Create Large Folder "When SharePoint Item Is Created"

[Anonymous]

 

Hello All, 

I am attempting to create a flow in which it recognizes a new list item has been created and checks a "project ID" column to see if it doesn't equal the default "YY-MM-123" then creates a folder structure

I am having a lot of issues with this in particular It is creating the folders not in the correct places and I cannot figure out what I am doing wrong (I am only executing a small portion for testing)

See images below

 

You can see in the images the flow Creates the project folder but then everything after that is not right(it has even created 2 Approval folders, one of them has the communications folder in the approvals)

Can someone give me some direction on this

If the test returns true and all looks good 

The flow needs to create the folder tree in documents under a folder names 2023 Project 

Documents/2023 Projects/"new project folder"

Folder tree is as follows

__________________________________________

Documents/2023 Projects/"Project Name" (Title from Sharepoint list item)

/Approvals 

/Communication

/Customer Cads and Data 

/Manufacturing 

/Photos

/Quote-Takeoffs-Documents 

/Takeoff Drawings 

/Samples

/Sample Drawings 

/Shipping

/Submittals 

[SudeepGhatakNZ]

@Anonymous ,

Are you able to provide a screenshot of the create folder actions on the flow run page?

[Anonymous]

@SudeepGhatakNZ , 

Thanks for replying.    

Let me know if these are what you are looking for. 

If the title changing as shown in the images I provided, how do you work around that? 

Is there a way to set a variable that doesn't change from the new sharepoint list item "TITLE" that was created?

Thank you for your time and help trouble shooting my problem! 

[SudeepGhatakNZ · Accepted solution]

Aah! I see

You are using the Title of the previous action.

What you should do consistently is to provide the same Item title in all cases.

I suggest you save the Title in a variable and use the variable all the way through.

[Anonymous]

I looked up how to a var and looks like that is what solved the issue. 

Thanks,

[grantjenkins]

@Anonymous I would build this a bit differently to what you have.

I'd have a Template folder that contained all the initial Folders and Files that each new project should start with and just copy them across when a new project is created. You can then add/remove folders and files within the Template folder whenever you want, and the next new project will copy the new structure (without having to modify the flow).

I'd also have it dynamically create the Year based on the Start Date of the Project, so when you start to get projects for the next year it will automatically create the new Year folder (again without having to modify the flow).

See full solution below.

For this example, I have the following List called Project List that contains all my projects.

I've got a folder called Projects within my Documents Library. Within there I have a folder called Template that contains all the folders/files I want new projects to start with. And each Year folder will contain the projects that start on those years.

Template Folder (couple of examples)

And in the 2023 folder, a couple of existing projects.

Within the Project Alpha project folder.

See full flow below. I'll go into each of the actions.

When an item is created triggers when a new project is created in the Project List.

I've also added a Trigger condition so that the flow will only run if the Project ID is not equal to 'YY-MM-123'.

@not(equals(triggerOutputs()?['body/ProjectID'], 'YY-MM-123'))

Create new folder will create the project folder using the Title of the project, and also the Year from the Start Date. The expression used to get the year is below. If the Year folder doesn't exist, it will create it. If it does already exist, then it will just ignore it.

//Year
formatDateTime(triggerOutputs()?['body/StartDate'], 'yyyy')

//Folder Path
Projects/@{formatDateTime(triggerOutputs()?['body/StartDate'], 'yyyy')}/@{triggerOutputs()?['body/Title']}

//If the Project Title was Project Delta and the Start Date was in 2023 we would get
Projects/2023/Project Delta

Get files (properties only) will retrieve the top-level folders and files within the Template folder. It's important that you set Include Nested Items to No. Note that Get files (properties only) returns folders and files (not just files).

We then loop through each of the top-level folders and files returned from our Template folder and check to see if the current item is a Folder or File. We check the IsFolder property to see if it's true. If it is true (it's a folder) we go into the Yes branch and use Copy folder. If it's not true (it's a file) we go into the No branch and use Copy file.

In the Yes branch we use Copy folder, which will copy the top-level folder and any sub folders/files within it. Identifier comes from Get files (properties only) and Full Path come from Create new folder.

In the No branch we use Copy file, which will copy the top-level file. Identifier comes from Get files (properties only) and Full Path come from Create new folder.

If we create a new Project in our Project List, it will create a Project Folder in the appropriate Year Folder and copy all the folders and files within our Template folder.

If the Project has a Project ID of 'YY-MM-123' the flow won't run because of the Trigger condition that we added.

See example below creating a new project.

[Anonymous]

Wow Grant, this is good!

So insightful and very clear to understand

You showed me things I did not know was even possible and open my eyes to other possibilities I can accomplish with this tool

Thank you so much!