cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Reply
ejzen
Frequent Visitor

Power Automate Desktop loops through each row and puts data on site

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 🙂 

3 REPLIES 3
PRatcliff
Frequent Visitor

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

 

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

 

 

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

Helpful resources

Announcements

Power Platform Connections - Episode 7 | March 30, 2023

Episode Seven of Power Platform Connections sees David Warner and Hugo Bernier talk to Microsoft MVP Dian Taylor, alongside the latest news, product reviews, and community blogs.     Use the hashtag #PowerPlatformConnects on social media for a chance to have your work featured on the show!      Show schedule in this episode:    0:00 Cold Open 00:30 Show Intro 01:02 Dian Taylor Interview 18:03 Blogs & Articles 26:55 Outro & Bloopers    Check out the blogs and articles featured in this week’s episode:    https://francomusso.com/create-a-drag-and-drop-experience-to-upload-case-attachments @crmbizcoach https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3522H834Ro​/  @pranavkhuranauk https://github.com/pnp/powerapps-designtoolkit/tree/main/materialdesign%20components @MMe2K​ https://2die4it.com/2023/03/27/populate-a-dynamic-microsoft-word-template-in-power-automate-flow/ @StefanS365 https://d365goddess.com/viva-sales-administrator-settings/ @D365Goddess https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=megel.mme2k-powerapps-helper#Visualize_Dataverse_Environments @MMe2K    Action requested:  Feel free to provide feedback on how we can make our community more inclusive and diverse.    This episode premiered live on our YouTube at 12pm PST on Thursday 30th March 2023.    Video series available at Power Platform Community YouTube channel.    Upcoming events:  Business Applications Launch – April 4th – Free and Virtual! M365 Conference - May 1-5th - Las Vegas Power Apps Developers Summit – May 19-20th - London European Power Platform conference – Jun. 20-22nd - Dublin Microsoft Power Platform Conference – Oct. 3-5th - Las Vegas    Join our Communities:  Power Apps Community Power Automate Community Power Virtual Agents Community Power Pages Community    If you’d like to hear from a specific community member in an upcoming recording and/or have specific questions for the Power Platform Connections team, please let us know. We will do our best to address all your requests or questions.       

Announcing | Super Users - 2023 Season 1

Super Users – 2023 Season 1    We are excited to kick off the Power Users Super User Program for 2023 - Season 1.  The Power Platform Super Users have done an amazing job in keeping the Power Platform communities helpful, accurate and responsive. We would like to send these amazing folks a big THANK YOU for their efforts.      Super User Season 1 | Contributions July 1, 2022 – December 31, 2022  Super User Season 2 | Contributions January 1, 2023 – June 30, 2023    Curious what a Super User is? Super Users are especially active community members who are eager to help others with their community questions. There are 2 Super User seasons in a year, and we monitor the community for new potential Super Users at the end of each season. Super Users are recognized in the community with both a rank name and icon next to their username, and a seasonal badge on their profile.  Power Apps  Power Automate  Power Virtual Agents  Power Pages  Pstork1*  Pstork1*  Pstork1*  OliverRodrigues  BCBuizer  Expiscornovus*  Expiscornovus*  ragavanrajan  AhmedSalih  grantjenkins  renatoromao    Mira_Ghaly*  Mira_Ghaly*      Sundeep_Malik*  Sundeep_Malik*      SudeepGhatakNZ*  SudeepGhatakNZ*      StretchFredrik*  StretchFredrik*      365-Assist*  365-Assist*      cha_cha  ekarim2020      timl  Hardesh15      iAm_ManCat  annajhaveri      SebS  Rhiassuring      LaurensM  abm      TheRobRush  Ankesh_49      WiZey  lbendlin      Nogueira1306  Kaif_Siddique      victorcp  RobElliott      dpoggemann  srduval      SBax  CFernandes      Roverandom  schwibach      Akser  CraigStewart      PowerRanger  MichaelAnnis      subsguts  David_MA      EricRegnier  edgonzales      zmansuri  GeorgiosG      ChrisPiasecki  ryule      AmDev  fchopo      phipps0218  tom_riha      theapurva  takolota     Akash17  momlo     BCLS776  Shuvam-rpa     rampprakash  ScottShearer     Rusk  ChristianAbata     cchannon  Koen5     a33ik  Heartholme     AaronKnox  okeks      Matren   David_MA     Alex_10        Jeff_Thorpe        poweractivate        Ramole        DianaBirkelbach        DavidZoon        AJ_Z        PriyankaGeethik        BrianS        StalinPonnusamy        HamidBee        CNT        Anonymous_Hippo        Anchov        KeithAtherton        alaabitar        Tolu_Victor        KRider        sperry1625        IPC_ahaas      zuurg    rubin_boer   cwebb365   Dorrinda   G1124   Gabibalaban   Manan-Malhotra   jcfDaniel   WarrenBelz   Waegemma   drrickryp   GuidoPreite    If an * is at the end of a user's name this means they are a Multi Super User, in more than one community. Please note this is not the final list, as we are pending a few acceptances.  Once they are received the list will be updated. 

Register now for the Business Applications Launch Event | Tuesday, April 4, 2023

Join us for an in-depth look into the latest updates across Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform that are helping businesses overcome their biggest challenges today.   Find out about new features, capabilities, and best practices for connecting data to deliver exceptional customer experiences, collaborating, and creating using AI-powered capabilities, driving productivity with automation—and building towards future growth with today’s leading technology.   Microsoft leaders and experts will guide you through the full 2023 release wave 1 and how these advancements will help you: Expand visibility, reduce time, and enhance creativity in your departments and teams with unified, AI-powered capabilities.Empower your employees to focus on revenue-generating tasks while automating repetitive tasks.Connect people, data, and processes across your organization with modern collaboration tools.Innovate without limits using the latest in low-code development, including new GPT-powered capabilities.    Click Here to Register Today!    

Check out the new Power Platform Communities Front Door Experience!

We are excited to share the ‘Power Platform Communities Front Door’ experience with you!   Front Door brings together content from all the Power Platform communities into a single place for our community members, customers and low-code, no-code enthusiasts to learn, share and engage with peers, advocates, community program managers and our product team members. There are a host of features and new capabilities now available on Power Platform Communities Front Door to make content more discoverable for all power product community users which includes ForumsUser GroupsEventsCommunity highlightsCommunity by numbersLinks to all communities Users can see top discussions from across all the Power Platform communities and easily navigate to the latest or trending posts for further interaction. Additionally, they can filter to individual products as well.   Users can filter and browse the user group events from all power platform products with feature parity to existing community user group experience and added filtering capabilities.     Users can now explore user groups on the Power Platform Front Door landing page with capability to view all products in Power Platform.      Explore Power Platform Communities Front Door today. Visit Power Platform Community Front door to easily navigate to the different product communities, view a roll up of user groups, events and forums.

Microsoft Power Platform Conference | Registration Open | Oct. 3-5 2023

We are so excited to see you for the Microsoft Power Platform Conference in Las Vegas October 3-5 2023! But first, let's take a look back at some fun moments and the best community in tech from MPPC 2022 in Orlando, Florida.   Featuring guest speakers such as Charles Lamanna, Heather Cook, Julie Strauss, Nirav Shah, Ryan Cunningham, Sangya Singh, Stephen Siciliano, Hugo Bernier and many more.   Register today: https://www.powerplatformconf.com/   

Users online (2,884)