Save collection as file

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

Is it possible to save a collection as a file?

I've created a flow to save to sharepoint however in powerapps I am getting the error that the formula needs text rather than a table

[Mike8]

Hello Collen,

Unfortunately flow can receive only strings from powerapps and not a table.
You can concat the table in Powerapps in order to send it to Flow and use the split function in Flow in order to have it as a table.
Check online and you can find examples.
Also you can create a JSON string in powerapps using the concat function if you know how to do it.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Mike for the info! 

I've been looking around and struggling to find examples of what you're talking about. Could you provide me with a link or so that demonstrate concatenating a table - then flow recreating it?

Kind regards,

Colleen

[nickduxfield]

@Anonymous,

If your keen, you can patch to a list with columns that you can pass to flow.

Flow can take action on an item added, and evaluate.

Flow can use an ID and / or other columns to filter a table as in a SPList.

You can then use the Get Items action / Select DataOperations / Generate HTML action in MSFlow to create a HTML table that can be placed in an email or possibly an attachment to an email. etc.

Scenario:

It might be good to do that in powerapps by connecting a flow to a button, but I needed to make a record anyway to carry the request / approval. Doing so allowed me to have 1 record, that

1. represented a collection of items in a SPList.
2. The record allowed me to Flow to look back on changes
3. and or make updates autonomously.

You may wish to take this approach nstead of placing a heavy workload on an OnSelect action.

[Mike8]

Hello Colleen,

You can use this as reference
https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Connecting-To-Data/Collection-from-PA-via-Flow-to-SP-list/td-p/9...

If you have trouble implementing it, maybe I can help

[v-xida-msft]

Hi @Anonymous,

Do you want to pass a collection from your app to your flow?

Currently, a flow could only accept strings as input from PowerApps, if you want to pass a collection from an app to a flow, I afraid that there is no direct way to achieve your needs in PowerApps currently.

As an alternative solution, I agree with @Mike8's thought almost. Please check and see if the following blog would help in your scenario:

https://www.techmikael.com/2017/05/saving-collection-of-images-from.html

Best regards,

Kris

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone - this is all really useful and will bear this in mind.

I'm trying to do a work around at the moment using how powerapps automatically changes excel spreadsheets when connected, as what is happening there seems rather complex - however it's likely i'll need to turn back to this if my way fails so thanks 😄

[bbar0121 · Accepted solution]

As an alternative you could collect the data and display into an HTML table to either copy and paste the data into excel or email the html table.