Flow which checks user-entries in my Sharepointlist

[franky0711]

Hi Guys,

quick question regarding my flow.

I have a Sharepoint list where my teammates can make entries.

Now i want to send reminder-mails to these colleagues who did not make entries yet.

I though I could take a condition like.

all mail-adresses from O365-Connector - filtered by my department)

EQUAL TO

"Created by" Column in my Sharepoint list.

Unfortunatly I can't find a fitting flow... 🤐

[efialttes]

Hi

Your approach sounds good!

I guess you will use a manual trigger, right?

So, you need a full list of colleagues an store it as an array.

And, you need to build a dictionary with all colleagues that created items and store it as an array.

Now, you can iterate over the full list with an Apply to Each , filter your array dictionary searching for current colleague, if not present send a reminder.

Here you are an example on how to build the dictionary:

Hope this helps

[franky0711]

Hi and thank you, but I don't think this is the way.

I have O365 Azure Active Directory in my company. 

So I'd like to use this Diretcory and search for "department".

I would start this flow daily with "Resurrence" trigger.

[efialttes]

@franky0711 

"I have a Sharepoint list where my teammates can make entries."

And the logic I have shared with you provides the short list of teammates that already made an entry in your sharepoint list.

I didn't shared  yet the part of the logic matching the whole list of teammmates with the short list of teammates.

If my first proposal match part of your requirements, just let me know and will share the second part.

But if you need another approach, let's hope somebody else can poit us to the right direction

Happy flowing!

[franky0711]

I understand. We could try 🙂

Regarding second part: Is it possible to COMPARE your short directory with my enterprise O365-Directory ?

Thank you very much 😃

[efialttes]

Hi again!

Well, as far as I understand from your last response now we are closer to a happy ending!

Now, let's talk about the second part of the logic:

"Regarding second part: Is it possible to COMPARE your short directory with my enterprise O365-Directory ?"

Yes we can! I will assume the big list is already stored in an array variable called 'myOrgDirectoryArray'

And... you can optionally initialize another array variable to store the email of the colleagues that did not create any item yet on your SP list. Let's call it 'myOutputArray '

Now, you can iterate over the full list with an Apply to Each , filter your array dictionary searching for current colleague, if not present send a reminder. As per testing purposes, I would replace sending the reminder and use an Append to Array instead. THis way Apply to Each will fill 'myOutputArray' with emails of all the colleagues that did not create any item yet on your SP list.

After the Apply to Each you can add a Dummy Compose action block, and assign variable 'myOutputArray' inside, this way you can execute the flow, print the whole list and verify the logic is selecting the richt colleagues. Once done, you can add the 'Send an email'

Does this approach match your expectations? If so the suggested next steps are either I share a screenshot with this second part of the flow design or... we keep on discussing how to get the O365 directory.

BTW, do you already have an Office 365 group or a Teams group for all the your Department (i.e. with all the department employees as current members of the group)? Just to see if you can use the Office 365 groups connector for this purpose or we shall rely on either the ADD connector or the Office 365 Users Connector

Hope this helps

[franky0711]

Thank you ! 

First of all: I have no Outlook Group and no Azure AD permission. I tried but no chance!

I also tried to implemente following code from your first post:

union(body('Select'),body('Select'))

But that didnt work unfortunatly.

[efialttes]

Hi again!

1.- Regarding the union() issue, please share a screenshot from your flow definition

2.- Since you do not have permission to access ADD and you guys do not have a department group, let's explore the option of Office 365 Users Connector

...I would try to invoke Get my profile. Can you also share an screenshot of Get my profile outputs, so we can easily identify how is your DEpt Name mapped inside? Once identified, maybe we can use Search for users to get all your temmates

Hope this helps

[franky0711]

alright, here we go !

What we need is in german "Abteilung", englisch "department"

We are on the way 😄

[efialttes]

Hi again!
There are probably two problems with Verfassen action block (Compose, right?)
First is that you added the suggested formula as text, and we need to add it as an expression from Dynamic Content menu
https://flow.microsoft.com/es-es/blog/use-expressions-in-actions/

Second one... well let's fix the first problem and see if execution succeeds. If not, the reason will most probably be that my expression assumes the name of the Select action block is... Select. This is the reason why I suggested
union(body('Select'),body('Select'))

Since your Select action block name is the German equivalent (German, right?) you can rename your Select action block into English or adapt the expression to its current name

As soon as we fix this issue we will keep on working with the others, ok?
Danke!

[franky0711]

omg - what a noob failure! I am sorry!

This german/englisch translation is getting me crazy.

I got it now 😃

 

[efialttes]

Hi again

NEvermind, I also have the same problem between Spanish and English 😅

THere is still some extra text on your Compose (Verfassen) input that shall be removed

IN edit mode, it should look like this

Leave the expression alone

Save, reexecute your flow and please share again a screenshot with your Compose output as you did in your last reply

Danke!

[franky0711]

now i think its okay...

and I also switched to englisch. 😃

This is what i have atm:

[efialttes]

GReat! We are closer to a happy ending!

Now, let's try to identify the dept (abteilung) to search

My suggestion is to add a "Get my profile", then add a Dummy Compose action block, and from the Dynamic Content editor assign the 'Get my profile' output Department property as the new Dummy Compose input.

Now, I need your help to avoid Spanish-English-German issues. Hover your mouse over the Compose input to compare with the one I have highlighted in my screenshot; if not the same please share a screenshot with yours

Reexecute the flow, inspect the new Dummy Compose outputs prints the same dept name as the one you expect for your teammates

Danke!

[franky0711]

Good morning, 

everything worked fine 😀

Now we could start comparing and filtering 😅

[efialttes]

Hi again!

So, assuming the data we need to validate is the same as

body('Get-my_profile_(V2)')?['Department'])

I have found a potential blocking issue. As far as I see right now, 'Search for users' supports searches on some fields, but according to the info displayed 'Department' is not one of them 😕

Since you do neither have access to ADD, nor an Office 365 group/Teams group for the Department... I would suggest as a workaround either to hardcode in your Flow your Departments distribution list (email addresses separated by comma) or to have them stored in as an Outlook Contact List

Please tell us if this workaround (or any other you can think of) match your requirements... if so I will keep on sharing suggestions for next steps

Sorry for the bad news

[franky0711]

I also recognized that "Search User" will not work.

A workaround will be fine for me. 

Thanks in advance

[efialttes]

Hi again

So, lets assume we have the department's contact list stored in an array variable 'FullColleaguesEmailsArray'

Let's add also an auxiliar array variable also, we can call it 'OutputEmailsArray', we will use it to store the email addresses of colleagues that did not create any SP list item yet

Once you add these steps, please try to execute the flow and verify execution succeeds and nr of 'Apply to each' iterations matches with the nr of emails you assigned on 'FullColleaguesEmailsArray'

Once working we just need to add a Condition action block inside Apply to Each, and verify if the following expression equals to 1

length(body('Filter_array'))

On the true branch do nothing, on the false branch you will add in the future the 'Send an email' if you want to notify each collegaue not in your SP list, for testing purposes I will recommend to add instead an 'Append to array' function block to fill 'OutputEmailsArray' with current item.

Finally, out of the Apply to Each, you can add a Dummy Compose action block and assign variable 'OutputEmailsArray' inside, so once you reexecute the flow you can inspect its content and verify if correct target emails are stored there

Hope this helps

[efialttes]

Hi again

Here you are the details of the Condition based logic

And please also note the Filter Array throws an error if we assign union() Compose output as its input, it seems Flow Editor has been upgraded and now applies more strict validations. REplace current input and use expression instead union(body('Select'),body('Select'))

My execution now works as expected

Hope this helps

[franky0711]

I think it's working!

I also  added the condition and tried with success!

It is working 🙂 Thank you so much!

Last question regarding the "fullcolleague email address book" :

Do i have to copy all my relevant emails in my array "fullcolleaguesemailsarray" manually, right?

Or how would you fill it to me up to date in case of new employees?

thank you so much 🙂