Get rows from excel keeps failing

[chickyd]

Trying to do the template Click a button to update Dynamics 365 record from matching record in Excel

Pulling an excel from One Drive for Business I cannot ket the process to work. (I'm a flow beginner).

What am I missing?

Thanks!

[yashag2255]

Hi @chickyd 

Can you please post a screenshot of the error and the flow? Having a look at those will help us better understand and address the issue that you are facing. 

[chickyd]

Sorry I can't seem to bring in a picture.

I get NotFound and the following code:

{

"status": 404,

  "message": "Failed to read metadata from file source. Response from the end service is : Resource Not Found\r\nclientRequestId: 54940917-14b0-42d2-abbd-5ea2257d48c4",

  "source": "excel-ukw.azconn-ukw-01.p.azurewebsites.net"

}

[v-yamao-msft]

Hi @chickyd ,

What’s your current situation? Does the issue still exist?

I have started the flow from the template you’ve mentioned, it just works properly.

Please take care of the following points:

1. The Excel file should be formatted as a Table.
2. Item identifier of action Get record requires a unique item identifier of the record. In my testing, it is the AccountId. So before running the flow, I have stored the unique account id in the Id field in the Excel file.

Please take another try to see if it works for you now.

Best regards,

Mabel

[chickyd]

Thanks @v-yamao-msft 

I know my issue - it's that I wasn't using the unique identifier.

Do I need to add javascript to show the accoutid on my Account form (so I can then copy that into the excel for the lookup) or is there an easier way than this? 

If that is the solution it would be great tonknow if you have a best method of JS I should be using.

Thanks again!

[yashag2255]

Hi @chickyd 

You can get the record ID (GUID) of any entity by the name of that entity in the flow.  

How are you storing the data in your excel sheet? Do you have the record ID value there? 

Hope this Helps!

If this reply has answered your question or solved your issue, please mark this question as answered. Answered questions helps users in the future who may have the same issue or question quickly find a resolution via search. If you liked my response, please consider giving it a thumbs up. THANKS!

[chickyd]

I have a custom identifier field I created in the Account entity which is a string of text and I created a Key for that field within the Account entity. I then have that identified showing up on my excel.

So for example I can type in 12345 into the field in the Acount form for that identifier and then it will lookup record 12345 from the excel.

Still failing though:

{

"status": 400,

"message": "Invalid value: 12345 provided for item ID",

Any thoughts?

[yashag2255]

Hi @

To update a record in Dynamics using Flow, you need to have the identifier. The identifier is a unique string that is auto generated when a record is created and this is a unique string that is used to identify the record. 

What you can do is, add an action List records from Dynamics and then fill everything. In the Filter option type: fieldname eq 'excelcolumn' here, field name is the logical name of the field that is the identifier that you created and then in the single quotes, select the column value from excel. The output of this action is in the form of a list but you should get only one value that matches (1234 for example) and then here you wil get the guid in the dynamic selector that you can use in updating the record. 

Hope this Helps!

If this reply has answered your question or solved your issue, please mark this question as answered. Answered questions helps users in the future who may have the same issue or question quickly find a resolution via search. If you liked my response, please consider giving it a thumbs up. THANKS!

[chickyd]

Thanks think I'm getting closer but still struggling tbh.

So I've got:

Get Rows > List Records > ??

Do I go straight from List Records to Update a record - which is what i've tried and it's failed. Is Record identified in Update a record equal to my 'fieldname' from the Accounts entity?

Apologies, feel nearly there but adding this extra step has thrown the template i was using out so could do with help getting it over the line.

[yashag2255 · Accepted solution]

Hi @chickyd 

Please see the screenshots below:

Here, i am using the filter query to get the records matching to the value in my column 1 from excel. Then i am using that to identify the record and update. (so not worry about the second apply to each as it will update only one record that is matching the unique id field that you created.) in the filter query, replace mycol with the logical name of the field from your entity in dynamics. 

Hope this Helps!

If this reply has answered your question or solved your issue, please mark this question as answered. Answered questions helps users in the future who may have the same issue or question quickly find a resolution via search. If you liked my response, please consider giving it a thumbs up. THANKS!

[chickyd]

Thanks this is brilliant. I have it working!

Quick follow up. I can seem to only bring in values from the excel into text string fields - so can't bring in currency or whole number fields. Is there a way of doing this?

Thanks again!

[yashag2255]

Hi @chickyd 

You might not be getting those directly due to formatting issues at the excel and matching those to dynamics. 

However, integer and currency field should be able to accommodate integer values. Need to check this though. 

Can you try this: 

You can access the element column of the excel when using the apply to each loop using the expression: 

items('Apply_to_each')?['Column1']

Here, column1 is the name of my excel column. 

Now wrap this in an int

int(items('Apply_to_each')?['Column1'])

If the currency is in float, (has decimals), use float() instead of int. 

Please crosscheck the name of the apply to each action. If it is apply to each 2 for the excel list then the expression will have '_2' after the 'each' string and so on based on the name of the control. 

Hope this Helps!

If this reply has answered your question or solved your issue, please mark this question as answered. Answered questions helps users in the future who may have the same issue or question quickly find a resolution via search. If you liked my response, please consider giving it a thumbs up. THANKS!

[chickyd]

Hey sorry you've managed to go beyond my understanding there!

Is there any simple way I can just get the format in the excel to match the format of a field in Dynamics? I can create new fields for this purpose and change the format in the excel. Just looking for numbers with comas and ideally currency.

[yashag2255]

Hi @chickyd 

So the dynamics connector sometimes fails to recognise other datatypes. What you could try is, initialise a variable in the beginning of the flow just after the trigger. give a name and select the type as integer, leave the value empty. Now in the apply to each of the excel rows, add an action set variable and here select the variable name you initialised and in the value you should be able to select the excel wholenumber column from the dynamic selector. 

In teh update record action, for the whole number, use the variable from the dynamic selector. 

You will have to add those many variables as you have in the excel for the number/ currency types. 

Hope this Helps!

If this reply has answered your question or solved your issue, please mark this question as answered. Answered questions helps users in the future who may have the same issue or question quickly find a resolution via search. If you liked my response, please consider giving it a thumbs up. THANKS!

[chickyd]

All good, thanks for your help.

I have KuTools installed on excel and i discovered a way of converting all cell contents to text strings with one click which has satisfied me for now. 

Thanks agian for all your help!

[chickyd]

After all that perhaps it would be better to capture the real value so I can filter correctly within dynamics. 

On your suggestion here I don't have the option to select the excel whole number column from the dynamic selector when I'm doing the Set Variable action. Any thoughts?

[yashag2255]

Hi @chickyd 

Can you share a screenshot of the flow and show what all options are available there? What type of variable did you initialise? Can you try initialising a string and check if that option appears in the dynamic selector? If so, we will have to use a simple int() expression to get the value.