Checking if a file is updated in a SharePoint library

[rebornScholar86]

Hi all, I am working on an Automated Flow using the SharePoint "When an item or a file is modified" trigger to process a PDF file in a SharePoint library for multiple stages of approvals. At each approval stage, a single approver needs to review the PDF file, stored in the SharePoint library, and either reject the approval in the Power Automate Approval Center, or digitally sign the PDF and re-upload the file and then approve the action in the Power Automate Approval Center. I am using the "Get Changes for an item or a file (properties only)" action to check if the "Workflow Status" field I created was updated to trigger each approval stage. I am also using a Do Until loop using a boolean variable to re-generate the approval at each stage in the event a reviewer approves the action in the Approval Center without having updated the PDF file in the SharePoint library, making sure to escape out of the Do Until loop in the event the reviewer rejects the action. I know there is no way to actually check if the reviewer digitally signed the document, so I am hoping that simply checking if the file was modified and checked in will be sufficient.

I have the flow working to trigger each approval stage by using the "Has Column Changed: Workflow Status" property, but I am unsure on how to go about checking whether the file was updated or not. My initial thought is to use another "Get Changes for an item or a file (properties only)" action after the "Wait for Approval" action and subsequent "Approve" Condition using the window between timestamps of the Request Date and Completion Date (i.e., when was the approval created and when did the reviewer approve the action) to determine if the file version changed, as an indirect proxy of the reviewer updating the file with their digital signature. Can I use the "Is Current Version" property from "Get Changes for an item or a file (properties only)" to determine if the file version changed during the approval window, do a comparison to check that the "Until Version Number" from the post-approval "Get Changes for an item or file" is greater than the "Until Version Number" from the pre-approval "Get Changes for an item or file", or do I need to use a "Send an HTTP request to SharePoint" action to the SharePoint API to get this information? If I need to use the SharePoint API, how might I go about this? Otherwise, how do I go about checking the reviewer has updated the file in the library?

Thanks!

[v-litu-msft]

Hi @rebornScholar86,

You could check if the Modified time greater than the approval request sent time, to determine the file whether to be modified or not. Steps as below:

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ Lin Tu
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[rebornScholar86]

Hi @v-litu-msft ,

Unfortunately this does not work for me, as when I update the PDF file in the SharePoint document library with versioning turned on, it creates a new file and forces me to manually re-enter all the metadata, resulting in a new item with a new ID being created. It doesn't modify the original library item containing the original file. This is already a problem, as I need SharePoint to replace the original PDF file with the updated PDF file, retain the metadata without it needing to be copied over, retain the original document library ID, and increase the major version number.

Here is how I attempted to implement your solution above, but due to the above mentioned issue, it does not complete the loop by setting boolFileUpload to true after the Yes conditional branch of "Check if file was updated by Immediate Supervisor"

Here is an expanded view where I am using the Request date and Completion Date timestamps for my window