How to translate the date (parsed from the email body) into acceptable format

[AysenurU]

Hello Community

I am trying to create an automated standard change record using inbound email content via Flow Designer. 

1- I set my trigger as Inbound email and also set the relevant conditions.

2- For the action part, I selected Create Record (Create Change Request Record)

3- I filled in the fields (type, category, description, assignment group, close notes etc.)

Even though filling out those fields was pretty straight forward, I have an issue with "actual start date " field. I wanted to take it from email, not to pick a date using the calendar icon. Therefore I created a custom action in flow designer and called it "Parse Date from email". I will also share the script which seems to be working fine. 

(function execute(inputs, outputs) {

const emailContent = inputs.emailBody;

const dateRegex = /Started at (.* UTC)/;

const dateMatch = emailContent.match(dateRegex);

if (dateMatch && dateMatch[1]) {

  const actualStartDate = dateMatch[1];

  outputs.actual_start_date = actualStartDate;

} else {

  throw new Error("Actual Start Date not found in email content.");

}

})(inputs, outputs);

However, my problem is the date format. In the email, the date format is like "Started at Thu, 02 Nov 2023 08:26:53 UTC". When I look at the actual start date format in change record, it is like this 17-05-2021 15:25:27.  Therefore, this field cannot be populated in the change record that is to be created automatically.

How should I fix this? 🙄

TIA😇

[AnveshKumar M · Accepted solution]

Hi @AysenurU 

You can convert this to GlideDateTime object, try the following script in your script step. Also change the output variable type to Date/Time (both script step and action outputs).

(function execute(inputs, outputs) {
const emailContent = inputs.emailBody;
const dateRegex = /Started at (.* UTC)/;
const dateMatch = emailContent.match(dateRegex);

if (dateMatch && dateMatch[1]) {
  const actualStartDate = dateMatch[1];
  var simpleDateFormat = 'E, dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss z';
  var gdt = new GlideDateTime();
  gdt.setDisplayValue(actualStartDate,simpleDateFormat);
  
  outputs.actual_start_date = gdt;

} else {
  throw new Error("Actual Start Date not found in email content.");
}
})(inputs, outputs);

Please mark my answer helpful and accept as solution if it helped 👍✔️

[AysenurU]

Hi @AnveshKumar M 

It is me again. 😌 Could I ask you one more question regarding my script? Adding 3 more days to the actual start date was pretty straightforward. I thought I would follow a similar way while setting the hour of actual start date to a specific hour, but I constantly failed.  As you may remember, this is the code. 

(function execute(inputs, outputs) {

  const emailContent = inputs.emailBody;

  const dateRegex = /Started at (.* UTC)/;

  const dateMatch = emailContent.match(dateRegex);

  if (dateMatch && dateMatch[1]) {

    const actualStartDate = dateMatch[1];

    var simpleDateFormat = 'E, dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss z';

    var startGdt = new GlideDateTime();

    startGdt.setDisplayValue(actualStartDate, simpleDateFormat);

    var endGdt = new GlideDateTime();

    endGdt.setDisplayValue(actualStartDate, simpleDateFormat);

    endGdt.addDaysUTC(3);

    outputs.actual_start_date = startGdt;

    outputs.planned_end_date = endGdt;

  } else {

    throw new Error("Actual Start Date not found in email content.");

  }

})(inputs, outputs); endGdt;

As I wanted the hour to be 23:00 specifically, first I added    endGdt.setHours(23);   just below this code endGdt.addDaysUTC(3);   However, it did not work. Then I created a new variable which can be seen below. I was pretty sure that it would work, but I was mistaken. 

var endHourGdt = new GlideDateTime();

endHourGdt.setDisplayValue(actualStartDate, simpleDateFormat);

endHourGdt.setHours(23);

outputs.planned_end_hour = endHourGdt;

Then I tried various variations with no success. So I would like to knock your door again to ask for help. 🙏

[AnveshKumar M]

Hello @AysenurU 

Sure, Happy to help 😀. Try this code in your script action.

(function execute(inputs, outputs) {
const emailContent = inputs.emailBody;
const dateRegex = /Started at (.* UTC)/;
const dateMatch = emailContent.match(dateRegex);

if (dateMatch && dateMatch[1]) {
  const actualStartDate = dateMatch[1];
  var simpleDateFormat = 'E, dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss z';
  var startGdt = new GlideDateTime();
  startGdt.setDisplayValue(actualStartDate,simpleDateFormat);

  var endGdt = new GlideDateTime();
  endGdt.setDisplayValue(actualStartDate,simpleDateFormat);
  endGdt.addDaysUTC(3);
  endGdt.setDisplayValue(endGdt.getDate() + " 23:00:00");
  
  outputs.actual_start_date = startGdt;
  outputs.planned_end_date = endGdt;

} else {
  throw new Error("Actual Start Date not found in email content.");
}
})(inputs, outputs);

Please mark my answer helpful and accept it as a solution, if it helped 👍✅

[AysenurU]

Hi @AnveshKumar M  

Thank you very much again. Much appreciated 🙏😇