Pulling Outlook events into a SharePoint list - Need to prevent duplication

[LaurenG20]

Hi All,

I have created a list on SharePoint to track how many hours I spend on what items. Instead of just adding in the time I spend in meetings, I am using Power Automate to pull that information directly from Outlook.

The issue is that when I get invited, it gets added to the list, when I accept it gets added to the list, if any changes are made added to the list...... and so on and so on.

I know it will be really simple, but I currently can't figure out how to only add new outlook events to the list but if an outlook event is updated to update the existing list item (not create a new one) and if a meeting is deleted to remove the existing list item. 

I am using the When an event is added, updated or deleted as the trigger. 

Any help would be appreciated! 

[Mira_Ghaly · Accepted solution]

@LaurenG20 

1. on you sharepoint list add a new column called EventID and then you need to save the  Event ID from Trigger in the sharepoint list

3. Before you Create the Item please check if there is an item added  in your sharepoint List as below with the same event id: So if added you can update otherwise Create

Make sure Id is between single quotes:

Expression for condition Left hand side:

length(outputs('Get_items')?['body/value'])

On Create Item set the Event ID as below

on the update item use the below expression for the Id

Expression:

first(outputs('Get_items')?['body/value'])['ID']

[LaurenG20]

@Mira_Ghaly , Thank you for your help. 

I have set it up as you have stated and the flow is showing that it is running successfully. 

However, no items are being added to this list.

As you can see below I added a new meeting, but it didn't create a new Item in the list

What the flow says:

Not sure why it is now adding nothing.

[Mira_Ghaly]

@LaurenG20

The difference is that your create item is inside an apply to each loop, it needs to be outside the loop because for the first time the loop is empty, please recheck my screenshots and you will notice the difference.

Thanks

[LaurenG20]

@Mira_Ghaly , yeah I noticed that. I don't appear to have an option to not do it that way. I am not adding the apply to each loop, it is automatically put it into a loop.  When I add the create item and start filling it in it automatically puts it into the apply to each loop. And I can't seem to remove it or stop it from happening. 

[Mira_Ghaly]

@LaurenG20 

I can see you are populating in create item from sharepoint list it should be populated from the Event Triggers and not from the sharepoint

[LaurenG20]

@Mira_Ghaly Thank you!! Knew it would be a silly mistake on my side! Works perfectly thanks 😄 

[Anonymous]

Good morning @Mira_Ghaly and @LaurenG20 ,

I have been dealing with the same issue lately (duplication on both Outlook and Sharepoint) and unfortunately the solution provided didn't work for me. My business need : use of flow to sync my outlook calendar with my Sharepoint calendar list when an event is created (the object of the event must match some criteria, .i.e contains a specific string).

In Outlook 

In Sharepoint

---------------

My flow 

Thanks for your help.

[Anonymous]

The issue has been solved. Thank you !

[ericwhitley]

This is a very good idea and I am using something very similar.  However, there are 2 issues you need to be aware of:

1. The connector can trigger multiple times for new events. (ActionType = "added" for all)  In these cases the "id" of the event is always different.  It's better to use "iCalUId" and for this search.

2. The duplicate submissions can come in at the exact same time, only differing by milliseconds.  To combat this you can set Concurrency Control to 1.  But if you have lots of activity this can really bog it down, especially with Recurring events. In my case I have thousands of users and this proved unfeasible.

So instead I'm adding a Delay with a random # of seconds before performing the search: rand(1, 60)

Once you have a match you need to compare the "lastModifiedDateTime" values using ticks(), which means you have to store that in your sp list item along with the id and iCalUId.

It's not perfect but it captures about 99% of duplicates for new events.

Updates and deletions are another ballgame and quite complicated.

[CaroleLomax1]

Hi

I can get this flow to work for me as I am selecting my Outlook Calendar in the flow, but how can I make it available to run on everyone's Outlook calendar in my team.

Thanks for your help

[Gopi0415]

Hi, could you please share how you resolved your issue. I also got the same requirement from business.