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Automatically Rename New Files on Upload with a Sequential Suffix

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Posted on by HMP

I have a Document Library with subfolders for storing photos. There will be lots of photos, with more added all the time.

I would like to have the photos automatically renamed to "SubFolder_X", where SubFolder is the subfolder in which the file is stored and X is a number that increases sequentially as photos are added (SubFolder_1, SubFolder_2, SubFolder_3, and so on). Simple enough.

But I cannot seem to figure out how to do it.

Any ideas?

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notj 782 on at

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Can you not use the ID of the file? That's already a sequential number that's generated for you. So you would just need to do an update file properties action.

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HMP 57 on at

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I think that will be my fallback. I have at least a dozen subfolders, and each is going to receive hundreds of photos, so that ID number is going to get long and fast. So I was hoping to start at 1 in each subfolder.

I did find this, and it works for renaming files as they are uploaded. I can even include things like who uploaded the file in the name, and the file ID. I set it up to handle the whole library, but still can't sort out how to get the SubFolder name involved. It would be nice if I didn't have to make a flow for each and every subfolder.

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notj 782 on at

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Alternatively, if I was going to tackle this and didn't want to use ID, I would store the number in a separate column for easier access. You don't have to show the column in the view of the library.
Make a view in the library that sorts the files highest to lowest based off this new columns.
Do a get files action, targeting that specific view, return 1 item only.
Do a compose action with that number from the column, +1.
In my update file properties action, use this compose action results and put it into the column used for tracking the numbers.

I could see a potential where 2 separate flow runs come up with the same number if you have multiple runs going at the same time.

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HMP 57 on at

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I think I'll go the route of creating a hidden column that starts at 1 and goes up from there. For now, here is what I did to get the files to rename on upload, to SubFolder_ID:

Split File Path
Expression: split(triggerBody()?['{Path}'],'/')

Get SubFolder Name
Expression: last(take(outputs('Split_File_Path'),sub(length(outputs('Split_File_Path')),1)))

Send an HTTP request to Sharepoint to get type
Uri: _api/lists/getbytitle('Photos')

Send an HTTP request to SharePoint to rename file
URI: _api/lists/GetByTitle('Photos')/Items(@{outputs('Get_file_properties')?['body/ID']})
Headers:
Content-type: application/json;odata=verbose
IF-MATCH: *
X-HTTP-METHOD: PATCH
Body:
{'__metadata':
{'type':'@{outputs('Send_an_HTTP_request_to_SharePoint_to_get_type')?['body']?['d']?['ListItemEntityTypeFullName']}'},
'FileLeafRef':'@{outputs('Get_SubFolder_Name')}_@{outputs('Get_file_properties')?['body/ID']}'}

NOTE: If you copy+paste what I did, make sure you rename the various Actions as I have done

Credit where credit is due: I got the SubFolder stuff from here, and the HTTP stuff from here.

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