Send email with option html message but useremailaddress return null

[studyri10]

Hi all,

I use action 'send email with option' with html message.

But I would like to document who is the responder, I check the 'useremailaddress' return with null.

If I use action card then I can see the useremailaddress. But I need use html format message..

Is anyone have suggestions?

Thanks!

[ekarim2020 · Accepted solution]

According to the follow response (26-10-2020 02:42 PM), it is currently not possible to get the responder:

Unfortunately, we do not support an option to get the responder from the Send an Email with options. You might want to create an idea here if it is not already there...

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Flows/Send-EMail-with-Options-Who-responded/m-p/729163/...

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[dhofstra]

I was facing this same problem (trying to capture the approval response, email address, and a timestamp of the approval generated from "Send Email with Options").  It seems the solutions everywhere on the web are like what is stated in this thread (which is:  the connection does not allow to get the responders email).

I did find a solution to this problem:

1. I run "Send Email with Options" in an "Apply to Each".
   1. The "Apply to Each" is cycling through an array of email addresses
   2. I set concurrency on the "Apply to each" so that all the emails are sent at the same time (instead of going in order and waiting).
2. Within the "Apply to each", I also append an array variable to capture each approval.
3. The trick is:  within the array variable, instead of using the dynamic "UserEmailAddress" field (which does not work due to the connection not having that functionality), I added the "Current Item" from the Apply to each, which is an email address.   
4. This works perfectly, and attributes the correct email address to the correct approval.  The array variable is then converted into a nice HTML table later in my flow.

[kingy61422]

@dhofstra 

I am having a similar problem with flow and trying to understand what you exactly did to make yours work. Would you be able to help me out?

I'm trying to get the name of who responded so I can update an item to have their name be in my SP list under the 'Approved By' column.

[dhofstra]

I'm happy to try to help you however I can.   I would need to understand more about what exactly you are trying to do, and what issue you are encountering specifically.

My post above describes a process for the "Send an Email with Options" action, where you are able to put that action inside an apply to each that is run with concurrency.   Then you can capture each emailed user as well as their unique individual responses into an array.   

The resulting array contains a record of each emailed user's actions, and you can easily use the data from that array for any purpose you like later in the flow.   For example, I format a HTML table to summarize the approvals, but you could also filter the array and produce an email address into a SP list column like you are describing.

This is all in relation to the "Send and Email with Options" action, which is only really useful for obtaining Approvals from external persons.   For internal persons, the built in Approval actions are much more versatile and they already do the functions described above naturally. 

[kingy61422]

I am sending a email to a group with "Send an Email with Options" and I want to get the user who selected an option. I was trying to replicate yours but was having no success. Are you using two different variables for the process? If you are what type of variables are they?

[dhofstra]

1. I have a single line of text field, which is a semicolon delimited list of email addresses
2. Since users mess up entry all the time, I clean up that single line of text to remove any spaces or commas with semicolons (using a replace expression)
3. I use the functions shown below to transform that single line of semicolon delimited email addresses into an array:
   1. 

4. The actual "Send Email with Options step" is going through the array formed above, and updating each value into a 2nd array for the user repsonses, as shown below:

   1. 

5. The actual text in the Append item shown above is:

   1. {
      "Approver": @{items('Apply_to_each_ExternalUsers_Approval_Array')},
      "Requested DateTime": @{outputs('Compose_Date_of_Email_to_ExternalUsers')},
      "Response DateTime": @{concat(convertFromUtc(utcNow(), 'Eastern Standard Time', 'g'), ' (EST)')},
      "Decision": @{outputs('Send_email_with_options_for_ExternalUsers_Approval_Array')?['body/SelectedOption']}
      }
6. Concurrency is set on the Apply to Each, as shown below:
   1. 

Does this make better sense?   I see now that the original screenshots I posted did not make it very clear that there were actually 2 arrays being used. 

[kingy61422]

Are the email addresses entered in one row or is it a new row per email? How are you making the single line of text field delimited? Can you share your expression you used in the filter array?

[dhofstra]

I have a single line of text column in Sharepoint where end-users are able to enter email addresses for this flow.   The end-users are instructed to type multiple email addresses with semicolons to delimit the field.   Since users type this wrong very often, I have a step in the flow which removes any spaces and replaces an commas the end-users type with a ";".    That is enough to resolve 99% of the issues with the user input.  It's easy to do this with replace expressions.

There are many different ways to get email addresses from a user into PA, but the main gist is that you would want to form a string of email addresses separated with semicolons.   I want the concatenated and semicolon separated string for other reasons in the flow, so I keep it in the variable named "Var_Lvl1_ExternalApprovers_Concat" to hold this string.

For the send email with options effort, I wanted the users to be in an array instead of a string.   The image in #3 of my previous post is a section devoted to converting this string into an array.   The filter step is just filtering out any blank items in the array (I think the compose step oftentimes results in a blank array item at the end).   The equation in the filter step shown is @equals(empty(item()), false)

[kingy61422]

Thank you so much for the help. It has helped me get my flow working in the manner I want.

[Exiled]

Hi @dhofstra 

I am using the send email with option in power automate, to send an approval email, and it works fine, I can capture the response from the approval buttons and fill a column in a sharepoint list.

But I would like to also capture in a sharepoint list, the email or username of the person who selected the approval buttons, since these approval emails are intended for several different users.
I would greatly appreciate any point to take into account.

[Exiled]

Hi @dhofstra 

The mail will be sent to several people, when an item is created in the SharePoint list, when any of them approves it, I would like to know who it is, capturing the name of the approver and registering it in a column in the same SharePoint list.

The flow doesn't fail, but it fails to capture the approver's name and place it in the appropriate SharePoint column, the column is left blank.

I only manage to capture the response of the default buttons, of the send email with options option.

[dhofstra]

There are several ways to do this. I watched a video that Reza made on approvals and found his solution a good base for what I was trying to do.

Essentially I made an "Apply to each" response step after the wait for an approval step.   This Apply to each selects the responses, and for each response, it Appends an Array variable with the Approver information.   You can then format that array variable into HTML like Reza shows in the video.   Here is the apply to each step I am explaining here:  

The PA Flow then stores this HTML table into a sharepoint field, here is an example of that approval record with 3 different approvers recorded: 

[Exiled]

Hi @dhofstra 

Thank you very much for your kind answer, I was thinking of using a Send email with options scheme.

I don't know if I can do it with this scheme

It seems to me that I am doing something wrong, I apologize for my constant consultations on the same subject.

Greetings.

[dhofstra]

It's really a similar exercise on the send email with options usage. You just wrap the send email with options together with an append to array variable, and you capture all the same datapoints.   Here is the send email with options method of recording approvals: 

after that apply to each is finished, you can create a HTML table

and then style the HTML table (borrowed styling from Reza's videos)

replace(replace(replace(body('Create_HTML_table_ExternalUser'), '<table>', '<table border="1px solid #ddd" width="100%" '), '<td>', '<td style="padding:10px">'), '<th>', '<th style="padding:10px">')

That styled table then can be saved to a sharepoint list just like I showed in the last reply using the approvals workflow.