SOLVED

Filter Managed Metadata Lookup Field

Iron Contributor

Good day.

 

  • I have a simple Contacts list with a managed metadata field "Contact Type". 
  • I also have a Contacts list site column lookup field to be used for a variety of purposes in other lists, but in this lookup I only want to filter the lookup to show me contacts where the managed metadata field is assigned as "Publisher".
  • Would this filtering be inside the JSON box at the bottom of the lookup field???? 
  • There's nothing intuitive I can see anywhere that allows for such filtering or is this one of those "you can't do this out of the box, you have to spend a week learning some other code to apply to this no-code framework" type of things?
  • Beleive me, I've looked for how to do this but.......................................you got me. Nothing really I can intuit.

Thanks

9 Replies
With all the experts around, no one has any insight into this conundrum?
best response confirmed by Carl_Williams (Iron Contributor)
Solution

@Carl_Williams

There is no standard functionality that supports this, however you can achieve this with a functional workaround.

If you create a column in your Contacts list “Publisher contacts” you can fill this column with a Power Automate flow with the condition that the field will only be filled if the label of your managed metadata field equals that of “Publisher” in your case.

flow.png

The lookup site column should be edited to use the “Publisher contacts” column as a dropdown and this will result in a dropdown with only these fields. By default a lookup column hides all the empty fields in a dropdown and the “Publisher contacts” column is only filled in by our flow then the managed metadata matches the condition.

I hope this helps your case.

Thanks Pol, that seems to be a valid technique, much appreciated.

That being said, typically another required microsoft hack or workaround to cover off the shortcomings or their tech. Many other collaborative frameworks out there have this functionality standard as it should be. Afterall, we're going into 2022 and they're still requiring users to have to go through this agony and how many years has managed metadata and lookups in general been around? I've been using it since 2013 so that tells you something.
Now I have to spend days trying figure out how to make this work in automate. It's not like we users have anything else to do with our time but have it centre around msft hacks and workarounds.
Thanks again for your input Pol at least you know something that msfty apparently doesnt. No one in their support told me this. SURPRISE!!!!!!!
Ya I think this is a bit too much BS over and over again. Time to move on to a platform that lives in the now.

Cheers Pol, hsappy holidays
So trying to set it up, got the flow setup but alas, yet another gotcha, another hurdle or wall.

"Update item: :"Actions in this flow may result in an infinite trigger loop........."

Excellent!!! Aye yi yi yi yi. Things would be much simpler if we could just add something similar to "END FLOW"!!! But....................

Yet more research just to perform a simple little filtering of a dropdown!!!

Ok, I seem to have gotten most of it working accordsing to your directionPol, thanks.
I did (and still have) have that Infinite error loop but hope to have gottan around it by adding a second condition of: The Conact Type Field does not equal the new text field that gets updated bt the flow. If it does, that means the flow already performed the function at some other time. The infinite loop warning is still there but I dont understand all the uncessesary code just to accompish this. If it goes into an infinite loop, great, hope it blows up.
Like I said, this is nutes but thanks again for your help when no one else answered even msft.

@Carl_Williams it is indeed a warning that Power Automate gives when making the flow. However if you make it a double condition that also checks if the "Publisher contacts" column needs to be different from the Title then it won't loop because there won't be a modification in the no branch.

condition.png

@Pol_Van_Dingenen 

Yes I thought I did it correctly, it is running successfully but still the warning

Flow.png

 

 

Athough, duhhhh, I am duplicating the Publisher field with the word Publicher. It needs to be the las name or title field.
Aye yi yi yi yi.
I'll try this again tomorrow. This is as much msft malarkey I can take in one day.

Cheers

@Pol_Van_Dingenen 

WarningStill.png

So the flow seems to work:

  1. Condition1: Contact Type (managed metadata field) = Publisher 
  2. Condition2: Provided that: That "Publisher" text field doesn't alread equal the "Full Name" field

Otherwise, update the new "Publisher" text field with the name of the person/company in the "Full Name" field. Perfect.

 

However. I'm still getting the infinite trigger warning. ??

1 best response

Accepted Solutions
best response confirmed by Carl_Williams (Iron Contributor)
Solution

@Carl_Williams

There is no standard functionality that supports this, however you can achieve this with a functional workaround.

If you create a column in your Contacts list “Publisher contacts” you can fill this column with a Power Automate flow with the condition that the field will only be filled if the label of your managed metadata field equals that of “Publisher” in your case.

flow.png

The lookup site column should be edited to use the “Publisher contacts” column as a dropdown and this will result in a dropdown with only these fields. By default a lookup column hides all the empty fields in a dropdown and the “Publisher contacts” column is only filled in by our flow then the managed metadata matches the condition.

I hope this helps your case.

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