@SicklyBird You can avoid needing to use the Add a Row action if you use the built-in feature in MS Forms that allows you to sync your responses to to a workbook. You can enable this option by clicking on the Responses tab of your form.
Click the three dots then select Sync all responses to a new workbook option.
Once you do that, you will see the workbook appear in the place of the Open in Excel option.
Depending on the type of form you've created, the Excel file will be stored on your OneDrive or a SP site. I cover the two different types of MS Forms in this section of my YT Tutorial: How to Get Microsoft Form File Uploads Attached to an Email 📧
In this Microsoft Power Automate Tutorial I’m going to cover where file uploads from your Microsoft Forms are saved. I’ll also show you how attach the uploaded files to an email and how to dynamically name the files and customize the recipient of the email based on the selections made in your Microsoft Form. I will also cover how to handle responses that don’t include any file uploads.
I’m not going to cover how to get the values from your form since I've already covered that in a different tutorial.
IN THIS VIDEO:
✅ Two types of MS Forms
✅ Where Microsoft Personal (OneDrive) Form File Uploads are Saved
✅ Where Microsoft Group Form File Uploads are Saved
✅ How to Add a File Upload Question to an MS Form
✅ How to get a Microsoft Form ID
✅ How to get a Microsoft Form Response
✅ How to Get the Dynamic Content Microsoft Form File Upload Content
✅ How to handle Single and Multiple Microsoft Form File Uploads
✅ How to use a Scope action to Organize and Group Your Flow Actions
✅ How to Get the File Content from an MS Form File Upload
✅ How to Collect All Files Uploaded to a MS Form and Attach to an Email
✅ How to Handle MS Form Response When a File Isn’t Uploaded
✅ How to Create an Email Key
✅ How to Send an Email to a Specific Recipient Based on Form Selection
✅ How to Create a Dynamic Output Based on Form Selection
You can simplify your flow by using dynamic content — it could look something like this.
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Manual Trigger
Start with a Manual trigger while you build and test your flow. You can replace it with the Automated trigger once you've confirmed your flow works and you are ready to go live.
However, I actually prefer to keep a manually triggered copy of my flow. This can help with troubleshooting if you run into issues later on, or if you want to make changes to your flow. It's also more efficient when building flows for MS Forms — instead of needing to leave Power Automate to submit a form each time you'd like to trigger your flow you can manually trigger your flow on a form that has already been submitted.
Add a List Rows Present in a Table action.
It's important to note that by default the number of rows returned from the List rows present in a table action is 256 rows. If you expect the number of rows to be greater than 256, you'll need to toggle on pagination and set a threshold.
Count Rows
Insert a Compose action. Add an Expression. Use the length() function.
Select the Dynamic content tab and insert the body dynamic content from the Filter Array action into the length() function.
Dynamically Compose the Email Content
Instead of using two Send an Email (V2) actions in your flow, you can use an expression to dynamically change the content of your email based on whether or not the number of rows in your Excel table is greater than or equal to your limit. In this case we'll use your example limit which is 10.
Check to See if Number of Rows is greater or equal to the Limit
Add a Compose action to store the subject line of your email which you can then insert into the Send an Email (V2) action. I prefer to use Compose actions to run tests on expressions and verify the output. This speeds up the flow building process as you don't need to wait for an email to arrive in your inbox.
Add an expression and insert the greaterOrEquals() function.
To learn more about how to use expressions in your flow, refer to this YT Tutorial: 7 Functions You Need to Know | ⚡️Expression Essentials: Part 1⚡️
In this section, I'll cover how to get dynamic content with an expression when the dynamic content you need isn't listed in the dynamic content menu.
In the full tutorial I cover 7 functions you need to know when getting started with expressions.
1️⃣ empty()
2️⃣ coalesce()
3️⃣ equals()
4️⃣ if()
5️⃣ concat()
6️⃣ length()
7️⃣ split()
I cover how to use these functions in expressions and I’ll also cover common mistakes when it comes to writing expressions and show you a few tips and tricks along the way.
As a beginner or even an intermediate flow builder—expressions can seem a bit complex at first, I’m going to try to simplify it for you. If you want to level up your flows by writing expressions—keep watching!
IN THIS VIDEO:
✅ What is an Expression?
✅ What is a Function?
✅ What Does Wrapping a Function Mean?
✅ How Do I Insert an Expression?
✅ How to Use a Compose action
✅ How to Navigate the Expression Builder with Arrow Keys
✅ How to use the Expression Tooltip
✅ Common Mistakes When Writing Expressions
✅ How to differentiate a null from an empty string
✅ How to Get Dynamic Content When it’s Not Listed
✅ How to Use a Get Item Action to Verify Dynamic Content Output
✅ How to Convert Strings to Lower Case
✅ How to Troubleshoot the if() Function
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The greaterOrEquals() function takes two parameters:
greaterOrEquals([value: string|float|integer], [compare to: string|float|integer])
Click on the Dynamic Content tab and insert the output from the Compose action above.
Add a comma and enter the value to compare it to. Important: You must be comparing the same type of values to each other.
Run a test. The greaterOrEquals() function will return a true or false value. Review the output of the Compose action. In my example, the number of rows in my table is 26.
Dynamically Output Subject Line
Next, you'll need to use the if() function to dynamically output a subject line. The if() function takes three parameters:
if([boolean value aka true/false], [value if true], [value if false])
Click on the expression to edit it. We're going to wrap the expression in the if() function. Type in if with an opening parenthesis.
Press the down arrow key to go to the end of the expression. Add a comma. Tip: Pay attention to the tooltip as it'll bold the text of the current parameter you are defining.
If the number of rows in the spreadsheet is greater or equal to the limit, you want to output a subject line that notifies the submitter they are on the waitlist. Type in whatever subject line that is between single quotes.
Add another comma and type in the subject line you want to output if the value is false (aka the number of rows in the spreadsheet is greater than or equal to the limit). Make sure you add a closing parenthesis. Important: Whenever editing your expressions make sure you press update to save your changes.
Run a test.
Repeat this step for the email body. In my example I'm using another Compose action to compose the email body. You could omit this Compose action and simply insert the body content directly in the Send an Email V2 action.
Send an Email (V2)
Add a Send an email (V2) action. When building and troubleshooting a flow that includes an action that sends an email or teams message, I always insert my email address in the recipient field until I can confirm the flow works.
I like to put a line of text in the body of the email or message that outputs the actual recipient of the email/notification.
I've inserted the output of the Compose actions that have the email subject line and body into the Send an Email (V2) action.
Run a test. Review the email.
For testing purposes, I'll adjust the limit to 30 and run another test.
Because my row count is 26—the subject line/body of the email indicates to the user they've been signed up.
Replace your Manual Trigger
I'd recommend creating a copy of your flow (keeping a manual copy of your flow for testing/troubleshooting purposes). Replace the Manual Trigger with the When a new response is submitted trigger.
Insert the Response Id dynamic content into the Response ID field.
Insert the Responders' email dynamic content into the recipient field of the Send an Email (V2) action.
Run another test.
Hope this helps!
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