Send an Alert only when a specific column changes

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Posted on by jaylou

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HI All,

I have a list where it is very important that an alert is sent when DateCompleted is modified.

I am using the "When an Item is mdified" FLOW template

I tried to use a Switch condition, I dont have switch case since I dont know what the date will be chaged to, so I added the Email alert in the default If no case... but the alert goes out when any column is updated, Is there a way to only send the DateCompleted is updated?

TIA,

Joe

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Building flows

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v-xida-msft Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi @jaylou,

Could you please share a screenshot of your flow's configuration?

Could you please show a bit more about the DateCompleted column? Is it a Date type column in your SharePoint list?

Further, could you please show more details about your SharePoint list?

Currently, there is no trigger of SharePoint connector could directly detect if the specific column of your SharePoint list has been changed within Microsoft Flow.

But you could consider take a try to create another Date type column (PreviousDate) to store the previous Date value of the DateCompleted column. I have created a SharePoint list on my side and the data structure of it as below:

Note: The DateCompleted column and the PreviousDate column are both Date type column.

When you add a new item in your SharePoint list, the DateCompleted column and the PreviousDate column are set to same date as below:

I have made a test on my side and please take a try with the following workaround:

Add a "When an item is created or modified" trigger, specify Site Address and List Name.

Add a Condition, left input box set to DateCompletd dynamic content of the trigger, right input box set to PreviousDate dynamic content of the trigger. Within middle drop down, choose is not equal to.

Within "If/yes" branch of Condition, add a "Send an email" action. Then add a "Update item" action, specify Site Address and List Name. The PreviousDate column set to DateCompleted dynamic content of the trigger.

Image reference:

The flow works successfully as below:

Best regards,

Kris

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jaylou 241 on at

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Hi Kris,
Thanks for the idea 🙂 I will mark this solution as answered..
This way I can show both dates in my alert.

The way I went around this was on an update I send an email highlighting the date. Since it is only coming to myself and one other person, I figured we can look at the date and see if we need to do something 🙂

I am going to update my FLOW and table and do it right 🙂

I would really love it if FLOW would be able to look at the previous version of the list item and show both the pervious(strike thru) and the new data (highlighted yellow) on all columns specified in the FLOW alert when an Item is updated.
Sort of the way "Alert me" works. I am trying to get the best of both worlds, FLOW would be an "Alert Me" on Steriods.

I guess that's asking too much 🙂

Thanks again,
Joe

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Casper_DS 2 on at

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Hello,

I have a question about this solution.
I have the same problem andtried this solution. I just have another problem when i try this.
I would like to send an email on the moment the value changes in the column.
When i try your solution, the email only gets sended when there is created a new item and the column is changed with the previous item.

Kind regards,

Casper

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Community Power Pla... Microsoft Employee on at

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@jayloudid you raise your request on the uservoice forum? If so I would like to vote

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joef on at

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Hi @Anonymous ,
yes I did but it seems like we are the only people that like to show what was changed.

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Flow-Ideas/Sharepoint-List-Version-History/idi-p/286565

No one has voted for the history to be accessible and Microsoft's only response it to have a second list to hold the previous versions which to me is not even a thought.

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Community Power Pla... Microsoft Employee on at

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@joefdid you review the alert me feature in sharepoint? I have been looking at it this morning as a potential and it works quite well so thought I would let you know

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joef on at

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Yes Alert me is great when only you want every change in a list.
But if you want to control who and when the alerts go out you need FLOW.

The genisis of this request was to get the history when a column changes. The fix here was to create another column and update it useing FLOW when the real column changes. My user voice is to expose the version history without using API calls. I am looking into creating the API so I can highlight the changes like "Alert Me" does. If we were able to customize Alert Me that would elimintae the need for FLOW for most of my uses.
I have many lists with many columns so when FLOW sends the alert when "Status" changes it doesn't highligh the changes, which should have been the first thing FLOW thought of. I send 20 columns in the alert, which one changed??

Thanks for the suggestion 🙂
Joe

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Community Power Pla... Microsoft Employee on at

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Agree with you @joef especially if one of the selling points with Flow is a low code, no code design so that any user can potentially create a workable Flow.

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Friendy 3 on at

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I agree Alert me just needs to have more tailoring optionality. I have the same issue where i want a notification to go to someone listed in another column when the previous column is marked as complete

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