Introduction
Nowadays, the buzz word in the market is MS Flow. I would say that without MS Flow, SharePoint Online is incomplete. When we talk about SharePoint Online, we must talk about other related technology like MS Flow, PowerApps, SPFx, Teams, etc. These all go side by side. As Microsoft is focusing more on SharePoint Online, the on-premise version is not what they are recommending to use, not even the SharePoint designer workflow. In this context, we could say that MS Flow is a recommended/alternate approach of the modern way of developing a workflow, instead of designer workflow.
There are plenty of advantages of MS Flow – I am not going in-depth for this as the purpose of this article is to create HTML in MS Flow, so my focus would be on how we can make use of Create HTML action inside MS Flow.
Use cases of HTML table in MS Flow
There are many use cases in our SharePoint application. I’ll briefly discuss a few – let's say your boss has assigned tasks to the team members and at the end of the day, he/she wants to get the consolidated task status auto-emailed. Then, the MS Flow with "Create HTML" is the right choice. One more example – let's say we have a “Customer-Sales” list which holds the details of customer sales summary information and at the end of the day, an auto email should be sent to the sales manager who will summarize the daily sales. In this case also, MS Flow with "Create HTML" action is the right choice one.
In this article, I would just read a “Customers” list data and will send an email in the form of HTML table as POC (proof of concept).
Actual Implementation – step by step walk through
I assume that you know how to create that list with custom columns, so I am skipping the list creation step, hence here is my already created “Customers” list.
Using the MS Flow, I will send these list data to the email in the form of HTML. So let's start -- how can we do this?
From your “Customers” list page, click on the “Flow” dropdown list and then click the “Create a flow” button, as mentioned below.
Click on the “Show more” dropdown list.
Select “When a new item is added in SharePoint, complete a custom action” template as mention below.
Note
In a real-time scenario, you need to start your flow based on some specific conditions. Here, I’ll show a POC, i.e., whenever an item is created in SharePoint list, this flow will get triggered.
In a real-time scenario, you need to start your flow based on some specific conditions. Here, I’ll show a POC, i.e., whenever an item is created in SharePoint list, this flow will get triggered.
Click on the “Continue” button as below.
Then, we’ll land on the below page.
Note
- https://<country>.flow.microsoft.com/ in this URL <country> is dynamic, this will be based on the country from where you are accessing, here it displays as “india” as I am accessing from India.
- And in the parameters.sharepoint.site=<your SharePoint online site>
“Site Address" and “List Name” pre-populated – make sure these are correct.
At this moment lets name this flow as “Create and Send HTML Table to Email” and click on “Save” button then click on “+Next step” button
Then search with “SharePoint” and select “Get Items” action as mentioned below,
Select the “Site Address” and “List Name” as mentioned below,
Note
In Show advanced options – we can get the data based on specific query (like camel query) - in this we are not handling those, we’ll get all data from the “Customers” list - just showing the screen, then click on “+Next step” button.
In Show advanced options – we can get the data based on specific query (like camel query) - in this we are not handling those, we’ll get all data from the “Customers” list - just showing the screen, then click on “+Next step” button.
Add data operation “Compose” action: search for “Compose” text and select the “Data Operations” as below,
From the next screen, select the “Select Data Operations” action.
We will get the empty “From” and “Map” in “Select” operation action – you need to click on the from box and need to double click on the “value” (from Dynamic content) tab.
How to do dynamic mapping with the columns?
I have created all columns and correspond mapping but shown here in screen shot only for Email ID mapping to show how to create – create a meaningful mapping name corresponding to your column, then click on second box (add dynamic content), under dynamic content tab in search box type your column name which you want to map , then select your column under “Get Items” section.
Click on “+ New step” button
Select “Create HTML Table” action like below - search with “Create” text then click on “Create HTML Table” action
Megan HukillPosted Aug 27, 2020, 5:00 PM
Thanks for this article. Was wondering if there’s a way to create 2 HTML table with certain conditions applied to each table (so different values are pulled to each table) and display in one email?
Andrew JamesonPosted Jan 22, 2020, 4:40 PM
Great tutorial just what I needed, however I usually like to in word format a table with a grey header row at 20% then have a single ine spacing with 3pt of padding. the rest of the rows are formatted white at again single line with 6pt of padding, is there anyway I can do this with a single replace, if so what would the compose action be.
Winston BaldonadoPosted Dec 6, 2019, 12:50 PM
The tutorial is good, i would like to be able to send the email after all elements are listed on the Sharepoint list and not sending an email on eache input, do you know which step need to be added?