Power Automate and MS Form allowing for edits.

[jredmn27]

Hello, I am currently using a MS Form that I built into Power automate and the data is being sent to an excel file in a sharepoint.  MS Form has a new option to allow the recipient to "edit" the form after submission.  My question is, if the recipient fills out the form a 2nd time (or to edit) how can the data show up in the excel file in my sharepoint and not just in the MS Form program? Can the data be updated in the same line automatically.

[gabibalaban]

@jredmn27 ,

Microsoft Forms has as native way to save the submitted answers in a Excel file and keeps inside it the updated (last version) of submitted responses. The file is located inside OneDrive of the Forms owner , and of course, being saved on a Sharepoint arhitecture, you can find the previous versions of the file (in fact history of responses).  

For my tests, it seems that the Forms - When a new response is submitted trigger is not activated when the users edits his previous answers. So, the only way to have the updated answers is to use that Excel file. 

Hope it helps !

[jredmn27]

@gabibalaban Yes this does help a bit.  So you are saying the excel in the MS Form app is the only one that will update when a form has been edited by the person that fills it out? Do you happen to know if you can add on to the power automate that feeds into the build excel file in sharepoint to update those responses when they are being edited?

[gabibalaban]

@jredmn27 ,

I think yes ... I never tried, but if the Form is not changing, the associated Excel file is the same. So, you can build a flow with trigger one drive - when a file is modified point out to the Excel file in discussion and with only one action Sharepoint - create a file point out to the desired sharepoint location.   

[ckalbfleisch]

While forms has an excel file that export, what I’ve done is have a power automate flow that triggers when the form is submitted. That flow can then create and update your own excel file or store the data in a shareoint list. Hence you now control the data storage. So in the form you can have some “key”. The flow can check if the key exists and if so update the row. Otherwise create a new row in your data. I then use this data in additional processes like pulling into power Bi or another automation that runs against the data to say send emails to follow up. 

If this helps please mark as a confirmed solution. 

[gabibalaban]

@ckalbfleisch ,

The flow is triggered only when the user submits his answer and not when he submits the edited answer. Have you tried ?

Please check this out and after let's find a suitable solution. 

[ckalbfleisch]

Interesting. No I have not tried the "submit again" option. I was just going off of my personal experience where we have a form that you can enter "key" and some data. The key maps into a key in a SharePoint list. And hence then each time the form is submitted again with the same key it will go to update the same data in the SharePoint list. I'd have to play around to see how it would work on a re-submit of same form data. 

[jredmn27]

Thank you for the help and information @gabibalaban @ckalbfleisch .  I am going to see if this works and let you know great ideas!!

[ckalbfleisch]

You're welcome. Glad to help. Looking into the “Allow responders to edit responses after submitting” it appears that has to be enabled by Microsoft 365 Admin. I don't see the option, so I believe my admin has not enabled this. Hence I am unable to test further. Sorry.

[gabibalaban]

@ckalbfleisch 

The feature doesn't work on form created before the feature has been enabled on tenant. 

I think that with a new form you'll see it under ... -> settings.

[ckalbfleisch]

@gabibalaban - you are correct. When I created a new form I see the option. And... the flow does not trigger when updating the saved value. I tend to agree with your proposal to use a Power App instead.

[jredmn27]

I am going to try to re do the instant flow in Power automate and add an additonal step to see if it will work when a response is submitted "Allow responders to edit responses after submitting" is used. I will let you know if it works!

[gabibalaban]

@jredmn27 ,

Please believe me, it doesn't ! 😊

The only way to achieve your goal  is to use a trigger on Excel file from OneDrive(created by Forms) when a file is modified !

[flynneM]

The list can be updated as @jredmn27 mentions. I too used a key and a condition in the flow to achieve this. When a form is first submitted with the key, it creates an item on the SharePoint list. When the form is updated with the same key, the relevant existing row on the list will be updated with whatever updates the user puts in. The only caveat is that the user does need to submit a new version of the same form, so they cannot just go back to edit the existing form, whether the form was created before or after the new feature was enabled. But at least this way the list contains the most up-to-date submission.