Slow running of Apply to each only joining data

[Garth]

Hello everyone, I need some help in speeding up an automation, in brief what the automation does is:

• Receive an email and clean it up
• Retrieve a list of email addresses, <3400 emails
• Build JSON to email 100 addresses at a time

Our email provider have a limitation in that you can only send emails to 100 email addresses at a time and building this list is where the Flow is slowing down (Apply to each):

To explain the above, I get the 100 email addresses in the HTTP command, Parse them to get them out and then build the array of 100 email addresses and email content.

Anyone got any thoughts or suggestions how I might speed up this process?

[VictorIvanidze]

Hello @Garth, 

could you show the output of HTTP 2nd?

[Garth]

I really don' get how the output of that is relevant to my Apply to each, but here is an excerpt with details changed to protect details:

{
  "offset": 0,
  "limit": 100,
  "size": 3304,
  "_links": {
    "self": {
      "href": "API Call goes here"
    }
  },
  "_embedded": {
    "contacts": [
      {
        "id": 1,
        "email": "email@address.com",
        "_links": {
          "self": {
            "href": "HTTP reference to contact"
          }
        }
      },
      {
        "id": 3,
        "email": "email@address.com",
        "_links": {
          "self": {
            "href": "HTTP reference to contact"
          }
        }
      },
      {
        "id": 4,
        "email": "email@address.com",
        "_links": {
          "self": {
            "href": "HTTP reference to contact"
          }
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

Whilst there is only three (3) contact, this was shortened from the 100 records that are returned. The Parse JSON, then extracts those email addresses and uses them in the Apply to Each.

Thanks for reaching out and I hope this helps get to the bottom of our issue.

[takolota]

@Garth 

@VictorIvanidze seems to be on the right line of questions here.

You should be able to select just the emails from the original contact array.

You will need to put something like 

body('HTTP')?['_embedded']?['contacts']

In the From field of the Select action.

Then change the action view with the action button in the upper right so it doesn’t have a grid-input. It should change to something looking like free text.

Then in that box, put 

item()?['email']

so it will form an array of all the emails.

From there, if you need to create batches, you should be able to use the skip( ) & take( ) expressions to select each batch.

Then wherever you want to put the emails, you can use something like

join(body('Compose'), ';')

(Where Compose holds the array batch of emails you created.)

That should join all the emails in the array into a single string & put a ; semicolon between them.

[VictorIvanidze]

Have a look at this (Compose contains the output you just provided). Action Select converts JSON to a string array of emails:

The function in the From field is   outputs('Compose')?['_embedded']?['contacts'] 

Map field contains  "@{item()?['email']}"

UPD: Hi @takolota, sorry I missed your excellent suggestion while I wrote mine  one  😉 

[Garth]

Hey @VictorIvanidze and @takolota thanks so much for your help, I believe I may be a little step closer.

So that I can test it with our live system, I have made a branch so that I can test it next time the automation runs. This is what I have for the moment inline with what you have suggested:

However, I get this will get me the emails in an array, but how do I add the extra data I need into the array. My current Append command does this (the variable "Outputs" is static, only the email address changes):

The array that you have gotten me to get the email addresses needs to have other data added to each element as per the above, thus how would I go about that?

[takolota]

@Garth 

Where is “dynamic_warning_content” coming from?

I don’t see it in the HTTP data you listed earlier and I don’t see any other actions in you flow that reference other data.

[Garth]

@takolota to send the email I have to build the JSON to send a HTTP API request to the email provider to send the email to the 100 people. To do this I have to format each of the "records" a particular way as specified above.

dynamic_warning_content is actually a variable in the email template that I fill with the "Outputs" text which is the same for each email address. Here is an excerpt of what the Post Body looks like that I am building (only includes one (1) email, but there could be up to 100 rows for recepient):

{
  "list_id": 111111,
  "message_id": 1111111,
  "type": "email",
  "group_name": "Group Name Text",
  "subject": "Subject text",
  "recipients": [
     {"email":"email@server.com","dynamic_warning_content":"<body><p></p><div style='background-color:#F8E7E8; width:100%; border-style:solid; border-color:#CA3E47; border-width:1pt; padding:2pt; font-size:10pt; line-height:12pt; font-family:'Calibri'; color:Black; text-align:left'></div><br><p></p><div><div class='ocaemailbody'><div><div><strong>CANCELLATION - Yelarbon and Goondiwindi - fire as at 4:22pm Friday, 22 April 2022</strong></div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>This fire is now extinguished.</div></div><div>&nbsp;</div><div><strong><span style='color:#FF0000'>Location Data:</span> </strong></div><div>&nbsp;</div><p>- <strong>QFES Regions:</strong>&nbsp;3 South Western Region</p><p>- <strong>Councils:</strong>&nbsp;Goondiwindi Regional Council</p><p>- <strong>Suburbs:</strong>&nbsp;Billa Billa (4390), Brush Creek (4387), Bybera (4387), Callandoon (4390), Glenarbon (4385), Goondiwindi (4390), Inglewood (4387), Kindon (4390), Kurumbul (4388), Whetstone (4387), Wondalli (4390), Wyaga (4390), Yelarbon (4388)</p></div></div></body>"}
   ]
}

Thus this is reason I am trying to find a way to do the "Append" quicker as this is the thing slowing down my automation.

[takolota]

@Garth 

Okay I’ve done something similar to this then.

If each recipient has a different JSON body in that array, then you can switch that Select action back to the original format with the table view. Make sure you are using the correct expression in the From field

body('HTTP')?['_embedded']?['contacts']

Put email on the left side of the 1st row & dynamic_warning_content on the left side of the 2nd row.

Then click in the right side of the 1st row next to the email cell to open the dynamic content window, go to the expressions tab & put in this expression

item()?['email']

Then go below that to the cell next to the dynamic warning cell & insert the static content for the dynamic warning content value of the HTTP request.

That should give you the array of JSON objects required for the recipients field you showed above in the HTTP request without using any loops. So it will process everything in under a second.

[Garth]

@takolota that is awesome, but it didn't work.

I am now just trying a test similar to what @VictorIvanidze posted above, but I cannot get the Select to work.

[Garth]

@VictorIvanidze I am trying to get this to work just like your example however simply pasting the JSON returned into a Compose does not allow my select to work as it sees it as a string.

[takolota]

@Garth 

I don't know why you are adding all those Compose actions. If you just use the parameters I listed

?['_embedded']?['contacts']

after the HTTP body in an expression, then it gets the right array.

Here, I copied the HTTP sample you gave us into a Compose action (You do not need to use a Compose action as you have the actual HTTP action) and I set up the Select action the way I described. These were the successful results.

[Garth]

Thanks @takolota for the speedy response, the reason I am using a compose is I am trying to test the select action in a test environment without running the production flow that needs to work.

I will try again.

[Garth]

@takolota 

Thanks for the help, I took a step back and took a copy of the original flow and simply remove the sending API call and tested with that and your code worked and much quicker.

To test on the production flow I have branched from the HTTP 2nd call and done the building of the body for the API call and will see how it runs next time it runs.

thanks also go to @VictorIvanidze for their help as well,  I will report back when the production flow runs.

[VictorIvanidze]

HI @Garth,

please show the fields of your Select actions.

[Garth]

and the "Outputs" is just a variable where I have constructed my HTML to send.

In testing, my previous run would take between 18 - 20 minutes, now it has taken between 2 - 4 minutes.