Add email attachment to a sharepoint list item based on unique ID

Question

Hi Community,

Need your assistance regarding SharePoint and Outlook Email interaction with Alteryx.

So I receive an email with an attachment. I have a SharePoint list wherein I want to add the said email attachment in each corresponding item.

I have unique identifiers to match up the attachment and sharepoint item. Problem is with the attachment in which the unique ID is in the filename of the attachment only (not mention anywhere else even in subject or body).

Example – email attachment file name: Governance and Management Information – 2021 Final (AU-0027-21) – unique identifier is AU-0027-21. I have a column in my Sharepoint List which has each item's unique ID.

Is there a way for alteryx to pull and search the filename of the attachment in the emails received then add the attachment to the its corresponding sharepoint item?

Thanks for the help.

danilang · Answer

Hi @NTRVU1

For step one of your process, look into either Outlook Input or Outlook Input(Office 365) depending on if your exchange server is on-prem or in the cloud.  Read the referenced Engine Works blog carefully as well.  You'll probably need to setup rules and subfolders in your inbox to ensure that the Input tool doesn't need to read through your entire inbox every time it runs.

As for the second part, the built in SharePoint tools only support reading and writing SharePoint list items and not attachments to these items.   The most information information I can find is this post from @rafalolbert  which uses the REST API to read and write data to SharePoint.  This process is not a simple undertaking!

Dan