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Donahueaustin's avatar
Donahueaustin
Copper Contributor
May 06, 2022

SharePoint Online Question - Approval Question

Hi,

While trouble shooting my document control system on SharePoint I discovered an obstacle and was wondering if anyone knows a solution. I am using a document library in SharePoint online, combined with Power Automate to create a document control system with required approval flow.

 

I have a document library "A" that triggers the power automate flow every time a document is uploaded and checked in. With the approval required setting checked, the document enters in draft mode until checked in when it becomes pending. Then when approved or rejected, becomes rejected/approved accordingly.

 

I have document library "B" that is not part of the document control system at all, its just a document library that we use to store random files. 

 

We discovered today that if you upload a document into library "B" and use the "move to" function to move the document to library "A", the document is approved by default upon being moved to library "A". This is obviously a gap because we need the document to be initially in draft mode, regardless of if it got moved or the user uses the drag and drop method.

Is there a way to force the documents into draft mode regardless of if it got moved from a different library or not?

 

Thanks

Approval Flow
Document Library
SharepointOnline
  • mr_w1nst0n's avatar
    mr_w1nst0n
    Iron Contributor
    May 06, 2022

    Hi Donahueaustin,

     

    the only ideas that came to my mind are:

    • Hide the Move To/Copy buttons (if possible with the Modern UI)
    • Add a Custom column in your library plus update the logic of your Power Automate to update the value once the approval is done
    • Create a new Power Automate that run every X time and fire an email for all documents that remained with the custom column value set

     

    The main problem, from SharePoint perspective, is that the Move/Copy To option imply that the file is already uploaded in the system.

    Because the file is already uploaded and the end-user is just moving it from a library to another, Power Automate skip the file.

    • Donahueaustin's avatar
      Donahueaustin
      Copper Contributor
      May 06, 2022
      Thank you mr_w1nst0n for your ideas!

      Do you know if there is any SharePoint trigger that would be triggered if a file is added to the library through the "MoveTo" functionality?
      I cannot find a trigger for document library that does that. Only if a file is modified which is the one I am using now.

      Thanks
      • mr_w1nst0n's avatar
        mr_w1nst0n
        Iron Contributor
        May 06, 2022

        Hi Donahueaustin,

         

        No, there is no trigger concerning the "MoveTo" functionality in Power Automate.

         

        As I said, the other possible approach is to use a custom column then use it in Power Automate to do something similar:

         

        Get Items -- path of your Library in SPO

        Apply to each value

        If custom column is equal to $true (Expression)

        YES - Send email alert for manual fix

        NO - Do nothing

          

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