder in sharepoint.

Now, My question is , how can i build a generic flow which works for all teams channel. Like what i need is, 

1. I will be creating a generic approval request folder in sharepoint. 

2. Whenever a doc is created on the folder, the flow should kick off.

3. And the flow should notify the doc's respective channel (not the generic folder's team's channel).

4. And the approver (from the list of sharepoint) should be notified via email too.

5. When the approver approves/rejects, the doc's respective teams channel has to be notified.

6. And an email has be sent to the requestor.

7. And the approved file has to be moved to the specific channel's folder from the generic approval request folder.

I am not sure, how to post message to the doc specific channel in MS Flow.? Can anyone help me with this?

Thank you!

[v-litu-msft]

Hi @RamyaNarasimhan,

There is no request API could listen to multiple MS Teams channel folders in SharePoint. For information security and protection of personal privacy. The only way is to create a separate Flow for each team individually.

To save trouble, you can create this Flow and export it to a zip file, if a new team create, import it into the Flow and tweak some configuration to the new team.

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ Lin Tu
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[RamyaNarasimhan]

Hi, @v-litu-msft 

Thank you for the response.

Sorry for the confusion. The API should look for new files in a single folder, for example, "approval submission folder" in sharepoint. 

My question is - When the approval process triggers, I need the channel notification to the respective channel not on the "approval submission" channel.  Is that possible?

And when approved, the document should be moved to the respective channel's folder. Is it possible? 

Can you pls help me figure out? Thank you!

[RamyaNarasimhan]

@v-litu-msft ,

I have changed my trigger to look for a new document in entire teams folder (instead of channel folder), and it works fine. Whereever I create a new doc inside the teams folder, the trigger kicks off. 

And I have initialized a variable to get the folder name where the new doc has been created. This works fine too.

Next I choose that variable value in dynamic content of channel name in MS Teams Post a Message (V3). The variable value is being passed correctly. But still the teams post message failing with error code 400 - Bad request. What could be the reason. I see the correct value for the channel field inthe post message block. When I tried to replace the channel value by choosing it from the list of channels dropdown, the post message works fine. 

Can you pls help me figure out the post message failure which will help me build the flow successfully. Thank you!

[v-litu-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @RamyaNarasimhan,

Teams channel is a string of ID, you could use List channel action to find it, so when you post a message to the channel, the field of the channel should be the ID:

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ Lin Tu
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[RamyaNarasimhan]

@v-litu-msft ,

Thank you so much for your repsonse. I believe I can pass the ID from the list channels output to the post message(V3) channel drop down.

Keep you posted on the my progress. Thanks again!

Ramya

[RamyaNarasimhan]

@v-litu-msft ,

I have set a channel name in a variable. 

After the list channels action, i want to do an IF statement to find the matching for the channel name to get its respective channel ID..

can you pls help me to figure out this? My looping condition failing. not sure whats wrong.

Thank you!

[RamyaNarasimhan]

@v-litu-msft,

I figured out to post message(V3) to specific channel from channel_name variable. Thank you 🙂

One more query, when I post message (V3), I dont see new message notification in MS Teams.  The channel notifications are on for each messages and replies. Can you help me fix it? I get notified for messages from bots. 

Thank you!

[RamyaNarasimhan]

@v-litu-msft ,

Sorry to bother you. One more quick question - So, I am working on creating an approval flow for documents. If the approver took long time to review and approve/reject the document - will the flow wait or time out? I have steps to be followed if approved or rejected. Like moving the file to an another folder, sending out a status email and posting the status in MS Teams. Will these run without timing out if the approval took longer time? 

Please help me figure out solution also if the flow will timeout?

Thank you!

Ramya

[v-litu-msft]

Hi @RamyaNarasimhan,

I am back. The duration of the Flow is 30 days. Includes Flow with pending steps like approvals. After 30 days, any pending steps time-out.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/limits-and-config#run-duration-and-retention

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ Lin Tu
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[RamyaNarasimhan]

@v-litu-msft ,

Great! Thank you so much!

When I post message (V3), I don't see new message notification in MS Teams.  The channel notifications are on for each messages and replies. Can you help me fix it? I get notified for messages from flow bots. 

Hopefully this will be my last query regarding this. 🙂

Thank you for all the help.

Ramya

[v-litu-msft]

Hi @RamyaNarasimhan,

It is about notification in Teams:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/manage-notifications-in-teams-1cc31834-5fe5-412b-8edb-43fec...

The notification did not alert maybe caused you did not open the following setting:

And the alert wouldn't appear on yourself, cause you are the message publisher.

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ Lin Tu
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[RamyaNarasimhan]

@v-litu-msft ,

Great! thank you.

Channel settings are good. It could be because I am the one who is posting, and the message is addressed to me as well. Thats why its not notifying may be.. Thank you!

On other critical query - Suddenly this morning, I am getting "unauthorized" 401 message in MS Teams connection in my flow. Its a sporadic issue. Not sure whats the reason. FYI - Last evening, I have changed my Outlook password.  And I connected or created new connection in my flow also. But that didnt solve the issue. Can you pls help? all my flows are breaking now..

One more question -- So based on the project/document - There could be different set of approvers. Whats your recommendation to handle that situation.? Where and how can I store the approver list and fetch and check condition to choose? Right now, I have a list in sharepoint  with three approvers. I need each document should go to different approver set based on the document content.

Thank you!

Ramya

[v-litu-msft]

Hi @RamyaNarasimhan,

1. After you edit password of the Outlook, all connection about OutLook will be invalid, you should recreate a new connection and connect these Flows with new connections, after reconnect, please save the Flow and close it, reopen you will find it could work.

2. You could store these approvers into a SharePoint list or Excel file with necessary columns, such as Name, Emailaddress, etc. When you send the Emails, you could use Get items action with filter query to get the corresponding approvers to send document.

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ Lin Tu
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[RamyaNarasimhan]

Hi @v-litu-msft ,

Thank you so much! All you replies helped me really to get my flow working.. Thanks again!!!

1. Is there any other way for the email password change doesnt affect connection? can we have a test email which doesnt need to change the password every 90 days? is that even possible?

2. For the multiple approver list problem - i have created multiple approver list item in sharepoint. And from the file, i figured out which approver list i should use for approval. I have fetched, get lists sharepoint action, to fetch all lists.  I got similar result:

[

  {

    "Name": "093140ee-1d20-4fe6-a1db-4318b93d2b59",

    "DisplayName": "A1",

    "Type": "100"

  },

  {

    "Name": "9eedaf6e-0e4c-4e84-95ab-212e329f550c",

    "DisplayName": "A2",

    "Type": "100"

  },

  {

    "Name": "5a463db1-f45f-4e25-8f9c-53e6bbadd792",

    "DisplayName": "Test Approvers",

    "Type": "100"

  }

]

I parsed the Json and filtered the matched display name and set the corresponding name (the string value - kind of id) in to a variable. And i am using that variable in get item of sharepoint for the List name field (instead of choosing from drop down I assigned the variable). The flow is successful. But I dont get the  output of get item as variable and values. instead its all wrapped in body and dumped as below. 

How can i get the data in respective columns like below? 

Can you please help?

Thank you!

Thank you!

Ramya

[v-litu-msft]

Hi @RamyaNarasimhan,

1. Unfortunately, once the outlook password changes, these connections about it should recreate. You could create a recurrence trigger to remind you to recreate the connection every 90 days.

2. I do not quite understand your problem, the dynamic content of the Get item could use directly in the next steps.

Do you want to separate these Approver Emails?

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ Lin Tu
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[RamyaNarasimhan]

HI @v-litu-msft ,

1. Yeah, thats good idea to have  a trigger to remind me to recreate the flows when I change my outlook password. Thanks!

2. My scenario is - There will be multiple approver lists in Share point. We need to use each list to its corresponding channel (we have different channel for each project) because the approvers will vary based on the project. 

for example, 

Approver list 1:

1. Ramya

2. Ramya 2

3. Ramya 3

Approver List 2:

1. ABC

2. ABC 2

3. ABC 3

Approver List 3:

1. XYZ

2. XYZ 2

3. XYZ 3

So, based on the document the approver list should be choosen dynamically along with dynamic channel. So the filename will help me to find out these two variables. For example, I need approval for my document named -

sample_document.pdf@MS Flow Test Channel@Approver List 2.

so, when the new file added triggers, I split the filename and get the channel it belongs, and the approver list the file has to go through. I came up with this flow, because we have so many channels and it will be hard to create a flow for each channel. So I am making a generic flow which applies and works with each channel inside our team. 

The flow goes as follows:

1. When the new file trigger starts. 

2. I set variable for channel name (which i split from the filename)

3. I set variable for approver list name (which i split from the filename)

4. Get list of channels to find out the respective channel Id for the channel name.

5. Get lists of share point lists.

6. Filter the  get lists JSON to match the approver list variable to get id/Name. - I dont see ID in the results. Only name, display name, type are the fields in the get lists JSON. The get lists results is as follows:

[

  {

    "Name": "093140ee-1d20-4fe6-a1db-4318b93d2b59",

    "DisplayName": "Approver List 3",

    "Type": "100"

  },

  {

    "Name": "9eedaf6e-0e4c-4e84-95ab-212e329f550c",

    "DisplayName": "Approver List 2",

    "Type": "100"

  },

  {

    "Name": "5a463db1-f45f-4e25-8f9c-53e6bbadd792",

    "DisplayName": "Approver List 1",

    "Type": "100"

  }

]

7. Pass the name value to get 1st approver's information in get list and set the approver 1 information in a variable.

5. Notify the approver from the respective approver list in MS Teams.

6. Start the approval process.

7. Notify the approve/reject status via email and MS Teams.

Here are the screenshots of my flow:

On the last pic,  in "Set Variable 3" , I should set the Approver emails from the Get Item (the one above set variable 3) piece's  results. But I dont see the Get item's approver related details in dynamic content. The body is outputted as whole json not as individual field values as I sent screen shot yesterday. 

Hope my steps are clear. Can you please help me find out hte solution for this?? how to fix the Get item part or any other way to solve my problem?

Thank you so much!!!!

Ramya

[v-litu-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @RamyaNarasimhan,

Thank you for screenshots and explanation. I am clear know your desire now.

The reason for the dynamic content of Get item action not appear is caused by the List Name is dynamical, Flow couldn't parse uncertain JSON.

As a workaround, you could add Parse JSON action after Get item action, there is a tutorial could help you:

https://prairiedeveloper.com/2018/12/parsing-json-in-microsoft-flow/

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ Lin Tu
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[RamyaNarasimhan]

HI@v-litu-msft ,

I tried to do parse JSON, but I dont even see the Get item from the dynamic content part on the right. Attached picture of the same for your reference. 

Can you please help me to figure out this please?

Thank you

Ramya

[v-litu-msft]

Hi @RamyaNarasimhan,

Please remove Parse JSON 3 action temporarily and run the Flow once first, then copy the output of Get item action, then edit flow, add Parse JSON 3 action, click Generate from template to past content just copied into it. The content field, you could type expression:

@body('Get_item')

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ Lin Tu
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.