Reduntant Approval Alerts

[Anonymous]

I have a simple "First to Respond" approval process where the trigger looks at any modified list item.  It sends an email to a colleague to approve.  The email's subject line is "RetailGIS Account: John Smith Pending".  For each response, the approver approves/rejects the "Pending" email.

But once he approves it, the Flow sends out another email with the subject line of "RetailGIS Account: John Smith Approve (or Reject)".  Flow registers that second email as if it's another flow its running and waitinf for another response.

Flow is behaving like the status change in the "Approval Status" field from Pending to Approve is another trigger to initiate another flow.

Is there a reduntant step in my flow?  Any help you guys can give me is appreciated!

[RobElliott]

Hi @Anonymous I would have a filter query in the advanced options of the trigger that has Action eq Pending which would only bring back those items where the approval hasn't yet run and been approved or rejected.

Rob
Los Gallardos
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[Anonymous]

Rob,

I tried writing an ODATA filter of Approval_x0020_Status eq Pending, but I received an error of BadRequest, "Column 'Approval_x0020_Status' does not exist."  This is a column that Sharepoint added when I configured the list.  I don't even see that column in the Settings screen on Sharepoint.  Any ideas on what that field name is?

[Anonymous]

@RobElliott,

I added a "Get Items" module in order to filter the List.  My snapshot shows "Content approval status" field equals Pending.  But I get an error "Column 'Pending' does not exist..."

[v-yamao-msft]

Hi @Anonymous ,

The issue is caused by the trigger When an item is created or modified, which triggers the flow whenever an item is created or modified.

The following action you are using is Set content approval status, which will update the column status to Approve/Reject, then it triggers the flow to run again.

Please try adding a Condition under the trigger to check if the Approval status is equal to Pending, if yes, do the following actions, if no, do nothing.

Please take a try with it on your side.

Best regards,

Mabel

[Anonymous]

@v-yamao-msft,

Thanks, Mabel.  I did insert a Get Item module after the trigger to enable me to add a Filter Query.  But I'm getting an error saying the "Pending" was a column that doesn't exist.  So I wrapped that word in a single quote.  That didn't do the trick.

[v-yamao-msft]

Hi @Anonymous ,

I am afraid that the Odata filter query expression doesn’t support the content approval status column.

Besides, when using Odata filter query, you need to manually input the original column name but not selecting a dynamic content from the trigger.

Please check the following blog for a reference:

https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/advanced-flow-of-the-week-filtering-with-odata/

Best regards,

Mabel