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Session Id : 8HCgILvr5c/Nvi+QNA3xb4
Power Automate - Building Flows
Answered

Approval Workflow status output into SharePoint List Item in real time for multiple approvers

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Posted on 14 Jul 2020 16:38:44 by

Hi there πŸ™‚ I am working on building an approval flow with my team and was just wondering if this is something that is possible to do or if we are wasting our time.

 

We have a flow that runs when a new item is created in a SharePoint list. This then sends it out for approvals to 20 different departments, whose contact details are listed in a Stakeholders SP List. It loops through the list and sends out the approvals that way. Then it waits for all the approvals.

 

We want to be able to output the status of these approvals live back into the SP List where the item was created, so we would have a column for each department. Easiest way to achieve this would be to have 20 approvals flowing in parallel, and then update the item before waiting with the responses, however we found that once we have 5+ parallel items the Power Automate stops being responsive. 

 

The workaround we came up with was to build up a JSON object that would be updated in between sending out approvals and receiving responses, however we have so far been unable to build a JSON object through the flow. Manually inputting data works, but as soon as the JSON variable is set using an Output from another action the flow breaks. We tried using the JSON variable itself, array, string, just does't like it.

 

Is this a viable solution or is there any other way to achieve this functionality?

 

TL;DR: Output approval status for multiple approvals back into the SP item that is being approved in real time

 

Thanks for your help,

Egor

  • v-alzhan-msft Profile Picture
    on 29 Jul 2020 at 09:05:13
    Re: Approval Workflow status output into SharePoint List Item in real time for multiple approvers

    Hi @Anonymous ,

     

    Please create a new post for your final question details.

     

    Best Regards,

    Alice

     

    Community Support Team _ Alice Zhang
    If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

     

     

  • Community Power Platform Member Profile Picture
    on 16 Jul 2020 at 08:14:45
    Re: Approval Workflow status output into SharePoint List Item in real time for multiple approvers

     Hi Alice,

     

    Thanks for all your help, but perhaps I'm not phrasing the question correctly. Here are the lists from which the flow works:

     

    Approvers List

    DepartmentEmailFilter Criteria

    Marketing EU

    marketingeu@company.com

    EU

    Marketing NAmarketingna@company.comNA
    Manufacturingmanufacturing@company.comEU, NA

     

    Items to Review List

    Item NameRegionMarketing EU StatusMarketing NA StatusManufacturing Status
    Item AEUApproved-Pending
    Item BEU, NAApprovedRejectedApproved

     

    The flow is initiated when a new item is added into the Review List. The flow then gets the correct approvers from the Approvers List by filtering them by region. It then loops through each one of them and sends them an approval email. We want to be able to output their responses in real time back into the Review List like in the table above. It would be ideal if we could update a specific column based on a variable(i.e. we'd save the Department field as a variable then would update the "Department + Status" column), but that functionality doesn't seem to be available.

     

    We also tried using a JSON object to collect these, but this didn't appear to work.

     

    Thanks,

    Egor

  • Verified answer
    v-alzhan-msft Profile Picture
    on 16 Jul 2020 at 02:38:35
    Re: Approval Workflow status output into SharePoint List Item in real time for multiple approvers

    Hi @Anonymous ,

     

    The screenshot as below:

    1.png

     

    Best Regards,

    Alice

     

    Community Support Team _ Alice Zhang
    If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

  • Community Power Platform Member Profile Picture
    on 15 Jul 2020 at 07:48:56
    Re: Approval Workflow status output into SharePoint List Item in real time for multiple approvers

    How can I get the approval status of each approver from that?

  • v-alzhan-msft Profile Picture
    on 15 Jul 2020 at 07:27:50
    Re: Approval Workflow status output into SharePoint List Item in real time for multiple approvers

    Hi @Anonymous ,

     

    You could create the array with all the email address and create the flow as screenshot below:

    1.png

     

    Best Regards,

    Alice

     

    Community Support Team _ Alice Zhang
    If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

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