PowerApps & Automate issue with email not sending when value is not selected

[DCI19]

Hello,

I built a PowerApps app that's connected to a SharePoint list. When the form is completed it is supposed send emails to 2 values selected and the values populate in the email body. Once of the selections is optional, so when this field is empty the workflow does not kickoff and the email does not send.

What can I do to simply add that if the foreman field (that is a multiple people picker, is cc'd on the email and part of the email body) is empty the email will still kick off to the other emails selected.

[RMCoder]

To clarify, you are looping through the Foreman array to send the email, but there's a chance the array is empty?
If so, you can add a condition just before the Foreman loop to check the length of the array is greater than zero. Loop through the Foreman array in the Yes branch, and send the single(?) email in the No branch:

length(variables('Foreman')) 

[DCI19]

Yes - the foreman field is optional and may have multiple selections. However when I created the flow it forces the email to send to each foreman email separately instead of including them all on one email. I previously tried a different condition. Thank you for the suggestion - let me try what you recommend.

[DCI19]

I tried what you suggested and got this error:

The inputs of workflow run action 'Condition' of type 'If' are not valid. The variable 'Foreman' must be initialized before it can be used inside action 'Condition'.

[RMCoder]

The "Foreman" variable I created was a placeholder for your SharePoint people output since I didn't know what all is above your original Foreach and Email actions. I just copy and pasted some people objects into a variable to create a quick array.

You can add a Select action after your SharePoint output to isolate the people array column. In my example, I pulled a specific item from a random list that happened to have a multi-select person column titled "Stakeholders".

In the From field, I entered outputs('Get_item')?['body/Stakeholders']  but replace with your action action name and the correct column name (i.e. 'Update_item' and 'Foreman').

In the Map section of the select I'm using expressions to isolate individual properties for each Foreman (should they exist):

item()?['Email']

item()?['DisplayName']

My condition then becomes length(body('Select')) ,because Select outputs an array of objects.

In your email action loop you can refer to each of the stakeholder properties the same way you mapped them, if you used the same properties: item()?['Email'] will insert the current loop item's email address, and item()?['DisplayName'] for the DisplayName.

[DCI19]

This is great, thank you so much. I am still struggling with an error for some reason. Now my error is:

"The inputs of workflow run action 'Condition' of type 'If' are not valid. The variable 'Select' must be initialized before it can be used inside action 'Condition'."

Which I do not understand because select is occurring before the condition.

select:

apply to each:

[RMCoder]

Select is not a variable, it's an action with a response body, so your expression in the Condition action should be length(body('Select'))

Also, I only used the Compose statements in my demo for illustrative purposes, they can be removed from inside your Yes branch of the Condition. You definitely don't want to use that 'outputs('Compose')' that you probably have in your email message next to Foreman, because it will not match the rest of your formatting.

[DCI19 · Accepted solution]

Scenario involves 2 fields (foreman and project manager) that are people pickers. Both people picker fields are included in the automated email that follows. One field is a multiple people picker and not required (foreman) the other people picker field is required (project manager). Need to know how to send the email regardless of if foreman people picker is left blank.

PowerApps app was created that creates a SharePoint list item at beginning of the workflow. Foreman is a multiple people picker and NOT required. See steps / actions as follows:

1. Add a Select action after your SharePoint output to isolate the people array column into a new array.
   1. From: Dynamic content = Foreman
   2. Map: Email to Dynamic content = Foreman email
      1.       item()?['Email']
   3. Map: DisplayName to Dynamic content = Foreman DisplayName
      1.       item()?['DisplayName']

1. Before email create a Condition control.
   1. Enter expression: length(body('Select'))
   2. Is greater than 0

1. Send email to each Foreman and complete the no email.

This was successful and now sends emails even when foreman field is left blank.