Can a flow be created to notify me when file is edited?

[Anonymous]

New to sharepoint.  I want to find any file edited by a specific user. Sharepoint keeps track of edits, using Version History and Modified by.  I presume a flow can help? I've never used flows. 

Is this possible?

Thanks, Vince.

[ScottShearer]

@Anonymous :

With "out of the box" Flow, you could loop through every file in every library in a site and check to see if the file was last edited by a given user.  You would need to specify each library that you want to evaluate.

To see if previous versions of a document were edited by a given user, you will need to call the SharPoint API to retrieve the version history and loop through each version.

It is possible, using another SharePoint API call, to enumerate every library on a site.  Once you have the list of libraries, you could then loop through every file in every library.

If this answers your question, please mark your post as Solved.  

If you like my answer, please give it a Thumbs Up.

Scott

[Anonymous]

Hi Scott!

I'm simply an office user, not a techie.  I've never used a Flow.  I looked for a Flow named SharePoint API , but nothing popped up.  I simply don't know how to get started.

So I guess I mis-intepreted your guidance. 

Thanks, Vince

[v-bacao-msft]

Hi @Anonymous ,

You could use When a file is created or modified as the trigger, specifying the Library you want to monitor.

Set Condition to determine if the current file has been updated. And determine whether Modified By email is equal to the email address of the specified user.

Then get the version of the current file via Send an HTTP request to SharePoint action, via the following Expression:

body('Send_an_HTTP_request_to_SharePoint')['d']['Odata__UIVersionString']

You could alos edit the information about the current file in notification.

Image reference:

For more details on using Rest API to get the file version, please refer to the Blog:

https://sergeluca.wordpress.com/2018/07/31/get-the-version-of-a-sharepoint-list-item-with-flow/

Please take a try.

Best Regards,

[Anonymous]

Barry,

Thanks for the reply.  I'm still not getting anywhere.

Your stated "You could use When a file is created or modified... "

From your email, I'm assuming I'm to start with a Flow template.  I was looking in the Flow templates for something called "When a file is created or modified"  Nothing matched.

So back at square one, still.  Please remember, I know NOTHING about Microsoft Flow, so I need to start from the very first step to get started.

Thanks, Vince

[v-bacao-msft]

Hi @Anonymous ,

You could create a Flow by following the steps in the screenshot, which is not difficult.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask questions.

Best Regards,

[Anonymous]

Hello again, after some difficulty and lots of time, I think I was able to create a flow, but I don't think it works.  It did not notify me when the person I'm concerned about actually made edits to a file.   I manually looked up the version history of a file she edited.  Sharepoint shows she edited a file AFTER I had created the flow.

So how do I troubleshoot the flow, to see if it works? Keep in mind, that I'm not skilled at software debugging. 

Thanks, Vince.

[v-bacao-msft]

Hi @Anonymous ,

Is Flow not triggered , or it not sending an email notification?

If it is the former, please check if Library is correct when testing. In addition, if you set Folder, then only the files in the corresponding folder can be updated to trigger Flow.

If it is the latter, then make sure that the Condition is set to Dynamic content-Modified by Email, and make sure that the email address is correct and valid, pay attention to capitalization.

Regards,