Solved: Re: Creating a Re-usable Flow Template

rroot · ‎08-20-2022

I have a fairly complex flow that (among other things) copies list items' calculated column fields -- that I need the sum of.

(Because List Column Totals ->Sum doesn't work with calculated columns).

This means I need to "Save As" this flow for each list I create in this process, and change the SharePoint Site and List in the trigger and in each "Update Item" step I have in the flow for each list.

This is annoying - I had around 4 of these I needed to do each month. Now, because of the success of the project I need to figure this one out because I'll have upwards of 30 each month and that is just absurd given we're in automation here.

Even though yes, it will only take about half hour to set all this up manually, but there must be a better way.

Am I destined for Dataverse and/or SQL Server? Or is there some sort of efficient step I can take to make this a lot quicker/automated?

Edit: Lists are monthly and self-contained with a few hundred list items each month (created by AI builder activities)

JimmyWork · ‎08-21-2022

There are multiple ways to approach this.

For re-using the flow you create a solution and use enviromental variables, for example one variable could be SharePoint site or List name etc. You then only have to update the variables and not for every part of the flow, all triggers/action would be using the environmental variables.

You would also use connection reference in the solution.

Another approach might be a setup with a config list and a logic app, this would be 1 flow for all locations.

I will check tomorrow how we did set this up because we have 1 logic app that checks for changes in 130 different SP sites and just like you we add more and more. I would not be able to go in exactly tell you how it was done but maybe I can get you some pointers.

Question: Are all the list created in the same site collection? If yes, you could loop thru all the lists in that site collection and for each list item that has an item that has been updated procced doing what your flow does now.

View solution in original post

JimmyWork · ‎08-21-2022

There are multiple ways to approach this.

For re-using the flow you create a solution and use enviromental variables, for example one variable could be SharePoint site or List name etc. You then only have to update the variables and not for every part of the flow, all triggers/action would be using the environmental variables.

You would also use connection reference in the solution.

Another approach might be a setup with a config list and a logic app, this would be 1 flow for all locations.

I will check tomorrow how we did set this up because we have 1 logic app that checks for changes in 130 different SP sites and just like you we add more and more. I would not be able to go in exactly tell you how it was done but maybe I can get you some pointers.

Question: Are all the list created in the same site collection? If yes, you could loop thru all the lists in that site collection and for each list item that has an item that has been updated procced doing what your flow does now.

rroot · ‎08-21-2022

Thank you for this. These two options are exactly what I had hoped for.

I'll start with a Solution and figure out the site and list environment variables which will solve most of the problem.

I'm interested in the logic app pointers for sure - as it sounds like how this process should be packaged if it is to be maintained for a few years at minimum.

@JimmyWork wrote:
Question: Are all the list created in the same site collection? If yes, you could loop thru all the lists in that site collection and for each list item that has an item that has been updated procced doing what your flow does now.

Right now, yes, they are all in one site (collection). However, I'm thinking that I'd like to spread them around to several sites according to groups and access policies.