How to convert a 'When New Item is created' trigger to a 'manual' trigger from a SharePoint list

[Anonymous]

Good day, I have created a workflow for my Management of Change approvals process, which is triggered when a new item is created on the 'Raise a New Change Request list'. However, I now need to be able to activate an identical (almost) flow manually, when a Change Request has been rejected by a Management of Change Team member, and has been amended and needs to be re-submitted. I want to be able to click on the amended list item, and re-submit the Change request using the manual flow trigger. I was hoping someone had a suggestion on how to change a copy of my existing flow so that it will can be triggered with the manual trigger. I have previously been able to change a trigger from a 'when_an_item_is_created_or_modified' to a 'When_item_is_created" by using the workaround of exporting the workflow as a zip package. That change worked when I • export the workflow as a zip package (option "create as new") • make sure to rename the original workflow to avoid conflicts when importing • unzip the package file, look for the definition.json file • replace the trigger by editing the file: in my case I replaced "When_an_item_is_created_or_modified" with "When_an_item_is_created" , "GetOnUpdatedItems" with "GetOnNewItems" and "onupdateditems" with "onnewitems" • recreate the zipfile (make sure the Microsoft.Flow folder is in the root of the zip file) • reimport the package, the flow is now triggered by the new action But I couldn't get it to work when I swapped "When_an_item_is_created_or_modified" with "manual". Does anyone have a suggestion on how to change the trigger from 'When an item is created' to 'manual'?

[v-yuazh-msft]

Hi @Anonymous,

You could modify the trigger 'When New Item is created' to trigger "For a selected item".

You could refer to link below to learn more about running a flow for a selected item:

https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/flow-in-spo-document-libraries/

The flow with trigger "For a selected item" would be created automatically from sharepoint and you need to manually add the other actions to the flow instead of only change the trigger from a copy flow.

Best regards,

Alice

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the response Alice.

Yes, the trigger "For a selected item" was the manual trigger I have been trying to switch to.

I almost found a work around, when I went into the .JSON file and swapped the entire section:

'

":{},"type":"Object"},"$authentication":{"defaultValue":{},"type":"SecureObject"}},"triggers":{"When_an_item_is_created":{"recurrence":{"interval":5,"frequency":"Minute"},"splitOn":"@triggerBody()?['value']","metadata":{"flowSystemMetadata":{"swaggerOperationId":"GetOnNewItems"}},"type":"ApiConnection","inputs":{"host":{"api":{"runtimeUrl":"https://flow-apim-msmanaged-na-westus2-01.azure-apim.net/apim/sharepointonline"},"connection":{"name... .sharepoint.com/teams/Adelaide%20testing%20page'))}/tables/@{encodeURIComponent(encodeURIComponent('67c3a2bd-91f1-4c51-a342-6c1814828e8b'))}/onnewitems","authentication":"@parameters('$authentication')"}}},"

'

with:

'

":{},"type":"SecureObject"},"sharepoint.site":{"defaultValue":"","type":"String"},"sharepoint.list":{"defaultValue":"","type":"String"}},"triggers":{"manual":{"splitOn":"@triggerBody()['rows']","type":"Request","kind":"ApiConnection","inputs":{"schema":{"type":"object","properties":{"rows":{"type":"array","items":{"type":"object","properties":{"text":{"type":"string","x-ms-dynamically-added":true,"description":"Message to manager","x-ms-content-hint":"TEXT","title":"Message"},"entity":{"type":"object","required":["entity.ID"],"properties":{"ID":{"type":"integer","isEntityParameter":true}}}},"required":["text"]}}}},"host":{"api":{"runtimeUrl":"https://flow-apim-msmanaged-na-westus2-01.azure-apim.net/apim/sharepointonline"},"connection":{"name... .sharepoint.com/teams/Adelaide testing page","table":"67c3a2bd-91f1-4c51-a342-6c1814828e8b"}}}},"

'

Which then allowed the workflow to be run when I re-zipped the amended files and re-imported them.

The workflow looked correct, and it allowed me to save the flow with a new name, and test the flow by running the newly modified workflow from the SharePoint list.

However, while the flow would run, it would fail at every step that had dynamic content.

It appears that the dynamic content selector doesn't recognise the "When an item is selected" trigger for the links of the type: TriggerBody()['']

I kept on getting Error Code 404, Error Details "Resource not found" every time I tested the workflow.

I will now need to go into each dynamic content and delete the existing link, and create a new link of the type: Body('Get_item')['']

Which is annoying, as I was trying to avoid deleting all the dynamic content links and re-creating them.

I am surprised the flow allowed me to save it, considering all the dynamic content links were now nonsense.

But at least I don't have to build the entire workflow again from scratch (just repopulate all the dynamic content links).

I really did not want to create the trigger automatically from the SharePoint list, then have to manually add 426 things (actions/conditions/variables/scopes/for each) after that, in order to recreate the working flow. 

Many thanks,

Adam

[Anonymous]

I have come up against another error.

I built a test flow from scratch, using the 'For a selected item' trigger, but when I have gone to test it, it comes up with an error:

This flow cannot be triggered for testing.

Does anyone know how to fix this?

As it won't let me run the flow, I don't have any flow failure/error information to point out what has gone wrong.

Thanks,

Adam

[v-yuazh-msft]

Hi @Anonymous,

As is refered in the link:

https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/flow-in-spo-document-libraries/

Now when you flow is created, go back to your SharePoint list, select an item and click on the Flow menu. You’ll notice a new addition to the menu - the flow you just created,you could lick on it to run the flow,as screenshot below:

 

Best regards,

Alice

[Anonymous]

Thanks Alice,

I have already been referencing the 'Run a flow on demand for a selected list item' section of the Blog, but thank you for thinking to send the link anyway.

However the flows will not run, it comes up with the OOPS 'something went wrong' fallen icecream error symbol.

To summarise what I have been doing:

I have been clicking on a list to create a manually triggered flow.

Using the "Request manager approval for the selected item" one as the flow template.

Editing the flow as desired.

Saving the flow.

Going to the list the flow was based on.

Selecting an item from the list.

Going to Flow.

The new flow is there.

Clicking to run the flow.

Getting the something went wrong message.

Going into my flow.

Seeing that there is no way to trigger the flow.

Wondering what went wrong.

Is there anyway to see what went wrong, why a flow cannot be triggered?

This is doubly confusing as I have another manually triggered flow (an approval flow) that works fine.

It allows me to select the item needed the approval from the list (a different list, as this approval is later on in the Change Management Process).

And will run the approval fine.

I can't see why one would work, and be triggered fine, and the other wont.

Is there something about the manual trigger that it will work for some custom lists, but not others?

This is doing my head in.

Many thanks,

Best regards,

Adam