MS Forms & Power Automate - Part 3: Getting file content

In this video, we'll look at how to get the contents of files that have been submitted through a File Upload question on a Microsoft Form. Since there are many cases where users will be accepting multiple files and wanting to do things with all of them, we'll also show how to put the relevant information into an array, which will make out lives a little easier down the road in many cases.

[@luistapasco2698]

Thank you so much! With a few minutes of video I was able to find the solution I had been trying to find all morning.

[@Datschischwitzkopf]

Chad! Thank you 1000 times your tutorials. My workflow wasn´t working anymore because "Get file conten" just stop working out of the blue. After changing the parameter to "driveid.+ID" it is working properly now again! You rule!

[@0xGunter]

I really just want to thank you for taking the time to create these playlists. So informative and helpful!!

[@mattb4172]

Chad - you're an absolute star! Your videos are methodologically sound and very helpful to people (like me) who have only started coming to grips with Power Automate and have no background in IT. Please keep it up!

[@cvkealey]

Happy to help!

[@ashadiiputu4087]

compact material and really easy to understand for a newbie at Ms Flow. Thank you so much!!!

[@aklamo]

Thanks for this! I was fishing around in the support forum for this kind of solution. Works great :)

[@user-bq3gr6mf9i]

Thank you, this video has helped me a lot, solving a problem that has been troubling me!

[@lisashoff7777]

this is so brilliant and so explained so well - thank you!

[@catwilliamson7318]

Thank you so much! I had been struggling with how to get the attachments from the form to a SharePoint list. Now I not only know how, but also why.

[@jaydee4292]

You have saved my life. Thank you mate, subscribed and liked.

[@royludwig7665]

Thanks. Worked like a charm!

[@DataLegions]

Thank you so much, I was searching about it, but got it here, Thanks

[@cloudydayz1001]

You are a saviour, thank you so much!!

[@marcocruz5351]

this is so great! subscribed!

[@AtasiNarksri]

Thanks for your clear explanation. This helps me a lot :)

[@cvkealey]

Glad it helped!

[@Pantholder27]

The drive id thing saved me my job. All jokes aside thanks!

[@stephenbarwick7754]

Hi Chad - thanks so much for this video. Have been trying to find a solution on how to get file content from a Group Forms Sharepoint. You made it very clear!

[@MrLittleBigMan97]

Great video! I am currently trying to receive an xml attachment from an email and get the xml data from the attachment and use it to create sharepoint list items. Any idea on how to achieve this? Right now when a new email arrives that matches the emails with the xml attachments I create a file in a sharepoint document library and have the file content set to the attachments content. I then use a compose function with xpath() and xml() to try and create string items to set variables to but the compose actions output refuses to be recognized by my set variable action following it. Any ideas?

[@cvkealey]

Full disclosure: I have not done what you're trying to do, so may not be the best person to advise on this. However, I think the missing piece of the puzzle is getting that date from xml into json. XML and JSON are similar, but not interchangeable. JSON can be parsed into a schema that the "Create item" action in SharePoint understands, XML can't (at least, not easily). This video should help you get to where you want to go: kzbin.info/www/bejne/boK2mIusnMt7i6c

[@joaoribeiro7150]

Thanks for the videos Chad. They are really great, but something is failing and I can't find the error. I rewatched your videos several times, but couldn't find the answer so I am hoping you would be able to help out. The issue I am having is that on the Append to array variable step, the ContentBytes value automatically changes from File Content to Body after I test it and no attachment is sent via email. Any idea what could be the issue? Thank you very much in advance.

[@cvkealey]

I'm not sure I follow what you're saying. It would help to see a screenshot of that action in your flow. If you're on Facebook, you could join this group (facebook.com/groups/Powerautomate) and post a message with a description and a screenshot or two. If you're not on Facebook, I would suggest joining the "official" Power Automate Users community (powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Power-Automate/ct-p/MPACommunity) and posting a message there. I check in on the Facebook group pretty much daily and the MS community a couple times a week.

[@trishmalloy1856]

Thank you!!

[@cvkealey]

You're welcome!

[@parinpmehta]

Hey @Chad, love the videos! thanks so much. However, hoping you can help...I'm running into an error with a Group Form (sharepoint) used to generate an email with the form details + uploaded file(s). The upload question in the form is optional and the flow fails if the user does not upload a file (Parse json fails when attachment content is null). I tried to add a conditional to only parse the file content if attachment is true, but then the initialize variable can't be nested within the 'true' condition. How can i avoid parsing when no file is uploaded? I'm not sure where i can add the conditional given that i have to initialize the variable at the top level. The desired result: send an email regardless if an attachment was uploaded

[@cvkealey]

Here's how I handle that: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oHO3notmmNJphLc

[@parinpmehta]

@@cvkealey oops i should've known you already had a video for that 🙂. Thanks so much!

[@MrAirtaz]

Using the OneDrive connector for Group forms, was this before having SharePoint's Get file content using path?

[@cvkealey]

Not sure I tried that action....it might work. Between the OneDrive and SharePoint connectors, some actions ask for what should be the same thing, but isn't. For example, the "Identifier" provided in the schema won't work in the "Identifier" field in SharePoint actions.

[@mattmcadams8453]

Hello Chad, this series so far is exactly what I was looking for, thank you so much for doing them. I did have a question/comment, I am doing a Group Form. I was not able to use the Get File Content for OneDrive, PowerAutomate changed it to Get Content for SharePoint after I put in the driveID.Name. But that didn't work, got an error saying that I needed a path for the file, so I copied the path to the document folder on the group site. That seems to be working at this point. Was that a change? or am I still going to have problems. Every test I run along with your video still come back as successful so not sure. Thank you again for all your help!!

[@cvkealey]

I have not set one of these flows up since the new editor was rolled out, so I have not seen that happen. I'll need to do some testing and probably record a new video. Thank you for the heads up!

[@mrmpanah74]

Thanks for the video, it's very helpful. I have followed the process and built this however I am getting errors on Parse JSON, can you please share how you build the Parse JSON? thanks

[@cvkealey]

See this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hZKlY6aqmJuHnq8

[@thalytaguimaraes9936]

Not sure if you explained it but what if I have more than one upload question? Do I have to create a JSON flow for each one of the questions? Thanks for the video tho - very very helpful!

[@cvkealey]

If you have multiple files attached to a single question, you just need one "parse json" action and then you can add all of the files from that question to an array. If you have multiple separate file upload questions, you need to repeat that process for each of them. This is why I usually do that in a scope; it's easy to copy/paste the scope and then just changed the configuration of the actions inside it. Also, you need to think about whether you want to handle the files from the other questions separately, or add all the files from all the questions to one array. Either is possible, but it depends what you want/need to do with the files.

[@thalytaguimaraes9936]

@@cvkealey Thanks for the quick reply. I actually have multiple separate file upload questions and need all the files in one single folder. Is that possible?

[@cvkealey]

@@thalytaguimaraes9936 sure, just append them all to the same array variable, then run an apply to each loop on that variable with a "Create file" action inside. That's covered in the Part 4 video (I think....)

[@amelielouise7641]

Hi Chad, I am trying to complete this flow, but I don't use Onedrive for Business. All the files attached to my Microsoft Form get saved in my Sharepoint. When I use the "Get file content" (Sharepoint) function in my flow, it asks me for different parameters to the ones you are using, and all the functions are different. Do you know how I can complete this flow without any functions that connect to Onedrive?

[@cvkealey]

I have not found a way to do it without using the OneDrive connector. Technically, OneDrive for business IS SharePoint, but scoped to s single user. The identifier you need is driveid.id. This is explained in the video starting around the 7:00 minute mark.

[@semracurevac-helac3662]

These videos are great. I am having problem in situations when no file is submitted. My flow fails. Can you please help me fix it?

[@cvkealey]

I can show you how I fix it on my flows: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oHO3notmmNJphLc

[@jonarhonm6990]

Hey Chad - is possible to do a video on populating a Word document with images uploaded via MS Forms?

[@cvkealey]

You mean fill in a word template, or just create a new word document? The template method requires a premium license (which I don't have), but there are ways to create "regular" word documents. Inserting the images may be a little complicated. I'm pretty sure it can be done by converting the image content to base64 encoding, but will need to do some testing.

[@nutela2002]

You have saved my life ! Litteraly ! But im trying to find the info on changing the name of the file before sending it in email. Where should i add this ? Thanks LOTS

[@cvkealey]

You can rename it when building the array of files. See kzbin.info/www/bejne/hoPahqFmlr-sqa8