How to extract "category" of email and update entries in sharepoint list based on it

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Posted on by matildab2001

Hello all.

I will explain what I want to do as best as I can.

I have a mailbox which deals with ticket requests. We sort the tickets by using the categories function in outlook and categorise it by name of the person who treated the ticket , so basically the names have been added as categories. I have a sharepoint list which currently there is a flow in poweratuomate which addes the mails we get as entries to the list. Currently, the flow also extracts the subject of the mail as the title of the entry and filters for keywords in the subject. According to what keyword it finds eg "account creation", "offbooarding" in the list the item will be filtered by what type of query it is. I did not write the flow but I am searching for guidance on where to write the part which extracts the category of the email and stores it in the column "Assigned to" in the list .

To clarify what i want: If i mark the email with the category Matilda, i want the email in the sharepoint list item to have "Matilda" in the assignee_name column.

The flow so far is in the images

Categories:

Building flows

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AnthonyAmador 2,553 Moderator on at

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Hi Matilda,

The part to extract the category of the email should come before creating the item in the SharePoint list. This way, you can add it as dynamic content when you create the new item. To extract the category from the subject, you can use the Split function and save it in a compose action or variable. Then, use the “Create Item” function and add that value to the required column.

Let me know if that helps.

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matildab2001 14 on at

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@AnthonyAmador

Helo Anthony thanks for ur response. I think the set up is a little confusing, but im looking to extract the category of the email as in not the subject this time. For example, if i mark an email under my name in categories, I want then for the email in the sharepoint list to have "Matilda" in the Assigned_To column

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AnthonyAmador 2,553 Moderator on at

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Thanks for the clarification, @matildab2001.

Unfortunately, there is currently no way to extract the category using the Office 365 Outlook connector. However, there are some workarounds. You can use the Outlook Graph API to send a request to extract the category, but you will need to change the logic of your flow and create a loop. You can explore that workaround here. https://community.powerplatform.com/forums/thread/details/?threadid=dbe50e39-49de-4dca-9e80-4feb47776052

Another idea I had is to create a folder for each category and use that folder as the category. Instead of marking the email, move it to the corresponding folder and set up the flow to trigger “when a new email arrives” based on the specific folder. You will need to create a flow for each folder, but they will be simple flows.

If you can recognize every email category based on the subject or body, that’s another way to do it and will be easier to automate.

Hope this helps.
Anthony

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