Approval Flow on multiple SharePoint Libraries

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone 

I'm trying to build an Approval Flow that runs on several SharePoint Document Libraries.

The Approval Flow itself looks something like this. 

In the Document Library users can start the Flow with a click on a Button (column formatting used).

My problems start when I want to deploy the Flow for the different sites, because I didn't find any options to have dynamic site URLs for the Flow actions. 

Is there a way to get the individual site URL from the SharePoint Library into my Flow or pass parameters to my Flow, so I can make it more dynamic?

I already did some researching:

http://johnliu.net/blog/2019/3/one-flow-to-handle-them-all

https://veenstra.me.uk/2019/04/29/microsoft-flow-deploying-flows-to-all-your-project-sites-or-maybe-...

https://wonderlaura.com/2019/03/14/run-a-flow-as-part-of-a-sharepoint-site-design/
...but I'm not quite sure if they fit my scenario?

Thanks for any advice

[Brad_Groux · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately you can't link/share a Flow between document libraries at this time. If this is functionality you would like to see added to Flow or a Flow Template, please consider submitting it to the Flow Ideas page, where it can be voted on by other users, and tracked and commented on by the Flow team.

Some workarounds for the time being would likely be a PowerApp that users could use to change the approval status across all document libraries, or create secondary Flows for each document Library and nest the Flows with the main Flow. 

For more information about nesting Flows, see the How to build nested flows with the HTTP action bog post. The Get started with the request and response components documentation, and Calling Microsoft Flow from your application blog post may also be helpful. 

If this reply has answered your question or solved your issue, please mark this question as answered. Answered questions helps users in the future who may have the same issue or question quickly find a resolution via search. If you liked my response, please consider giving it a thumbs up. THANKS!

[v-bacao-msft]

Hi @Anonymous ,

Do you want to apply the current Flow as a template to multiple SharePoint libraries?

It seems that you could consider the following methods, use Save as to save a copy of Flow, and then change SharePoint site address and Library in the copy.

You could also consider using Send a copy to create a template and send it to yourself, so you could easily use this template and apply it to multiple SharePoint libraries.

For more details on Send a copy, please refer to the following blog:

https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/send-a-flow-as-a-copy/

Best Regards,

[Anonymous]

Thank you both for the responses. 
@v-bacao-msftYes I want to use the Flow for multiple libraries. The "Save As" method is rather a workaround for me, due to the large number of libraries I have to connect. This would mean constant manual work if new libraries get created or deleted.

I was hoping there was a smarter way to deal with this -> one Button to start the Flow, that refers to one global Flow, that can deal with dynamic library URLs. (Brad_Groux taught me a better one ) 

[banjoman]

If you used John Liu’s example and subscribed to the SharePoint audit log, could you use your Approval button to set the File Status (or some other column) to a value that could then be used to filter out events from the audit log.

i am doing something similar, but without the Approval button.  

[Anonymous]

Hi @Anonymous 

I'm trying to creat a flow very very similar to yours. Would you mind sharing a screensot of how the flow works (expandingeach flow stage).

Would be great if you could!

[JimmyWork]

@Anonymous Did you solve this? Im trying to do the exact same thing. Is it possible for you to post how you did this?