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Flow outputting HTML code when it shouldn't

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Posted on by kebliss

I'm a Librarian and I created a flow for one of our teams at the library that takes responses to a Form that’s on our website, puts it into a List on the team’s SharePoint, then creates a task in their Planner based on the submission and also sends them an email. Here’s a picture of the flow, if that makes things clearer.

I noticed a few failed runs and saw that they were failing at the Create Item stage because the response to one of the questions on the form exceeded the allowed character length of the corresponding field in the List. (There are two questions on the Form that allow patrons to choose as many checkboxes as they want.) I changed the column settings for the appropriate columns in the List (switching from Single Line of Text to Multiple Lines of Text) and then removed and readded them to the Create Item portion of the flow.

Since doing that however, responses to those two questions now show up in the Planner tasks as HTML code. Looking at any individual flow, I can see that the output for those fields from the Get Response Details stage look normal:

["LGBTQIA+","Literary fiction","Mysteries","Romance","Speculative fiction"]

And the input for the Create Item stage looks the same. But the output for the Create Item stage is when the code shows up:

<div class="ExternalClass355CBF38382443DD88F929801D9D18DF">["LGBTQIA+","Literary fiction","Mysteries","Romance","Speculative fiction"]</div>

Any thoughts on where the problem might be here? Ideally I would like to not have to limit the number of genres/subjects patrons are allowed to select on those two questions. I would also like to not have to delete the current List or Flow if possible.

Thanks for any advice anyone can offer!

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Using flows

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wskinnermctc 6,519 Moderator on at

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Can you test it with the + removed from the "LGBTQIA+" response? I wonder if that special character is throwing off the code?

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kebliss 14 on at

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Removing the + didn't seem to work. Thank you for the suggestion though!

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wskinnermctc 6,519 Moderator on at

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So the item that is created in SharePoint looks correct? It is in the multiline column in the correct format?

Are you using the Output of the Created Item as an input into the Planner Task?

Can you use the Output of the Form Response in the Planner Task?

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kebliss 14 on at

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Yes, in the List in SharePoint that field looks normal:

["Animals","Adventures","Classics","Family sagas","Fantasy","Graphic novels","Historical","LGBTQIA","LGBTQIA romance","Literary fiction","Manga","Mysteries","Horror","Romance","Science fiction","Short stories","Speculative fiction","Suspense / Thriller","Teen","Urban","Westerns"]

That said, the first place where the code version of this shows up in the Flow is in the Create Item (in SharePoint) step in the output.

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wskinnermctc 6,519 Moderator on at

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So are you using the Output of the SharePoint create items as an input into the Planner Task?

Can you screenshot the Planner Task where you are putting this value?

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kebliss 14 on at

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Yes, the Planner task is created from the SharePoint list.

When the task is created, it's just pulling the patron's name and form completion time for the task title and the start date time fields.

Then in the Update Task Details step, all the other details are inserted into the task description field.
Is that what you were looking for screenshots of?

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wskinnermctc 6,519 Moderator on at

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Yes, thank you, it is very helpful.

Instead of using the Outputs of the SharePoint Create Item (for the problem field/question) in the planner task, try putting in the Form Response field instead.

So the exact same Dynamic Content selection from the Form Response that you put in the Create Item in sharepoint. Put that Dynamic Content selection from the Form Response into the Planner Task details.

Right now all of the planner task details are using the Outputs of the sharepoint Create Item. For your problem question use the output of the Form Response instead.

I don't know if that will work exactly because I don't have a planner task to test on, but try that and let me know if it makes a difference.

I have another idea if it doesn't work.

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kebliss 14 on at

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That seems to have done the trick--thank you so much!

I copied this flow from something I found online, but is the List a necessary part of the process at all? Could the entirety of the Planner task be generated directly from the Form responses?

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wskinnermctc 6,519 Moderator on at

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Yes it can all come from the Form Response. And really, it already is. You aren't getting anything from SharePoint in your flow.
All you're really doing is putting the form response data into Create Item step and then reusing that same data in your planner task. But in that in between step it is messing up the format of the multiple selection.

What does the output of that field look like in your planner task now that you're using the form response?

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kebliss 14 on at

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All the dynamic content that is being used in the Planner task is actually coming from the SharePoint List, except now for those two questions.

The output of the Planner task looks good!

Thanks again for your help!

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