How to save most recent attachments to a folder?

[Australia]

Hi fellow PA veterans,

May I know How I could create a flow to get the most recent SharePoint attachments and save them in a folder?

Kindly see attached image for your reference.

>My 'Get Attachments' action always just pick up the attachments from the first row of my list. 

>My 'Create file' action for the folder creation would return an error when I re-submits new attachments. 'Folder with the same name already exists."

Hope someone could point me out where I've got it wrong. Thanks in advance.

[Mira_Ghaly]

@Australia

Can you try the solution suggested in the below post:

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Flows/Create-File-with-SharePoint-Connector-with-same-n...

[Australia]

@Mira_Ghaly , thanks again for your reply.

I am afraid the recommended solution for me. I actually have the trigger of my flow coming from Power Apps. Could it be the problem?

Error: "You may break your PowerApps triggered flow with the changes on the triggers"

I've also been trying another similar solution I found but received the same error:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/82189/copy-attachments-from-existing-sharepoint-l...

[v-litu-msft]

Hi @Australia,

You could create a Get file metadata action to run if the Create file action failed. How to set the Configure run after you could refer to screenshots as below:

If the file hasn't existed in the folder, the create file action could run successful, and Get file metadata and Update file action won't run;

If the file already exists in the folder, the create file action will failed cause already has same name file, but the Get file metadata action could run to return File Identifier, then you could use file identifier and Attachment content to update the file.

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.

[Australia]

@v-litu-msft Thanks for coming back to visit and answer my thread. Much appreciated.

I understand that the 'Get file metadata using path' is used to check if a file(s) already exists in a folder.

But what if I also want to check if a folder already exists in a document library?

i.e. Check if a folder already exists then check if a file(s) already exists in the folder

Thank you.

[v-litu-msft]

Hi @Australia,

Yes, you could use Get folder metadata to check the folder if exist.

If it exists, the action could work successful, or it will fail:

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.

[Australia]

@v-litu-msft Thanks Lin Tu.

Am I correct to say that for the full working Flow to work I should do the following:

Triggered by a Power App Save button >  Get Attachments > Apply to each (Get Content > Compose (folder) >Get folder meta data > Create File?

The desired output is:

Document Library/John Smith - 20.10.2020 (this folder naming convention is defined in PowerApps) /attachments x.pdf, y.pdf, z.pdf
(where z.pdf is the only new attachment, the other two are existing attachments)

The Flow checks if there's a folder already exists. If yes, save z.pdf in that folder otherwise create a new folder and save z.pdf there.

Thank you again.

[v-litu-msft]

Hi @Australia,

"The Flow checks if there's a folder already exists. If yes, save z.pdf in that folder otherwise create a new folder and save z.pdf there."

If so, there is no need to check the folder if already exists. The path should:

1. Triggered by a Power App Save button

2. Get Attachments

3. Apply to each (Get Content > Compose (folder))

4.1 Create File (If there is no corresponding folder exists, create file action will create a folder automatically)

4.2 if create file failed means there is the same name file exists. Then go to update file.

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.

[persona]

Sorry, replied on wrong thread

[Australia]

@v-litu-msft thank you for the reply.

I just tried to create the flow based on the instruction, but it seems I am missing file content?

I would be very grateful if you could shed some light on this. Kindly see below a screenshot of my flow.

Many thanks. 

[v-litu-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @Australia,

Steps as below, hope it could help you:

Run status 1, there is no same name file exists:

Run status 2, there is already same name file exists:

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.

[Australia]

Thank you again @v-litu-msft. 🙂

Just two questions if you don't mind with regards to your new flow,

1. Just out of curiosity, what is the purpose of 'Compose' step? It seems to me we can just move from 'Get attachment content' to 'Create file' directly as we can manually type the folder path.

2. For the very first step, 'Get attachments', I am getting an error:

The expression "web/lists(guid'00be2c6e-9cc2-441f-a9f7-fff441fa9f7')/Items(2020-10-23T11:14:55Z)/AttachmentFiles" is not valid.
I am guessing it's because I have not attachment any new attachments to the SP List.

Is it possible a second trigger 'when an item is created or modified' to the flow so that we can capture any new attachments? 

So it behaves like this:

 

[v-litu-msft]

Hi @Australia,

1. Compose is just a relay process. You could remove it and enter the folder path manually.

2. The error is caused by incorrect parameter in the Uri. 

GET https://{site_url}/_api/web/lists/getbytitle('{list_title}')/items({item+id})/AttachmentFiles/
Authorization: "Bearer " + accessToken
Accept: "application/json;odata=verbose"

For example:

_api/web/lists/getbytitle('ListA')/items(123)/AttachmentFiles/

Working with folders and files with REST | Microsoft Docs

3. Is it possible a second trigger 'when an item is created or modified' to the flow so that we can capture any new attachments? 

A: Yes, it is possible, actually, that's my previous Flow do, please have a try.

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.