Forum Discussion

Tanya Denton's avatar
Tanya Denton
Steel Contributor
Jan 16, 2018

Approval Flow - Approval Status - why can't this be updated?

I am hoping i am missing something! Just looking at moving approval workflows from SharePoint workflows to Microsoft Flow. From what i have read the flow cannot update the standard 'Approval Status'...
Microsoft Flow
jdiorio's avatar
jdiorio
Copper Contributor
Nov 28, 2018

Hi there Tanya Denton...can you provide in some detail how you got this to work?  I've been pulling my hair out trying to get the Approval Status flag to change depending on the response sent out from the Flow approval e-mail, and I can't seem to get it to work.  I am using the 'Set content approval status' that Michal Golan mentioned, but it doesn't seem to work.

 

What am I doing wrong?!?! :) 

Tanya Denton's avatar
Tanya Denton
Steel Contributor
Nov 28, 2018
Here is a document with the broken down steps. Although the steps say item it is based on a Document library. the only part that i believe is not possible is to start the flow when you use the 'Publish' document feature, but from Draft the user can go Flow and select the flow to start the approval.
  • Soraia Taipa's avatar
    Soraia Taipa
    Copper Contributor
    Dec 27, 2018
    Hi Tanya Denton,

    Thank you for your reply. I've tested and it keeps no updating... I've added a second step to update the properties of the document, only with that step does the status changes...
  • Soraia Taipa's avatar
    Soraia Taipa
    Copper Contributor
    Dec 27, 2018

    Hi Tanya Denton,

     

    Thank you for your reply. I've tested and it keeps no updating... I've added a second step to update the properties of the document, only with that step does the status changes...

  • David Drever's avatar
    David Drever
    MVP
    Dec 05, 2018

    I just thought I would mention it is possible to run this automatically (via item created or modified).  The problem getting in people's way is that when they start a flow, there is no OOTB method for determining the state the document is in.  You don't want an approval workflow if the document is still in draft right?

     

    I came up with a way to do this using an HTTP call into the SharePoint list\library.  This likely isn't anything new, but I wasn't able to find a post that highlighted the steps I came up with.  To determine the approval status of a document\list item you simply have to access it using the following REST call: _api/web/lists/GetByTitle(‘<Title>’)/items(<ID>)?$select=OData__ModerationStatus

     

    More information and some step-by-step procedures can be found here: http://prairiedeveloper.com/2018/12/microsoft-flow-determine-the-approval-status-of-a-sharepoint-list-or-library-item/