Streamline Survey123 review workflows with Microsoft Power Automate
Survey123 workflows often require a review stage after initial data collection. For example, a reviewer may need to respond to a request, triage damage reports, or review field data for accuracy or consistency. Regardless of the specifics of the type of review, a consideration that consistently comes up is how to notify a stakeholder that action is needed. Sending an update when a status changes or a task is assigned establishes a clear procedure and prevents delays or bottlenecks.
This blog describes an example of a review workflow that demonstrates several methods for notifying various stakeholders of status changes.
Example review workflow
This workflow follows a right-of-way (ROW) application that must be reviewed and approved prior to construction work.
The workflow consists of three surveys that are all submitting to the same feature layer:
1. An application survey
2. A review assignment survey
- This survey contains all the questions that are in the application survey with some additional questions that track the review status.
- The inbox is enabled with an inbox query that shows all surveys that have not yet been assigned to a reviewer.
3. A review survey
- This survey is identical to the review assignment survey except that the inbox query is set to only show the surveys assigned to this reviewer.
As the workflow progresses, there are two Microsoft Power Automate flows that are run, resulting in two notifications:
Flow 1 – Runs when the survey is assigned for review and sends the assigned reviewer a message in Microsoft Teams providing links to open the assigned record in the field app or web app.
Flow 2 – Runs when review survey is submitted and sends the applicant an email notifying them of the results of the review.
This video shows a walkthrough of the review workflow:
Notification methods
The two notification methods used in this workflow are email and Teams message notifications. More information on how to configure email notifications can be found in several other blogs and documentation resources. The Teams message notification allows the supervisor to see the message as soon as it is submitted and to quickly assign a reviewer. This method of notification is created by using Survey123 URL parameters with the ‘Post adaptive card in chat or channel’ module in Teams.
Create your own Adaptive Card Teams notification
This video steps through the process for creating your own Adaptive Card to use with Survey123. Also see the sample Adaptive Card JSON (below) to help you get started creating your own Teams notifications using Adaptive Cards.
Adaptive Card JSON:
{
"type": "AdaptiveCard",
"$schema": "http://adaptivecards.io/schemas/adaptive-card.json",
"version": "1.3",
"body": [
{
"type": "TextBlock",
"text": "A new ROW Application has been submitted",
"wrap": true,
"weight": "Bolder",
"size": "Medium",
"fontType": "Default",
"style": "heading",
"color": "Attention",
"id": "titleText"
},
{
"type": "TextBlock",
"text": "Applicant: *insert dynamic value from survey123 here* ",
"wrap": true,
"id": "applicant",
"weight": "Bolder"
},
{
"type": "TextBlock",
"wrap": true,
"text": "Supervisor: *insert dynamic value from survey123 here*",
"fontType": "Default",
"weight": "Bolder"
},
{
"type": "TextBlock",
"text": "Work Description: *insert dynamic value from survey123 here*",
"wrap": true,
"fontType": "Default",
"weight": "Bolder",
"size": "Default"
},
{
"type": "ActionSet",
"actions": [
{
"type": "Action.OpenUrl",
"title": "Open in Browser",
"url": *insert the URL of the record you want to open*
}
]
}