Power Automate Integration (Microsoft Flow)

Power Automate (formerly known as Microsoft Flow) allows you to connect your forms with hundreds of pre-built systems and activities.

You can implement multi-stage workflows where different logic or integrations are applied, depending on your form data. For example, you may want to pass some of your form data to Sharepoint or Salesforce, save data to your database, or even send image data to Azure Blob Storage. Power Automate also offers the ability to add approvals to your submission flow.

Important Notes

• To use the CivicPlus connector, a Power Automate license is required as well as an Office 365 subscription. You may already have a license with your Office 365 account, if not you can sign up for a trial or paid version from the Power Automate site.
• The instructions in this article use the new Power Automate design. You can toggle the new design on or off in the top right corner of Power Automate.
  

Create Your Power Automate Key

1. Navigate to Integrations on your site
   
   
2. Click Setup Integration
   
   
3. Adjust the Name as needed and click Create Power Automate Key
   
   
4. Copy your key
   
   
   Note: If needed, add additional keys by entering a name and clicking Create Power Automate Key.

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Create a Trigger

1. Open the Power Automate site
2. Navigate to the Connectors tab and select the CivicPlus Transform connector in the list
   
3. Select the trigger, Triggers when a Form submission occurs, to start your flow
   
4. The first time you select the CivicPlus connector, you’ll be asked to enter the Connection Name (this can be anything), as well as the API Key you copied above
   
5. Enter a Label and select a Form
   
   
   Note: The label will help identify the flow, and selecting the form will ensure that the flow only runs when that form is submitted. If this is not set the flow will run when any form in the account is submitted.
6. (Optional) Select Trigger under Advanced parameters
   
   
7. Choose to have the trigger occur After a user submits a form or After the submission has been approved
   
   
   Note: This is applicable for forms that have approval flows.

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Add an Action

1. Click the plus sign to add a new step
   
   
2. Search for CivicPlus
   
3. Select Retrieve Form Submission Data to get the data your user has submitted
   
   
   Note: This action will bring back an object containing both the form definition and the submission data, allowing you to build out your flow from there.
4. Fill in the Form ID and Submission ID fields
   
   
   • Form ID: Search for and select Form ID.
   • Submission ID: Search for and select Submission ID. 
5. Select + New Step
   
   
6. From Choose an operation select Condition
   
   
   Note: This Action will allow you to specify when this Flow should run, only when a specific form is received by the Flow.
7. In the first field search for and select Form Id
   
   
8. In the second choose a value field, enter the CivicOptimize Form ID number
   
   
   Note: You can find the Form ID on the form’s Summary page within your CivicOptimize account.
   
9. Within the True column, select Add an action
   
   
10. Search for and select Parse JSON
    
    
11. Fill out the Content and Schema fields
    
    
    Note: The Parse JSON action instructs Power Automate to take your data and turn it into dynamic values you can use in further flows. In order to parse the JSON value, you will need access to the form's JSON Schema.
    • Content: Search for Submission Data
    • Schema: Input your form’s JSON schema
      
      Note: If you make updates to your form, such as changing element labels, you will need to update the Schema in Power Automate.
12. Build out your Flow for your specific use case. Examples:
    • Add a row into a table to send data to an Excel file on SharePoint (database)
    • Send an email (V2) to send an email(s) to specific individuals/groups, or even back to the form submitter if the form collected their email address
    • Create files on SharePoint or OneDrive from form attachments
13. Click Save at the top of the page
    

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Additional CivicPlus Actions

You can use Power Automate to capture and create files from CivicOptimize form submissions. Creating the files with Power Automate requires access to SharePoint or OneDrive. These Actions may be made after creating the Flow as detailed in the previous steps.

Form Submission Attachments

1. Select + Add an action
   
   
2. Search for and select CivicPlus and click Retrieve Form Submission Attachment
   
   
3. Search for and select Form Id
   
   
4. Search for and select the result that matches [Files Element Name]: Attachment ID
   
5. Select Add an action
   
   
6. Search for and select Create File for either Sharepoint or OneDrive
   
7. Complete the fields
   

Generate Form Submission PDF

1. Select + Add an action
   
   
2. Search for CivicPlus Transform and select Generate Form Submission PDF
   
   
3. Complete the fields
   
   
   • Form ID: Select Form ID
   • Submission ID: Select Submission ID
4. Select Add an action 
   
5. Select Create File for either Sharepoint or OneDrive
   
   
6. Complete the fields
   

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Resources

• Microsoft Power Automate Documentation