Drafts and Versioning for solution cloud flows -- beginning to release

[ChrisGarty]

Drafts and Versioning capabilities are now releasing for the new Power Automate designer, so you can create and edit flows at your own pace and review version history when needed. Draft versions and version history are stored in Dataverse, so these new capabilities are specifically for solution cloud flows defined in Dataverse.

Drafts and Versioning capabilities

• Save drafts - Save a draft of a flow whenever you want, even with errors. Make changes to your flow with confidence at your own pace.
• Publish a flow - When you're ready for changes to a flow to have an effect at runtime, the flow can be published.
• View version history - Review a flow's version history list to understand how it evolved. View flow versions grouped by day with indicators for Latest version, Published, and Past published.
• Restore past versions - When you view a flow's version history list, you can select a previous version for review, and optionally restore it as a new draft.

Availability

The flow drafts and versioning feature set is only available for solution cloud flows in the new designer. Solution cloud flows can be created directly in a solution, added into a solution, or created by default if the Create in Dataverse solutions environment setting is enabled.

The flow drafts and versioning feature set is being released slowly across specific environments region-by-region. When drafts and versioning capabilities show up in an environment in your region, please allow two weeks for full release in that region.

Full documentation is available here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/drafts-versioning

We hope you'll get a chance to try these new capabilities soon!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask them here.

=== 2024-04-10 Update ===

Status: Now fully released in station 2.

Release progress and projections:

4/2 Station 2: Canada, India, Korea, South America, Switzerland, Germany, France, Norway.

4/8-4/16 Station 3: Australia, Asia, Japan, UK

4/18-4/30 Station 4: Europe

5/2-5/14 Station 5: USA

5/28 Station 6: Government clouds

=== 2024-04-24 Update ===

Status: Station 3 release is paused to accommodate release of bug fixes.

Release progress and projections:

Complete - 4/2 Station 2: Canada, India, Korea, South America, Switzerland, Germany, France, Norway.

Paused at 50% - ETA for 100% is 5/1 - Station 3: Australia, Asia, Japan, UK

Pending - 5/6-5/13 Station 4: Europe

Pending - 5/14-5/21 Station 5: USA

Pending - 6/4 Station 6: Government clouds

=== 2024-06-17 Update ===

Status: Fully released in Station 3. Station 3 release was extended 6 weeks to accommodate release of multiple bug fixes. Testing is underway in Station 4.

Release progress and projections:

Complete - 4/2 Station 2: Canada, India, Korea, South America, Switzerland, Germany, France, Norway.

Complete 6/7 - Station 3: Australia, Asia, Japan, UK

Testing - 6/11-6/26 Station 4: Europe

Pending - 6/28-7/9 Station 5: USA

Pending - 7/23 Station 6: Government clouds

[ChrisGarty]

Reza Dorrani created an excellent overview video of the capabilities

Related LinkedIn post

[ChrisGarty]

Drafts and Versioning for solution cloud flows is now available in select environments in station 2: Canada, India, Korea, South America, Switzerland, Germany, France, Norway.

The new Drafts and Versioning actions were used in 343 customer tenants in the last 3 hours.

[D365_247]

Hi @ChrisGarty any idea when it will be available for the UK tenants?

[ChrisGarty]

@D365_247 , it is now fully released in station 2. It should be fully released in the UK (station 3) by next Tuesday 4/16.

[alexmcla]

Hi, this is potentially a really great feature. But, there's a dependency here on fixing the incorrect error report that there's a problem with an Apply to Each. I:

• saved a draft with some changes
• tried to publish
• got an error message that there was a problem with a very simple Apply to Each, which I hadn't changed

The only way round this was to edit in the old editor, which gives to option to abandon the draft.

[ChrisGarty]

@alexmcla , I'll check into this. Thanks for letting us know about this! If you have a detailed error message, then it would be great to know what it is. Thanks!

[LarsMartin]

My feedback to the version history capability of Cloud Flows.

- it requires the new designer which very often freezes when opening a Cloud Flow in the editor, especially when opening larger ones

- I have not yet understand when the version history is available. You can open a Flow from the app maker portal, PA maker portal. Sometimes I get the history, sometimes I do not.

- When I save a Cloud Flow as draft, then publish it and run the Flow and then want to open the Flow run I always get an error message that the Flow cannot be opened. After a couple of minutes I see messages like "... Flow was deleted" and then I finally can open the Flow run.

- When I select a former version in the history the browser freezes and then tries to update the editor with the old definition. Not very responsive.

- I miss a diff feature between 2 selected versions.

Summary:

I like the feature in general but at the moment it provides me more pain in using it so I have currently no improvements for my daily work.

[W_Shea]

Hi @ChrisGarty,

Can I check when is the versioning for non-solution cloud flows be rolled out for Asia?

Thank you

[ChrisGarty]

@W_Shea, Drafts and Versioning is now fully released in Asia. Let us know if you have any questions.

[ChrisGarty]

Hi @LarsMartin, thanks for trying our drafts and versioning. 

1. There are improvements happening in the new designer, so hopefully any bugs and performance issues you are seeing will soon be fixed.
2. The Power Apps embedded experience does not support the new designer yet. Our integrations team is working on adding embedded support for the new designer.
3. The "Flow was deleted" bug should be fixed now. Let us know if you see it again.
4. The browser freezing is a performance issue in the new designer that should have been addressed now. Please let us know if you see it again. If you like, you could provide a browser URL when you have the flow open in the designer so we could dive deeper into your environment and the editing sessions for that flow.
5. Yes, the ability to compare two flows more easily is in the backlog: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/drafts-versioning#can-versions-be-compared

Thanks!

[mapizarro]

Hi @ChrisGarty any updates on when it will be available in the US?