Is it possible to get actions without any triggers in Power automate ?

[Githendra23]

Hi everyone,

I am looking for assistance with Microsoft Power Automate.

Essentially, I'm attempting to create a flow that will check the date today and check if that date in between 2 dates (start date, end date) that are been given by a user in a sharepoint list. If the date today is between those 2 dates, the flow would add a group to the visitor sharepoint site group. Or else, the group is removed from the visitor sharepoint site group.

My idea is to create a scheduled flow that would execute every minute to check if the day today is between the 2 dates. The reason why I would want the flow to execute every minute is because the user could check the date at any time.

My problem is that I can't start the flow without a trigger because I wouldn't get any actions without adding one. My flow doesn't need a trigger so I'm not sure how to get the actions I would need to make my flow.

Is there a way to get this done ?

Thanks in advance,

[Rhiassuring · Accepted solution]

Hi there, 

I think you will need 2 flows. 

1 for when items are created / modified - so you can check immediately if today is the day.

1 scheduled, to run nightly (once a day only!) to evaluate if today's date matches what you need. Since you know the SharePoint list, all  you need to do is use a "Get Items" action and point it specifically at that list, and filter on the date range. Here's a good resource on that:  https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Flows/Flow-Query-Filter-Date-Range/m-p/192349#M19865

One comment I will make is that you say you need to add the user if today's date is BETWEEN two dates. Wouldn't you only want to add them if it is equal to the START date? Or are you doing this retroactively? 

Cheers, 

Rhia

[Hardesh15]

@Githendra23  Flow always start with trigger. You can use Recurrence trigger with 1 min interval.

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[Shuvam-rpa]

@Githendra23 i didn't completely understand your issue, but what i know trigger are required to run any flow.

so you can use schedule flow for your problem.

If this reply has answered your question or solved your issue, please mark this question as answered. Answered questions helps users in the future who may have the same issue or question quickly find a resolution via search. If you liked my response, please consider giving it a thumbs up. THANKS!

[Githendra23]

Hi @Rhiassuring,

Thanks for the quick reply.

So, the flow would add the o365 group to the sharepoint site group when the date today is equal or passed the start date and removes the group when it's equal or passed the end date.

A way to see is like this :

       add group when : start date =< today's date < end date

       remove group when : todays date < start date && todays date => end date

I am sorry but I dont understand how the filters work. From what I understand, I have to put a date manually.

[Rhiassuring]

But, I guess my question is - doesn't that mean you are adding the same group, the group that already exists there, every day? Is that the intent?

[Githendra23]

I'm going to add a condition to check if the group already exists or not in the sharepoint site group so it doesn't add every day. I think it should be fine.

[Githendra23]

Thanks for your reply.

The problem with schedule flows is that I cannot get the title of an element without a trigger and I dont to use a trigger to execute the flow

[Rhiassuring · Accepted solution]

@Githendra23 

> I am sorry but I dont understand how the filters work. From what I understand, I have to put a date manually.

Ah! I see. No, you don't have to put the dates in manually 🙂 

I will set up a quick demo... let's see...

Here are my dates in my list.

I am getting all items from my list where the "Start Date" is less than / equal to "Today" - AND - the End Date is greater than "Today".

The expression in Filter Query looks like this: 

StartDate0 le 'utcNow('yyyy-MM-dd')' and EndDate gt 'utcNow('yyyy-MM-dd')'

I am using the Internal Field Names of my columns, not the display names.

When I run this action, it will bring me back only items that meet that criteria. 

I've run my test, and it has returned ID #10 and 11. Let's see if that's right - and, yes, from checking my list above, those are the only two that fit our criteria. 

Now from that "Get Items", you will have all the fields you need (even though it's a scheduled flow) AND you can loop through them AND it will only be the ones that you need; all else will be left behind. You will notice that when you use one of the items from dynamic content, it will turn into a loop - which means it will iterate through every single item it has returned that fits the parameters (the date range.) 

For your End Date, you will want to do a filter query very similar to the above, but I am guessing you want "equals" instead of greater than / less than. 

[Githendra23]

@Rhiassuring 

Thank you for helping me. I now understand how it works.

I now understand that "le" is "less than" and "gt" is "greater than" and I need to use the Internal Field Names to choose a specific column. But i have a question, I would like to put "equal or greater than" or "equal or less than". How do I do that ?

[Rhiassuring · Accepted solution]

eq	Equal to
ne	Not equal to
contains	contains
not contains	Does not contains
gt	Greater than
lt	Less than
ge	Greater than or equal to
le	Less than or equal to
and	And
or	Or
startswith	Start with the specified value
endswith	End with the specified value

This table is from here: 

https://diyd365.com/2019/11/20/every-power-automate-ms-flow-filter-query-you-ever-wanted-to-know-as-...