Create an approval (V2) - Response/Outcome not showing in dynamic content

[anne_danko]

Hi all,

I am trying to create an approval flow. The is connected to a SharePoint list, which contains names in one column and dates in another column. The flow is triggered manually by selecting a date from the date picker.

I would like to send an email to all people whose date have been selected from the date picker. I would like to use the "Create an approval (V2)" action as I do not want to wait for the approval to be completed before sending the approval to the next person whose date on the SharePoint list matches the date from the date picker (i.e. I want to approvals to be send to all people at once and not consecutively).

I would like to use the responses further in the flow but they are not listed under dynamic content. When using the "Start and wait for an approval" action, I can select "Outcome" from the dynamic content. However, I do not want to use this action as I do not want to wait for the approval to be completed before sending another approval.

Do you know if it is possible to capture the responses from the "Create an approval (V2)" action and use it further in the flow?

Thanks in advance!

[efialttes]

@anne_danko 

Did you try to implement your requirements with a two-nested flow approach?

So the first flow (parent) is triggered manually by selecting a date in the datepicker, it reads the sharepoint list and filters it according to this date. THen add an apply to each to the filter's output, read the corresponding email and trigger a new flow (HTTP based-child)

THis new flow will receive the email address as input and will be in charge of starting the approval.

So your first flow (parent) is executed once. You second flow (child) is executed as meny times as entries match with the selected date

THere are several posts describing this "nested flows" technique, you can find them easily just searching on google ("nested flows" "microsoft flow"). One of them is here

Hope this helps

[v-yamao-msft]

Hi @anne_danko ,

After the action Create an approval (V2), you need to add another action Wait for an approval (V2) to get the response and comments.

By the way, I have testes with action Create and wait for an approval. When an item is selected in the list, send an approval email. The second approval is send out without waiting for the first approval to be completed.

Could you share a screen shot on your flow?

Best regards,

Mabel

[anne_danko]

Hi @efialttes

Thanks for the tip. In the end I decided to choose the "Start and wait for an approval (v2)". I changed the settings for the "Apply to each" and turned on the concurrency control. This way the approvals are send in parallel and I don't need to wait for one approval to be complete before the next one is sent.

[anne_danko · Accepted solution]

Hi @v-yamao-msft

Sure - please find a snap of my flow attached. In the end I solved the problem by changing the settings of the "Apply to each" - I turned on the concurrency control.

[v-yamao-msft]

Hi @anne_danko ,

Thanks for updating and sharing.

I am happy to hear that you have figured out the solution.

Turning on the concurrency control enables you to handle more records than are returned in a single call from a service.

Please feel free reach to us on the forum whenever you have issues when working with Microsoft Flow.

Best regards,

Mabel

[Anonymous]

Please expand by what you mean by 'Turning on the concurrency control'? Can you also give steps to do this? 

I am having similar issues where I to send an approval flow and gather responses but not necessarily by waiting for everyone else to respond but I do not know what you mean by turning on concurrency control or the steps you took to replicate the same? 

[anne_danko · Accepted solution]

Sure. Concurrency means that the approval emails are send in parallel, i.e. you do not need to wait for one person to approve for the second person to receive the approval.

You can turn this feature on by clicking on the elipsis next next to "Apply to each" and selecting "Settings". 

Afterwards, you switch on the concurrency control and increase the degree of parallelism to 50, meaning that up to 50 approvals are send at once.

[bckee]

Hi, thank you for the solution and I have use it in my flow too. However, there is something that I would like to clarify on the concurrency control. So what happens if I have more than 50 approvals in the list? Does that mean it will send only the first 50 and will wait for any one of the 50 to be approved before moving to the 51st and so on? Thank you.

[godala_vamshi]

@anne_danko Your post helps me to understand my issue, But in my case I have more then 50 records meaning if I set degree of parallelism to 50 will that send only to 1st 50 and wait until all 50 take an action to send approval for next 50? 

If Yes, how can send all approval at once instead of 50. 

Thank you!