Email 7 day prior to and expiry date on more than one column that also contains blanks

[DarrenBrown]

Hi

I'm stumped on a flow that is more complicated than others I've managed to build, if I give scenario I'm hoping someone could help me through it. I need the flow to email people 7 days prior to a certificate expiring.

I have a SharePoint list named 'Approved Suppliers List' and there are three columns that relate to expiring certifications, they are:

9001_x0020_Expiry_x0020_Date

14001_x0020_Expiry_x0020_Date

45001_x0020_Expiry_x0020_Date

Each column WILL have blanks as not all suppliers hold the certifications

I know I need to use recurrence, get items, apply to each, condition and email, and to filter out blanks an array but not sure where to add this. Also previous flows I've done have only related to one columns and not 3 so not sure how to do this either.

thanks

Darren

[efialttes]

Hi!

"I need the flow to email people 7 days prior to a certificate expiring[....]I have a SharePoint list named 'Approved Suppliers List' and there are three columns that relate to expiring certifications, they are:
9001_x0020_Expiry_x0020_Date
14001_x0020_Expiry_x0020_Date
45001_x0020_Expiry_x0020_Date
Each column WILL have blanks as not all suppliers hold the certifications"

Let me see if I understood your requirements. If either 9001_x0020_Expiry_x0020_Date or 14001_x0020_Expiry_x0020_Date or 45001_x0020_Expiry_x0020_Date are not blank and utcNow() date (i.e. the date flow is executed) is 7 days prior to any of these dates, then you need to send an email, right?

I also believe the email body is different depending on the date column, right?

If so my suggestion is to have three diferent Condition action blocks inside your apply to each, one per column, then on each true branch add your 'Send an email' to the customer. THis means you will send one email per certificate about to expire... so this approach matches your requirements, right?

Now I would suggest to use the following condition rule for the first column:

coalesce(item()?['9001_x0020_Expiry_x0020_Date'],'1900-01-01')

contains

addDays(utcNow(),-7,'yyyy-MM-dd')

Just for troubleshooting purposes, I would add a dummy Compose action block just before your Condition, assign it the following expression:

coalesce(item()?['9001_x0020_Expiry_x0020_Date'],'1900-01-01')

Hope this helps

[v-litu-msft]

Hi @DarrenBrown,

If you want to filter out the item in which three columns all blank, right? 

If so, you could add multiple rows in the Condition action:

If the requirement is that these three columns must be a value that is not empty, get the column that is not empty and add the date. Please let me know and I will give you further workaround.

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ Lin Tu
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[DarrenBrown]

Hi Efialttes

Back working today so I've tried what you suggested (I think). The flow is successful but last bloach takes over 30 seconds to succeed, not sure if that is of any relevance. I've only tested using one column so far and I change one date in the column to 11/05/2020, but I'm not receiving an email notification, any ideas, picture below

[DarrenBrown]

Hi Lin Tu

My list has numerous columns, but I only need to trigger an email notification from three of then is a certificate is expiring, they are 

9001 Expiry Date

140001 Expiry Date

45001 Expiry Date

However only some suppliers hold these certificates, so some will also be blanks. I've screenshot a clip of list below up to the 9001 Expiry Date column (there are obviously more)

[DarrenBrown]

@v-litu-msft 

Any ideas?

thanks

Darren

[v-litu-msft]

Hi @DarrenBrown,

OK, sorry for the delay and thanks for your screenshot, but it contains much personal information, for protect your information, please edit your reply, re-submit your screenshot.

This workaround will take some time, but I'm off work now, so I'll reply to you first. I'll reply to you with a solution tomorrow.

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ Lin Tu
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[v-litu-msft]

Hi @DarrenBrown,

You could initialize a string variable to hold the three dates, then use three if() function to set the value:

if(empty(body('Get_item')?['OData__x0039_001ExpiryDate']),if(empty(body('Get_item')?['OData__x0034_5001ExpiryDate']),if(empty(body('Get_item')?['OData__x0031_40001ExpiryDate']),null,body('Get_item')?['OData__x0031_40001ExpiryDate']),body('Get_item')?['OData__x0034_5001ExpiryDate']),body('Get_item')?['OData__x0039_001ExpiryDate'])

{

if(First date == empty())

{

ExpireDate == first date;

else if(Second date == empty())

{

ExpireDate == Second date;

else

ExpireDate == Third date

}

}

} 

The expression means, if the first date is empty, check the second date whether empty Or set the date as ExpireDate:

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ Lin Tu
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[DarrenBrown]

Hi @v-litu-msft 

Thanks for reply, I've done as per below but get an error message:

Correct to include a valid reference to 'Get_item' for the input parameter(s) of action 'Set_variable'.

Can you see what I've done wrong?

thanks

Darren

[v-litu-msft]

Hi @DarrenBrown,

The property name in the expression are all my columns names:

if(empty(body('Get_item')?['OData__x0039_001ExpiryDate']),if(empty(body('Get_item')?['OData__x0034_5001ExpiryDate']),if(empty(body('Get_item')?['OData__x0031_40001ExpiryDate']),null,body('Get_item')?['OData__x0031_40001ExpiryDate']),body('Get_item')?['OData__x0034_5001ExpiryDate']),body('Get_item')?['OData__x0039_001ExpiryDate'])

You should replace it with your own columns' names.

Check the output of Get items could find the three date columns real name in your side.

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ Lin Tu
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[DarrenBrown]

Hi @v-litu-msft 

I've changed to my column name as per below but still getting error 'Correct to include a valid reference to 'Get_item' for the input parameter(s) of action 'Set_variable'.

if(empty(body('Get_item')?['9001_x0020_Expiry_x0020_Date']),if(empty(body('Get_item')?['45001_x0020_Expiry_x0020_Date']),if(empty(body('Get_item')?['14001_x0020_Expiry_x0020_Date']),null,body('Get_item')?['14001_x0020_Expiry_x0020_Date']),body('Get_item')?['45001_x0020_Expiry_x0020_Date']),body('Get_item')?['9001_x0020_Expiry_x0020_Date'])

thanks

Darren

[v-litu-msft]

Hi @DarrenBrown,

Oh, I see, you are using Get items action to check all items, and in my instance, I just check one item for the test, so the expression and Flow structure are not correct.

The correct Flow and expression are following shows:

if(empty(item()?['9001_x0020_Expiry_x0020_Date']),if(empty(item()?['45001_x0020_Expiry_x0020_Date']),if(empty(item()?['14001_x0020_Expiry_x0020_Date']),null,item()?['14001_x0020_Expiry_x0020_Date']),item()?['45001_x0020_Expiry_x0020_Date']),item()?['9001_x0020_Expiry_x0020_Date'])

 

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ Lin Tu
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[DarrenBrown]

Hi @v-litu-msft 

Thanks for latest advice, I'm now getting following error 

InvalidTemplate. Unable to process template language expressions for action 'Condition' at line '1' and column '2814': 'In function 'addDays', the value provided for date time string '' was not valid. The datetime string must match ISO 8601 format.'.

Below is where I'm at

[ScottShearer]

@DarrenBrown 

Go to your last failed run and take a look at the set variable action for ExpireDate.  Can you post a screen shot of the oytput of the set variable action?

[DarrenBrown]

Hi @ScottShearer 

Thanks for replying, is below what you were looking for (newbie to flows here)

thanks

Darren

[ScottShearer · Accepted solution]

@DarrenBrown 

It appears as though your issue is that the variable is null.  Please see comments by @efialttes regarding the use of the coalesce() expression to provide a default value.  That said, I would strongly consider eliminating your condition and doing the filtering before you get the data via an OData filter.  Here is a link to a blog post discussing the use of OData filters in Get items actions.