Send a document for review Part 2

[Quotidian]

A couple of weeks ago I posted a question about setting up a flow where you entered a user email and it sent a link to a SharePoint user asking him/her to review the document. It worked fine and I learned a lot from implementing it.

I've now been asked for some enhancements for this process. 

Flow would still be triggered by clicking on Send for Review link. The sending user would be prompted to (1) enter the reviewer email and then (2) enter a Date Due.  I can't figure out how to "prompt" the user to enter a value such as Date Due.

The reviewer would be instructed in the email to review the document, make comments etc using the normal MS Word tools. But it would be great if the reviewer could then signify 'reviewing finished'. I'm guessing that this could be done via the Approve button (i.e. user finishes review then clicks Approve.)

Also would like to be able to send a reminder email to reviewer 2 days after Date Sent for Review.

I think that this will require the Content Approval function to be switched on in the library - I had been trying to avoid that but it might be necessary for this flow.

Any input or guidance appreciated!

[#2]

@Quotidian can you use this ?

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/flow/create-sharepoint-reminder-flows

[#3 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Quotidian,

You can add an "Due Date" input to "For selected file" action. See image below.

Use "Due Date" value from the action to populate the "DueBack" column.

The user experience will look like this:

I hope this helps.

Norm

[#4]

thanks again for the help, I have it working now!

[#5]

@SinhaKislay  - thanks, I think that will help but need to work out how to integrate it with the overall process.

[#6]

@Norman Young @SinhaKislay 

One more point - I notice if I turn on 'require content approval' for the library in which this Flow is running, then in addition to the email sent by the Flow, another email is automatically generated that looks like this:

but clicking on Approve doesn't feedback to the Approval Status field. I think this is something to do with the site settings, not anything I can control through Flow.

[#7]

Hi @Quotidian,

I don't believe the two are connected. Approval Status field seems to populated by the Flow and not the 'require content approval' library setting.

I would be inclined to turn off 'require content approval'.

I hope this helps.

Norm

[#8]

@Norman Young  - agree, 'content approval' seems more hassle than it's worth. I'm trying to achieve a similar outcome using status flags and filtering.

[#9]

@Norman Young 

Now I realize that I had set that random-looking approval request flow myself. I had been fiddling around with another flow and then forgot that I'd set it.  

Anyway, the final step in the flow  I'm trying to get to is that the Reviewer can signify 'finished reviewing'. Reviewer can open the document, make changes and comments and save it over a period of several days, but it would be great for them to be able to say 'completed' when they're done. I'm thinking, maybe I could create a link to an action and send that link out with the cover email, so the last line in the email would say 'when done, click this link'. 

Would that work?

[#10]

Hi @Quotidian,

There are many options and approaches. If it were me, I would simply add a "Status" column (choice) and show the users how to update it. With the Due Date and Status columns would could create reminder Flows and JSON column formatting to highlight overdue columns etc.

I hope this helps and I hope you share your final solution. It sounds interesting.

Norm

[#11]

@Norman Young 

The issue is, our unit manager doesn't want to grant access to the site/library. We're using the Link Sharing feature to send the link out, and the reviewer can open, review and save the document without having to interact with the library at all.  So I'm trying to work out how to flag the file as 'review completed' by having some remote action that the reviewer performs updating the file properties.  'Spooky action at a distance'. 

[#12]

What you are saying makes sense. I'm not sure how, or if, you can trigger a Flow from a link in an email. Need to think about it. Hopefully, someone else can assist in the meantime.

Norm

[#13]

@Norman Young One thing I could do is add a step where, on the 'due by' date, the document status is changed to 'reviewed'. I've also discovered that you can set an expiry date on a shared link, so you could set that to equal the Due Date. So I think overall I can get to a solution using these techniques and thanks again for your input, it's been invaluable. 

[#14]

Hi @Quotidian,

Check out this post: https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/General-Flow-Discussion/Send-Email-With-Options-Two-sets-of-butt...

Using your last suggestion to trigger off of the "Due Date" column, send an email with "Reviewed" or "Not reviewed" buttons that can in turn set the "Status" column.

I hope this helps.

Norm

[#15]

@Norman Young  - Hi Norm - thanks for that, I can see now it's showing how to elicit a response via email which can act as a trigger. Very clever solution, I will see if I can make that work. 

[#16]

@Norman Young 

I'm trying to work in an Approval process now, like this:

It all works - to a point. When file is Sent the Doc Status is set to Under Review (you can see it change, which is neat!) 

Then it's 'wait for Approval' while the reviewer does the review and after finishing, clicks Approve.  I want the Approve action to trigger 'change Doc Status to Ready' as per the following. 

This last step isn't working, I'm getting this error:

Branching Error

Any tips or guidance appreciated.

[#17]

Hi @Quotidian,

I have not seen this message before. Have you seen this post on the PowerUsers forum? It might apply.

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Flows/Error-message-ActionBranchingConditionNotSatisfie... 

Can you share the Flow? 

Thanks.

Norm

[#18]

@Norman Young 

>Can you share the Flow? 

I hadn't thought of doing that - I think my organisation might not be happy for me to do that, and I'm not inclined to ask, as they're not providing any support for Flow/SharePoint. I'll read through that other post  carefully and see if I can resolve it. Thanks. 

[#19]

Hi @Quotidian,

By share, I meant an image of the entire Flow. It's hard to help further without seeing the "bigger picture". No worries if that is an issue - I get it.

Norm

[#20]

@Norman Young 

Oh sure, I could do that. I'm still working on it, I'll let you know.