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Difference between Get Folder Metadata & Get Folder Metadata Using Path?

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Posted on by Zylantha1

I understand that "Get Folder Metadata" should use a Folder ID (integer) and "Get Folder Metadata Using Path" should use a Folder Path (string), however both the UI and the documentation for these actions indicate that "Get Folder Metadata" takes an "ID" but that this should be a string (i.e. a Path) - the same as "Get Folder Metadata Using Path" takes.

What is therefore the difference between these two actions, and is Get Folder Metadata broken because its input type, while being called "ID" is actually set as a String and requires a folder path to work (passing an ID does not work)?

This action has been causing me significant grief, because "Get Folder Metadata Using Path" does not return all of the columns defined for the content type (which is to be expected; it only returns the ID), and then even though I have the ID, I can't get all the columns defined for the content type - because I can't use "Get Folder Metadata" (because it won't take the ID) and "Get File Properties" doesn't return the defined columns for a folder-based content type (it seems to be confused).

get folder metadata.png

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Pstork1 68,697 Most Valuable Professional on at

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When I've used the two actions both do return the same values, but the parameter passed is different. The File Identifier is the Path, but any spaces or punctuation have been replaced with database friendly strings. Here's the File Identifier from one of my recent runs.

Shared%2bDocuments%252fSP%2bFest%2bDemo%252fDocument1.docx

The path parameter is the same thing, but punctuation and spaces remain.

/Shared Documents/SP Fest Demo/Document1.docx

But as I said, my experience is different from yours. I get the same metadata either way.

Are you doing this off a template that you modified or from scratch? If you are using a template you may have an older version of one of the actions and that's why the return values are different.

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zylantha2 103 on at

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I am using a blank flow created from scratch less than 6 weeks ago.

I have just done a further experiment, passing the identical path (obtained the "FilePath" metadata from a file in the folder) to both actions, and they both return the same data. The path passed has no spaces replaced, it was the identical string (obfuscated here):
Contracts/***** Distribution/

Both actions returned identical metadata. Further, I used the Folder Picker that is provided in the "Get Folder Metadata" action to select the same folder, and its behaviour and returned data was also identical to the ones where I passed the FilePath parameter. Even if the "FileId" is supposed to be different from the Path, and be URL encoded, it does not need to be as both actions accept an un-encoded path.

I double-checked "Get File Metadata" and "Get File Metadata Using Path" and these also seem to have the same parameter (a path, not an ID), so I can't see any reason to have both actions if they are identical (hence my question).

It looks like my other issue is a separate problem with the misbehaviour of the get file properties action, so I will raise in a separate topic.

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v-bacao-msft on at

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Hi @Zylantha1 / @zylantha2 ,

Thank you for your reply!

The document mentions id instead of ID, item ID type is number, and id type is string, which is actually a file identifier.

When configuring Get folder metadata, if you want to get the metadata of the folder with the determined file path, you can directly click File browse to configure the file path. If you want to configure this field dynamically, then you can use the identifier output by the above action to configure this parameter.

When configuring Get folder metadata using path action, it is clear that a Folder path is required here, so you only need to configure a Folder path.

These two actions can be configured through File browse and Dynamic content, the purpose is to make the configuration of Flow richer. It is not limited to using only fixed values to configure these parameters but can be configured dynamically through some variables.

I hope that helps.

Best Regards,

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Pstork1 68,697 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Evidently the action will do the translation to remove the spaces and special characters for you. but if you look at a run and check the input parameters that are actually passed you will see that there is a difference as I have reported. So it looks like its using two different APIs in the background. I agree that given the automatic translation of the input and the identical output it doesn't seem like both actions are needed.

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