Power Automate Connector -- Inserting Record with Multiple Contacts per Cell

Mark Salamon

I am trying to use the MSFT Power Automate connector to insert a new record into a sheet.

The sheet has a Contact List column that allows multiple contacts per cell. However, I am unable to insert a value into that column using Power Automate, even a single contact. I get this error:

Value is not supported for this column type. Use objectValue instead.

I have tried a single email address by itself, multiple email addresses separated by commas or semi-colons, email addresses inside an array [], either as they are or each email address surrounded by quotes. I have also tried an email address inside {}.

Is there a special format that is required to insert values into a multi-contact field or is this not supported?

Note that I am able to insert a record into a Contact List column as long as the column only supports a single contact.

Mark Salamon

I just found a similar question on the PA community, but there is no answer: https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/I-Found-A-Bug/Microsoft-Form-to-Smartsheet-Flow-doesn-t-accept-multiple-choice/td-p/470246

Genevieve P.

Hi @Mark Salamon

From what I know of Power Automate, it doesn't look like it supports inputting values into multi-select columns in Smartsheet (either multi-contact or multi-dropdown values), which is why you're receiving this error.

Here's another Community Post where they resolved the issue by changing the value type to be Text/Number instead of Multi select. In your instance, you may need to have a single-select Contact column instead, or perhaps multiple Contact columns (as needed).

Cheers,

Genevieve

Mark Salamon

Thanks. I agree. It doesn't seem possible. As an alternative I needed to create a manual HTTP call in Power Automate and insert the information using the MULTI_CONTACT format mentioned in this post:

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/35096/add-row-with-multiple-values-in-cell-using-c-sdk

What's worse is that the Power Automate flow is triggered by the creation of a new row which itself has a multi-contact list column. When the row data comes into Power Automate, it only shows the names, not email addresses, of the contacts. But in order to insert a new record with multi-contacts, the email address of the contacts is required. Therefore, I needed to add a way to lookup the email address of each contact, which made the project that much more complex and subject to error.

It would be great if SS could fix the Power Automate connector to make multi-select columns first class citizens, both when getting data and when inserting data:

(1) When retrieving data, include both the name and email address for multi-contacts

(2) Allow multi-contact columns to be updated using the connector

Genevieve P.

Hi @Mark Salamon

I agree, I think those would be great updates! However Power Automate was built by Microsoft, not Smartsheet, so you may want to post these suggestions and requests in the Microsoft Power Automate Community, here.

Thanks,

Genevieve

Mark Salamon

@Genevieve P You are wrong about that. :) Power Automate is indeed built by MSFT, but the connectors to various cloud-based applications are built by each vendor. I'm 99% sure that Smartsheet built its own connector and asked MSFT to make it available on PA. (I know because I built a connector that is offered by another vendor that is on PA.)

The connectors are built on top of REST APIs. Therefore, if your REST API supports these capabilities, you can make your connector do it too.

I suspect the Smartsheet connector was built several years ago before you had some of these capabilities. The connector will need to be updated. But only Smartsheet can do that... not MSFT.

Genevieve P.

Hi @Mark Salamon

My apologies! Our API does support multi-contact columns and multi-select columns. I can't confirm who owns updates to the connector, but you can contact our Product Team directly to submit your request through this form, here.

Thank you,

Genevieve