Flows in Managed Solution

[knoxknnocks]

Hi,

Apologies for this newbie question. I've been trying all ways but haven't been successfully. I'd like to package a canvas app with some cloud flows (canvas apps references those flows using PowerApps trigger in the flows) as a solution, and move them to another environment.

I'm able to package the solution from one environment and import the solution into the new environment

and when i go into the Apps list, i can see the app there

However, I am not able to see the cloud flows in the Flows tab (or in flow.microsoft.com)

Is my understanding of how flows should be imported as part of the solution incorrect? If not, am I doing something incorrectly that's causing this behaviour?

Thanks very much in advance for any help!

[BCLS776 · Accepted solution]

Yes, flows imported as part of a managed solution are hidden from view - but they are there. Try out the app in the new environment and you should see the functionality associated with the flow should still work.

Bryan

[knoxknnocks]

Thanks Bryan!

Is there a way for me to see and edit them if I’m moving the flows in the solution from one environment to another?

Thanks！

[BCLS776]

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@knoxknnocks wrote:

Thanks Bryan!

Is there a way for me to see and edit them if I’m moving the flows in the solution from one environment to another?

Thanks！

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You won't be able to edit these flows in the target environment -- that's a feature of managed solutions. However, if you have sufficient admin privileges you can go to the Power Platform Admin Center, select the target environment, and see all the flows that exist within the environment. The managed solution flows will be in that list.

[knoxknnocks]

What if it’s an unmanaged solution though? I’m not sure how the solution, originally created as unmanaged, became a managed solution when I imported it 😂

[BCLS776]

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@knoxknnocks wrote:

What if it’s an unmanaged solution though? I’m not sure how the solution, originally created as unmanaged, became a managed solution when I imported it 😂

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Hmm, I'm not so sure about that one, because in general anything coming out of the development environment to go into another should be a managed solution. One exception is to export unmanaged to a source code repo.

Any particular reason you want to export unmanaged for import into another environment?

[Pstork1 · Accepted solution]

Whether its a managed or unmanaged solution, in my experience you only see the cloud flows inside the solution.  In the original environment they may appear in My Flows if you created them first and then imported them into a solution.  But if they were created in the solution you only see them in the solution, not in My Flows.  Since importing the solution creates them in the context of the solution that is the only place they show.  If its an unmanaged solution you can still edit them, but you have to access them in the context of the solution, not My flows.

[knoxknnocks]

Actually thought it’d be a neater way to move flows, app and connectors over to another dev or QA environment vs the export/import way for another group of devs to work on (different part of the company hence a different environment)

[knoxknnocks]

Thanks for the explanation! I’ve got a better understanding now 😊

[BCLS776]

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@knoxknnocks wrote:

Actually thought it’d be a neater way to move flows, app and connectors over to another dev or QA environment vs the export/import way for another group of devs to work on (different part of the company hence a different environment)

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You can do it this way, but you begin to create the problem of unknown code branches. Some sort of source code management tool (such as a Git repo), can help you avoid the problems that arise when code is changed in multiple places.