Send approval to specific people based on Form multiple choice response - 19 different options. Can select more than one option in form

[jap11]

Hello!

Hoping for some help with a scenario I've got and described below...

1. In Form, user completes form and can select 1 or 19 options from a multiple choice question & submits (each answer represents a department, and each department has 3 people associated to it.)

2. Flow then sends approval to designated people from each answer selected. For example, if A and E are selected in the form, the approval must go to the people associated to department A and E.

I'm guessing the best way to do this may be a SharePoint list which has each persons email listed in one column and the department they belong to in another, for example

Josh | Department A

John | Department B

Mark| Department C

Sarah| Department D

Steve| Department E

So in the case mentioned above, Josh and Steve would be sent the approval request.

But in my actual scenario there is 19 departments and about 3 different people per department.

Any help or guidance on how to build a flow a flow to work like this would be greatly appreciated 🙂

Thanks,

Josh

[Mira_Ghaly]

@jap11 

Yes you can have a sharepoint list but i would suggest a small change here , the sharepoint list should have the department and the People column should allow multiple persons since the department can have more than one person associated to it.

In your flow you will need to:

1. Initialize variable to hold the people you want to send the approval to.

2. Use the Get Items to get the departments using an ODATA filter

3. Loop on each record from step 2 and get the people and append to the variable in step 1

Below will show you how to deal with the multi select group column

[jap11]

Hi @Mira_Ghaly 

That makes absolute sense regarding the people column 🙂

Are you able to please help me with step 2? I'm not entirely sure how to use the ODATA filter... I guessed that I would need to pull through some dynamic content however nothing is appearing from the Get Items. I've started with Partner eq ' ... and then I thought I would need to select the Partner column from dynamic content to get the departments as you suggested however no luck...

EDIT: I've now attempted Step 3 also but running into more issues.

I setup these variables for the Partner Approvers and Partner Emails.

Then when I use the apply to each and add in the SharePoint column name, it seems to be duplicating the apply to each? I'm also unsure if I have added into the Compose correctly... I see with your screenshot you have a column named 'UserGroup Claims', but I'm not sure what that would be for my flow, so I just used the Approvers column?

Then finally (hopefully) how would I then send the approval request to the selected departments?

Apologies I'm still fairly new to power automate and still finding my feet 🙂

Thank you for your help so far!

Josh

[Mira_Ghaly]

@jap11 

I thought the partner approvers is the list of sharepoint where it links the department to the Approvers, can you share your sharepoint list columns? So I can replicate on my end and send you a full example.

[jap11]

Of course, apologies for any confusion! Here is my SharePoint list.

If possible could you send full flow screenshot and i will try replicate each step my end. I've attempted it a few ways not but unfortunately no luck 🙂

Thanks again,

Josh 

[Mira_Ghaly]

@jap11 

Please also not the ; in the append emails array

The send approval step should be outside your apply to each loop 

[jap11]

Hi @Mira_Ghaly 

I've updated the flow however it doesn't seem to be sending any approval requests?

Attached each step of the flow - can you spot where I may be going wrong?

Thanks,

Josh

[Mira_Ghaly]

@jap11 

I believe the issue is here  in the OData from where you are getting the partner .. is it from the form response?

Then you should pass it , can you check the flow run history to see the steps execution and where it get stuck?

[jap11]

@Mira_Ghaly 

Ah right I see - I've updated the OData to include the dynamic content from the form response.

In the example I submitted, I selected 2 choices from the 19 on the form, which in the run history has pulled through correctly on the get items, however the send and wait for approval has not gone to the users.

The run history is showing the apply to each steps greyed out but with no errors, so i'm not sure what is going on

[Mira_Ghaly]

@jap11 

The problem now is the Get Items is returning data, what is the column type of partner in SharePoint?

[Mira_Ghaly]

@jap11 

Also the send approval outside the apply to each both of them.

[Mira_Ghaly]

@jap11 

Let's go one step back you need to split the multiple choice response then you can Get items on each of the options and do the existing logic.

[jap11]

@Mira_Ghaly 

So i tried moving the start and wait for approval outside the loop however it is not failing. Here is the error:

"Let's go one step back you need to split the multiple choice response then you can Get items on each of the options and do the existing logic." - apologies I'm not sure what you mean / how to do this?

[Mira_Ghaly · Accepted solution]

@jap11 

Sorry if I have confused you please follow the sample below i have tried to replicated your scenario as below:

1. Initialize 2 variables answers and emails array , answers should hold the response from the microsoft form response

Expression for the Answers array:

split(replace(replace(replace(outputs('Get_response_details')?['body/r8a667099fbd94265925bad11cf7da507'],'[',''),']',''),'"',''),',')

Please note that you need to replace with the response from your form:

outputs('Get_response_details')?['body/r8a667099fbd94265925bad11cf7da507']

2. Loop on the answers array to get the approver list per each partner

3. Then loop on the approvers to append emails

4. Send approval outside loop

[jap11]

@Mira_Ghaly 

I've updated as per your screenshots and tested a run but ran into an issue. I think it may be related to the expression for the Answers array...

This what I used:

split(replace(replace(replace(outputs('Get_response_details')?['body'],'[',''),']',''),'"',''),',')

However I'm not sure i have done this correctly, are you able to provide a screen recording so I know exactly how to get the response from my form. I'm not sure I've selected the correct option.

I really appreciate your patience in helping me, hopefully will get there soon!

Thank you,

Josh

[jap11]

@Mira_Ghaly  - positive update!

I got the expression to work and ran a test - all seems to be working 😄

I'm going to run a few more tests, most likely tomorrow, with all 19 options in the SharePoint list. 

I really appreciate your help - thank you!

[emilyharrison]

Spoiler

Help with Teams Approval where there are multiple choices of approver

 Hi

Can someone give me some guidance, I'm looking to create a start and wait for approval with the email address being fed from a multiple choice field in the form but im having the below error