![\"Approval](\"http:\/\/www.idubbs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Approval-Flow.png\" "\\"Approval")
<\/a><\/p>\nOnce an approval flow has been configured and a user submits a page, the user is prompted by the following panel:<\/p>\n
Note here that the Message field is required. In many cases, this is fine. There are some circumstances however where site owners may want to make the Message field optional.<\/p>\n Without getting into all the nitty gritty, here\u2019s how it\u2019s done (at least one approach):<\/p>\n When an approval is submitted, the Message field in the panel should now show as \u201cnot required\u201d \u2013 no asterisk should be visible. The panel should allow users to leave the field blank and \u201cSubmit\u201d the page for approval without error.<\/p>\n One example I\u2019ve seen where this is applicable is a site where there is a content management team that does a significant amount of the page creation, but also has folks outside the normal content team that submit content from time to time. Approval is needed. When the main content team is creating pages \u2013 they want to get through it and keep moving. The Message field turns into a \u201cjunk\u201d field, they keyboard smash or put some useless text in the field in order to submit the page. This is irritating for users and inserts bad\/silly data into the system. Rather than remove the field outright, we\u2019d still like to have it available when needed \u2013 by folks outside the team, for example. <\/p>\n Let\u2019s review how this works. Open up the flow. Then expand the \u201cFor a selected item\u201d step (Step 3 above).<\/p>\n Changing the Message field to \u201cMake the field optional\u201d seems pretty straight-forward. It will even work for some flows. But by itself this change will not work for all scenarios. The flow will fail when the Message field is left blank because later in the flow a step attempts to use the text IN the field. When that text is blank, the flow fails. <\/p>\n If you run\/test the flow with no Message text, you can open the failed instance of the flow to see where the error occurred. The scope will show an indication that something is wrong. When you expand the scope you can see the error on the \u201cStart an approval\u201d step. This flow fail is also followed up by a \u201cSomething went wrong\u2026\u201d email from Microsoft Flow.<\/p>\n Looking at the error message, there\u2019s something wrong with \u2018text\u2019, which looks like it\u2019s pointing back to the Message field we changed.<\/p>\n If we test run the flow again, and put text in the message, the flow works fine.<\/p>\n Looking at steps 4-6 above, you can see where the additional change needs to be made \u2013 adding a question mark to the expression. This syntax (the \u201c?\u201d) allows the expression to evaluate the Message field \u2013 [\u2018text\u2019] \u2013 as Null when it is empty. Before we added the question mark the expression didn\u2019t know what to do with a blank Message field and failed the flow. <\/p>\n Note: I haven\u2019t been able to find official documentation anywhere on what the \u201c?\u201d syntax is within expressions, how to use it, when to use it, etc. Maybe my search skills are falling off. If you find something from Microsoft, let me know and I\u2019ll update this post and references for it. Until then I\u2019ll include what I did find below.<\/p>\n Paul Stork has the most information I\u2019ve seen on the use of the question mark (?) thus far as seen in this community post:<\/a><\/p>\nThe Quick Steps<\/h2>\n
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\n<\/a><\/li>\n<\/a><\/p>\nThe Details<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nReferences<\/h2>\n
\nSolved: Use of Question Mark(?) in expressions – Power Platform Community (microsoft.com)<\/a> <\/p>\n