Power Automate Desktop loops through each row and ...

ejzen · ‎05-10-2021

Hi!

I've received a complex task that is problematic for me as I couldn't find the answers for my questions.

The process looks like that:

1. New item arrives on SharePoint - can be submitted in both csv and xlsx format.

2. Data from each row is submitted on a specific site.

I believe it should look like that:

1. Power Automate Flow is triggered "When a new item is submitted on SharePoint".

2. PA creates a table.

3. File is saved on a specific folder on my desktop.

4. Open Power Automate Desktop.

5. Run "Get files from folder" action. In the folder only new Excel file is present.

6. PAD loops through each row in the table.

7. PAD takes data from each row and puts it on a specific site.

8. After loop Excel file is deleted.

I know that points 1-5 are easy, but is it possible to prepare this flow to work in unattended mode?

Another question: is it even possible to open a new file that arrives in the folder with PAD and work on it?

I'll be grateful for any advice from you 🙂

PRatcliff · ‎05-11-2021

Hi @ejzen,

I'm not a pro user, but I do think those steps are achievable with Power Automate Desktop. I'm not clear on what you mean by a specific site, that could be either a specific file folder/location, or a specific website. The solution for your step 7 would depend on where you need to put it.

For your step 5,

use the Get files in folder action, and designate the folder. It doesn't sound like you'll need a filter or sorting of the results since the file is deleted after each run of the flow, but what I've done for new files in my Downloads folder is to filter for the file type using *.xlsx (or whatever file extension you'll need), and then sort by Creation time in descending order. Have that action produce a variable list named %DownloadedFilesList% (or whatever).
Set variable %filename% to %DownloadedFilesList[0]%. That takes the first item in the list, and makes it your new variable.

For step 6 (and 7),

Use the Launch excel action with the option to "open the following document", and use the variable %filename% as the file to be opened, but then edit it so the document path says %filename.FullName%. This tells Excel to use the full file path from that variable, and should open the file for you.
Use the Get first free column/row from Excel worksheet action, to define a variable of the first blank row so you can loop through the lines in your file that have data.
Define a variable for the current row as %Row% (or whatever) and set the default value as the first row number with data (this may be 2 if it's a simple table with headers, or something else, depending on the format of your file)
Insert a Loop condition action, with the condition being %Row% is less than %FirstFreeRow% (this variable was defined in the step above)

Inside the loop, use the Read from Excel worksheet action to read "Values from a range of cells", set the range of columns you need based on your data, then use the %Row% variable for both the Start Row and End Row. This will store the info in a variable.
Put step 7 inside the loop, so that each row is handled separately.

Use If or other logical processing to decide what "specific site" the data on that row needs to go to, and use the %ExcelData% variable to paste or fill the data on the "specific site" as you need it.

The last step before the end of the loop is to use the Increase Variable action to increase %Row% by 1.

For step 8,

After your loop finishes, use the Delete file(s) action and enter %filename% to delete that file.

For your last two questions, I don't know about/use unattended mode yet, so I'll let someone else address that. Yes, PAD can open and work on a new file, use the process above.

Hope that helps, and I'd love to hear any better/more efficient suggestions from other members.

PRatcliff

ejzen · ‎05-12-2021

Hi @PRatcliff,

I'm really thankful for your response! To be clear, that "specific site" is an internal site that serves to post job adverts. This means that flow takes data from each row in excel and puts that on that site in correct places, like "Name" "Job Title" and so on.

I believe that Web Recorder is necessary here. Hopefully I'll be able to insert it inside the loop.

I'll let you know how it works at least with the file that is currently existing in folder.

ejzen

PRatcliff · ‎05-12-2021

Hi @ejzen,

I agree, using the web recorder is your best way to set up the steps that your flow will need to follow for each line. If the steps from the web recorder populate somewhere else in your flow, you can just drag them to where you want them.

Best of luck,

PRatcliff