Timed Delegation

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Posted on by Mupps

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Hi,

I have a Flow operating on a SharePoint (O365) List. My Flow sends an Approval request to Person1. Using a Condition and an Update, if Person1 Approves, then the Flow will set Status = Approved in the list; if Person1 Rejects, then the Flow will set Status = Rejected.

I need my Flow to redirect to Person2 if Person1 does not respond to the Approval request (either Accept or Reject) within 48 hours (i.e. Now() > CreateDate + 2d). How can I do this?

I've experimented with Time Outs and Run After configurations but can only get the flow to complete if the original Approval request times out - if the original request is responded to, the Run History shows as "Succeeded" but the Flow shows the following error in the following Condition: "ActionConditionFailed. The execution of template action 'Condition' is skipped: the 'runAfter' condition for action 'Delegate' is not satisfied. Expected status values 'Succeeded' and actual value 'Skipped'."

I think I understand why this message is displayed, but can’t work out the logic to handle the “Normal” flow and the “Time Out” flow.

Any help gratefully received

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Building flows

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PieterVeenstra on at

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Re: Timed Delegation

Hi @Mupps,

I think you've got 2 problems to sort out.

1. retrying tasks

Have a look at this post:
https://veenstra.me.uk/2018/02/07/microsoft-flow-implementing-a-try-catch-finally-in-a-flow/

You don't have to use scopess as I described you can simply use Do-Until steps or just two approval steps after eachother with the right runafter configurations set.

2. Organise your flow to make it status driven:

See my post here:
https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Flow-Community-Blog/Develop-Flows-Like-a-Pro/ba-p/89890

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Mupps 141 on at

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Re: Timed Delegation

Many thanks @Pieter_Veenstra I've been working on this today and have made progress. I'll feedback when I have a solution.

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Mupps 141 on at

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Re: Timed Delegation

I've resolved my issue with the following solution:

Create an Approval action – call this “Review”
Create another Approval action directly below, for the delegation – call this “Delegated Review”
Create an Update action underneath to update your list based on the “Delegated Review” outcome – call this “Update Post Delegated Review”
Create a parallel branch (alongside the “Delegated Review” action) and add an Update action to update your list based on the “Review” – call this “Update Post Review”
Create an action (in my example a send e-mail action) to bring the two branches back together – call this “Outcome”

Go back and change settings for the “Review” action to time out after PT2M (2 minutes – for testing) or PT48H (48 hours for real).

“Configure run after” for the “Delegated Review” to only run if the “Review” has timed out

“Configure run after” for the “Outcome” to run if the “Review” OR the “Delegated Review” have been skipped, OR either have been successful.

All other settings in all other actions are left as their default.

If the “Review” is successful (i.e. if the recipient reacts within the timeframe) the “Update Post Review” will be called and the “Delegated Review” branch, including the update beneath, will be ignored (skipped).

If the “Review” times out (i.e. if the recipient does not react within the timeframe) the “Delegated Review” branch, including the update beneath, will be called.

The “Outcome” action ties the two branches together.

Hope that helps some people out there. Let me know if it does!

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v-xida-msft on at

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Re: Timed Delegation

Hi @Mupps,

Have you solved your problem?

Do you have any questions about Microsoft Flow?

Thanks for your sharing, the solution that you provided inspire me a lot. In addition, you could also consider take a try with the following workaround:

Within right parallel branch, add a "Delay" action, Count set to 2 and Unit set to Day.

More details about adding parallel branches within Microsoft Flow, please check the following article:

Add parallel branches in flows

Best regards,

Kris

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Mupps 141 on at

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Re: Timed Delegation

Hi Kris,

Thanks for your contribution.

I think that your suggestion will not provide a satisfactory solution. Your two branches do not join back together, suggesting that there would be two separate Approval processes. One would start two days after the other, but once started, it would not influence the first. The first could be rejected, and two days later the second could be approved.

Having both the Time Out (which allows the stage to be skipped) and the converging of the branches with the correct conditions set is key to having an approval conducted by one recipient OR another.

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