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Flow to send email reminders when calendar date approaches

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Posted on by B-ran

New to the forum and flow so please forgive my limited knowledge.

What I am trying to do is set up a flow that will send an email along with reminders at certain intervals when an item is created in a SPO calendar up to the date of the item along with reminders when it becomes past due. The email will need multiple recipients which will vary depending on the timing of the reminders and will vary depending on the item created.

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v-yamao-msft Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi B-ran,

Please try to use formatDateTime function and adddays function in your flow.

You could add a Condition in your flow, if the start date of the event is equal to today’s date plus one day, then send user a reminder email or other notifications.

The Condition could be configured as:

@equals(formatDateTime(triggerBody()?['EventDate'],'yyyy-MM-dd'), formatDateTime(adddays(utcnow(),1),'yyyy-MM-dd'))

The flow configuration for your reference:

Please take it for a reference. If you need more help, please feel free reply.

More details about the function, please check the doc at here:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/logic-apps/logic-apps-workflow-definition-language

Best regards,
Mabel Mao

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B-ran 22 on at

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Hello Mabel,

Thank you for the response, much appreciated!

In the instance you suggested I will need a condition for every reminder correct? For example I will need a new condition for 30 days, 14 days, 7 days etc? Also, would the flow run everyday to check the current date or would I have to manually run the flow so that it would send the reminders at the different intervals?

The other question is how do I make this work after the due date has passed to continue sending reminders?

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efialttes 14,756 on at

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@B-ran

One option is to have a Flow executed everyday, getting all the items from your list and iterate over them with an Apply to Each. Taking as starting point the item's creation date, then add 30 days, 14 days, etc. and compare with today. One condition per reminder.
You can also have an addition condition to evaluate if Due Date has passed, if so send a reminder (assuming you want to send a daily reminder if Due Date is passed).
Take into account a Flow can run for 30 days, then it is cancelled by the system, since this is the current limit. So if you have a Flow executed once everyday verifying all items in the list, you will not be affected by this limit.

You can find an excellent example of the recurrence trigger in this post:
https://flow.microsoft.com/es-es/blog/working-with-dates-and-times/

Hope this helps

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B-ran 22 on at

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@efialttes

Thank you!

Can you please provide some screen shot examples of how this would work?

Also, would you please eloborate more on the 30 day limit for flow runs?

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efialttes 14,756 on at

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Hi again

30 days is the current limit for a single flow run. After 30 days the flow pending steps will time out. More info about limits here:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/flow/limits-and-config

You will also find a simpler description of the scenario I suggested in the following link:
https://medium.com/@thomasgranheim/send-reminder-emails-using-microsoft-flow-and-office-365-606e0ea1565b

Happy Flowing!

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B-ran 22 on at

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@efialttes
@v-yamao-msft

Ok, I have a flow working for the creation and edit of an item. It will send out emails based on the dates just as I need it to. Thank you both for your help thus far!

I am however still having issues with the reminders that I need sent out based on the days before the calendar item. Below is what I have setup that is not working. Any idea what I am missing?

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efialttes 14,756 on at

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Hi again
I would move the condition inside the Apply to Each. Sorry I cannot see the expression inside, if I zoom the image the content get blurred
Hope this helps

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B-ran 22 on at

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I moved the the conditions inside the Apply to Each and am still receiving the error:

InvalidTemplate. Unable to process template language expressions for action 'Condition' at line '1' and column '2125': 'The template language function 'formatDateTime' expects its first parameter to be of type string. The provided value is of type 'Null'.

The formula I am using for the condition is:

@equals(formatDateTime(triggerBody()?['EventDate'], 'yyyy-MM-dd'), formatDateTime(adddays(utcnow(), 1), 'yyyy-MM-dd'))

Any suggestions?

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efialttes 14,756 on at

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Hi!
Assuming you are using now the Recurrence trigger, you shall replace the dynamic content trigger body()?['EventDate'] in the evaluation expression.
Is your column named EventDate? If so, try with either item()?['EventDate'] or items('Apply_to_each')?['EventDate'] instead
This way you refer to the current iteration of the loop

There is a very similar flow described in this thread
https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Flows/Flow-Expressions-How-can-I-determine-if-a-SharePoint-file/td-p/69692

Hope this helps

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v-yamao-msft Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi @B-ran,

Please make sure the column name you are using in the code is correct.

The error message says that function 'formatDateTime' expects its first parameter to be of type string, please make sure the column you are using in the code is of type string.

Best regards,
Mabel Mao

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