Date Field - 45 days to trigger flow

[TracyLivingston]

I'm working with a date field in D365 customer record and trying trigger a flow if that date value = XX days from today. I've done the same down stream process using many other triggers from the D365 records but I don't see how to create this type of trigger.

Thanks in advance. 

Tracy

[Rhiassuring]

To do this, you'd need to create a scheduled flow to run once daily, then use a condition - if date value equals addDays(UTCNow(),45,'dd-MM-yyyy'), then go down the yes path (where all your actions would be), and if not, just end the flow.

Cheers,

Rhia

[TracyLivingston]

Thank you Rhiassuring!

This worked in terms of what it returns, but it's not mapping against my existing date value. I'm testing today +2 and a TRUE response should be 5-5-2022 (addDays(UTCNow(),2,'MM-dd-yyyy')) but the two test records I have with start dates on the 5th are not processing like I expect. Those should be the only two that trigger a response but I get the loop through all the records.

[Rhiassuring]

Hey @TracyLivingston - so, this is UTC, so depending on where you are, it might need some tweaking. 

Can you show me from your run history what the addDays formula is ending up to be? (And your timezone, if you don't mind.) 

I'm lazy so sometimes I just remove / add days depending on what I need, since I'm Pacific time zone - I'll just be like, oh, UTC is 8h ahead of me, I'm running this at 11P every night, so it's one day ahead of me ... so I'll just do add 1 day instead of add 2 days.

R

[TracyLivingston]

Hi @Rhiassuring 

It looks like you expression is working fine. You can see from my Teams message (my debug) that the value is resolving to 5-5-2022 and I have two records with that date but they don't seem to be flagging as equal..Very frustrating 🙂

[Rhiassuring]

Ahh it looks like the format you'll need instead is yyyy-MM-dd for the date

[TracyLivingston]

@Rhiassuring  that worked, but  I had to change the qualifier to "contains" rather than is equal to which doesn't make sense to me but at least I can move forward with the rest of the flow and worry about that detail later.

Thanks for your help!!!

[vivekpande18]

Hi @TracyLivingston , 

Apply datetime formatting to your "Classs Start Date".

Ex - 

formatDateTime({{Start Class Date value}}, 'yyyy-MM-dd') 

Now, your both value have same formatting and you can compare it directly using "is eqaual to" . 

You  can get rid of "contains".

[TracyLivingston]

Thanks Vivek! But, I'm not clear where to apply the formatting in the flow?

[vivekpande18]

Hi @TracyLivingston , 

In condition, where you are comparing both 

Date fields

left parameter(data from crm) before Contains

if this solves your problem then don't forget to mark this as answer. This will help others as well

[TracyLivingston]

@vivekpande18,

Yes, I tried that first but getting an invalid expression error 😕 

formatDateTime({{vel_classstartdate}}, 'yyyy-MM-dd') 

Thanks for the help!

[vivekpande18]

Hi @TracyLivingston,

You can take use that expression inside compose action and use that compose action to compare.

It should work in this case.

[TracyLivingston]

Hi @vivekpande18

That gets me passed the invalid expression error but the flow still fails when it reaches the value.

formatDateTime('vel_classstartdate','dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm tt')

[Rhiassuring · Accepted solution]

The formatting goes into the left side of your Condition, here. Let me show you: 

Click where #1 is

Then, click on the Expression tab - #2. 

In there, you can enter this formula -- the orange part is the part where you need to add your Dynamic Content (in the tab to the left of Expressions, from above) from the Dataverse, probably called "Class Start Date" -- you can't leave it as text.

formatDateTime(ClassStartDate,'yyyy-MM-dd')

Then, click the OK button. 

Next, set your condition back to "is equal to".

Finally, your right hand expression will be the same as you had before and you enter it the same was as the one above, just in the right hand field:  addDays(UTCNow(),45,'yyyy-MM-dd')

So now you will have a nice purple expression on either side of your condition, like this:

edit: thank you to @vivekpande18 for pointing out my slip up here! Corrected! NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW.

[vivekpande18 · Accepted solution]

Hi @TracyLivingston  @TracyLivingston 

Just a small change in above solution. 

Make  sure you have same date format on both sides 

yyyy-MM-dd

It should not be different and I was talking about the same thing which @Rhiassuring  has explained above

[Rhiassuring]

Ahhh good catch! I'm going to update my post before he sees it so I don't confuse him >_>

[vivekpande18]

Perfect!!! 

[TracyLivingston · Accepted solution]

I understand what you are saying and really appreciate your patience 🙂

I've tried variations for two days but what I'm seeing is that it results in invalid expression, or the flow fails for IOS formatting.

The below part works fine, I can run "Class Start Date" by selecting from dynamic content  and then "contains" with the expression below and the flow works fine .

When I add the expression to reformat the starting value, I get the ISO 8601 error. The expression saves fine but on run the flow I get the IOS 8601 error above.

formatDateTime(vel_classstartdate,'yyyy-MM-dd') -- Saves fine and creates the expression but the flow breaks for bad ISO format at this point.

vel_classstartdate is the system id for the field, but it resolves back to Class Start Date when I reopen the expression after running (below).

formatDateTime('Class Start Date','yyyy-MM-dd')

And, I don't have the option of selecting the Dynamic Content for "Class Start Date". It's not in my list when  adding it to the expression.

BUT, it's an option if I simply select Dynamic Content as the entry option (not in the expression) as shown here:

@vivekpande18  @Rhiassuring you are both great and I'm sure I'm missing something so simple. Very frustrating and I appreciate the help. 

[Rhiassuring]

Wait, Class Start Date is resolving back to text on its own from the vel_ thing you had before!? That's a bug - no way there's not a bug.

[TracyLivingston]

Yes 🙂 that's exactly what I'm seeing.