Automatically download a file that is in an url link inside the e-mail

[lliu_western]

Hi Community,

I need to automate a process. Below is the story what I need to automate.

When an email is received, inside the e-mail, it contains a "Download" button. I need the automate the process where when the e-mail is received, it automatically download the file within the e-mail by clicking the "Download" button that connects to an url and save the downloaded file in a particular folder.

Any resources/documentation on how to achieve this either through Power Automate or Power Automate Desktop will be great, thank you. 

[Paulie78]

Quite an interesting question. Before getting into details, do you have a premium license?

[lliu_western]

@Paulie78  I do.

[Paulie78]

It's straightforward apart from extracting the link from the html. Do you have a sample of the HTML?

You can change the download link to something else if it is confidential.

[lliu_western]

@Paulie78  I don't know how much I can post on here publicly. But after looking at the html code email, the link is embeded like this below:

originalsrc="https://api.link_exmaple"

and I just need to extra the file from https://api.link_example, which when load the link itself, it will download the file itself.

[Paulie78]

Downloading the file is as easy as this:

You can then take the HTTP output and do whatever you want with it (save it to a folder). Your challenge is going to be grabbing the URL from the HTML. 

I can make an expression that gets the URL from the sample you posted. But it is very unlikely to work when you try it against your own proper example.

[lliu_western]

@Paulie78  Awesome, this is problem exactly when I will need.

I am thinking the first step of the flow is

1. when the e-mail account receives an email.

2. A condition, if the sender = the particular sender

3. extra the link from the e-mail; which the unique key in the e-mail will be "https://api......"   

(the text of https://api  is used in that link only, so I just need to create a string that extra the content between the quotation once it finds "https://api" 

then the rest of the steps will be what you posted above, I think. 

any tips on extracting the link text? 

[Paulie78 · Accepted solution]

No tips, just the expression:

substring
(
  substring(outputs('html'), indexOf(outputs('html'), 'https://api')), 
  0,
  indexOf(substring(outputs('html'), indexOf(outputs('html'), 'https://api')), '"')
)

Result:

[lliu_western]

@Paulie78 

the output from the get should be an csv file. But when I attached the "http body" as the attachment in the email, and email myself (just testing if the download file works), it is not a csv file. I think I am doing something wrong from getting the csv file using http call? 

[lliu_western]

@Paulie78 

this is the e-mail portion after http

[lliu_western]

Got it working now. I used "Create file" after HTTP and where the input of giving the file name, just have to make sure the file content is correct. So in my case, the "File Name" input needs to be something like "FileName.csv" since it is a csv file. 

[Anonymous]

Hi @Paulie78 , how can you do this when you do not have a premium account (i don't have access to the HTTP operation). Can you help ?

[Paulie78]

I do not know of a way to do it without a premium license. I'm pretty sure there isn't a way.

[Ximbalou]

Hello @Paulie78 and @lliu_western ,

Hope you are doing well.

I have a similar problem but I didn't understood the part where you can automate the click download button.

Here's my example, I receive 100 emails (1 per email) and I would like to automate the download of file from each email and save it in a folder

Appreciate your help

[dark_rabbi]

ditto... i think i got something like it, but the pdf after the link is all unique so create file needs to change.

[M1rzA_V]

Hi @lliu_western 

could you please make a screenshots of your steps? I am struggling with the same thing but I am not getting it easily 😕

[M1rzA_V]

Hey! Could you please explain in short which steps/actions did you use? Which Inputs in actions and so on? After html step I am a bit "lost" and at the end as an output...I would like for instance to get it saved to the SharePoint.. 
thanks!

[M1rzA_V]

Hey! Could you please explain all the steps or make a screenshot of the steps what you guys did here to extract URL links successfully? My difference to this is that I need to save it on SharePoint... thanks!

[jasflores309]

So after this:

Add create file via SharePoint. The file name should contain .csv (or whatever file type you are downloading) at the end and the file content should be HTML - Body.

My example is below. 

Hope that helps. 

[vjucardona]

can you get the file content from that link to be able to use it to create a file in sharepoint?