How to: make certain Outputs non-required on Sharepoint 'For a selected item' trigger

[StevenWade]

Wanted to share an issue I recently ran into, and a quick fix. 

By default, all of the outputs you add to a SharePoint 'For a selected item' trigger are required, and there's no method to change the outputs to non-required via the UI. However, if you need a non-required output and you're willing to get into the json, you can change an output to non-required with the following steps:

• Export your Flow
• Edit the 'Definition.json' in the export zip package to remove the output fields you want to make non-required from the "required" property of the 'For a selected item' trigger 
• Re-import the Flow package

This makes the fields optional when the end user triggers the Flow.

Just be aware that the 'For a selected item' trigger will not pass any fields that were left blank into the Flow. So, your Flow needs to check for the presence of a field in the trigger output (using a contains()) before attempting to manipulate the field contents.

[v-yamao-msft]

Hi @StevenWade,

Thanks for sharing.

It seems that what you shared works perfectly.

Best regards,

Mabel Mao

[StevenWade]

Thanks! Was just sharing here in case others had the same issue.

[beginAgain]

Thank you for this - was searching for this very thing and ran across your article.

[beginAgain]

Hello,

I am able to alter the JSON file ok and that works great and I have 3 optional emails now in my flow. I understand what he means when he says "Just be aware that the 'For a selected item' trigger will not pass any fields that were left blank into the Flow." So how do I check that a field doesn't exist in the trigger output? In a condition I have tried:

@contains(triggerBody(), triggerBody()?['email'])

AND

@contains(triggerBody()?['entity']?['value'], triggerBody()?['email'])

So bottom line I just need help with figuring out how to tell if the field (in this case email) object is missing from the "For a selected item" object

 Anyone have any ideas? Any help will be appreciated

Thank you

[beginAgain]

Got the correct syntax from @StevenWade

My expression was too complex I guess, the below worked for me.

@contains(triggerBody(), '[email]')

He also referenced another article that says this will work:

@contains(triggerBody(), 'email')

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Flows/Check-triggerBody-for-existence-of-a-property-wit...

HTH - Cheers 🙂

[StevenWade]

Just be aware that you are looking for a literal text string within the trigger body -- @contains() is not JSON aware. That means you need to ensure some uniqueness within your variable names. In your 'email' example, @contains() would return TRUE if someone populated "email', 'email1', or 'email2'; or, if they just used the word 'email' in one of the text responses. Basing your conditional tests on generic variable names may generate errors or unexpected results.

This is a workable hack, and I've used it in several different scenarios. Just make sure you're using unique variable names.

[beginAgain]

Good advice ty 🙂