Simple Approval setup for pages using Power Automate

In a recent update Microsoft have made it much easier to configure Approvals for the Site Pages library, but there are still some issues with the flow assigned which need to be fixed. This article will explain how to add this flow to your Site Pages library and fix the flow so it will work properly.

This approach only works for the Site Pages library - at the time of writing no other libraries offer this simplified experience. For other libraries such as Documents you should consider reading the following article and setting this up: Request approval in Teams for a selected item in SharePoint

This article is correct when written on 6th March 2024. We expect Microsoft to make changes to aspects of this process in the future and will update as best we can.

In this article:

• Add the flow to your Site Pages library
• Fix the provided flow in Power Automate
• Submit a page for approval

Add the flow to your Site Pages library

Go to the workspace you need to configure approvals for, then go to the Site Pages library. In the bar at the top, click Automate > Power Automate > Configure page approval flow:

On the right hand side a panel will appear. Click Create flow to continue:

Wait a few moments, and in the same right hand panel check you are comfortable providing permissions to use your account in the Apps mentioned. For any which do not show a green tick, click Create next to it to create the connection required. Once all are ticked, click Continue:

Next, edit the name of the flow. We generally recommend that the site name is mentioned in the flow name, so if you set this up for multiple sites you can tell between the different flows. In the box below, add the names of the people who will recieve the approval requests for this library.

Click Create at the bottom of the panel:

The panel will close, and you will recieve no further updates - the flow has now been created in the background and assigned to your library.

Unfortunately though, if you try to submit a page for approval you will find that the flow does not actually work. But we can fix this with a few quick steps.

Fix the provided flow in Power Automate

The flow will now run whenever approval is requested for a page in this library, however the flow as provided does not actually work and if you check the status you will see that it fails every time. So now we will go and fix it so it will actually work!

First, go to Power Automate from the "waffle" (M365 App Launcher) in the top left of the screen:

Inside Power Automate, on the left-hand menu click My Flows:

Find the flow you just created by finding the name you set. You can also see when each flow was modified, so the one you want will have been modified recently:

Click the name of the flow to open the details, then click Edit along the top rail:

You will now be in the flow editor. All we need to do is update one specific step. Click on Scope 2 to expand it, then click on Get file properties to expand that. Finally, click Show advanced options at the bottom of the Get file properties step. You should now see that the Limit Columns by View field is blank as shown below:

To fix the flow, we need to choose a view in the Limit Columns by View field. All we need to do is click the dropdown and choose the All Pages view:

And that's all! Now click Save in the top rail towards the right side to save your changes to the flow:

Submit a page for approval

Now that you have your flow set up and fixed, you can submit pages for approval in this workspace. To do so, simply create or edit a page as normal. When it comes to publishing the page, next to the edit button instead of the wording Publish you will see Submit for approval:

Click the button and a panel will appear on the right. If it asks you to verify connections, ensure they all have a green tick and then click Continue. Next, add a message to the approver:

Finally, click Submit at the bottom of the panel:

The approver(s) assigned when the flow was configured will now recieve notifications via the Approvals app inside Microsoft Teams:

Clicking on the notification opens the approval panel, from which you can open the page via the link to review, add comments, and ultimately Approve or Reject the submitted page:

If approved the page will be published, if rejected the page will not be published.