Connect existing flow to Power Apps

[Frankie70]

Hi all,

I have a flow that currently starts when a new item is added to a SharePoint list.

I would like to start the flow from within a Power App (by clicking a button).

1) I am not sure if and how it can be done

2) how do I "tell" the Flow which item it should process.

The background of this operation is, that I want to run the flow with the currently logged in user.

Any support is really appreciated.

[Pstork1]

To trigger a flow from a Power Apps button it has to use a Power Apps manual trigger.  So to convert an existing flow to trigger from Power Apps you need to remove the automated trigger and replace it with a manual Power Apps trigger.  You'll also need to adjust the flow to provide any information that was originally provided by the automated trigger.  So if a flow was originally trigger by an item being changed in SharePoint you would replace the trigger and add a Get Item action.  Then pass the ID of the SharePoint item to be used in the Get Item.  You can't have a flow that is triggered both automatically and manually from a Power App.

[Frankie70]

Hi @Pstork1  and thanks for your answer!

I did follow your description but I am not sure what to do in the following step:

In PowerApps I do have an ID for the current item, that is written to SharePoint.

And the connection to PowerApps is not done yet, I believe...

I might not understand correctly. Could you please assist again?

[Pstork1]

So it looks like you have already used the 'Ask in Power Apps' dynamic content to generate a parameter to pass the ID.  insert the GetItem_Id dynamic content into the id field of Get Item. Then Save the flow.

On the Power Apps side.  Highlight the button you want to use and access the OnSelect property.  Then navigate to 'Power Automate; on the Action menu.  You should see the flow you just saved in the list. Click on the flow to insert it into the Power App.  That will add flowname.run( to the OnSelect property.  Intelisense will prompt you to add any needed parameters.  In your case its probably just 'GetItem_id'. Supply the ID of the SharePoint item there then close the parentheses.  When you click that button it should run the flow on the SharePoint item you supplied the ID for.

[Frankie70]

Hi @Pstork1 ,

the 'GetItem_id' is not done by me...I'm not sure, where it come from 🙂

In PowerApps I use a variable to read the ID of the newly created item in SharePoint:

Set(OrderIDVar,
Patch(Order, Defaults(Order), 
 {
     Purchaser: {'odata.type':"#Microsoft.Azure.Connectors.SharePoint.SPListExpandedUser",
     ODataType: Blank(),
     Claims:Concatenate("i:0#.f|membership|",User().Email),
     DisplayName:User().FullName,
     Email:User().Email,
     Department:"",
     JobTitle:"",
     Picture:""
   }, 
   Title:"User created by PowerApps | " & Text( Now(),"[$-da]dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss"),
   Comment: inp_comments.Text,
   Total: Text(Sum(basket, itemprice), "[$-en-US]###,###.00"),
   Approver:{'odata.type':"#Microsoft.Azure.Connectors.SharePoint.SPListExpandedUser",
     ODataType: Blank(),
     Claims:Concatenate("i:0#.f|membership|",inp_manager.Selected.Mail),
     DisplayName:User().FullName,
     Email:User().Email,
     Department:"",
     JobTitle:"",
     Picture:""
   }
 }
).ID)

So, what comes in the brackets 'name of flow'.Run(xxxx)? Is it the name of the Variable (OrderIDVar)?

[Pstork1]

The GetItem_ID came from someone adding the Ask in Power Apps dynamic content to an action called GetItem.  Is someone else also editing the flow?  And yes, the variable would be what you would supply in the RUN() command where you have the xxxx.

This walkthrough explains the whole process.

Start a flow in a canvas app - Power Apps | Microsoft Docs

[Frankie70]

Hi @Pstork1 

I can not get rid of the GetItem_ID. 

But in PowerApps I can see this as well.

I just created the flow, so there should be nobody else editing it.

When entering the name of the variable (OrderIDVar) in the brackets, it gives me an error.

So, something might not be fitting. Any other idea?

[Pstork1]

Remove the Power Apps trigger from the flow and re-add it.  That should get rid of the GetItem_ID varable.  Then after the trigger is re-added you can create a new parameter by inserting the Ask in Power Apps entry into the ID field of the Get Item. then save the flow.  

Next remove the flow from the Power Apps button and re-add it.  It should ask for the variable you created.

[Frankie70]

Hello @Pstork1 

thank you very much for your patience.

I just removed the trigger and re-added it.

Then, when clicking into the Id field, it shows me "Ask in PowerApps".

But when I click on it, it puts GetItem_id into the field.

I am not able to create a new parameter...

[Pstork1 · Accepted solution]

GetItem_ID is the parameter.  Inserting the Ask in Power Apps creates that field using the name of the action and the field.  In this case that is Get Item and ID.  If you now save and add that flow to your power app button Intellisense should prompt you to put that parameter in the Run() function.  Make sure its the right data type.  It should be an integer.

[Frankie70]

Hi @Pstork1 

thanks a lot for your help. Now I did understand 🙂 It works now!

I have one more thing:
As mentioned above I am doing all that because I would like to send an e-mail out as the logged-in user in PowerApps.

So, for example, I ordered something in PowerApps and the flow should send an e-mail to the ticket system from my e-mail account. How do I configure that?

[Pstork1]

In the flow use the Send an Email action and fill in your email address as the From.  The issue you will run into is that whoever pushes the button in the power app will need "Send As" permission for your mailbox or the email will fail because the flow runs in the context of the user running the power app.

[OliverR-82]

Hi @Frankie70 , for the 'Send an email' action in your flow, you would need to ask the 'From' parameter in your PowerApp also. After you have changed your flow to ask that field, you should update the button in your PowerApp that calls the flow and add the User().Email parameter to it. This way, the email will be sent from the user that is using the PowerApp.

You may have to remove the flow from your app and re-add it after you have changed the flow in order for PowerApps to take into account the additional parameter that the flow needs.

[Frankie70]

I mean it the other way around.

A mail should go to the ticket system from the user who ordered (so that the user will get a ticket number from the ticket system and can track the progress of the ticket).

As you described here:
https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Flows/sending-mail-as-item-creator/td-p/711376

Or did I misunderstand?

[Pstork1]

Then you need to pass the email of the user who pushes the button as another parameter and use that to fill in the From field in the email action.

[Frankie70]

Hello @Pstork1 

thanks a lot! This did work, although now ALL mails are sent from the email address that is used in PowerApps.

There are some Mails in the Flow that should be sent from a Service Account.

Under "my connections" in the action I checked a service account I want to send the mail with!

Any Idea why this is happening?

[Pstork1]

As I mentioned above.  When you start a flow from Power Apps the flow will run in the context of the user who triggers the flow.  That will apply no matter what account the connection was originally sent to.  You can manually override the From field on some of the email actions.  But doing that will require that the person running the flow has "Send as" permission to that mailbox.  For large groups of user's that usually not practical.