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Need help with parsing HTML Table received via email to have it saved in an Excel table

Hi I'm creating a workflow that will receive an outlook email with a table and will parse this table to get the values from two columns and update an excel sheet.  I can't use xpath action or xml, as the flow throws the error in the screenshot. 

The workflow I have developed so far: 

SoSo0_0-1695052335398.png

 

The html table am parsing from outlook:

SoSo0_1-1695052386711.png

 

 

The HTML output I got on power automate from step ComposeEndOfTable: 

<table class="MsoNormalTable" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="border-collapse:collapse"><thead><tr><td style="border:solid #B3ADAD 1.0pt; background:#F0F0F0; padding:3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt"><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span style="color:#313030">Issue ID</span></b></p></td><td style="border:solid #B3ADAD 1.0pt; border-left:none; background:#F0F0F0; padding:3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt"><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span style="color:#313030">User Email</span></b></p></td><td style="border:solid #B3ADAD 1.0pt; border-left:none; background:#F0F0F0; padding:3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt"><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span style="color:#313030">Description</span></b></p></td><td style="border:solid #B3ADAD 1.0pt; border-left:none; background:#F0F0F0; padding:3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt"><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span style="color:#313030">Update</span></b></p></td><td style="border:solid #B3ADAD 1.0pt; border-left:none; background:#F0F0F0; padding:3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt"><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span style="color:#313030">Due Date </span></b></p><p align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span style="color:red">(MM/DD/YYYY)</span></b></p></td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td style="border:solid #B3ADAD 1.0pt; border-top:none; background:white; padding:3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt"><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="color:#313030">1</span></p></td><td style="border-top:none; border-left:none; border-bottom:solid #B3ADAD 1.0pt; border-right:solid #B3ADAD 1.0pt; background:white; padding:3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt"><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="color:#313030"><a href="mailto:Israa_Salah@dell.com">Israa_Salah@dell.com</a></span></p></td><td style="border-top:none; border-left:none; border-bottom:solid #B3ADAD 1.0pt; border-right:solid #B3ADAD 1.0pt; background:white; padding:3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt"><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="color:#313030">Delay in availing discovery infrustructure</span></p></td><td style="border-top:none; border-left:none; border-bottom:solid #B3ADAD 1.0pt; border-right:solid #B3ADAD 1.0pt; background:white; padding:3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt"><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="color:black">test</span><span style="color:#313030">&nbsp;</span></p></td><td style="border-top:none; border-left:none; border-bottom:solid #B3ADAD 1.0pt; border-right:solid #B3ADAD 1.0pt; background:white; padding:3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt"><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="color:black">09/19/2023</span><span style="color:#313030">&nbsp;</span></p></td></tr></tbody></table>

 

ComposeStartOfTable:

substring(triggerOutputs()?['body/body'],indexOf(triggerOutputs()['body/body'],'<table'))

ComposeEndOfTable:

substring(outputs('ComposeStartOfTable'),0,indexOf(outputs('ComposeStartOfTable'),'</table>'))

Compose3: 

xpath(xml(outputs('ComposeEndOfTable')),'//table/tbody/tr[1]/td[4]')
 
 
Xpath wise, I understand to get the values from Update and Due Date columns, I can use these xpaths, but I don't know how to implement this on PowerAutomate:
 
//table/tbody/tr[1]/td[4]
//table/tbody/tr[1]/td[5]
1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Hi @SoSo0 

 

As @efialttes correctly mentioned, we need to first replace '&nbsp;' with empty string. Post that action, you can write below expression to fetch update & due date values:

Expression to get update value:

xpath(xml(replace(outputs('ComposeEndOfTable'),'&nbsp;','')),'string(//table/tbody/tr[1]/td[4]/p/span)')

 As value is present deep inside tags '<table><tbody><tr><td><p><span>', so need to traverse to that node to get the value.

 

Expression to get due date value:

xpath(xml(replace(outputs('ComposeEndOfTable'),'&nbsp;','')),'string(//table/tbody/tr[1]/td[5]/p/span)')

 

If this helps & solves your problem, please remember to give a 👍 and accept my solution as it will help others in the future.

 

Thanks

Thanks
Manish Solanki
View my blog
Linkedin

View solution in original post

6 REPLIES 6
efialttes
Community Champion
Community Champion

Hi @SoSo0 !

By reading the error message, it seems you should replace 

 

 

&nbsp

 

 

and use instead

 

 

&nbsp;

 

 


If the error persists, you can try to remove &nbsp; with the following the expression:

 

xpath(xml(replace(outputs('ComposeEndOfTable'),'&nbsp','')),'//table/tbody/tr[1]/td[4]')

 


Please also note there is a great blog post here just in case you struggle with the format obtained:
https://manueltgomes.com/reference/powerautomate-function-reference/xpath-function/

Hope this helps



Did I make your day? If so, mark my response as 'Solution' !!!

También escribo sobre Power Automate en este Blog y en Twitter

Hi @SoSo0 

 

As @efialttes correctly mentioned, we need to first replace '&nbsp;' with empty string. Post that action, you can write below expression to fetch update & due date values:

Expression to get update value:

xpath(xml(replace(outputs('ComposeEndOfTable'),'&nbsp;','')),'string(//table/tbody/tr[1]/td[4]/p/span)')

 As value is present deep inside tags '<table><tbody><tr><td><p><span>', so need to traverse to that node to get the value.

 

Expression to get due date value:

xpath(xml(replace(outputs('ComposeEndOfTable'),'&nbsp;','')),'string(//table/tbody/tr[1]/td[5]/p/span)')

 

If this helps & solves your problem, please remember to give a 👍 and accept my solution as it will help others in the future.

 

Thanks

Thanks
Manish Solanki
View my blog
Linkedin

Hi
I tried compose replace:  

replace(outputs('ComposeEndOfTable'),'&nbsp','&nbsp;')

SoSo0_1-1695055149442.png

 

and got this error

SoSo0_0-1695055096117.png

 

Hi @SoSo0 

If the error persists, you can try to remove &nbsp; with the following the expression:

xpath(xml(replace(outputs('ComposeEndOfTable'),'&nbsp','')),'//table/tbody/tr[1]/td[4]')


Please also note there is a great blog post here just in case you struggle with the format obtained:
https://manueltgomes.com/reference/powerautomate-function-reference/xpath-function/ : string() function will do the magic as suggested by @ManishSolanki 

Hope this helps!
===========

Did I make your day? If so, mark my response as 'Solution' !!!

También escribo sobre Power Automate en este Blog y en Twitter

Thanks a lot Manish. 
I did some testing and this worked for me, however. If the user adds updates with new lines in between, the flow fails.

 

Response received via email: 

SoSo0_1-1695072393968.png

 

HTML response received via PowerAutomate: 

<table class="MsoNormalTable" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="border-collapse:collapse"><thead><tr><td style="border:solid #B3ADAD 1.0pt; background:#F0F0F0; padding:3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt"><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span style="color:#313030">Issue ID</span></b></p></td><td style="border:solid #B3ADAD 1.0pt; border-left:none; background:#F0F0F0; padding:3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt"><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span style="color:#313030">User Email</span></b></p></td><td style="border:solid #B3ADAD 1.0pt; border-left:none; background:#F0F0F0; padding:3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt"><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span style="color:#313030">Description</span></b></p></td><td width="267" style="width:200.1pt; border:solid #B3ADAD 1.0pt; border-left:none; background:#F0F0F0; padding:3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt"><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span style="color:#313030">Update</span></b></p></td><td width="156" style="width:117.0pt; border:solid #B3ADAD 1.0pt; border-left:none; background:#F0F0F0; padding:3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt"><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span style="color:#313030">Due Date </span></b></p><p align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span style="color:red">(MM/DD/YYYY)</span></b></p></td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td style="border:solid #B3ADAD 1.0pt; border-top:none; background:white; padding:3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt"><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="color:#313030">1</span></p></td><td style="border-top:none; border-left:none; border-bottom:solid #B3ADAD 1.0pt; border-right:solid #B3ADAD 1.0pt; background:white; padding:3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt"><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="color:#313030"><a href="mailto:soos_soos@soso.com">soos_soos@soso.com</a></span></p></td><td style="border-top:none; border-left:none; border-bottom:solid #B3ADAD 1.0pt; border-right:solid #B3ADAD 1.0pt; background:white; padding:3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt"><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="color:#313030">Description</span></p></td><td width="267" style="width:200.1pt; border-top:none; border-left:none; border-bottom:solid #B3ADAD 1.0pt; border-right:solid #B3ADAD 1.0pt; background:white; padding:3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt"><ol start="1" type="1" style="margin-top:0in"><li class="MsoListParagraph" style="color:#313030; margin-left:0in; text-align:center"><span style="color:black">Test 1</span>&nbsp;<span style="color:black"><br>2- Test 2</span></li></ol></td><td width="156" style="width:117.0pt; border-top:none; border-left:none; border-bottom:solid #B3ADAD 1.0pt; border-right:solid #B3ADAD 1.0pt; background:white; padding:3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt"><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="color:black">9/19/2023</span><span style="color:#313030">&nbsp;</span></p></td></tr></tbody></table>

 

SoSo0_0-1695072289145.png

 



Hi @SoSo0 

 

As html is not fixed so we will go with different approach. Here I am assuming that in the html table, there will be only a single row but for columns, we may have different content or rows within the column.

 

We will extract the html code of the required column from the first row and then using content conversion action get the content from the extracted html code:

ManishSolanki_0-1695124733872.png

Expression used in compose action:

base64ToString(first(xpath(xml(replace(replace(outputs('ComposeEndOfTable'),'&nbsp;',''),'<br>',decodeUriComponent('%0A'))),'//table/tbody/tr[1]/td[4]'))?['$content'])

In content conversion action pass the output of compose action to get the required content.

 

Similarly, used the compose & content conversion action to extract the content of another column:

ManishSolanki_1-1695124875840.png

Expression used in compose 2 action:

base64ToString(first(xpath(xml(replace(replace(outputs('ComposeEndOfTable'),'&nbsp;',''),'<br>',decodeUriComponent('%0A'))),'//table/tbody/tr[1]/td[5]'))?['$content'])

 

The output of both conversion actions will give the required values. This approach will work even if we have a single string value in the column.

 

If this helps & solves your problem, please remember to give a 👍 and accept my solution as it will help others in the future.

 

Thanks

Thanks
Manish Solanki
View my blog
Linkedin

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