SharePoint Workflow 2010 to Power Automate

[aaroh_bits]

Hi All, 

A couple of clients are on SharePoint Online Workflow 2010 engine and as per Microsoft guidance to upgrade on Power Automate.  

Generic client's requirements

1.  Have SharePoint 2010 Workflows on On-Premises and SharePoint Online Sites. 
2.  Power Automate does not fit the all the requirements such as 
   1. 30 day run limit for Power Automate. 
   2. Power Automate does not have workflow task center which is a high impact on client's operational for each task and monitoring. 
   3.  Power Automate does have impersonation which workflow 2010 has it.  
   4. No concept Reusable Workflow in Power Automate

Do we have any workarounds or solutions for above solutions.? 
Any advice will be highly appreciated. 

@CFernandes @manuelstgomes  @Chris @yashag2255 

[ScottShearer]

@aaroh_bits 

Here are a few thoughts:

First, you might want to consider using a SharePoint list for approvals.  When an approval is to be started, you create an item in the SharePoint list and send an email to the approvers via a Flow.  The email includes a link to the SharePoint item and a link to the item to be approved.  The Flow ends after the email is sent.  When the list  is updated, another Flow starts and does what needs to be don for that step, etc...  This will avoid the 30 day limit and also provide a central location for viewing all approval requests.  If you outline you process I can be more specific.

While there is no concept of a reusable workflow, Flows can be copied and reused with minor modifications if they are designed with reuse in mind.  You can also call one Flow from another as a substitute for reusable workflows.

A Flow action has a connection associated with it - usually the individual who created the Flow.  The Flow action runs AS that user whose connection was used.- much like an impersonation step in a Designer workflow runs AS the individual who last published the workflow.   What is you use case for the impersonation step?

Please keep in mind that Flows are much more powerful than Designer workflows ever were but there is not a one to one correlation between actions and triggers in Workflows and Flows.  You may need to think a little differently about how you meet your clients requirements.  In fact, you might enhance the capabilities you leveraged in Workflows with features in Flow that were not available in Workflows.

[CFernandes · Accepted solution]

@aaroh_bits 

As mentioned @ScottShearer Power Automate are much more powerful than Designer workflows. But one thing we need to understand that Power Automate is Platform Independent. Unlike SharePoint Designer workflow which were tightly integrated to SharePoint Power Automate can Connect between various data-sources(https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/)

• >> Power Automate does not fit the all the requirements such as  30 day run limit for Power Automate. 

With reference to the above Scotts answer is right on the money. If you contact Microsoft Support with above question they will point you to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/limits-and-config#run-duration-and-retention with a reply below:

• Flow run timeout: For a running flow, the time out duration is 30 days. You can refer to this reference: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/limits-and-config#run-duration-and-retention
• Flow without any run (not being triggered) in a certain amount of time:

As long as the Flow is active (turned on) and the connections used within the Flow are still valid, the Flow should be working as expected.
A connection being valid means that the access token is not expired. The access token is acquired during logging process (when you enter your credentials to create a connection) or during a Flow run when the third party service provides a mechanism to automatically extend the access token (usually via refresh token).

For example, if you have a SP online connection and it’s not been used in any Flow for 90 days, the next the Flow that contains that connection runs, we probably will receive an authentication error.
From Flow perspective, it does not have anything to do with the expiration period of the services that it’s trying to connect to. For SharePoint it’s 90 days but for Gmail connection, it might be different. Thus, I would suggest to check the token lifetimes of the third party services before deploying any Flow interacting with them.

To sum it up, the validity of a Flow which is not being triggered will depend on the lifetime of the connections it is using. For some services, you can extend the token lifetimes but then there will be a tradeoff between security and accessibility. Otherwise, you just need to make sure the connection is refreshed within its lifetime (by log out and log in, or run the Flow once in a while).

The above is copied from https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Flows/Flow-30-days-limit/td-p/446229 

• >>Power Automate does not have workflow task center which is a high impact on client's operational for each task and monitoring. 

We have been using Planner(https://tasks.office.com/ ) to instead of workflow task, you might want to have a look at https://sharepointmaven.com/microsoft-planner-vs-tasks-web-part/#:~:text=Microsoft%20Planner%20has%2.... 

• >> Power Automate does have impersonation which workflow 2010 has it.  

You should consider Manage run-only users https://www.chakkaradeep.com/2018/05/22/managing-owners-and-users-for-your-sharepoint-list-flows/#:~... '

or decouple your Power Automate solution (Parent child Flow), which will help you manage this scenario, have a look at my article at  https://clavinfernandes.wordpress.com/2020/09/04/decouple-the-flow-from-the-power-app-to-prevent-end... 

• >>No concept Reusable Workflow in Power Automate

There is no concept of a reusable workflow, but you can easily, Export and import Power Automate, You can also have a look at http://johnliu.net/blog/2019/3/one-flow-to-handle-them-all-how-to-subscribe-to-multiple-sharepoint-l... 

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!

[aaroh_bits]

Thanks a lot @ScottShearer  and @CFernandes for valuable inputs. 

so, using Power Automate, centralized task management cant be achieved and only option is using planner as you shared.

Q: is it correct? 

It looks clients who have used SharePoint Workflows 2010, are too comfortable the current SharePoint workflows 2010 and having tough time to embrace a new and better technology. I guess need to educate the clients. 

[Tom_Slosse]

Hey @aaroh_bits 

One of the key components to successfully introduce a new technology is convincing the key users/end users to work with it.

I too find clients often get back to old habits, and it is our job to convince those people of the new technology.

As of my experience once we explain how it works, what you can do more with Power Automate clients are willing to take the next steps with Power Automate.

You just need to work out a good business case as an example and explain it.

But most of the things you listed are easily achievable with Power Automate like @CFernandes and @ScottShearer mentioned.

Kind regards

Tom