Message ID in Flow unlike in Outlook Online - Encode Problem?

[Anonymous]

Hallo Community,

in my business case I want to create a list element every time a mail arrives in a shared mailbox. The list elements should contain a link to the original mail in the shared mailbox.

The URL to a mail in Outlook Online looks like this:

https://outlook.office.com/owa/?viewmodel=ReadMessageItem&ItemID=AAMkADVhZDZiMTE3LTIxNDctNDljYy1hOTU...

I crated the link with the message id, which I get from the flow.

https://outlook.office.com/owa/?viewmodel=ReadMessageItem&ItemID=[messageID]

The problem are the special characters:

In the URL stands %2F (“/”) and %2B (“+”).

Example:

https://outlook.office.com/owa/?viewmodel=ReadMessageItem&ItemID=AAMkADVhZDZiMTE3LTIxNDctNDljYy1hOTU...

In the flow the message ID contains “-” and “_” instead of the "/" and "+".

AAMkADVhZDZiMTE3LTIxNDctNDljYy1hOTUxLTQ5OTViYzAyZTE3ZQBGAAAAAAD-JNp3P_taTaPKITsM2XGQBwB52h5ChXJpRK9bvJuZTbRMAAAAAAEMAAB52h5ChXJpRK9bvJuZTbRMAAADQZjTAAA=

It is not possible to open the mail with the message id I get from the flow!

It is strange. It seems like it is an encoding problem.

I tested it with another flow for my own inbox and it worked because the message id does not contain any special characters.   

Regards Anja

[v-yamao-msft]

Hi Anja,

It might be default that Flow will generate a Message ID likes you mentioned contains “_” or “-”.

There are other customers who also want to format the Message Id in a different way, please consider submitting a request at Flow ideas Forum, hope PGs will take it into considerations in the future releases. I will help collect and report it on my side.

The Flow Ideas Forum is:
https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Flow-Ideas/idb-p/FlowIdeas

Best regards,
Mabel Mao

[Anonymous]

Hallo Mabel,

it's no idea. In my opionion it's a bug. Can you explain the benefit that message id in outlook online and flow should be different?

Outlook online:

AAMkADVhZDZiMTE3LTIxNDctNDljYy1hOTUxLTQ5OTViYzAyZTE3ZQBGAAAAAAD/JNp3P+taTaPKITsM2XGQBwB52h5ChXJpRK9bvJuZTbRMAAAAAAEMAAB52h5ChXJpRK9bvJuZTbRMAAADQZiyAAA=

Flow

AAMkADVhZDZiMTE3LTIxNDctNDljYy1hOTUxLTQ5OTViYzAyZTE3ZQBGAAAAAAD-JNp3P_taTaPKITsM2XGQBwB52h5ChXJpRK9bvJuZTbRMAAAAAAEMAAB52h5ChXJpRK9bvJuZTbRMAAADQZiyAAA=

Microsoft please fix this bug.

The only alternative I can imagine, is to make a automatic replacement of all "-" to "/" and "_" to "+". But I'm sure this workaround will fail some time and my flow doesn't work anymore.

Regards Anja

[Anonymous]

Just for explanation my issue. 

The URL from outlook online contains the encoded message id: AAMkADVhZDZiMTE3LTIxNDctNDljYy1hOTUxLTQ5OTViYzAyZTE3ZQBGAAAAAAD%2FJNp3P%2BtaTaPKITsM2XGQBwB52h5ChXJpRK9bvJuZTbRMAAAAAAEMAAB52h5ChXJpRK9bvJuZTbRMAAADQZiyAAA%3D

If I decode the id, it's like this:

AAMkADVhZDZiMTE3LTIxNDctNDljYy1hOTUxLTQ5OTViYzAyZTE3ZQBGAAAAAAD/JNp3P+taTaPKITsM2XGQBwB52h5ChXJpRK9bvJuZTbRMAAAAAAEMAAB52h5ChXJpRK9bvJuZTbRMAAADQZiyAAA=

In flow the id is identicial except the "/" and "+"!

Regards Anja

[efialttes]

Perhaps it's worth to play with decodeUriComponent expression as defined at

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/logic-apps/logic-apps-workflow-definition-language

Un-URL-escapes the string that's passed in. For example, this function returns You Are:Cool/Awesome:encodeUriComponent('You+Are%3ACool%2FAwesome') +

Parameter number: 1 +

Name: String +

Description: Required. The string to decode the URL-unsafe characters from.

Hope this helps

[Anonymous]

Hallo efialttes,

I tried to use the encode url function, but nothing happend. The characters "-" and "_" won't be encoded. 

Unfortunately my issue is still existing. I contacted microsoft support, but I'm still waiting for a solutions.

As a workaround I made a compose with two replace functions. But if this problem will be fixed some time, my flow won't work anymore.

replace(replace(triggerBody()?['Id'] , '_', '%2B'), '-', '%2F')

[gabe17]

Hi Anja,

I share your frustration, Flow should really have the option of including the OWA url as one of the dynamic fields.

Would you be able to help me with setting up my flow?

I get the formula you have there, but how do you combine it with the url https://outlook.office.com/owa/?viewmodel=ReadMessageItem&ItemID= ?

And are you updating the task details, and adding the url to Reference Resource Link 1?

I'm not good at coding and this isn't working 

concat(https://outlook.office.com/owa/?viewmodel=ReadMessageItem&ItemID=,replace(replace(triggerBody()?['Id'] , '_', '%2B'), '-', '%2F'))

[dimi · Accepted solution]

Hi everyone

To people that are still facing issues with this,we have the same scenario and managed pretty easely to get it working, here is how:

You can take the MessageId (completely with the = as well at the end) and use the encodeUriComponent() function to encode your messageId. After that you can insert this variable into your OWA link and have a working URL

If anyone has questions, feel free to ask. Good luck!

Kind regards

[Dan]

This is what I'm currently doing in flow:

https://outlook.office365.com/owa/?viewmodel=ReadMessageItem&ItemID=FUNCTION(encodeURIComponent)

Where the FUCNTION ETC IS:

encodeUriComponent(triggerBody()?['Id'])

When using that link, I get "The attachment couldn't be opened"

Any help would be great

[Anonymous]

Hi dimi,

using the encodeUriComponent works fine for = but - and _ are still not encoded correctly. 
Any idea what could go wrong there?