Create flow when file is created

[Shakiel]

Hi,

Searching for a power automate to do the following:

• File is uploaded (Excel Macro to save to sharepoint)
• Check file upload year and create folder
  • If folder already exist, don't create new folder but upload to the folder
  • If folder doesn't exist, create folder
    • Example: File is uploaded in 2023 > create folder and name: "2023"
    • When a new file is uploaded (in 2023) > upload the file in folder "2023"
    • When a new file is uploaded in 2024 > create folder and name "2024"
    • When a new file is uploaded (in 2024) > upload file in folder "2024"

Is this possible?

Please note, i'm quite new in power automate.

Thanks in advance!

[rzaneti]

Hi @Shakiel ,

Your idea is to create the "year" folder at the same SharePoint folder where your new file was uploaded, and move it inside the "year" folder, right? If yes, you can follow this process:

Step 1 - Setting your trigger:

Every Power Automate flow starts with a trigger. For your use case, the applicable trigger will be the "When a file is created (properties only), from SharePoint connector. Be careful, because some SharePoint triggers have the same name of triggers from OneDrive. 

You will need to inform the Site name, the Library Name, and the folder that you want to monitor, to fire the trigger when a new file is added to that (in my case, a folder called "Years").

Step 2 - Capture the created year:

One of the properties of your trigger is the "created date", and we can extract the year from that. For doing this, you need to:

a. Add an 'Initialize variable' action (yellow)

b. Assign the data type as String (green)

c. Assign any name to the variable (in my case, I just assigned 'year')

d. Add a dynamic content, by clicking in the button highlighted in pink, or just clicking in the "Value" input

e. In the dynamic content box, click in 'Expression'

f. Insert the following content in your expression input: formatDateTime(triggerOutputs()?['body/Created'], 'yyyy')

In summary, we are accessing the "Created at" property from the file that was saved into the SharePoint folder and extracting only the year from that. If needed, we could extract other data, like month, seconds, day of week, and so on. 

Step 3 - Copying the data from the new file

To move a file into another folder in Power Automate, you actually will need to create a copy from it and delete the old file. So now we will get the content from the folder that you just added to SharePoint. 

You just need to add the action 'Get file content', specify the Site Address and, in File Identified, find the dynamic content for the 'Identified' of the trigger. To get the dynamic content, you will click in the input box or in the 'Add dynamic content' button and type 'identifier' in the search box (highlighted in green). If you prefer, you can search it manually in all of the dynamic outputs from the trigger (section highlighted in yellow).

Be careful here: one of the trigger properties is the "ID", and you actually don't need this, you need the "Identifier" property, which is different. I'm raising this alert because a lot of times I select the "ID" incorrectly 🙂

Step 4 - Creating a copy of your file:

Now you will use the 'Create file' action from SharePoint connector (here again, there is an action with the same name for the OneDrive connector). In 'Folder path', navigate until your parent folder (that where you will store the 'year' individual folders), add another slash in the input and add the dynamic content of the variable year.

Here is the trick: if the year folder does not exist, this action will create it. If it already exists, the action will just open it and save the new file inside it, without creating a duplicate. 

You also will need to pass the 'File name with extension' dynamic content from your trigger, and the 'File content' from the 'Get File Content' action. 

Output

I created a new Excel file to test the flow:

The flow ran successfully:

Which created a 2023 folder:

And inserted the Excel file inside it:

I did not add a delete action here, but if you need, I can walk you through it 🙂

Let me know if it works for you or if you need any additional help!

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[Shakiel]

Hello @rzaneti,

Many thank for this! I successfully ran the test with the steps you provided. Trying to understand what you exactly did but i'm so new that i can't fully understand but time and practice will tell:).

Yes please, add a section "delete file", could you please do this:

After file is created in the year map, run delete file.

Many thanks!

[rzaneti · Accepted solution]

Hi @Shakiel ,

I'm glad that it worked for you! The delete step is pretty simple: after all those previous actions, you will add a 'Delete file' one, from SharePoint connector and pass the 'File identifier' from the trigger as input:

As in the 'Get file content' action, in this action you need to be careful to (1) make sure that you selected the action from SharePoint connector (and not from OneDrive) and (2) input the 'Identifier', and not the 'Id'. 

About the other steps, feel free to ask any specific question about it: I will be happy in answering! I've been writing for a blog about Power Automate and recently released an article about the 'variables' in Power Automate. Which explore in more details of the 'Initialize variable' that we used on the step 2. Maybe it can be helpful to your further Power Automate understanding! Here is the link: http://digitalmill.net/2023/07/03/working-with-variables-in-power-automate/

Let me know if it works for you or if you need any additional help!

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If this is the answer for your question, please mark the post as Solved.
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[Shakiel]

Many thanks for your time @rzaneti !

It all works, i will for sure read your blog!