Sending email when assigned to changes in Sharepoint List

[austinthomas147]

I've been recently creating some Sharepoint workflows in Flow. But I keep getting tripped up on creating an email notification when the assigned to field changes in an item. If I have the "when an item is created or updated" trigger in the initial assignment flow, it never seems to kick off. But if I create a separate Flow for it, I can't get the condition right because I have no dynamic data to pull from. Anyone else running into this? Would love to see a condition like "Value changes" or something like that.

[v-yamao-msft]

Hi @austinthomas147,

Do you want to create a flow to send an email when an item is created or modified with a value in the Assigned to field?

You said that it never seems to kick off, do you mean that the flow cannot be triggered though you have created/modified an item?

What do you mean by “have no dynamic data to pull from”?

I create a simple for testing likes below. It can be triggered without issues, when the Assigned to field has a value, an email will be sent out.

The code in the condition is:

@not(empty(triggerBody()?['AssignedTo']))

Please take it for a reference and try it on your side.

 

Best regards,

Mabel Mao

[austinthomas147]

In my current Flow, I have the Assigned to value set based off value choice on a dropdown. For example: If issue value = Password Issues, assign to X employee.

The issue I am running into with the workflow is that I can't figure out how to get an email to send when the item is modified and the assigned to value changes. Using the previous example, employee X needs to re-assign the task to employee Y. I want employee Y to get an email that a request was assigned to her.

If I try to create a Flow using the trigger "When a Sharepoint item is created or modified", there's no logic expression to set a condition "if field assigned to changes" and I don't have the Dynamic Fields to pull from to do something like "if Update Item 1 Assigned to =/= Update Item 2 Assigned To Value. Just wondering if there's an advanced logic expression I can use or some way around this.

[Anonymous]

Hi folks,

I am facing the exact issue.

My Sharepoint list has the following columns. 

Please note:-

1. The Sharepoint list item has 22 columns and they will keep changing. The flow needs to only look at the "Assignedto". Currently using "Add or modify" is shooting an email every time the items in other columns is modified.

2. By default the "Assignedto" column is empty. So when the person's name is added, he/she needs to get an email.

3. If it's assigned to employee X and then it's assigned to employee Y, an email needs to be sent to Y.

Can someone with a bit of more knowledge on this please respond?

Many thanks.

Regards,

Vaz

[Linda777]

Hi v-yamao-msft,

Works for me. thanks.😀

[Anonymous]

Hello,

That condition looks good but I can't get my workflow to display that kind of condition. It only allows for comparing values.
How can I enter the condition you showed there?

Thank you.

BR Franzi

[Scott0044]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi folks,

I am facing the exact issue.

My Sharepoint list has the following columns. 

Please note:-

1. The Sharepoint list item has 22 columns and they will keep changing. The flow needs to only look at the "Assignedto". Currently using "Add or modify" is shooting an email every time the items in other columns is modified.

2. By default the "Assignedto" column is empty. So when the person's name is added, he/she needs to get an email.

3. If it's assigned to employee X and then it's assigned to employee Y, an email needs to be sent to Y.

Can someone with a bit of more knowledge on this please respond?

Many thanks.

Regards,

Vaz

---

Did anyone figure this out?  I have the exact same requirement

[Dread73]

No-ones come up with a solution for this in 3 years?? It shouldn't be that hard surely?? Fire off an email when the assigned to field changes to the new assignee??

[Scott0044]

LOL - I can barely remember posting this.  I must have figured this out and forgot to follow up.  I think I had some combination of new SP list fields like the following (I'll try and follow up with more details if needed i'm really pushed for time right now)  

1. create a choice column called 'email sent' and choices are yes/no (keep it hidden/off of the content type) - have the flow check this during conditions to prevent looping.  If the condition sees that it is equal to yes it will no to stop sending.  So your flow needs to update the item appropriately

2. create a people field called previous assignee - a flow condition should run when modified/created to copy the "assigned" field to "previous assignee" when previous assignee is equal to null.  that sorta thing.  The purpose here is to compare future item modifications and see if they are the same or changed.  If changed, send an email to 'assigned to' field again to the new person.  If same, ignore

3.  I can't recall but I think still a third choice column was needed to help prevent looping for changed assignees:  something like 'assigned?' with yes/no.  So the flow condition can stop looping on future modifications and such.

Ugh, that's what I recall doing to 'fix' this but it seems messy to me.  I'll need to dig up a working prod to share for future reference.

Cheers all!