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Approving Access for SharePoint Page & Library

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Posted on by lundcry

I have a very specific request from an HR user. We have a SharePoint communication site with multiple pages. Each page has a corresponding document library. All users have access to the site and general information, but must request access to specific pages and be approved/denied by the page moderator. For confidentiality/privacy reasons, they don't want the pages or document libraries visible to those who have not been approved.

Is there a way to create a flow so that when the moderator approves the access request to the SharePoint page, it automatically gives access to the corresponding document library? The moderators will only be approving requests via the email Microsoft sends the page owners and are NOT trained on advanced permissions so complicated permission groups are not an option at this time.

I can find approval flows for files and lists, but nothing in regards to SharePoint page permissions as the trigger. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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I dont have much experience of this, but I'll give you this because it might be helpful.
I believe you can grant access to Sharepoint sites via SharePoint Groups, AD Groups and individual access.

Which method you are using will determine the actions you need to look for in PowerAutomate.
I would think the "easiest" is if you are using AD Groups to manage the access rights to pages/docs in Sharepoint, because there are quite a lot of AD function actions available in PA already.
Otherwise its probably use of the "Sharepoint - Grant Access to an Item or Folder" and that sounds like its using the individual access approach. If you're usign that already then great! this is possibly the function you need, but this can be a very messy way to grant access and it can get untidy very quickly. The access by group (either SP or AD) is probably best, but any Sharepoint authorities can give an opinion on that.
But I can see any PA Actions for managing "Sharepoint Groups" at the moment..

Hope this helps!

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@Anonymous Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately that action cannot be used as a trigger. And due to the level of privacy/confidentiality of the pages and the way the moderators are approving the access requests, a SharePoint group is not an option at this time, as I mentioned.

Basically what I need is a flow that says "When an access request is approved for this page, grant access to this library." But there doesn't seem to be a trigger for "When an access request is approved."

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Sorry - I really don't follow this?

why do you need this? isn't the approval granting the access anyway???

Oh. Am I assuming that you're using Sharepoint approval mechanisms, in which if I try to access a page I'm not permitted to, I get the option to "request access". This request goes to a site owner, who can approve or reject my request. If they click "approve" then Sharepoint automatically grants the access rights.... you're NOT using or talking about this, are you?

You want some sort of process outside this, and thus I think you DO WANT the "grant individual access to a file or folder" action.

If this is the case then... i guess the starting point is how are users requesting access to a page, since it looks like they're not using the built in Sharepoint mechanism..?
You need to get your hooks into that in order to (a) determine the page/folder being requested, (b) the user id of the requestor, (c) the response of the owner. This is basically an approval template, but the user will need to be able to paste in or select the page/folder accurately enough that you can use the info to find the page/folder object and its ID in order to use it in the Action:

Is that the right track?

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@Anonymous That's exactly what I'm talking about. There is a link for a page, let's call it Example. When the user clicks on the Example link, it gives them notice they do not have access and would they like to request access. If they click yes, Microsoft sends the page owner an email to approve or deny the request. It's the built in MS process.

However, approving access to the Example page does not automatically also give access to the Example document library. The HR user who requested this site does not want the page owners to have to approve two access requests so I am trying to automate the 2nd process so that when they approve access to the Example page, it automatically approves access to the Example library. This way the user doesn't have to request access twice and the owner/moderator doesn't have to approve access twice.

I cannot find a trigger that starts with "When access to a SharePoint site is approved/granted." That's what I need suggestions for working around. "Grant individual access..." is an ACTION, not a TRIGGER. I need a trigger to start the process and there doesn't appear to be one. It may not be possible with PowerAutomate.

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Wow! OK. that's a good one. Unless anyone else thank think of an alternative and there is not a trigger that you have overlooked (and I can't see one either), then it may not currently be possible in PA... except that if you're really enthusiastic you might want to see if its possible using the SharePoint REST API. If you don't know this, you can use the Flow HTTP action to call any Sahrepoint API that has been made available and this covers a much wider field of functionality that is implemented (currently) in flow.

I still don;t see how you could trigger this "instantaneously" but you could potentially build something that looks at each document , works out if the people with access have the wider folder/library access, and if not grant it to them. You could run this say overnight and it might be feasible... depending on the size of the library it has to scan...

Here's a starting point: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/dev/business-apps/power-automate/guidance/working-with-send-sp-http-request

I cannot think of an alternative right now... Sorry.

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This *might* help... its certainly interesting!

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Flows/Automating-SharePoint-Online-access-for-External-Users/td-p/295173

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