Condition stopped working for certain teams messages

[EZ1]

Hi

Background

I have this simple flow that forwards messages from a channel to a chat.

As long as they do not com from creating calendar events. 

Problem

From last Friday It have started to complain on the condition part.

Unable to process template language expressions for action 'Condition' at line '0' and column '0': 'The template language function 'startsWith' expects its first parameter to be of type string. The provided value is of type 'Null'. Please see https://aka.ms/logicexpressions#startswith for usage details.'.

 My condition is as follows:

The goal here is to filter so only messages written by real users are forwarded.

Suspicion

I have the feeling that the condition does not have anything to work with but if I look at the output of the step before there is lots in the output.

Conclusion

I'm at a loss how to efficiently debug this.

[PabloRoldan]

Hi, where is startsWith being used? could you share the fx expression 2th condition?, "is greater than" why is empty it should have 0 I guess, could you share outputs from the trigger when it fails?

[creativeopinion · Accepted solution]

@EZ1 The easiest way to debug this would be to add a Compose action for each dynamic content you have listed in your Condition. Put each of these (highlighted below) into their own Compose action before your condition and run a test. This way you can confirm the output is what you are expecting and you can adjust your conditions accordingly. 

For more flow troubleshooting tips—check out this YT Tutorial: 5 Power Automate Troubleshooting FAQs and Helpful Tips for Creating Better Flows

In this Power Automate tutorial, I explore 5 frequently asked questions that pop up when troubleshooting a flow. If you’d like to to level up your Power Automate flow skills and learn how to troubleshoot your Power Automate flow—this tutorial is for you!

IN THIS VIDEO:

✅ How to troubleshoot a false Condition action result

✅ How to get dynamic content when it isn’t selectable from the list of dynamic content

✅ How to troubleshoot an Apply to Each action that isn’t looping through

✅ How to troubleshoot a skipped Apply to Each action

✅ How to troubleshoot a Filter Query

✅ How to use a SharePoint yes/no column in a Filter Query

✅ How to use Compose actions to troubleshoot a Power Automate flow

✅ How to troubleshoot multiple emails being sent

✅ How to troubleshoot multiple Teams messages being sent

----

Additionally, in order to prevent your flow from triggering unnecessarily—you should consider adding trigger conditions to your flow. Check out this YT Tutorial for more details on how to add Trigger Conditions to your flow: 4 Ways You Can Use Trigger Conditions in Your Microsoft Power Automate Flow

If you are using an Automated Cloud flow trigger in your flow—you need to consider adding trigger conditions.

Do YOU 🫵 know what a trigger condition is? Trigger conditions can be set in most flow triggers. These conditions you set must be true for the trigger to fire. In this Power Automate tutorial, I’m going to show you how to use trigger conditions in your flows to control when your Power Automate flows trigger.

If your plan has flow run limits—you can avoid triggering your flows unnecessarily by using trigger conditions.

I’ll cover four different flow examples that would benefit from trigger conditions:

⚡️ Triggering a flow when a column is changed to a specific value

⚡️ Triggering a Flow When an Event Updated or Deleted

⚡️ Triggering a Flow When a New Folder is Created

⚡️ Triggering a Flow When a Specific Email is Received I’ll also show you a trick on how to easily create the expressions needed and give you a few tips on how to troubleshoot your flow.

IN THIS VIDEO:

✅ Four different flows that would benefit from trigger conditions

✅ What is a trigger condition?

✅ How to add a trigger condition to your flow

✅ How to trigger a flow when a column is changed to a specific value

✅ How to trigger a flow when an event is updated or Deleted

✅ How to trigger a flow when a new folder is created

✅ How to trigger a flow when a specific email is received

✅ How to troubleshoot a trigger condition

✅ How to prevent case sensitivity issues with a trigger condition

✅ How to use the filter array action to easily compose an expression that can be used in a trigger condition

Hope this helps!

If I helped you solve your problem—please mark my post as a solution ✅.
Consider giving me a 👍 if you liked my response!

👉 Level up your Power Automate skills by checking out my tutorials on YouTube
👉 Tips and Tricks on TikTok and Instagram

[EZ1]

Hi,

The starts with tries to remove users that start with orgid: 

The full condition is as follows

"type": "If",
  "expression": {
    "and": [
      {
        "not": {
          "equals": [
            "@triggerOutputs()?['body/from/user']",
            "@null"
          ]
        }
      },
      {
        "greater": [
          "@length(triggerOutputs()?['body/body/content'])",
          0
        ]
      },
      {
        "not": {
          "startsWith": [
            "@triggerOutputs()?['body/from/user/displayName']",
            "orgid:"
          ]
        }
      }
    ]
  },  

And the output (with ids removed) from one of the failed runs is as follows

{

    "headers": {

        "Transfer-Encoding": "chunked",

        "Location": "https://flow-apim-europe-001-northeurope-01.azure-apim.net/apimREMOVEDINFO",

        "Vary": "Accept-Encoding",

        "Strict-Transport-Security": "max-age=31536000",

        "request-id": "8REMOVEDINFO",

        "client-request-id": "83REMOVEDINFO",

        "x-ms-ags-diagnostic": "{\"ServerInfo\":REMOVEDINFO\"}}",

        "Preference-Applied": "odata.track-changes",

        "OData-Version": "4.0",

        "Timing-Allow-Origin": "*",

        "x-ms-apihub-cached-response": "true",

        "x-ms-apihub-obo": "false",

        "Retry-After": "180",

        "Date": "Mon, 25 Mar 2024 08:25:36 GMT",

        "Content-Type": "application/json",

        "Content-Length": "2258"

    },

    "body": {

        "etag": "1711REMOVEDINFO",

        "messageType": "message",

        "createdDateTime": "2024-03-25T08:24:03.941Z",

        "lastModifiedDateTime": "2024-03-25T08:24:16.245Z",

        "importance": "normal",

        "locale": "en-us",

        "webUrl": "https://teams.microsoft.com/l/message/REMOVEDINFO",

        "id": "1711355043941",

        "from": {

            "user": {

                "@odata.type": "#microsoft.graph.teamworkUserIdentity",

                "id": "8eREMOVEDINFO",

                "userIdentityType": "aadUser",

                "tenantId": "e7REMOVEDINFO"

            }

        },

        "body": {

            "contentType": "html",

            "content": "Scheduled a meeting<attachment id=\"1711355056126\"></attachment>"

        },

        "channelIdentity": {

            "teamId": "REMOVEDINFO",

            "channelId": "19:DgdnFcREMOVEDINFO"

        },

        "attachments": [

            {

                "id": "1711355056126",

                "contentType": "meetingReference",

                "content": "REMOVEDINFO",

                "name": "Meeting"

            }

        ],

        "mentions": [],

        "reactions": []

    }

}

[EZ1]

Hi 

Thank you for all this information, I need to look through it and see if trigger condition maybe the way to go, It would most likely simplify the flow.

[creativeopinion]

@EZ1 As mentioned in my original comment you should add a Compose action above the Condition for each dynamic content you are using in your condition so that you can review the outputs. Are you able to do that and run a test? Share a screenshot of your outputs. 

[EZ1 · Accepted solution]

First things first my original flow started to work again for same scenario. Seams sometimes a calendar event has a user and sometimes not, weird. Anyway still needed some nullcheck for when it does not exist so I have edited the flow as follows 

The compose actions certainly gave a bit more readable code but in the end it was the splitting of condition that made the trick. First check for null then check if content is correct. 

Don't really think this is very pretty but it works.

Also I tried inserting the trigger condition 

@equals(@{empty(triggerOutputs()?['body/from/user/displayName'])},false)

But it complained on invalid syntax even thou its directly from the filter component.

Anyway in summary: Null check first solved it 

[creativeopinion]

@EZ1 I would recommend switching to the Classic Designer. The New Designer is still buggy and can cause issues. If switching to the Classic Designer doesn't work I would recommend creating a brand new flow—switching to the classic designer first before you start editing.

The expression for the trigger condition is incorrect. Try: 

not(empty(triggerOutputs()?['body/from/user/displayName']))

Hope this helps!

If I helped you solve your problem—please mark my post as a solution ✅.
Consider giving me a 👍 if you liked my response!

👉 Level up your Power Automate skills by checking out my tutorials on YouTube
👉 Tips and Tricks on TikTok and Instagram

[EZ1]

Thanks for your help, I have got it working well enough as it is now, and the trigger conditions seams to be broken even with you suggested expression, but at least it works as it is.