During a recent ZUG meetup in Auckland, New Zealand, I shared how I could use Zoho Flow to create a folder in Microsoft SharePoint, along with its subfolders. As I am not a developer, I thought it would be helpful to post a guide for users who want to explore this option without writing extra code.

So, here's the scenario. Whenever a lead becomes a deal, we must create a new folder for the client in SharePoint. We have chosen SharePoint as our document management system for our company, hence the reason for creating the folders in SharePoint and not Zoho.

This guide can be followed by any user who wants to know how this can be done with little technical skills. 

During this process, you will be creating Variables and a variable is defined as

"In programming, a variable is a named storage location that can hold a value, which can be changed during the program's execution. It's like a container that can store different types of data and can be referenced by the name."

Steps to follow:
First, we have a trigger for the Flow to work, and that would be when the lead is converted to a Deal. 

After this, you need to create a New connection to your SharePoint and authorise the connection:
Create Folder

1. Name of your Connection
2. Variable Name - This is what you will be creating so that you can use it in future steps. I named it "make_base_folder" 
3. Name - will refer to the Folder name, which can be dynamic by using VARIABLES, and in my case, the Folder will be called "The Deal Name_Company Name". You can search for these under "Insert Variable."
4. Site - This will be the Selected SharePoint site you are using.
5. Drive - Will be the location of your Document Folder in SharePoint Site
6. Folder - This will be the Base folder where the new folder will be created. 

Optional - Send a message to Teams on error: 
I use this to notify me if the trigger fails so I can fix it


Team - will be the Teams Channel to post the message.

This is where I got stuck creating the flow. How do I create a subfolder? I could not use the Folder name that I created as, in my case, our Sharepoint Site has so many folders, so searching for "Folder Name" will not work as there could be other Folders with the same name. Therefore, instead of looking for the Folder Name, you need to look for the Folder ID, as this is a unique Field.



In the Step when you create a "New Folder", variables are created, and one of them is the "Folder ID" of the newly created Folder. 
Variable Name - this is a new variable you are creating to be used in steps after this. I used "fetch_new_folder".
Name - refers to this variable you created before with the ID, use "make_base_folder.id"
Folder - remains the base folder in your site as this is where the New Folder was created.
Optional: you can send an email or post to teams if there are errors. 

Now that we have the Folder ID, we can create a new Sub Folder using "create folder"



Variable Name - my new variable will be the subfolder I am now creating, and I called it "create_sub_folder_client_docs"
Name - Will be the Sub Folder, and my example was "Client Documents"
Drive - remains Documents
Folder - Since we are creating a subfolder in a folder from a previous step, we need to "Use a Custom Value" from the drop-down. This would be the variable we used before "make_base_folder.id"

This Step can be repeated multiple times to create other folders by calling the "make_base_folder.id" each time. You can create a Subfolder of a Subfolder using the variables you have created for each folder. 

Optional: Send a Post to Teams to say the Folder has been created.

This is my Final Flow for reference: 



A suggestion to Zoho will be to add the ability to create and upload files to Sharepoint, which will be a great addition to Zoho Flow. 

I hope this helps others who are trying to achieve the same outcome. 
Please let me know if it helped you and add to the discussion for more ways to use the SharePoint Flow connector. 

Shane Symons
Auckland New Zealand