Create an item in SharePoint List

Description

One of the simplest and very practical use cases for Plumsail Forms might be adding items to SharePoint Lists. You are not tied to SharePoint forms, items can be added from the Flow.

In this example, we will design a form for customers to subscribe to some form of updates from your company and use Flow to add this information to a list on your SharePoint site.

Preparation

First step is to design a list, if you don't have one. It's best to start from the list, so you know what fields you will need on your form rather than another way around.

I will design simple list with three extra Single line plain text columns:

Next, after designing the list, create Plumsail form in Forms Designer. You can also design Modern SharePoint form if you want to create items in the different list when you submit this one, but you'll need to Submit Data to Flow in General Settings.

I've designed this simple form:

Once you design and save the form, you will see General Settings button pop up on top. This section contains important information you'll need to use while setting up the Flow:

Now, after the form is saved, it is time to configure Flow.

Important! If you add changes the form, you first need to save it and only after saving the information in General Settings will update.

Configure the Flow - First steps

First, open Microsoft Flow page and go to My Flows:

On My Flows page, click Create from blank to create new Flow:

We'll need to find the correct trigger for Forms Submission. Click Search:

Search for Plumsail and you'll find the right one - Plumsail Forms - Form is submitted. Add it:

Next, you need to fill in Form ID. It can be found in General Settings in the designer. Click Add an action when you fill in the ID:

We need to somehow parse JSON received from form submission to use it in email. Search for JSON and you'll find the action that you need - Data Operations - Parse JSON. Add it:

Here, you'll need to click on Content field and select Body from menu on the right. Next, go to General settings in the designer and copy form's schema. Don't forget to save the form first, if you've added some changes, that will update the schema. Copy the schema and click Add an action:

Configure the Flow - Create item in SharePoint

We'll use Microsoft's SharePoint - Create item action to create an item in a list. Select it:

You will need to add your site address. If it's your first time configuring SharePoint action, select Enter custom value in dropdown menu and type in or copy and paste your site address, something like https://mydomain.sharepoint.com/sites/mysite

You will also need to select List in List Name field:

Now you will see a menu with all columns that can be filled with Flow. Some columns are an exception and cannot be filled using this action, for example, Choice column. We advice to use columns that can be filled.

In our case, we have Title and three more Single line text columns, these can be easily filled. Select information from the form in menu on the right.

You might have noticed that I used Checkboxes on my form and they produce an array of strings as an output. If I were to simply add this value to any of the fields, it would result in multiple actions performed for each value in the array.

It's not a bad option and might be useful in some situations, but if you have lots of Checkboxes on your form, it can quickly get out of hand.

Here, I will use Expression of Workflow Definition Language to combine every value from the array into single string. In menu on the right, instead of clicking on the field, click Expression and type in join():

Now go back to Dynamic content tab, place the caret (a.k.a. the cursor) between the round brackets and click on field you want to join as a string.

You can also add a delimiter between each string, I've added ', ' as a delimiter.

Here is the result:

Final result should look like this:

Now you can click Save Flow and Done.

Final Result

Make sure that the Flow is active and open Form preview. I've filled mine with example data and clicked Submit:

Once the Form is submitted and processed with Flow, which can take some time, depending on how complex your form is, I get this result:

This example is simple, but you've seen how an item can be added to the list and how to convert array of strings into one string. This can be used in combination with any other Flow, for example, you can also send an email after form is submitted and item is created.

Adding attachments to created items

Another thing you can do is to upload attachments to newly created items. Make sure to include Attachments field on your form before creating the Flow:

When you add all the actions previously described, click + New Step", search for *HTTP and select HTTP - HTTP action:

Next, select GET in Method dropdown field and add url to the Uri field. This will automatically transform this action into repeating one which will be performed for each file in Attachments.

It should look like this as a result:

Do not click + New Step"! Click *Add an action instead, search for SharePoint Attachment and select SharePoint - Add attachment action:

It should still be the same step, so in this next window you can fill the following data - your Site address, List name - select the same as before, File name - select purple file value file from parsed JSON, File Content - select green Body from HTTP request:

Now, the Flow is ready and can be saved. Click Save Flow and Done.

We can test how the Flow works with Form Preview:

And here are the attachments added to SharePoint via the Flow: