Flow to Export Plan from Planner

[BaggyG]

I am trying to export a Plan from Planner (with all the available fields) to Excel.  The output I want is exactly the same as if I was to go into the Plan and select Export to Excel.

I have succeeded in exporting the plan to a table in Excel, (using 'List tasks' and 'Add a row to a table') however for the most part the data that is extracted for each of the fields is ID value, not the human readable content of each field.

How do I create a Flow that will replicate the result of the Export function in Planner (this will be triggered on a schedule).

Thanks

[v-bacao-msft]

Hi @BaggyG ,

Could you give examples of which fields have IDs instead of Names?

As far as I know, Bucket Name and AssignedTo user Name cannot be obtained in List tasks.

If so, you need to get these names using the following method.

• Get BucketName:

Use List buckets to get all bucket details first, then use the Filter array to filter out buckets with the same id, and finally use an expression to get the bucket name.

• Get AssignedTo user name:

Initialize a string variable and use the Get user profile action to get the Display Name of each user. Append the obtained name to the string variable. The string variable needs to be cleared at the end of each loop.

Finally, you can insert these values into the table.

Image reference:

Hope this helps.

Best Regards,

[BaggyG]

Oh dear!  Thanks Barry.

This is far more complex than I thought it would be.  I will give it a go in the next few days and see if I can get it to work.

Cheers.

[BaggyG]

Hi Barry,

This didn't work as expected. 

Firstly, I came across an error because someone in the team has left so the lookup of the user profile failed.  In Planner (and the export to Excel) they are named "Former Member".  I'm not sure how I would get around this.

Secondly, the export to Excel from Planner looks like this:

Task Name

Bucket Name

Progress

Priority

Assigned To

Created By

Created Date

Start Date

Due Date

Late

Completed Date

Completed By

Description

Completed Checklist Items

Checklist Items

Labels

Feed the dog

Backlog

Not started

Medium

BaggyG

BaggyG

12/02/2020

10/03/2020

false

Make sure the dog doesn't starve

Pet Stuff;Work Stuff;Home Stuff

The export the flow gives me is:

Note that I didn't try to get all of the fields with the flow at this point (I couldn't even find where the labels were).  I also removed the TaskID field from the clips but it did get exported.

Here is the flow (note: I found 'value Name' as an assignment that seems to return the actual Bucket name so I used it) :

[v-bacao-msft]

Hi @BaggyG ,

First, if you are a member who has left, you can use the following method to handle it.

Add a branch to handle this situation, and if the Get user profile action fails, then add null/Former Member in Value to the variable.

You need to use Configure run after, please check this blog:

https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/error-handling/

Second, you can look at the method I provided again. Add a row into a table action is configured in Apply to each, instead of adding Apply to each 3 separately.

Third, the List tasks action may not output all the same fields in the table that you exported using Export plan to excel. You need to check the Online doc to see the response of this action.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/connectors/planner/#listtasks_response_v2

Best Regards,

[BaggyG]

Hi Barry,

Unfortunately I really need some of the data that doesn't seem to be exposed in Planner (i.e. labels).  But I'll work through this.

With regards to the error handling I get the following:

The error handling part of the flow is:

 

Other than this error it seems to be working as expected.

[v-bacao-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @BaggyG ,

You can view Body of the List task action to see the Task-related properties we can get from Flow.

Please consider setting Add a row into a table action to set it to execute after Apply to each 2 succeeds and skips.

You also need to use Configure run after for this action.

Best Regards,

[asaxena2]

Is it possible to mimic the export excel file from planner exactly the same in flow? Also is the columns like label, late, priority, progress can be updated? I also want a very simple flow that just get description with task id or bucket id just two columns, Any help or suggestion?

[mdittler]

I'm not getting this to work. It's not letting me select "Value Assigned to User ID" without automatically creating a new loop and entering "current item."