Flow Templates make it very easy for the users to quickly create a flow with pre-defined steps and require minimal configuration. Previously, if a developer wanted to create a flow template, then they had to submit the template to the Microsoft Library which would then be reviewed by Microsoft Engineers to make necessary changes to make it a generic template. It was a cumbersome process and took a lot of time. However, now we have the option to create a template that is localized to the tenant and does not need to be submitted to Microsoft. In this article, I will explain how we can create a localized flow template and what are the various points that should be considered around it.
Pre-requisites
A Flow Template can be created from an existing flow. Hence, ensure that you have a flow created or identified that you want to convert into a template.
Getting Started
Let’s get started with the steps to create a localized Flow Template.
Step 1
Navigate to Power Automate Designer
here.
Step 2
Go to “My Flows”.
Step 3
For the workflow that you want to create a template, click on ellipsis for more commands,
Step 4
Click on “Send a Copy”.
Step 5
Put a Name and Description for the template,
Step 6
Send to the users who want to use this template. It can be individual users or AD Group.
Now that the template has been created, we need to understand how it can be used by the users.
- Login to Power Automate here using an account that has the template shared.
- Go to “Templates”.
- Click on the “Shared with Me” tab.
- You will see the Flow template that has been locally shared.
- Create a new flow from the template and it appears on the “My Flow” section once created successfully.
Points to Consider
There are a few points that need to be understood when using the localized template,
- Templates can be created only if the flow has last successful run. Additionally, there should not be any personal information like emails pre-defined in the templates.
- The template created will be independent of the original flow. Hence, if any modification on the original flow is done, then it must be sent as a copy again to all the desired users.
- Each time the flow is shared as a template, it does not overwrite the previous copy, instead, it creates a new copy of the template for the originator and recipient. Hence, either version the template name appropriately or delete the previous version of the template.
- Recipients cannot delete a flow template. However, when the originator deletes the template, it is deleted for all the recipients.
- If a flow is shared with individual users, they receive an automated system email regarding the flow template. However, when it is shared with an AD Group, no email is triggered.
- When a flow is shared with a Dynamic AD Group, the one that has a membership rule defined, any new user automatically added into the group inherits the flow template. However, this does not happen for an Assigned AD Group, where the users are added manually.
- Connections used in the parent flow are not inherited in the template. On flow creation, from the template, all the connections are updated to use the author’s credentials.
Summary
This article describes how easily we can create localized Flow Templates. However, flows created from a template would need to be configured by the author to use the right data source. In my next article, I will describe how we can automate the flow creation process and make it even simpler for the end-users to create/request a flow based on a template. Till then, Happy Learning!!