Extract email address from Planner task Description

[Anonymous]

I am using Forms, Flow and Planner to have my customers fill out a request for assistance from an engineer.  Flow then creates a Task in Planner and updates the Desciption of the Planner task with the details that the requestor filled out. 

Since not all of my users/customers are on O365, I had to set the Form to allow anyone with the link to fill it out.  In order to collect their email address to populate in the Planner task, I added that as a field on the form for them to fill out.

Once they submit the Form, the Planner task is created and updated, a receipt email is sent to the requestor (based on the email address they filled in on the form) and I receive an email letting me know a new Task has been created.

I would like to create a flow that emails the requestor, letting them know the task is completed, once I mark the task as Completed.  However, I need Flow to be able to pull their email address from within the Description field of the task and I can't figure out how to do that.  Is this possible?

[edgonzales · Accepted solution]

@Anonymous 

Hi there!  So, my usual disclaimer that there are probably more elegant ways to do this, but this is the hammer I have...

Let me know what you think:

1. Add a step after the task is created to update a spreadsheet (or something) with the task ID and the email address from the form response.
2. Create a different Flow that is triggered when a task is completed.
3. It will then go get the requestor email address for that task ID in the spreadsheet (or something)
4. Compose a cool email saying the task is done.
5. +10 points for including a link to a customer satisfaction survey, and +10 more for dumping the results in a PowerBI report. 🙂

I have other ideas if you don't like that one. Is the email address the only thing in the description field of the task?  

Keep us posted.

[Anonymous]

Very interesting idea, I'll play with that and report back.

There is more information in the Description field, basically all the details the engineer needs to start working on the task.

[edgonzales]

Ok, I was thinking it wouldn't be that easy...if it was the only thing in the description field, we could just use that later.  But if it EVER was going to be not the only thing, then it wouldn't work.

Other options would include parsing it from the body somehow.  If it is consistently preceded by something like "Email", then we could automate that either with Parserr or some similar tool.

I'll watch for your update, good luck!

-Ed

[Anonymous]

Ok, I think I've found a solution.  I am VERY new to Flow and even O365 so I have a lot to learn but I just could not get it to work with a spreadsheet.  I'd get it to update it but maybe it would put multiple entries in it and then I'd get multiple emails.  Tried add/insert/update methods, even add and then delete but I couldn't get it to delete.  I know it has to do with understanding the 'Key column' and 'Key value', I haven't wrapped my head around that yet.

BUT, I ran across someone else's post about using a Sharepoint list, they were trying to do something a little similar.  I made fast progress on that.  So what I have working is when a customer submits a form, a task in planner gets created, they get a receipt email and I get a notification that a new task has been created.  Then the sharepoint list gets updated with information about their request.

I then have another flow that triggers when a task is completed to get the completed task details, then pull the information from the sharepoint list to send them an email.  It then updates the sharepoint list item with the completion date, pulled from the planner task.  I hope to find a way to do some reporting on those dates.

So very promising.  Thank you very much for getting me thinking in the right direction.

[edgonzales]

@Anonymous Great to hear!  I think it's all just a matter of finding the right rabbit-hole.  Once you get started, you'll get a feel for how to frame your searches to find solutions.  It's pretty fun.

BTW, here's a post on using Power BI with Sharepoint Lists. 🙂  Should help with the reporting.

[Anonymous]

Agreed.  I told a coworker it's like having all of the parts of a car laid out.  You've got everything you need to build a working car, you just need to understand how all the parts work so you can put them together.

Thanks for the Power BI post, I'll definitely be checking it out! 🙂