Power automate flow to send an email attachment that is readable fails - Following a YT from @ChadVKealey. Seeking hep to find my error

[BronnyT]

This is y first time using Power Automate. I can get an email to send me a form response as an email with an attachment but the attachment is unreadable. It won't open in any PDF readers. I watched @ChadVKealey's video 

Each time I test I get errors. I can see that the data is being drawn from the response but the Parse JSON block suggests I have an error. I wondered if there might be someone who can help me figure it out, please.

The error shows for the name of the file that has been uploaded. The file name is correct but then the file path is  

 "rf3dca87a2e2c4fbfbe210bf810548845": "[{\"name\":\"Studentname Transcript_anonymous 7.pdf\",\"link\":\"https://mqoutlook-my.sharepoint.com/personal/myname_edu_au/Documents/Apps/Microsoft%20Forms/MTeach%2...",\"id\":\"01HCWEUNHHLOBL7ZLW2JGIWVUZXHBGYHOO\",\"type\":null,\"size\":71163,\"referenceId\":\"01HCWEUNHYGBNIZR2XOFAZB5VE6F7H5PCK\",\"driveId\":\"b!z2M4I67lU0eQG6MAGmfxr8rRsTvoG7FJnaV2MC-ps6m2UmT5EFPrSZaUVlUcgOmG\",\"status\":1,\"uploadSessionUrl\":null}]",

I can see that the process demonstrated has worked for so many other people but after 10 failures, I'm reaching out for help.

Thank you in advance.

[trice602]

Hi @BronnyT ,

Here's my flow to send attachment(s) from a Form to an Email.

Next parse JSON using the output of the Get Responses; specifically the json that is for the upload file question.  Copy and paste the run ouput and then in the parse json action, click on generate from sample, paste in and click OK.  Your screen should look similar to this.

Then for each upload attachment (as in, a single form question that allows more than one file upload at a time), I loop through the uploads and add to my array variable.

Last step, email attachment.

[ChadVKealey · Accepted solution]

Are you using the "new" editor? If so, see this video: https://youtu.be/EHPpkrOOJz8

Basically, there's a setting in the trigger that defaults to "off" in the new editor. You need to toggle it "on" (and do one other little bit - see that video for the specifics), then it should work. With that setting "off", the response to your question is an array, not an object, which is causing that error.

[BronnyT]

Thanks so much @ChadVKealey , that part of the flow is now working and the file link generated takes me straight to the file when I put it in a browser. Now I'm getting another error further along in the Get file metadata block. I am using the new interface because that's what is available. 

I could choose Body drive id and Body id which is not exactly what's in your original video but I thought it was simply the interface version. 

So much to learn! Very grateful for your help.

[ChadVKealey]

You need a period ( . ) in between those.

[BronnyT]

Yay! I just got the email with the attachment 😀 😊😁 You just made someone on the other side of the planet extremely happy! 

Do you have a video for adding fields from the form to the email? Some are showing but surrounded in square brackets and quotation marks. I also need to be able to customise who the emails go to. I added a form item for me to choose the correct email address but I don't think it has been sent.

I saw your playlist on approvals and will dig into those videos hen I have some more time.

Thank you so much.

[ChadVKealey]

This playlist covers how to get the data from various types of questions in Forms into SharePoint: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMVyjgrWIGnx-mrApHp5QZeSg7TxEQXuc

Putting those values into an email is largely the same...it's just a matter of understanding the format of the content. It sounds like you have a number of multi-select choice questions. Those are covered in the second video. As for addressing the emails, you can hard code any address you'd like. If you want to make it a dynamic value, then you need to think about how that value is determined or set. For example, sending it to the person who submitted the form is easy (there's a "Responders email" value in the dynamic content). If it's something else (like, based on a question's response in the form), then you need to think through how to do that. 

[BronnyT]

Success again!

Changing the questions to single response sorted the formatting. Will explore using the code in the near future.

I'm ploughing through my applications!

Thank you soooo much.

[ChadVKealey]

If they need to be multi-select, that's fine...you just need to account for the fact that the response comes in as an array. Use the "json()" expression around the response to clean up the formatting, then you can use "join()" to stick the choice values together using a separator of your choosing.