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EricDeferm
Helper I
Helper I

Sharing Flows with Business Users

In this post dating from August 2017 it's mentioned that "MS is working on a concept of delegated flows in the near future, starting with SharePoint. The idea is that you can share a flow with a list or document library, any users of that list or doc lib will automatically have access to it."

  • Is this idea already implemented > then how to do it?
  • Is it still ongoing or on the roadmap > then when can we expect it?

We're creating flows to submit change requests for approval. Today the flows are only visible from a Modern style SP Library if the flow is shared with the business user. Sharing the flow however implies also edit access to the flow.

We prefer not to share the flow for 2 reasons:

  • shared flows can be edited & changed
  • major reason: it's a cumbersome process to keep track of users that are leaving/starting > ideally sharing would happen automatically following access management to the library using the standard access groups (owners, visitors, members).
2 ACCEPTED SOLUTIONS

Accepted Solutions
ScottShearer
Super User
Super User

 

Eric:

 

If you create a Flow that runs when a SharePoint list item is created or changed, that Flow will run without regard to who creates or changes the list item.  You can create Approval Flow that runs when an item is created/created or changed and not have to share that Flow with anyone.

 

You may want to, for example, add a check box to your list that says "Submit for approval".  When the item is saved and the Flow starts, it checks to see it the check box is checked.  If so, start the approval.

 

If you use a "For a Selected Item" trigger, you can share that Flow on a read-only basis with users including groups - they will see the Flow on the list menu when they select an item.  However, that Flow will not be available for them to edit.  For the Flow owner, the Flow still shows up under "My Flows" and not Team Flows.

 

Please Post if you need more info or screen shots.

 

Scott

 

 

If I have answered your question, please mark your post as Solved.
If you like my response, please give it a Thumbs Up.

Scott

View solution in original post

To add read only users to a "for a selected item" Flow:

  1. Click on your "for a selected item" Flow in My Flows to get to the Flow properties page
  2. Directly below the Owners box at the bottom right, you'll see a box titled "Manage Read Only Users"
    1. Click on "Add another User" in this box
  3. A panel will open
    1. Enter the user(s)/group with whom you want to share the Flow (read only) in the "Invite Users or Groups" box at the top
    2. You probably want to specify that the existing connection be used (rather than having users supply)
      1. Click the dropdown box under each connection and select "use this connection"
    3. Click on save

Please note that read only users will not have access to your connection outside of this Flow and cannot edit the Flow.

 

Now, when the specified users click on Flow after they have selected an item in the list, they will see your Flow as an option.

 

If you need more help, please post here.

 

Scott

 

ReadOnly1.jpgReadOnly2.jpg

If I have answered your question, please mark your post as Solved.
If you like my response, please give it a Thumbs Up.

Scott

View solution in original post

12 REPLIES 12
v-xida-msft
Community Support
Community Support

Hi @EricDeferm,

 

Do you want to share your flows with a SharePoint list or a library and any users of it could access your flow?

 

Thanks for your feedback, I think this feature has not been supported in Microsoft Flow currently, if you would like this feature to be added in Microsoft Flow, please submit an idea to Flow Ideas Forum:

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Flow-Ideas/idb-p/FlowIdeas

 

In addition, you could only share flow with members within your organization or the whole organization in Microsoft Flow currently. More details about sharing flow in Microsoft Flow, please check the following article:

Create a Team flow 

 

Best regards,

Kris

Community Support Team _ Kris Dai
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.
ScottShearer
Super User
Super User

 

Eric:

 

If you create a Flow that runs when a SharePoint list item is created or changed, that Flow will run without regard to who creates or changes the list item.  You can create Approval Flow that runs when an item is created/created or changed and not have to share that Flow with anyone.

 

You may want to, for example, add a check box to your list that says "Submit for approval".  When the item is saved and the Flow starts, it checks to see it the check box is checked.  If so, start the approval.

 

If you use a "For a Selected Item" trigger, you can share that Flow on a read-only basis with users including groups - they will see the Flow on the list menu when they select an item.  However, that Flow will not be available for them to edit.  For the Flow owner, the Flow still shows up under "My Flows" and not Team Flows.

 

Please Post if you need more info or screen shots.

 

Scott

 

 

If I have answered your question, please mark your post as Solved.
If you like my response, please give it a Thumbs Up.

Scott

Hi @ScottShearer tx for your very valuable feedback.

I'm familiar with the trigger when List Item is created or changed and the option to include a checkbox field as a flag to fire of the approval cycle. We prefer to use a 'Submit for approval' option from the Flow menu. Could you tell us how to share the 'Selected Item' trigger on a read-only basis? I've looked around, though can't find any option for configuring this. Is it done via Admin?

Brgds,

Eric

To add read only users to a "for a selected item" Flow:

  1. Click on your "for a selected item" Flow in My Flows to get to the Flow properties page
  2. Directly below the Owners box at the bottom right, you'll see a box titled "Manage Read Only Users"
    1. Click on "Add another User" in this box
  3. A panel will open
    1. Enter the user(s)/group with whom you want to share the Flow (read only) in the "Invite Users or Groups" box at the top
    2. You probably want to specify that the existing connection be used (rather than having users supply)
      1. Click the dropdown box under each connection and select "use this connection"
    3. Click on save

Please note that read only users will not have access to your connection outside of this Flow and cannot edit the Flow.

 

Now, when the specified users click on Flow after they have selected an item in the list, they will see your Flow as an option.

 

If you need more help, please post here.

 

Scott

 

ReadOnly1.jpgReadOnly2.jpg

If I have answered your question, please mark your post as Solved.
If you like my response, please give it a Thumbs Up.

Scott

Tx a lot @ScottShearer, silly me that I didn't notice this new option. It is indeed the solution to what we need. Brgds.

"Manage Read Only Users" is not available in my account.

PFA for the details:

Flow.png

 

I have free account in Microsoft flow.

Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi Scott, If there are large number of people(>20) to be added as Read-Only to a "for a selected item" Flow, giving their individual ID is the only option or is there any other way?  Is it possible to add the SharePoint Members group ? 

Office Groups may be the answer - you can now share Flows with Office Groups.

 

See this Blog post for details.

If I have answered your question, please mark your post as Solved.
If you like my response, please give it a Thumbs Up.

Scott
Anonymous
Not applicable

Thank you for the quick response! But when I Add a list as run-only user (references the Documents library), the members group in sharepoint having edit access are not able to see the flows in the Flow menu. 

@Anonymous
It appears that right now Flow does not have a place to list flows for which you have "Manage Run-Only User" access.  These users only appear to be able to run the flow through a button link which is emailed to the user upon being added to the Manage Run-Only Users user group.

 

However, if you add users to the Owners group, your flow will appear under the Team Flows sub-menu in Flow (My Flows > Team Flows). Owners can edit, update and delete the flow.

 

It seems that we are left to make some hard choices, either inconvience our users or provided them with too much access.

 

 

Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi Scott,

 

I came across this post while looking for a reason as to why RUN-ONLY USERS are not able to see the shared flow under Team flows tab. Can you think of any reason why this can happen? The flow I shared triggers the PowerBI dataset refresh when manually triggered.

 

Thanks

Parth

Hello Scott, 

hope you are doing well. 
I have run into the same issue while sharing the flow with one of the business user. I have a created a button in SharePoint list to trigger the flow. When the user tries to run the flow. She is getting an error. I have tried making the user as owner for the flow and gave her full control of the SP List. Can you please help in solving this issue.

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