Get Approval Item Link

[mboonie]

Hi, again.

I have searched for this topic, and I'm quite surprised that I can't seem to find any mention of it.

Essentially, I have an Approval process wherein I'd like to give the Approver three "chances" to Approve or Reject, and take action if it times out. I can manage the loop and timeouts just fine; what I can't streamline is the reminder email.

Instead of a bare-bones email with (at best) a link to the approvers Approvals page in Flow, or (at worst) a new Approval item for each loop, I want the reminder to contain a link to the actual approval item (rather than a link to their Approvals page.) The format of the link is easy to grasp: https://us.flow.microsoft.com/manage/environments/myEnvironmentID/approvals/received/(some GUID)/requests/(some other GUID)

The thing is, I can't find any documentation anywhere that tells me 1) how to get that URL from within the workflow (although I suspect it will have something to do with parsing JSON output); nor 2) what the elements of that URL even mean. All I know is that everything after "/received/" is how to identify the Approval item itself.

Thank in advance for any help.

[v-zhos-msft]

Hi @mboonie ,

It seems you want to give the Approver three "chances" to Approve or Reject.

So you want to get the link of the Approvals page in Flow.

I am afraid that there is no way to achieve your needs in Microsoft Flow currently.

There is dynamic content 'Item link', but it's the link to the file you need to approve, not the approval page.

If you want the Link to the approval page to be added in the dynamic content, please submit an idea to Flow Ideas Forum:

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

Best Regards,

Community Support Team _ Zhongys

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[Wisam]

Hey @mboonie,

 The first (some GUID) is the Approval column in the Approval CDS entity. If you get this GUID, you can stop at: https://us.flow.microsoft.com/manage/environments/myEnvironmentID/approvals/received/(some GUID), which will allow the user to get to his/her approval.

 I'm still trying to figure out a way to get this GUID without needing a CDS license though. 

[365CornerDawid · Accepted solution]

Hey @mboonie 
I'm working on the blog post about this topic but before will publish it I would like to help you as it looks like it is active quite long...

The answer is the split of Approval actions: Use Create an approval and Wait for and approval.
If you do that then in Create an approval you will get access to RESPOND Link property:

And Respond Link will lead User directly to the Approval Board in Power Automate portal with Approver task open 🙂

Hope this will solve your problem and if yes please remember to mark this answer as solution so other community members can find answers quicker.
Regards
Dawid 

[mboonie]

Thanks, Dawid. Do you know if that is something that's been available only since the original post, 15 months ago? (I know that the Approval Center interface has itself been improved.)

[365CornerDawid]

@mboonie to be 100% don't have any idea...
Think over 1.5 year ago new Approval actions has been introduced V2 - some properties and objects changed in comparison with V1 that might be one reason why you did not see that...
Second might be that Create + Wait vs Start and wait for an approval have different properties also.

But in the end of the day somebody from MS team should have the answer...
Happy that it resolved your challenge 🙂

[SeemaFromIndia]

Thanks for the nice tip. I was struggling to find this tiny piece of info.

[ramonivandy]

Can that respond link direct users to Approvals Tab at Teams instead at power automate? 

[emersonbruce]

Our issue is we are blocking Power Automate (Flow) and Power Apps except for those with allowed access, which is mostly devs/support users. We need to direct approvers to a different location that is NOT part of the power automate app for approvals or they get a conditional access policy error. Our company is fairly locked down, so it is not uncommon to block access (least privileges) to users who do not need it. Just approving something should not require this, so i need another link than what was provided in the "approval" template.

[Yahui]

Hi Dawid,

I am looking for same solutions. I have created power automate flow with <Create an approval>, followed by <Wait for an approval>. I do not see there is an option in <Create an approval> widget with "Respond Link". 

Could you guide me how did it show up in your example?

Thanks

Yahui

[sairtaha]

hello can i respond to that approval without opening the power automate portal ? 

[jkurowski]

Was there ever an answer to this? this is what i am trying to do too