Keep flows tidy - Condense variable declarations [+-]

[SteveKerr2]

When I'm building flows, I like to use the scope boxes to keep everything clean and labeled (to assist myself and others). Some flows will have many variables. I'd love a way to expand/contract [+-] a list of them, so the overall flow is neat and easy to follow. 

I understand variables must be declared top-level. But could they be aggregated. So a flow step simply says e.g. :

-- 7 variables declarations -- [+] (click to expand)

Is there someone sitting there, reading this, drinking a coffee, who could make that happen? It would make the OCD-ish ones of us happy 🙂

[eric-cheng]

Hi @SteveKerr2 ,

Sounds like a great idea.

You can actually post an idea here on the ideas board and if enough people upvote, it might make it into the product roadmap.

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[v-bofeng-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @SteveKerr2 :

I'am afraid that is not available now,as you said the must be declared top-level.

I suggest consider creating an object, and then a field represents a variable, so you can define all the variables at once.You only need to use Parse JSON to get the dynamic content of all variables. Doing so can make your flow much more concise.

Best Regards,

Bof

[SteveKerr2]

Hi Bof,

Thanks for that. That's exactly what I ended up doing, which worked out well. However, I can't avoid it for a few things like temp strings, temp objects, etc. I like the idea that the top level reads like a story and isn't cluttered with variables. My latest flow still has 9 of them.

Ideally we need a toggle switch at the top that says: "collapse variables", turning them into e.g.:

-- 7 variables declarations -- [+] (click to expand)

When I get a minute I'll post it as a suggestion, as Eric suggested 🙂 Not the end of the world, but a nice to have.

Cheers,

Steve

[v-bofeng-msft]

Hi @SteveKerr2 :

Thanks for your feedback.

This is really a problem. If you want to temporarily modify the value of some variables, you can only use set to redefine the entire Object for the time being. This will be a bit cumbersome (because all property must be defined, even if they have not changed)

Best Regards,

Bof