How can I check for updated SharePoint list items each time my cloud flow runs?

[ianwuk]

Hello Everyone.

I have a cloud flow that uses the Get Items option for SharePoint lists to retrieve the current values in the list I choose.

For example, if my list looks like this and has two entries:

Name: Joe Bloggs
Email: jb124@email.com

Name: Jane Doe
Email: jd127@email.com

The flow will get those details and then I can add a condition to do something.

But, if someone updates the actual SharePoint list (e.g., adds a new list item or deletes an existing one) what do I have to add to my flow to tell it to check for updates to the SharePoint list I choose every time the flow runs?

So, I imagine my flow would be:

1 - Check for updated SharePoint list items
2 - Get list items
3 - Do something

Can anyone help me with point 1 please?

Thank you so much!

[Sundeep_Malik]

Hey @ianwuk 

So, you want to know what was the previous value of the current updated field. For this you can use send an http action. 

Giving you some links, which might help:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqme7N_PUDc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek4oYWPWfT0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT6BpixFbHY

[ianwuk]

Thank you for replying @Sundeep_Malik.

I managed to get it to work by creating an array variable to store the email addresses from my SharePoint list and then using an Apply to Each to add each email address to the array and then joining them together and using that Output as the list of addresses to send the email to.

It works, but with a problem - the flow sends the email twice - how can I fix that?

Meaning that I run the flow and everyone in the SharePoint list gets two copies of the email - how can I stop that from happening?

Thanks so much! 

[Sundeep_Malik]

@ianwuk 

Maybe your apply to each loop is running twice and copying all the email ids twice, and adding to the array. 

So for this you can use union function so that it remove duplicate ids. 

[ianwuk]

@Sundeep_Malik 

I may have done this wrong, but I added a union statement as a Compose and it still sends emails twice.

The syntax is union(variables('var_Email_Array'),variables('var_Email_Array'))
 - where 'var_Email_Array' contains all the email address from the SharePoint list.

The output looks correct when the flow is run and joins the two email addresses from the list.

Outlook correctly uses the Output from the Join operation to send the email.

But it still sends out emails twice, meaning that if the SharePoint list looks like this:

Name: Joe Bloggs

Email: Test123@test.com

Name: Jane Doe

Email: Test124@test.com

When the flow runs, Joe Blogg sends out two emails to both Joe Bloggs and Jane Doe as the recipients and Jane Doe receives two emails from Joe Bloggs with Jane Doe and Joe Bloggs as the recipients.

Hope that makes sense.  Thank you!

[Sundeep_Malik]

Can you share the full flow in edit mode? Hide you personal data. And show one flow run too.

[ianwuk]

@Sundeep_Malik 

Here is my flow build:

SP List, with email address field I want highlighted:

Email address in SP List:

mylistemailaddress@test.com;
mylistemailaddress2@test.com

1- Get items from SP List and create array variable to store them.

2 - Go through each value in SP list and store Email Address value into the array variable

Sample output:

Name: var_Email_Array
Value: mylistemailaddress@test.com

3 - Run a Compose of a union statement and then join the email addresses together

Sample Output from the Compose:

[

  "mylistemailaddress@test.com",

  "mylistemailaddress2@test.com"

]

Which is then joined from the Join operation as:

mylistemailaddress@test.com; mylistemailaddress2@test.com

4 - Send email using the Output of the Join Operation:

To: mylistemailaddress@test.com; mylistemailaddress2@test.com

Does it matter that the Power Automate login account I am using to run the flow is registered also to mylistemailaddress@test.com?

Thanks so much.  I'm so close to solving this.

[Sundeep_Malik · Accepted solution]

@ianwuk 

I am really confused now whats happening. 

In  most of these cases where mails are sent many times, the send email is in an apply to each loop, but in your case its not. 

Do one more thing. 

Instead of taking append to array, use append to string and separate it with semi colon. 

Like: in append to string:

YourEmailDynamicExpression;

Then no need to use union(I hope you dont have duplicate emails in your list)

Then dont use join as you already have them separated by semi colon. 

And then use this string variable in send email.

Extra: 

One more possible reason it could be sending 2 emails could be, the flow is running twice. Not sure how its happening, but in some cases I have seen flows running twice, when pressed run flow. So, once check if flow is running twice or not.

[ianwuk]

@Sundeep_Malik I am really confused too, in my (very) limited knowledge of Power Automate, this should work.

I've now updated my flow to look like this:

1 - Get SP list items
2 - Create string variable
3 - Append to string variable

Is that correct?

In my final step now, for the Outlook To what do I put?   I have nothing to select from the string array variable.

Thanks again!

[Sundeep_Malik]

@ianwuk 

1) You cannot add the initialize string variable inside an apply to each. It will give you an error. Initialize it outside apply to each.

2) Put a semi colon in append to array.

3) Probably it will not show in send email. You will have to write it manually in that:

variables('YourStringVariableName')

Something like below:

Click on add dynamic content and add the string variable there or write the expression I have written above.

Hopefully this will work 🙂

[ianwuk]

@Sundeep_Malik 

1 - I updated my flow to initialise the variable properly and append the ;.

2 - I added the variables dynamic expression in the To field for Outlook the references my string variable.

The flow runs fine - but still two emails sent - I'm stuck now.

Not sure if there is anything else we can try?  But thanks so much for all your help!

[Sundeep_Malik]

Btw did you check the run history, I hope the flow is not running twice. 

[Sundeep_Malik]

In the above screenshot I see you have made the send email inside the apply to each or some other action?? Am I correct?

[ianwuk]

@Sundeep_Malik 

Thank you so much for all your help - you are completely correct.  I'd been staring at the wrong part of the flow for so long I forgot about the sending email part.  As soon I moved that out of the loop to a new step it now only sends one email as expected.

You've been a fantastic help, thank you so much!