How to send an adaptive card linked to 'Approvals' in Power Automate via Outlook/Mail

[jeroen1290]

Hi Community,

I would like to know if it's possible to send an adaptive card as an approval request through Outlook, linked to an approval created in Power Automate. While I am aware that an email is automatically sent when an approval is created with notifications turned on, I would prefer to send an adaptive card that allows the recipient to accept or deny the request directly.

If this is not possible, could you tell me what your alternative suggestion would be to reach my desired outcome. The situation is as follows. I have a access request flow which first should create a request only for the first approver, and three days later if there is no response a second approver should be added. The problem is that Power Automate doesnt allow me to either add people to existing requests and it also doesnt allow me to manually update the outcome/status of existing requests (correct me if i'm wrong). Therefore, in case when the reminder flow is triggered, i am forced to create a new approval request for the second approver, and if one responds, the other request will remain untouched. As a workaround I figured to create the approval with notifications turned off (both approvers included from the start), and send the approval requests manually through adaptive cards. Let me know what you think! Thanks!

[Nived_Nambiar]

Hi @jeroen1290 

One question- if you are trying to send approval including 2 approvers at start itself, can u try with approval actions where you can make the approval to get approved by any person ? 

Thanks & Regards,

Nived N 🚀

LinkedIn: Nived N's LinkedIn
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[jeroen1290]

Hi Nived,

I'm sorry, I dont fully understand your question? I have my approvals set to 'Approve/Reject - First to Respond', if that is what you mean. Do you mean that it is possible to create an approval that can get accepted by everyone, without including them in the 'assigned to'. If so, I would love to hear how. 

[Nived_Nambiar]

Hi @jeroen1290 

No , what i meant is actually if you can set up approval flow like - Approve/Reject - First to Respond , Then it would not be a problem as you are assigning two users there.

Thanks & Regards,

Nived N 🚀

LinkedIn: Nived N's LinkedIn
YouTube: Nived N's YouTube Channel
Blog: Nived Nambiar's Blogs

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[jeroen1290]

Hi @Nived_Nambiar 

Ah okay, I understand your question. The problem is that in the original request, I only want to include the first approver. So when the request is created, only the first approver should get a message. Then after three days of no response, I want to add the second approver. However, it is not possible to add a approver to the request later on, right? 

[Nived_Nambiar · Accepted solution]

Hi @jeroen1290 

Approval data are stored in Dataverse tables, So using dataverse actions like add row /update row , you can re-assign tasks if needed. Refer this articles to know more around this

https://poszytek.eu/en/microsoft-en/office-365-en/powerautomate-en/working-with-approval-tasks-in-da...

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Power-Automate-Community-Blog/How-to-Reassign-Existing-Approvals....

Thanks & Regards,

Nived N 🚀

LinkedIn: Nived N's LinkedIn
YouTube: Nived N's YouTube Channel
Blog: Nived Nambiar's Blogs

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[David_MA]

I don't know how to do what you want using adaptive cards, but you should be able to achieve what you want through the approval's actions. 

1. Go into the approval settings and set the timeout value to three days. You would enter P3D for the value, which is an ISO standard for duration.
2. Then set up the approval so it has two parallel branches. Set up the left side so those actions only run when the approval succeeds. Set up the right side so those actions only run if the approval times out.

This isn't exactly like you need, but it illustrates the concept:

In my flow above, when the approval times out it is considered a rejection. For your use case, just add another approval action and set it to your second approver and whatever other actions you need. Note, the flow will still time out after a total of 30 days. Depending on how many times you need to handle time outs, you may want to consider multiple flows for each approval and call them with an HTTP action.

[jeroen1290]

Hi @Nived_Nambiar,

Apologies for my late response, but I just had the chance to play around with the articles you send and it all seems to work! Thanks for the help, it is very much appreciated! 🙂

In addition, I did have one more question which I am hoping you might be able to help me out with. The flow I originally build is in a non-premium enviornment. I do have access to a premium environment as well, but I cant figure out how to 'transfer' or duplicate the flow from the non-premium environment to the premium environment. Inviting myself or using links doesnt work as it is the same mail with access to two different environments. Thanks! 

[Nived_Nambiar]

Hi @jeroen1290 

did you add the flow in solution and then import to premium environment ?

@David_MA  any thoughts on this ?

Thanks & Regards,

Nived N 🚀

LinkedIn: Nived N's LinkedIn
YouTube: Nived N's YouTube Channel
Blog: Nived Nambiar's Blogs

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[David_MA]

Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't: 

1. Open the flow you want to add to your other environment.
2. Click Export from the menu and choose Package (.zip)
3. If you don't see this option, try doing a Save as and then export the copy.
4. If that doesn't work, go to your flow listing and click the three dots to the right of the flow and choose Send a copy and send a copy to yourself. Then try to export it to a zip.
5. Once you have the zip file, go to your environment with Dataverse click on My flows and choose Import from the menu.
6. Then choose Import Package (Legacy) from the menu and navigate to where you saved the ZIP.
7. Then go to the solution where you want to add the flow you imported and choose Add existing from the menu > Automation > Cloud flow.
8. Click on the Outside Dataverse tab and choose the flow.

Note, when you can export it to ZIP, choose the option to create a new flow when it is imported rather than update. If you cannot export it to a zip file, you will need to create it again in your environment that supports Dataverse.