SharePoint Online/Office 365: How To Develop Approval Workflows On List Item Add Event Using Microsoft Flows

  • Article

Microsoft introduces Flows that enables development of Workflows for SharePoint Online and other more than 50 services over the cloud.

In this article we will see the demonstration of Microsoft Flow around SharePoint Online and will deal with List Item Add Event.

For this demo let’s consider we have a Product Catalog List which required Approval to happen with each new item added.

We have a Product List as shown below-

https://howtodowithsharepoint.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/2.png?w=800

Go to “Flow” Menu and click “Create a Flow”

https://howtodowithsharepoint.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/3.png?w=800

Here we have two choices either we can use any available workflow template that suites our requirements or we can create a new one from scratch

https://howtodowithsharepoint.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/4.png?w=800

For this demo we will create a Flow using blank template

Go to Flow Site by clicking “See you flow” links

https://howtodowithsharepoint.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/5.png?w=800

Click “Create from blank” this will launch Workflow Designer

https://howtodowithsharepoint.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/6.png?w=800

On the Workflow Designer, Select the Trigger

We can select trigger from the any of the available services as shown highlighted below-

https://howtodowithsharepoint.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/7.png?w=800

Provide the title of the Workflow

Select SharePoint Trigger “SharePoint-When a new item is created” that will fire when a new item is added to SharePoint Online List

https://howtodowithsharepoint.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/8.png?w=800

Provide Site Url and List name to setup SharePoint context

Add an action to the Workflow by clicking “Add an action”

https://howtodowithsharepoint.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/9.png?w=800

Select approval action by selecting “Outlook.com – Send approval email”

https://howtodowithsharepoint.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/10.png?w=800

Select “Approver Email” in “To”, since this “Approver” is a People Field on SharePoint,

Workflow designer is intelligent enough to represent each property as a separate field

https://howtodowithsharepoint.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/11.png?w=800

Add a condition to the workflow by clicking “Add a condition”

https://howtodowithsharepoint.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/12.png?w=800

In the condition we are check if Approver Approved the Production or not.

If Approved then send approval email to requestor else delete the Product and send Email to requestor

https://howtodowithsharepoint.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/13.png?w=800

Choose “Created By Email” field in “To” as it will hold the Email Id of the Requestor (Person added the Product)

Choose “Approver Email” field in “CC” to send a copy of the mail to Approver also

https://howtodowithsharepoint.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/14.png?w=800

If not approved, delete the Product by choosing action “SharePoint – Delete item”

https://howtodowithsharepoint.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/15.png?w=800

In the “Delete item” action specify SharePoint Site Url and List Name

Select “ID” token for the field “Id”. This token will hold the ID of the List Item that trigged the Workflow

https://howtodowithsharepoint.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/16.png?w=800

After deleting the item we, send email to Requestor by choosing “Created By Email” in “To” field
Specify the body of email as desired
Choose “Approver Email” field in “CC” to send a copy of the mail to Approver also

https://howtodowithsharepoint.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/17.png?w=800

Once all the actions are configured as required save the workflow by clicking “Save flow”

https://howtodowithsharepoint.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/18.png?w=800

With this we are all done and now it is time to test the workflow

To test the Workflow, add a new item in the Product List. Specify Title and Approver and Save the Product.

Save action will trigger the Workflow that we just created

https://howtodowithsharepoint.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/19.png?w=800

As a result of Workflow execution Approve will get the Email with “Approve” and “Reject” options

https://howtodowithsharepoint.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/20.png?w=800

Beauty of this implementation is that Email contains clickable options for approver to submit the approver’s choices from within the email

Here Approver rejects the Product

https://howtodowithsharepoint.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/21.png?w=800

As a result of this Rejection, the workflow will delete the Product from the List and send an Email Notification to Requestor and Approver informing same.

https://howtodowithsharepoint.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/22.png?w=800

Product has been deleted from the list

https://howtodowithsharepoint.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/23.png?w=800

Now again add a new Product to the list that will again trigger the event to execute the workflow

https://howtodowithsharepoint.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/24.png?w=800

Product has been added

https://howtodowithsharepoint.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/25.png?w=800

As a result of Workflow execution Approve will get the Email with “Approve” and “Reject” options

https://howtodowithsharepoint.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/26.png?w=800

This time Approver approved the Product

https://howtodowithsharepoint.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/27.png?w=800

As a result of this Approval, the workflow sends an Email Notification to Requestor and Approver informing same.

https://howtodowithsharepoint.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/28.png?w=800

Hope you find it helpful.