Find the most recent value from a multi-line text field that appends changes to existing text

[v-josephc]

I need to create a Power Automate flow for my SharePoint List. Relevant columns from the SharePoint List:

- [Comments]: multiple lines of text, appends changes to existing text

- [Most Recent Comment]: single line of text. My overall goal is to have this column to display the most recent entry under the [Comments] field.

I’m trying to create a flow which does the following:

When an item is created or modified, loop through every version of that item, and find the most recent version of that item where the [Comments] field is not null*. From that version of the item, get the value from the [Comments] field. Then set the [Most Recent Comment] field equal to that value.

Any ideas of how to solve this? Thanks in advance!

*The reason why I need to search for the most recent version where the [Comments] field is not null is because when you have a field with multiple lines of text that appends changes to existing text, each instance of a change in the multi-line text field is stored in a separate version of the SharePoint item. If a different field in an item (other than the multi-line text field) is changed, the version will record the multi-line text field as null.

[ManishSolanki]

Hi @v-josephc 

As 'Get items' action retrieves the latest version of the list item so it can used to get the latest comment. 

There are couple of issues, if you're updating the same list item inside 'When an item is created or modified', then flow will re trigger itself continuously and this operation will never end. To avoid that, you need set the trigger condition that will specify the condition to trigger or you can save the most recent comments in a separate list and link it with main record by storing the ID of main record. Another issue is, a single of text field can hold up to max 255 characters, so if latest comment is more than 255 characters, then it would truncate the text.

Here is an example:

I have created a sample list '' with a column '' to specify the trigger condition:

Flow:

To set the trigger condition, click on ellipses (...) and then select 'Settings' in sub menu and enter the blow expression in the trigger conditions box:

@equals(triggerOutputs()?['body/CaptureLatestComment_x003f_'], true) 

In 'Update item', reset the flag to 'No' to avoid retriggering the flow.

This is not the exact solution you are looking for, but I hope it may help you.

If this helps, please remember to give a 👍 and accept my solution as it will help others in the future.

Thanks

[v-josephc]

Hi @ManishSolanki ,

Thanks for your reply. You’re correct that the “Get Items” action retrieves the latest version of the list item. However, if a multi-line text field appends changes to existing text (see below), the problem is that when fields in an item are changed (other than the multi-line text field), the version will record the multi-line text field as null.

 

So if someone were to edit any field other than [Comments], the [Comments] field in the most recent version will be null. Therefore, I need to figure out how to loop through every version of that item, and find the most recent version of that item where the [Comments] field is not null. Then I can push that value into the [Most Recent Comment] field.

[kmccaslan]

@v-josephc 

Same! I have tried everything. Did you ever find a resolution here? Seems that none is acknowledging the fact that when the item is updated it nulls the append column. How do we grab and move the latest entry?