08-27-2023 21:07 PM - last edited 08-27-2023 21:11 PM
SharePoint Batch Update, Create, & Upsert Template
(Also an option for full dataset synchronizations with the "Full Sync" template below)
Compared to the using the basic Apply to Each, Get items, & Update item approach on large amounts of data, this method requires a small fraction of the API calls towards the daily action limit and drastically reduces flow run-times.
It's currently set to take data from any Excel sheet and update records in SharePoint with corresponding data. It works with any potential Power Automate data-source, including HTTP API GET requests, but Excel provides a simple example.
Part of it works like a Vlookup function where it identifies if a row of updated data in Excel or another datasource matches another SharePoint key column and gets the SharePoint record ID for that match. Then it uses the batch update method to update those SharePoint records and it uses the batch create method to create new items for any records without a match.
David Wyatt's Flow Optimization Post For Loading SharePoint Records: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-5-ways-optimize-your-flows-david-wyatt/?trackingId=X9bMmnTZ2QBuu4...
Microsoft Batch API Documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/dev/sp-add-ins/make-batch-requests-with-the-rest-apis
TachyTelic.Net Blog & Videos
SharePoint Batch Create Flow
Blog: https://www.tachytelic.net/2021/06/power-automate-flow-batch-create-sharepoint-list-items/
Video: https://youtu.be/2dV7fI4GUYU
SharePoint Batch Delete Flow
Blog: https://www.tachytelic.net/2021/06/power-automate-delete-sharepoint-items/
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ImkuGpEeoo
Version 2.7 - Upsert
-Includes a batch create segment to create an upsert capability. If anyone wants to only update records, then they can remove the Batch Create section. If anyone wants to only create records, then they can go to the GenerateSPData action, remove the expression for the ID field and insert the null value expression.
-Further simplifies the set-up, removing the need to add any additional SharePoint Get items actions & removing the need for parallel branches.
-Can now work on lists with a few million items without adding more actions or branches. It also implements a faster load method using the SharePoint HTTP action as described in point 5 of this article.
-The batch loops have been changed from Do until loops to chunking into Apply to each loops so the batch actions can now run concurrently for additional speed. If you have many batches of data you want to process faster, you can try increasing the concurrency settings on the Apply to each loops containing the SendBatch actions.
-The "setting" inputs action was moved to the top of the flow to help accommodate the new streamlined set-up.
-A SP HTTP call now automatically fixes some issues with referencing the correct list name.
-Faster list load time.
-If you need to batch create &/or update hyperlink columns, check this post
-Adds another HTTP call to get the site users into an object indexed/reference-able by email addresses & gives an example of how to use that to batch update a person column. Anytime the updated source dataset has a blank or an email value not found in the top 5000 site users, it will replace any person in that item with a null value.
Updated set-up screenshots & instructions in this post: https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Power-Automate-Cookbook/Batch-Update-SharePoint-List/m-p/2225500...
Full Sync V1.1 (Combined Upsert & Batch Deletion Sync)
The SharePoint Batch Full Sync template pulls in all the SP List & Source data to perform a batch upsert. But then it also adds on a Batch Deletion Sync to find & delete all the records in the SP List that are not in the Source dataset.
Now, this is initially set up to pull in all the datasource records for all batch actions in the same Do until Get source data loop. And that piece will be limited by the 100MB maximum message / variable size limits for Power Automate, so this Full Sync version will initially only work with datasources with a 100MB or less total size. But this is really only because I'm trying to keep the flow simpler for the majority of users who likely will not have datasources of many 100s of thousands of records.
If you want to further push out against this 100MB limitation, then you will need to separate out the source get data for the batch upsert section from another source get data for the batch deletion sync section. So for the batch upsert section you can use a set-up like in the main batch upsert template where it loads records with all columns 100,000 at a time (or 100 or 5000 or whatever your source dataset per load limitations are) and runs the batch upsert on each source load before running the Do until loop again to get the next source load (which avoids holding anywhere near 100MB in memory at once because it is performing things one load at a time). Then the batch deletion sync section can use a different source get data set-up similar to the "Do until Get destination list IDs + keys" section of the templates where each loop can pull a load from the source dataset & then use a Select action to select only a few of the columns to pass on to the variable holding everything in memory. Since deletions only require the primary key values, you can set the Select to only get the primary key column from each source data load & pass that onto the "Source data outputs" / variable. A full listing of all the primary key values in your source dataset will be much smaller than all columns for the entire table, so that 100MB limit should then hold a few million records worth of the required primary key data to run the batch deletion sync process.
Self Update (See the 1st comment below the main post for the zip download)
The SharePoint Self Batch Update assumes you just want to perform simple updates using only the existing data in the list and removes all the actions related to comparing two datasets to find updates. This may be much easier to use if you just want to quickly do something simple like get all the items created in the past month and mark them all with a Complete status.
But you will be limited to using just the data already in the list and any values you can manually input into the flow.
Version 1.5 - Update
This version makes it easier to handle cases where the list name may have changed since its creation and moves a few of the primary key column matching inputs to the 'settings' compose action so users don't have to look through & edit the more complicated expressions to set up the flow.
The flow can easily expand to any size of SharePoint list by adding more Get items actions and batch update parallel branches. If speed is a concern for anyone, there are ways to make the Get items actions all load in parallel too (up to 50 branches). It's really only limited by how much effort people want to put into their flows & lists.
Google Drive Link to Flow Zip Files: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10p7EB730xsEj-azVYuTIuu8dS0w-AflR/view?usp=sharing
Google Drive Link to Text File to a Scope Action Containing The Flow: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BVGoeM5mykYlMobAyFkhuLRh3r7jMSLz/view?usp=sharing
Version 1 - Update
Version 1 Explanation Video: https://youtu.be/l0NuYtXdcrQ
Download The Template Batch Update Flow
Google Drive Link to Flow Zip Files: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10gFkycdx6zpRfrI-s_jCDwIK6dpyyDqk/view?usp=sharing
Google Drive Link to Text File to a Scope Action Containing The Flow: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e6-INUykIT22ppVh5m4kxz8us_7qXy7q/view?usp=sharing
Formulas For Random Number Columns
SharePoint Rand1To50 Column Calculated Default Value Formula:
=INT(INT(RIGHT(NOW(),2))/2)
Excel Random Column Formula:
=ROUNDDOWN(((Rand()*100)+1)/2, 0)
If you have trouble importing any of the flows using the standard legacy import, you can also try importing a Power Apps Solutions package here: Re: Batch Update, Create, and Upsert SharePoint Li... - Page 25 - Power Platform Community (microsof...
Thanks for any feedback,
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watch?v=QCkjQy6sHZg
Yes, and similarly that type of pattern will be copied for all the actions/expressions I listed.
First of all, congratulations on the flow, it's excellent! However, I'm facing a problem. I have several items assigned to the same parentID. Unfortunately, when I run the batch, only the first items found in the database are updated. How can I adjust this process so that it updates all the items found with the given parentID?
@matt1399 Hello,
Could you share a screenshot of your flow & explain more of what you mean by only the first items are updated?
Are you trying to run the self update only on items that match a given parent Id?
Hello, I am currently making use of the "batchupdate" functionality. I have two separate lists located in SharePoint that are linked by a common field called "[orgName]", which represents the name of the organizations. In the main SharePoint list (called "SP 1"), there are several rows that share the same value in the "orgName" field. My goal is to update all these rows together, but I've noticed that the flow I'm using is only updating a single row at a time.
However, I would like to illustrate a situation in which this functionality is applied to update all instances of "orgName". Essentially, I'm looking for a way to update all the rows associated with those specific "orgName" values.
It's worth mentioning that my flow is operating without any errors. During the process, in the "Select Key from Get Items" step, all the items in my SharePoint database are captured 2500+. However, in the subsequent "Compose to Reformat" step, I notice that only 187 items are being processed. This corresponds to the total number of items in my database that I want to update.
Given this behavior, I'm turning my attention to understanding the configuration of the "Compose to Reformat" step. My intention is to identify whether there are any specific limits or settings that are restricting the processing of all items coming from the previous step, "Select Key from Get Items". My ultimate goal is to adjust the settings to ensure that all relevant items are processed in the "Compose to Reformat" step, thus allowing me to achieve the complete update of all rows related to the specific "orgName" values in my SharePoint database.
Alright that sounds like you don’t actually have a shared primary & foreign key between your tables as OrgName is not unique for each row. Thus this wouldn’t work regardless of whether or not you were using the batch process.
Do you have anything more than the OrgName shared between the lists? Maybe a lookup ID number or some other identifier?
If not, you will likely either need to create an additional column in your child list to hold the parent record ID numbers, or create a less efficient flow to loop through each of your parent records, Get items for all the child records of the current parent record, & update each of those based on their unique Id numbers.
Let's consider a list in SharePoint:
**List 01:**
- nameorg1
- org2 name
- nameorg3
- nameorg4
- nameorg5
- nameorg6
- nameorg7
- nameorg8
- nameorg9
- nameorg1
Also, I have a second list in SharePoint called "SharePint 2 List". In this list, all data related to "organame1", "organame2" and "organame3" are stored. However, notice that in the "SharePoint List 1" there are two records with the name "nameorg1". I would like to update both records, but currently the flow only allows updating one of them. How can I proceed to update both records?
You can use a Get items to get all the records from the 2nd table, then for each record returned from that list you can run another Get items with the filter query set to get all the records where the OrgName eq OrgName from the current item in the Apply to each loop & then start another loop nested in the 1st loop that updates each item returned from that 2nd Get items.
If you need further assistance, I’d recommend starting a post in the Building Flows forum as your query is more of a general flow & relational database question that may only indirectly relate to this template if you decide to try replacing the 2nd update loop I mentioned with a batch action.
I have made a way to perform this type of operation without either level of looping before, but it would deserve its own lengthier video explanation, & given your amount of data, it is likely unnecessary.
Hello @takolota , pleas about last stage.. GenerateSPData (ID line) - this formula will touch only this column ?... or all which I have like "composePK"... This is not clear for me.. if its touching others columns too.. how will looks expression pleas ?
@@outputs('Compose_Reformat_keys_to_single_JSON_object')?[concat(item()[outputs('settings')['SourceKeyColumnName']], if(empty(outputs('settings')['SourceKeyColumnName2']), , item()[outputs('settings')['SourceKeyColumnName2']]))]?['ID'] this is for ID, but there is only 2colums which together are composedPK, if i have 5 i need extend it andit will looks like
outputs('Compose_Reformat_keys_to_single_JSON_object')?[
concat(item()[outputs('settings')['SourceKeyColumnName']]
, if(empty(outputs('settings')['SourceKeyColumnName2']),'' , item()[outputs('settings')['SourceKeyColumnName2']])
, if(empty(outputs('settings')['SourceKeyColumnName3']),'' , item()[outputs('settings')['SourceKeyColumnName3']])
, if(empty(outputs('settings')['SourceKeyColumnName4']),'' , item()[outputs('settings')['SourceKeyColumnName4']])
, if(empty(outputs('settings')['SourceKeyColumnName5']),'' , item()[outputs('settings')['SourceKeyColumnName5']])
)]?['ID']
Thanks
That looks right.
So all that is supposed to output is either the ID number if found for those keys, or a null.
The SendBatch batch update piece just needs the ID of the record to update included in the data, & that is the main piece that references the existing list data to connect it to your other updated source data using your primary & foreign key(s).