Two level approval flow without Power Automate

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

I am trying to build a two level approval flow within PowerApps without Power Automate. 

if anyone has any blog or any video that they can share so i can start building it out. if you want i can share my detailed requirement if it is possible. 


Thanks in advance!

[eka24]

Shane Young has a video on that;

https://youtu.be/49O284deOAI

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[Anonymous]

@eka24 i have seen the video. But it would be great if we have any post to cater to 2 level approval flow?

[eka24]

Do you mean first approval to 2nd Approval?

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[Pstork1]

I know Shane's video only does a single level of approvals, but to extend it to two levels you basically have to duplicate the fields used for the first level to do the second level.  

Personally I would recommend against it.  This more complex kind of Approval is exactly what Power Automate is designed for.  Is there some specific reason why you don't want to use Power Automate?

[Anonymous]

@Pstork1 As Power automate allows to do approval through outlook desktop/web or Power Automate Home, the users do not like that as they will not be checking their mails and if they miss the approval flow that is a whole new issue, they have to search for it. 
Instead the users want the approval to be residing in their gallery and then they can go to the application to approve and reject the request.
i would need to update few fields during this approval flow too and i too recommend Power Automate solution only but the users are more inclined towards approving the approval flow within the application. 

@eka24 yes, so the approval would be first approved by 1st user and if approved then would allow the other user to approve. i believe i could use drop down values to achieve this and based on drop down value selection i can trigger a flow that would check drop down value and act upon it.

i hope i am making sense.

Thank You!!

Cheers!!

[eka24]

You can duplicate the process as said by @Pstork1 

If you are not sure, this is another video that will help you:

https://youtu.be/uR46EYGQ0hA

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[Anonymous]

@eka24  thank you for the suggestion. also the link to the video you shared does not seem to work.

[v-xida-msft]

Hi @Anonymous ,

Do you create a Two-Level approval flow in your canvas app without Power Automate flow?

Which data source do you want to use for your approval flow? A SP List?

Based on the needs that you mentioned, I think PowerApps canvas app could achieve your needs. I assume that you use SP List as data source in your canvas app, in your SP List, you need to create two Person type columns (Approver1 & Approver2) to store the Approver info for the Approval Request, and you also need to create two Choice type columns (Result From Approver1 & Result From Approver2) with two available options -- Approved and Rejected.

So your SP list should be looked like below:

After that, you could generate a new app based on above SP List. Then go to the Edit form screen, enable the Approver1, Result From Approver1, Approver2, Result From Approver2 field in your Edit form:

Then set the OnStart property of App to following:

Set(ItemID, Param("ID"));
If(
    !IsBlank(ItemID),
    Navigate(EditScreen1)
)

Then in your Edit form, set the Visible property of the "Result From Approver1" field data card to following:

If(
    EditForm1.Mode = FormMode.New,
    false,
    If(
        LookUp('Leave Approval Requests', ID = Value(ItemID), Approver1.Email) = User().Email,
        true,
        false
    )
)

set the Visible property of the 'Result From Approver2' field data card to following:

If(
    EditForm1.Mode = FormMode.New,
    false,
    If(
        LookUp('Leave Approval Requests', ID = Value(ItemID), Approver2.Email) = User().Email,
        true,
        false
    )
)

Set the DisplayMode property of the "Title", "Request Reason", "Approver1" and "Approver2" field data card in above Edit form to following:

If(
   IsBlank(ThisItem.'Created By'.Email) || ThisItem.'Created By'.Email = User().Email,
   DisplayMode.Edit,
   DisplayMode.Disabled
)

Note: make some info of the Request could not be editable once the Requester has submitted the Approval Request.

Set the OnSuccess property of the Edit form to following:

If(
   IsBlank(EditForm1.LastSubmit.'Result From Approver1'.Value) || IsBlank(EditForm1.LastSubmit.'Result From Approver2'.Value),
   Office365Outlook.SendEmail(
                           If(
                               IsBlank(EditForm1.LastSubmit.'Result From Approver1'.Value),
                               EditForm1.LastSubmit.Approver1.Email,
                               EditForm1.LastSubmit.'Result From Approver1'.Value = "Approved" && IsBlank(EditForm1.LastSubmit.'Result From Approver2'.Value),
                               EditForm1.LastSubmit.Approver2.Email
                           ),
                           "Leave Approval Request",
                           "Hi " & If(
                               IsBlank(EditForm1.LastSubmit.'Result From Approver1'.Value),
                               EditForm1.LastSubmit.Approver1.DisplayName,
                               EditForm1.LastSubmit.'Result From Approver1'.Value = "Approved" && IsBlank(EditForm1.LastSubmit.'Result From Approver2'.Value),
                               EditForm1.LastSubmit.Approver2.DisplayName
                           ) & ", the user " & EditForm1.LastSubmit.'Created By'.DisplayName & " has submitted a approval request, please approve it through the follwing Canvas App Web URL link directly: <br/>" & "https://apps.powerapps.com/play/xxxxxxxx-a0e8-xxxx-9037-a553dfbc39b5?tenantId=xxxxxxxx-f6a5-xxxx-89a9-9785a9d6c706&ID=" & EditForm1.LastSubmit.ID
   )
);
Back()

Note: Once the requester submitted the approval request successfully, it would send an email to the approver (send to Approver1 firstly, if the Approver1 approved, send it to Approver2) along with the App URL link (e.g. https://apps.powerapps.com/play/xxxxxxxx-a0e8-xxxx-9037-a553dfbc39b5?tenantId=xxxxxxxx-f6a5-xxxx-89a9-9785a9d6c706 in above formula) of current canvas app (you need to save your canvas app firstly, then you could get the App Url Link of your current app). The approver could edit this submitted request directly through the embedded deep link.

More details about editing a specific record through a deep URL link, please check and see if the following thread would help in your scenario:

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Power-Apps/Include-EditForm-link-for-particular-item-in-email-SharePoint/m-p/420582

I have provided detail steps about how to set up a two-level approval using canvas app, please try above solution, check if it is helpful in your scenario.

Regards,

[Anonymous]

@v-xida-msft Thank you for the detailed post.

i am using data source as sharepoint.

it looks reliable and i have understood the code for each and every property. 
I have few doubts though, in my case if the user does not approve it through the link then, i would want to have a gallery and link the data of sharepoint list to the gallery. Now, i will be able to filter out the gallery based upon Approver 1 email and Approver 2 email.
Now, the gallery would have an edit form linked to it. so, i will allow the user to approve/reject through that screen too and the edit form can have the on success property that you have mentioned. 
How can i take action if the selected value of result for any of the two user is rejected, i would need to email the user about rejection and also rejection comments. it is basically like building an power automate approval flow.