Using MS Forms, Power automate, and SharePoint Libraries to build a records repository.

[bmyers2525]

I am trying to build a flow that allows for the easy automation and catalogging of user submitted data.

Essentially, I have a Group MS Form built as Part of my MS Teams Group. User's will fill out this form and then upload the necessary documentation in the form as well. Once these forms are submitted, it triggers Power Automate to make a folder with in my SharePoint library with information that is scraped from the MS Form submission. My goal is to take the PDF Files that are also uploaded as attachments in that MS Form, and have them automatically moved into the folder that was dynamically created in the last step by power automate.

Is this possible? The issue that I'm running into is that it seems that I can't assign the destination folder for the "Move File" action to be a dynamic folder based upon the user's submitted MS Forms information.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[trice602]

Hi @bmyers2525 ,

Yes, it is possible by using the create folder path in the create file path.  Please post your entire flow or if that is enough to get you up and running, please mark as a solution!  Always glad to help! Tom

[bmyers2525]

Here's the flow that I have so far. The Email portion works just fine, so I kept that minimized, but I can't figure out what I need to do to move the files. All of the files that I will need to move will probably be named something different because they're going to be submitted by users who always change the name of the doc before submitting to whatever they like. Thanks for the help!

[trice602]

Hi @bmyers2525 ,

Thanks for sharing.  I'm going to build this on my machine this morning and share with you.  Always glad to help! Tom

[RobElliott]

@bmyers2525 this won't ever work because you have 2 triggers in your flow: "when a new response is submitted" and "when a file is created...". You can only have 1 trigger in a flow -  the event that starts the flow running.. -  even though Microsoft haven't prevented you trying to add 2!  I think you shoulod sp;lit them into 2 flows.

Rob
Los Gallardos
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[trice602 · Accepted solution]

Hi @bmyers2525 ,

Here you go!  This works in my tests and happy to share this solution with you!  Please mark as a solution and give me a thumbs up!  Always glad to help! Tom

Results:  A file uploaded from a form question saved to a dynamic folder name

Here's the entire flow.  I will walk through the individual steps next.

The first thing I added is a compose.  This takes the responders email address and replaces the @ and the "." with an underline.  We will use the output from this to create our unique folder names.  Here's the output:

I have a nested replace().  I first replace the "@" then the "."

replace(replace(outputs('Get_response_details')?['body/responder'],'@','_'),'.','_')

Next steps List Folder and Create new folder:  Here in my sample SharePoint site in the document folder, I created a folder called FormAttachmentContents and this is where all the form attachment results will be stored.

Next I will create a new folder and it is dynamic, based on the user's email address from our compose.  So this is going to create a folder at  /Shared_Documents/FormAttachmentResults/tom_gotoreports_com/

Note:  after reviewing you do not need list folder (was adding during testing but never referenced)

Next I will use a compose action to create the entire dynamic folder path.  This is just an concatenation of the hard coded path and the dynamic folder.

concat(outputs('Create_new_folder')?['body/{Path}'],outputs('Compose'))

Next we will add a Parse JSON action.  We need to get the JSON from the get response details action output.  Where do you get the JSON?  In a test run, in the output of the get response details, you will see the JSON response from your add a file question (mine is called Add a file).  You want to copy that JSON.

Next when we add Parse JSON, click on the Generate from sample button and paste in your JSON.  This is going to create the scheme for your action.  We are getting close to finishing!  Stay with me 🙂

 Next you will add the create file action.  Once you start adding in variables (as shown below), this step is going to automatically get wrapped in an apply to each (because your question may have more than one file attachment).  Even if there is always only going to be one file, this still works, and I typically leave it in this format.

OK, your dynamic file path is from the output of the compose 2 we created earlier.  Remember this is the concatenation of the hard-coded path plus the dynamic folder name (tom_gotoreports_com).

Next, we point to the Parse JSON output and select the 'name' for the file name and 'link' for the file content.  That's it!  Please mark as a solution!  Always glad to help! Tom

 

[bmyers2525]

@trice602 This looks great! I'll mark this as the solution, but I won't be able to test it until Monday.

This is a lot of great information but I do have another question.

Is it possible to have the folders named from a compilation of data from the forms, or does that stop the flow from working properly? The idea is to name the folders with the user's last name / first name / and a 7-digit id number that will be submitted in the form by the user. Ideal file naming would look like this "LASTNAME FIRSTNAME 7777777"?

Thanks again for all of your help!

[trice602]

Hi @bmyers2525 ,

You can absolutely have the folder name LAST NAME FIRST NAME NUMBERS and I will be glad to get this working with you next week (I will actually look at this tonight).  Please mark this as a solution, means the world to me!  Always glad to help! Tom