How to return to main flow after subflow ends - is that possible?

[ianwuk]

Hello Everyone.

I have a main flow.  When there is an error in it it runs a subflow.

How can I make it so that when that subflow ends it returns back to the main flow and runs the main flow from the beginning?  So, they basically loop?

I can't seem to find a way to make this possible.

Regards.

[VJR]

Hi @ianwuk 

Make use of the Labels.

Add a Label called something like 'StartofFlow' at the beginning of your main flow.

Then after the subflow finishes it goes to the next statement from where the subflow was called in the main flow. There add an action called 'Go to label - StartofFlow'.

Take care of any infinite loops.

[ianwuk]

@VJR 

Thank you for replying.

I tried that.  I have a label at the start of my main flow, then, in the subflow I use Go To and try to select the label, but there are no labels to choose from (it's empty - no labels available).

Obviously, I am doing something wrong here.

Thanks.

[VJR]

Hi @ianwuk 

That is because variables in PAD are global in nature (available everywhere) but Labels are not. They are available only on the page where they are declared.

Therefore I have mentioned you to add in the next statement on the main flow just after you call the subflow.

Then after the subflow finishes it goes to the next statement from where the subflow was called in the main flow.

There add an action called 'Go to label - StartofFlow'.

It will work fine.

[ianwuk]

@VJR 

I think I get it.

So, my main flow is wrapped in an On Block Error segment, that, on error at any point during the flow, runs a subflow called ActiononError which just closes the current browser and waits 2 minutes.

Because my main flow may generate an error at any step, does that mean after every step I have to add the same go to in my main flow to redirect it back to the starting label? 

It seems like it, but surely then my main flow will never finish?

Thanks.

[ianwuk]

@VJR 

Update, I changed the On block error to create a variable if there is an error, it is called HasError.

At the start of this block, I added this:

IF HasError = True then run subflow.

ELSEIF HasError = False then go to label MainFlowStart.

Based on your kind knowledge, that means that if the variable is TRUE, the sub-flow runs, and when it finishes it goes back to where it was triggered (which is the start of the On block error and the IF / ELSEIF statements above, it then is FALSE and should go to the label to start the main flow.

Does that make sense?

[VJR · Accepted solution]

Now that I better understand your scenario you can have a structure like this.

Line no 5 will generate an error:

On block error:

SubFlow contains a sample message box.

- Ran it and worked fine

- Test it and let me know how it goes for your situation

- Only if there is an error, the line no. 8 will run the subflow and line no 9 will take you to the first line of the main flow.

[ianwuk]

Thank you so much @VJR - I think what you have done makes sense to me.  I'll give it a try.

Your help is really appreciated, not sure if you can help with my other thread at all to extract Teams message attachment and work on that data, can you?

Re: How to read text from a Teams message posted v... - Power Platform Community (microsoft.com)

[Highboy]

Why do it like that?
Theres is no need to use the label.
Just put the "On Block error" Around the whole code, and let the "On block Error" call the subflow.

I know it's in Danish but I am sure you can see what I am trying to say.
When the "block" fails, it calls the subflow "Arrrgh_Error" and then goes to start of the block.

[Gidi]

Hi,

thought about this solution too. Here we also need an exit strategy to avoid an endless loop (e.g. a counter at the beginning of the block that will be checked before continue with the main steps). The “On Error Block” doesn’t have a retry counter on board. 

[ianwuk]

@Gidi Not sure if MS will improve this feature or not.  We just have to wait and see.

@Highboy That was how I had it set up originally.  I didn't know that when a subflow ends it goes to the next step after where it failed.  So, in my case, with your approach, the flow would fail, run the subflow, go back to the next step of the main flow and be able to do nothing.

Therefore, at least to me, the solution by @VJR  seems to make more sense because, if, on error (wrapped around the main On Block Error, it then drops through to the end of the On Error block (meaning no chance to carry on and fail), and runs the sub flow to start again.  Basically, avoiding getting stuck.

Again, this is my limited knowledge here.  Thanks!

[Highboy]

It would go to the start of the block, not the next step.
And when your success critiria is met you can exit using a lable outside the blok.

[ianwuk]

Can you possibly share an example @Highboy?

@VJR  For example, my flow seems to fail around midnight when the URL it has to go to has traffic and is not accessible for whatever reason 'Edge displays the 'This page is having a problem' error, so, because it can't load fully the rest of the flow cannot continue.

Take this morning, I come to work, the flow failed just before midnight because the page it has to go to could not load and it showed 'This page is having a problem' error in Edge. 

It just gave up and didn't follow on to the sub-flow which would then have closed the browser and started again - why is that? 

[VJR]

Hi @ianwuk 

I have observed that the error handling of PAD does not work as expected at certain times.

Possible option for you could be:

- Spy the area (add UI element for the label) that shows the error message "This page is having a problem"

Divert it in such a way that if the label is found until a certain seconds then it should run the subflow.

If not found then it means everything is fine and continue as you would want to.

[VJR]

Also check out some options to not have the error in first place.

Top 5 Ways to Fix This Page Is Having a Problem Error in Microsoft Edge on Windows - Guiding Tech

[ianwuk]

Thank you so much for replying @VJR .  I'll take a look at these.

What's interesting is that I deleted the browser extensions (except Power Automate) used on the machine we have running PAD and now it seems PAD no longer works (meaning that when it gets to a point to Send Keys, it does nothing).

Not sure why removing unneeded extensions would do that?

Looks like I have to reinstall PAD and rebuild all the broken bits

Regards.