Error Message with "Notify fundraisers when a gift is given" blackbaud template flow.

Mark Haiar

When testing this flow, I keep getting the following error message:

“The execution of template action 'Store_the_fundraisers_on_the_gift' failed: the result of the evaluation of 'foreach' expression '@items('Process_each_gift')?['fundraisers']' is of type 'Null'. The result must be a valid array.”

I checked my database to make sure that gifts were added the previous day with solicitors on the gift so not sure why it is saying the value is ‘Null’. Any advice?

Austen Brown

@Mark Haiar - Can you share a screenshot of the action that is causing this error and a few of the actions that precede it?

Mark Haiar

@Austen Brown
Here are a couple screenshots of the flow and error message. Also including the exact flow template I am using from Blackbaud.

Austen Brown

@Mark Haiar - Do any of the gifts found by the “List Gifts” action not have an associated fundraiser/solicitor credited?

Mark Haiar

@Austen Brown - yes, that is quite common. The majority of our gifts don't have a fundraiser listed. Do I need to filter that section to only include those with a fundraiser listed?

Austen Brown

@Mark Haiar - Yes, you'll need to add a control switch action directly after the list gifts action, move the fundraiser apply to each loops into the control output that indicates a fundraiser is associated with the gift.

Carol Grant

Hi @Mark Haiar - adding to Austen's comments, Glen Hutson helped me out in this post

You need to add a condition which uses this and do a Configure Run After so the flow doesn't stop and will keep running.

Here is an expression I used when someone didn't have a Prospect Status.

length(coalesce(outputs('Get_constituent_prospect_status')?['body/status'],''))

-Carolyn

Mark Haiar

Thank you @Carolyn Grant and @Austen Brown those suggestions helped! I am now discovering that this flow will only process 500 gifts at a time, is there a way around that? We entered over 6,000 gifts yesterday but it only processed 500 and I would like to process all 6,000.

Carol Grant

@Mark Haiar- wow that's a lot of gifts in one day! The List Gifts has a limit of 5,000. You need to set that under Limit. It will only pull 500 if left blank. Another tip I learned from Glen Hutson!

Mark Haiar

@Carolyn Grant Great to know, thank you so much!

Mark Haiar

@Carolyn Grant I thought I had it all figured out, but when I went to run it for real I discovered an issue with the way it sends the email. When it processes the first gift and sends the email, it only sends it to the fundraiser on that first gift. When it processes the second gift however, it will send the email to the fundraiser on the first gift and the fundraiser on the second gift. This continues so that if a total of 15 fundraisers pull in to the flow with gifts, it will send the email to all 15 fundraisers that “John Doe gave a gift of $100”, but only one of the 15 people are the fundraiser for John Doe. Did you run into this issue?

Carol Grant

@Mark Haiar- Hi Mark, I haven't actually used this flow. I didn't know it was there because it's not located in the Template forum or in the community. In looking at the flow template you mention, it is an intermediate level template. I can see why it might be showing all gifts to all 15 of the fundraisers. There is a loop for fundraisers but the gift part isn't part of that loop. Sorry I can't help more.

I'll tag Glen here, maybe he could help out with this one. @Glen Hutson

Glen Hutson

@Carolyn Grant:

@Mark Haiar- Hi Mark, I haven't actually used this flow. I didn't know it was there because it's not located in the Template forum or in the community. In looking at the flow template you mention, it is an intermediate level template. I can see why it might be showing all gifts to all 15 of the fundraisers. There is a loop for fundraisers but the gift part isn't part of that loop. Sorry I can't help more.

I'll tag Glen here, maybe he could help out with this one. @Glen Hutson

Apologies, I've been a bit head down recently. I took an initial look at this flow. It seems like you may have found a glitch in the Matrix… er… flow. Notice that there are two Arrays that are setup: fundraiserIDs and fundraiserEmails

Since the various loops append values to these arrays, these have to be cleared out during each bigger loop so as to not duplicate the eventual recipients, such as this one:

What I'm not seeing in this is the same thing done to fundraiserIDs. I won't be able to test this out too quickly. However, you may want to do put in a similar action for fundraiserIDs, I'm thinking right after the one for fundraiserEmails should suffice since at that point, that specific array won't be used again for the larger loop.

If you test that out and find out that this fixes it, let us know and we can see about getting this template updated.

Mark Haiar

@Glen Hutson @Carolyn Grant

Thank you both. I actually found that as well a couple days ago and Glen, you are correct, I needed to add the Reset Fundraiser ID array in place of resetting the email array. After doing that, it fixed it. I do think that is an issue with the template but I don't know who to reach out to to get that updated.

thank you both for all your help to figure this out!

Art Bryman

@Mark Haiar I'm having the same exact issue.

I also can't add columns to Run History (both Edge and Chrome):

Art Bryman

@Mark Haiar:

Thank you @Carolyn Grant and @Austen Brown those suggestions helped!

Would you mind sharing where in the flow you added the condition? Is it after “Append to array variable?”

Art Bryman

Since the various loops append values to these arrays, these have to be cleared out during each bigger loop so as to not duplicate the eventual recipients, such as this one:

What I'm not seeing in this is the same thing done to fundraiserIDs. I won't be able to test this out too quickly. However, you may want to do put in a similar action for fundraiserIDs, I'm thinking right after the one for fundraiserEmails should suffice since at that point, that specific array won't be used again for the larger loop.

If you test that out and find out that this fixes it, let us know and we can see about getting this template updated.

@Glen Hutson I tried your suggestion, but still not having success. Should the fundraiserID reset happen later in the flow? I used “Notify fundraisers when a gift is given” Blackbaud template, and updated the environment ID. I checked the output for “List Gifts”, and there are several gifts with Fundraiser IDs, the fundraisers have an email address, and the donors are linked to the fundraiser.

I also tried the length(coalesce), but having a hard time figuring out where to add it, and which conditions to add to it. Hope to get some help with this. Thanks!

Art Bryman

I finally fixed this flow, by moving “Reset Email Array” and “Reset Fundraiser ID" to the bottom of "Process Each Gift”, after the “Send an email” step. I hope Blackbaud can update the template for other users.

I had another issue with mail not being sent by “Mail” connector, and fixed it by replacing it with Outlook Office 365 Send Email v2.