AutoReply to O365 Group

[John_S]

Hello Gentlemen,

I am trying to create an AutoReply to an O365 Group. The Group is used to receive outside orders, so multiple emails from the same user/company email could be possible in a 24 hour period. The users of the group would like a SINGLE reply to each new email that has been received. Currently I have created a flow that will generate a reply, but it goes into a loop by replying to itself.

How can I reply ONCE to a newly created conversation (thread??) in the group?

Thank you for your assistance in this matter - John

[v-duann-msft]

Hi @John_S 

Thank you for posting.

According to your description, you would like to enable autoreply for O365 group but get looped email infinitely. If any misunderstanding, please kindly let me know.

I tested from my end and got exactly same result as yours. Based on the O365 group mail connector, I don’t think it’s feasible in flow.

From my opinion, maybe you can try powershell to enable auto-reply configuration for O365 groups if you want.

Set-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration -Identity O365group -AutoReplyState Enabled -InternalMessage "Internal auto-reply message." -ExternalMessage "External auto-reply message."

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/exchange/set-mailboxautoreplyconfiguration?view=e...

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/office-365/o365-group-autoreply-to-external-email-address/m-p...

Hope the content above may help you.

Best regards,

Anna

[John_S]

Hi Anna,

I have found a way to limit the Multiple Reply problem to only one Thread. The following will not reply to every thread in the Group, but will only reply to the one which receives a new email.

So I remain with a few issues:

1) What is the correct terminology? What is a conversation? Thread? Post? Group? Yes I have read the docs, but there is no clear definition. Please ELI5 if you can. 

2) Variables: what is available? How do I extract and compare them? I found this (https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Flows/Stop-flow-adding-apply-to-each/m-p/142815#M14232) to stop the looping and I kind of get it, but I have not been successful in accessing any variables.

3) Going with the above, TimeStamps. Looking at the returned data from the "New Email Arrives to a Group" trigger, I get the following:

{"headers":{"Transfer-Encoding":"chunked","Strict-Transport-Security":"max-age=31536000","request-id":"f5e36ccc-98d1-480d-8499-849fe40109f4","client-request-id":"f5e36ccc-98d1-480d-8499-849fe40109f4","x-ms-ags-diagnostic":"{\"ServerInfo\":{\"DataCenter\":\"West US\",\"Slice\":\"E\",\"Ring\":\"5\",\"ScaleUnit\":\"002\",\"RoleInstance\":\"BY1PEPF00002593\"}}","Timing-Allow-Origin":"*","x-ms-apihub-cached-response":"true","retry-after":"60","Cache-Control":"private","Date":"Thu, 20 May 2021 01:18:50 GMT","Location":"https://unitedstates-002.azure-apim.net/apim/office365groupsmail/shared-office365grou-a38bb5fb-3acf-...; odata.metadata=minimal; odata.streaming=true; IEEE754Compatible=false; charset=utf-8","Content-Length":"796"},"body":{"id":"AAQkADBjNTY3YTE5LWNlZjQtNDFmOS1iOTU0LTQ1ZDhmMWNmMDU1MQAQAHVAm5n0lchDh8thPuNwhtI=","lastDeliveredDateTime":"2021-05-20T01:16:34Z","threads":[{"id":"AAQkADBjNTY3YTE5LWNlZjQtNDFmOS1iOTU0LTQ1ZDhmMWNmMDU1MQMkABAAdUCbmfSVyEOHy2E_43CG0hAAdUCbmfSVyEOHy2E_43CG0g==","posts":[{"@odata.etag":"W/\"CQAAABYAAADd0VYaAwk0TLOtrLG05FwjAAAn2Ijd\"","id":"AAMkADBjNTY3YTE5LWNlZjQtNDFmOS1iOTU0LTQ1ZDhmMWNmMDU1MQBGAAAAAABV6U8PpQVsSawyDJpdNznDBwDd0VYaAwk0TLOtrLG05FwjAAAAAAEMAADd0VYaAwk0TLOtrLG05FwjAAAn1PLJAAA=","createdDateTime":"2021-05-20T01:16:34Z","changeKey":"CQAAABYAAADd0VYaAwk0TLOtrLG05FwjAAAn2Ijd"}]}]}}

Looking at this information: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/office365groupsmail/ gives me hope, but is confusing as to how I can access some of it.

So bottom line: I am trying to create a flow that will send a reply email when a new "conversation" (to use the Outlook term) is started. If the "conversation" contains two or more emails then do not reply.

Thank you in advance for any insight that you can provide.