Excel file drops table when attached to email

[AlexMCC]

In a flow I'm creating an Excel file and converting the content to a table.

I then attach it in an email, but once received it's no longer a table.

I can't figure out, what's going wrong. Any ideas?

Flow

Flow

File in SharePoint

File in attachment

[Pstork1 · Accepted solution]

I believe its a timing issue.  Try adding a delay after you create the table and before you get the file content from SharePoint.  I think you are retrieving the file content before the table has been saved.

[AlexMCC]

Good suggestion. However, I tried a 15 second delay between the two and it made no difference.

Edit: I tried a 60 second delay to be completely sure. Again, no effect.

[AlexMCC]

Nobody with a clever idea for what could be going wrong?

[Pstork1]

Looking some more at this.  How are you creating the Excel file in the first action?  Are you copying a blank .xlsx file as a template?  Or a CSV?  I'm trying to recreate your issue to find a fix.

[Pstork1 · Accepted solution]

I've done some testing and I was able to recreate your issue.  As I said originally it appears to be a timing issue.  When I added a delay of 5 minutes before getting the content and sending the email the table was in the attachment.  Without that delay it wasn't. I'm not sure how much shorter I can make that delay and have it continue to work consistently.  But I suspect in your testing the delay was too short.  SharePoint online tends to have a 5 minute polling cycle.  So I suspect you still getting a cached version of the file.  Try a 5 minute delay and see if that works.  If it does you can try shortening it.

[Pstork1]

I did some more testing and it appears the delay can be as short as 1 minute.  Once I go below that the table starts not showing.  Hope that helps.

[AlexMCC]

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@Pstork1 wrote:

Looking some more at this.  How are you creating the Excel file in the first action?  Are you copying a blank .xlsx file as a template?  Or a CSV?  I'm trying to recreate your issue to find a fix.

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Yes, the step previous to those in my screenshot is a "get content" of an empty .xlsx file.

[AlexMCC]

Indeed, you are correct. A 5 minute delay ensures the table formatting shows up. Anything less doesn't seem to work consistently.

This is a weird issue, since I regularly do other types of adjustments, usually with scripts, but haven't seen this behaviour before. But then I do tend to link to files opposed to attaching them, so maybe that's why I've not seen it before.

Either way, I appreciate the help!

[tgraham]

Here's how I do it without a delay action. I don't need to wait at all. I have two Run Script actions for each flow. The first Run Script action does all of the formulas and formatting on the Excel sheet generated by my PowerApp. Then, I run a second Run Script action, which calls a very simple script that simply renames the worksheet (the worksheet, not the workbook). That's all it does. After I run that second script, the send email action runs and and attaches the excel file. The attachment received includes the latest version of the Excel file. Without that second Run Script action, I have to wait the 5 minutes like suggested above. With the second Run Script action, I don't have to wait.

Just enter your new worksheet name in the blank to use this script. It's the same one generated if you use the record actions button under the Automate menu in Excel Online.

function main(workbook: ExcelScript.Workbook) {

  let sheet1 = workbook.getWorksheet("Sheet1");

  // Rename worksheet to "_____________"

  sheet1.setName("__________");

}