Flow not triggering when multi-line text with append changed in SharePoint

[hilary_stoupa]

We have a Flow that is set to run when a SharePoint List Item is added or changed. It writes the SharePoint values to a SQL table.

I've noticed the following:

1. When we edit an item in the list without using the Edit All button (i.e., the edits for each field are immediately saved) the comment doesn't always get captured
2. It seems that the latest comment is only available if it is part of the saved edit - that is, the returned data from the list item doesn't always include it if it wasn't saved with other edits
3. So - say I edit the title, description and comment - the Flow may only run one time, and may not include the comment change
4. It seems to work better if we use Edit All and all changes are saved at the same time
5. If I use Edit All and then immediately make another edit, the comment again may not be returned with the list item data in the Flow

Looking at just the REST results from the list item, I can see the latest comment may or may not be present in the item data, depending on whether it was part of the last edit.

I believe there is no REST API that will return the list item versions - is that correct? If there were, I could just change my Flow to go get the comments for each item as needed. 

Any work around for this? 

[Anonymous]

I know in the documentation for each Flow connector, there's a limit on how many API calls/minute you can make, etc. My guess would be that if you're editing them one at a time, you're triggering the flow after the first change is saved (e.g. description), and if you change the comment a couple of seconds later, it's too soon to make another API call so it's ignored.

I'd try the following work around:

>>When an item is created or modified,

>>Delay 5 minutes

>>Get item (the same item that triggered the Flow)

>>Update SQL table with the modified item (all dynamic content comes from Get item step)

Hope that helps!

Ryan

[hilary_stoupa]

Thanks for the suggestion! The issue I have is that if the comment wasn't appended to in the most recent edit, it's value isn't returned w/ the rest of the item data... So, if we had appended to the comment first, then changed the description, the REST call won't include the comment at all. 

[Anonymous]

I don't use SQL and you sound a little more advanced than me in your technical knowledge, but it still seems to me that it might be worth a shot to delay 5 minutes and then get the item. In theory, that should consistently get all recent changes.

[hilary_stoupa]

Thanks - I'm attaching a couple of screenshots to highlight the issue w/ this. The first is the XML returned from the REST query for a specific item - using the REST API, with a URL like: 

https://mysiteurl/_api/web/lists/GetByTitle('mylistname')/items?$filter=ID eq 125

Here's the comment field - it has no value:

Looking at the same list item, I can see the comment saved from a prior edit:

So, if I were to run the Flow right now - the data returned won't have the most recent comment. Everything else works as anticipated - all the other "latest" values are there! If the most recent edit included a changed comment, that value would be returned in the REST query (and thus, to the Flow).

That's why I keep hoping there is a way to access the list item version via REST, so I can just go get each version of the field.

[Anonymous]

Again, you clearly are more advanced in this area, but I get the jist of what you're saying.

Are you somehow able to call only those fields of the list item that were updated? I wouldn't know where to begin to make a REST API call, but in Flow, I don't believe there's an option to retrieve just the fields in a list that were updated last (There have been times I wished there was, though).

When I use the "when an item is created or modified" trigger, I have the dynamic content available for every field in that list (unless it's an unsupported type), and there's no easy way to tell which changes were made when the Flow was triggered. I've never had any problem with missing data when I've used Flow in this way, although I see the advantage of retrieving only the data that's new.

If the latest comments could be retrieved, but they came with all of the old comments and everything else from that list item, can you work with that?

I suppose, since you're copying the data to SQL server, you could use the data already stored there as a means of comparison to isolate only the most recent changes if that's something you need to achieve.

Does any of that sound like it could work for you?

[hilary_stoupa]

So, once I realized that if there were no comments added to the most recent edit, they weren't in the data returned to the Flow from the trigger (SharePoint "when item is created or modified"), I changed the Flow to check if there was a value in that field from SharePoint, compare it to the SQL value I had for the item, and if the specific comment wasn't already in the DB, to add it.

That all works.

But then, we get into the issue of edits made in quick sequence. I'm guessing when I edit an item, especially when I don't use edit all, the Flow trigger doesn't necessarily run for each individual save. And that's why we end up with some missing comments. 

For example:

1. I add to my comments field
   1. This adds my comment, if I were to trigger the Flow right this second, there would be data in the field
2. I modify a different field, like Description
   1. If we run the REST query right now, the comment added in step 1 wouldn't be returned - it is from the prior "version" of the item
3. Flow runs, gets the description and other changes, but since the comment is not returned, we are missing that comment

If I could get all the comments from all the versions of the item in my Flow, that would be perfect - I'd aggregate them, and just update my SQL table with the aggregated comments.

Sorry, I know this is kind of confusing, and it took me a lot of digging just to even see what was happening. 

[hilary_stoupa · Accepted solution]

I found it - there is a REST API for getting all the versions of a list item:

https://mysite/_api/web/lists/GetByTitle('mylistname')/items/getbyid(126)/versions

With that, I can aggregate the data and populate my DB with all the comments thus far. Thanks again for your suggestions, it was actually while I was typing up my last reply to you that I realized I should try narrowing my search results for finding the REST API to the past year, in case there was a recent update that just wasn't returning high enough in the result order....

[Anonymous]

Glad you've figured it out.

[GabrielStJohn]

Hey, @hilary_stoupa!

Thank you for posting to the Flow Community Forum! It appears you have found a solution to your issue! If you feel as though your issue has been solved and you are satisfied with one of the previous replies, please click "Accept as Solution" so that this thread will be marked for other users to easily identify!

Thank you for being an active member of the Flow Community!

-Gabriel

Flow Community Manager

[hilary_stoupa]

So - since I can get version info from the REST API, I marked that as best answer. I think the fact that the Flow doesn't run on every change means appended text can get missed is important and something that maybe should be addressed at some point, however.