Generating a list of SharePoint Announcement Subscribers

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Posted on by gregmck

Dear Power Platform Community,

Has anyone found a way to generate a list of SharePoint Announcement Subscribers?

The Announcement web part enables Users to subscribe to alerts using the _layouts/15/subnew.aspx? URL. Information about the Announcement List can be retrieved using a Send an HTTP GET _api/Web/Lists call, where the guid (or GetByTitle) is that of the Announcement List. The returned data includes both a /Subscriptions element and a /RoleAssignments element. The former generates a promising-looking Microsoft.SharePoint.Webhooks.Subscription ID that then appears to be not valid. The latter generates a list of Users that then appears to be just a listing of our SharePoint Groups.

Presumably, SharePoint must record a list of Users whom it subsequently needs to alert when new announcements are posted. From an administrative point of view, we need to ensure that all our Users (who need to subscribe to our announcements) have subscribed. There does not appear to be a Power Automate SharePoint action for Users, and Power Automate O365 User actions do not cover SharePoint, so, the bottom line: does anyone know if a list of Announcement Subscribers can be retrieved using a Power Automate Send an HTTP request?

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Expiscornovus 33,478 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hi @gregmck,

Those are the user alerts, which can be found in the settings of the site under Site Administration.

It is a pretty classic feature. However, you could try if the Alerts.asmx still works 😁

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/office/developer/sharepoint-services/ms772616(v=office.12)?redirectedfrom=MSDN

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gregmck 75 on at

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Thanks for the response, Expiscornovus, appreciate the steer!

We know we have 67 (out of 950+!!) Users subscribed so, I suppose, the real trick will be to work out a way (if possible?) to GET the details of the current subscribers using a Power Automate Send an HTTP Request, then to compare it with a list of Users in the organisation.

Just a question of finding a way to the User Alerts via an API call (again, if possible?!)

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Expiscornovus 33,478 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hi @gregmck,

Like I mentioned in my previous reply, can you try the Alerts.asmx service (in a Send an HTTP request to SharePoint action)? It is an old service but might still work. Worth a shot.

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Expiscornovus 33,478 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hi @gregmck,

Had another look at this. There seems to be a different alerts method as well which you can use. Never knew that one existed. You learn new things everyday 😁

Try the below:

_api/web/alerts

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gregmck 75 on at

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Appreciate the response, Expiscornovus, and that's a very good spot about the

_api/web/alerts

which returns all subscribers to all the alerts on the Site.

As for working out "who has" and "who hasn't" subscribed, using Power Automate, it's going to be easier to process email addresses than it is ID numbers. So, filtering the query further, with _api/web/alerts?$filter=Title eq '[Title of the Announcement Web Part]'&$select=UserID, I'm currently trying all permutations of Apply to each, with a second Send an HTTP request for _api/web/SiteUsers/GetByID('[Returned User ID'), to extract those email addresses.

I can't tell you how painful this process all is. There's trial. There's error. There's absolutely no previous training, no current understanding, and also a very large helping of pure idiocy. But, there's always hope...! 😕

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gregmck 75 on at

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Hello Expiscornovus,

That seems to have done the trick, thank you!

Used the Send an HTTP request with Method GET, URI _api/web/alerts, and Headers Accept: application/json;odata=nometadata to scrape a list of all subscriptions to all resources in our SharePoint.

In an Apply to each, with the input set as the expression outputs('Send_an_HTTP_request_to_SharePoint')?['body/value'], it's then possible to Compose the Announcement Title, UserID, AlertFrequency and EventType for each alert.

In the "If yes" section of a Condition, where the dynamic content outputs('Compose_UserID') is not equal to 0 (i.e. to remove any control / system alerts), it's possible to run a second Send an HTTP request with Method GET, URI _api/web/SiteUsers/GetByID('@{outputs('Compose_UserID')}')/Email, and Headers again set as Accept: application/json;odata=nometadata. Compose the User Email with the expression outputs('Send_an_HTTP_request_to_SharePoint')?['body/value'], and all the "composed" information from the flow can then be sent to a SharePoint List, or returned to a Power App and added to a collection.

Now if there was only a way to "force" a subscription to a specific alert using a POST Method, we'd be sorted! 😊

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