Power Automate RPA, SharePoint Sync, Site Pages, No Code

Flow 1 - Document Sync

Use this for Documents like PDFs, PowerPoints, Word Docs, Excel files, etc. We'll start with the easier of the two flows: the Document Sync.

Trigger: When an item or a file is modified

This is the event Power Automate will listen for to determine when it's time to spring into action. Within this trigger, you'll just need to specify the Site Address and List or Library Name. These should appear within the dropdown lists. Pro Tip: Be sure the account you are connecting to has the appropriate permissions in both the source site and target site.

Action 1: Copy File

Once your first step has been completed, the next step is to take the output of the trigger and copy it to its destination. Here is a list of parameters within this action and what you need to fill in.

1. Current Site Address: This is the location where your target document resides.
2. File to Copy: Click into the input field and then select the lightning symbol to populate the data from the previous step. From the list of selections, click the ID option.
3. Destination Site Address: This is the final destination for your file.
4. Destination Folder: The folder that will house your target file.
5. If another file is already there: Specify the action you want Power Automate to take to handle file updates. I generally set this to Replace to avoid creating duplicate files.

With everything filled in and completed, test your flow by first saving it and then clicking the test option in the right-hand corner of the flow builder. Once clicked, choose the option to test manually, confirm, and then add a sample document on your source website.

And, if all goes well, you should see green checkmarks on each step and your source file successfully copied to your target site.

Common reasons flows like these fail.

• The trigger is not pointing to the correct site or library.
• The connected as user does not have sufficient permissions to the target site, source site, or both.
• The trigger is not pulling the correct identifier: Be sure the identifier you have...

Flow 2: The Site Page Sync

This is the more complicated flow that you'll use to handle SitePages which are the files that end in ASPX and house all the content on your SharePoint Web Pages.

Trigger: When an item or a file is modified

• Site Address: Your source site
• List or Library Name: For SharePoint pages, you'll need to use the GUID. The SitePages Library will *not* appear in the dropdown so you'll need to find it using the instructions below.

How To Find the GUID In SharePoint:

SharePoint pages can be a little trickier than documents. You won't be able to rely on the Identifier as easily as you would a standard documents library. These directories will not appear in the dropdown. Instead, you'll want to grab what is known as the GUID (Globally Unique Identifier), which allows you to pinpoint exactly where SitePages reside. Fortunately, it's pretty easy to find as it's located right in the URL in your browser.

1. Go to your source site and navigate to the list or library (e.g., Site Pages).
2. Click to view the Settings for that list or library.
3. Once on the Settings page, look at the URL in your browser's address bar.

The GUID is a string of alphanumeric characters that appears within the URL, often enclosed in URL-encoded curly braces, like this: `...List=%7B`. Be sure to exclude any characters that might be thrown in there, for example, the `%7D` and `%7B` aren't part of the GUID. They are actually just html encoding that represent an opening and closing curly brace respectively.

This is what your GUID will look like: `12345678-ABCD-EFGH-1234-567890ABCDEF`.

Once you've located this magical string. It's time to add it to the List or Library Name section.

Action 1: Get File Properties

• Site Address: Same as above.
• Library Name: The GUID from the instructions above
• Id: Select the input field and click the lightning symbol that appears next to the input field. From the list of options that appear, click the ID selection.

Action 2: Copy File

1. Current Site Address: This is the location where your target SitePages reside.
2. File to Copy: For this field, we're going to use a custom function to output the name of the SitePage you've pulled during the Get File Properties step. To access functions, click the input field and then select the Fx button. A dialog box will appear. Next, you'll need to enter this function:
   concat('SitePages/',outputs('Get_file_properies')?['body/{Name}'],'.aspx')
3. Destination Site Address: This is the final destination for your page.
4. Destination Folder: The folder that will house your target page.
5. If another file is already there: Set this to replace unless you have specific reason to use the Create option.

Common issues with Copying Site Pages

• Grabbing the wrong GUID: Double-check your GUID, ensuring there aren't any weird characters or HTML encoding that slipped through.
• Syntax errors within the function: Using the wrong type of quotation mark, typos, etc., can all cause functions to fail.
• Malformed URLs: When using a function to build part of a URL you may append too little or too much to it. Some SharePoint URLs may not require you to include 'SitePages' for example, and doing so results in a URL that looks like this: `sharepoint.com/SitePages/SitePages/resource.aspx`.