Using PowerApps as an information portal via Outlook source

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Posted on by Nui_P

Hi all,

I hope everyone is keeping safe during these challenging times.

I'd like to ask for some guidance on building a PowerApp for my team to stay on top on fast-moving events and information (complete PowerApp newbie here).

The situation I am facing is my team and I collect information from multiple sources, but always via email. Some of this information is relevant, some of it is not (location - country dependant). The challenge is due to the sheer volume of information we receive, we tend to brush over a number of emails, therefore the potential for missing a significant, relevant event is a possibility.

I'm looking for direction on how to build an app that checks the data source (outlook) if specific email addresses are identified it then checks the subject line for keywords (or can check the email body for keywords) and then displays the results in an app.

I have used Power Automate and I can do this already (displaying mobile notifications), but I want to have a centralised collection point for all true conditions i.e. via the app.

Any help or guidance is appreciated - I know this may have been asked previously so apologies for that and if so please point me to the relevant post.

Stay safe

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v-xida-msft Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi @Nui_P ,

Do you want to check/validate the received emails in your Outlook, and collect these matching records into a collection in your canvas app?

Could you please share a screenshot about your Power Automate flow?

I have made a test on my side, I think the Office365Outlook.GetEmailsV3() function and Filter function could achieve your needs. The screenshot as below:

ClearCollect( MailCollection, Filter( Office365Outlook.GetEmailsV3({folderPath:"Inbox", subjectFilter: "Type Subject Filter Key words here", fetchOnlyUnread:true, top: 25}).value, from in ["User1@email.com", "User2@email.com", "User3@email.com"] ) )

But there is an known limit with the Office365Outlook.GetEmailsV3() function -- it could only retrieve 25 emails at most from your Outlook once time. If the relevant post email arrived at your Outlook is more than 25, I afraid that above formula could not achieve your needs, and there is no direct way to achieve your needs in PowerApps currently.

As an alternative solution, in order to get rid of this "25" emails limit, you could consider create a custom connector based on Microsoft Graph REST API within your PowerApps, then you could specify the "Get messages" action within the custom connector, then you could use the custom connector action to get emails from your Outlook.

More details about creating a custom connector based on Microsoft Graph REST API, please check the following blog:

https://gotoguy.blog/2017/12/17/access-microsoft-graph-api-using-custom-connector-in-powerapps-and-flows/

Best regards,

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Nui_P 7 on at

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Hi Kris Dai,

Thank you for the response. I've been researching a little more to familiarise myself with what's required.

Basically, as an email comes to my inbox, power automate should run the filter against it (which is what it is currently doing i.e. checking for specific keywords). If a filter condition is met, then the Subject line and the email body should then be pushed to the Powerapp to be displayed in a gallery (of sorts). As information is collected from the emails, these would remain for x amount of time (let's say 14 days as an example).

In your example, you are running a retrieve request, which can be avoided if power automate is pushing information as it is received, rather then retrieving in bulk? Am I correct?

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v-xida-msft Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi @Nui_P ,

Yeah, you are right. Actually, I agree with your Power Automate solution.

For your current scenario, I think Power Automate flow may be better than Power Apps. If I found better solution of canvas app to achieve your needs, I would also reply here.

Best regards,

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