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Sharing workflow with Sharepoint library

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Posted on by ProcessGirl

I have built an approval workflow for a document library, where users activate the flow by clicking the workflow from Flow dropdown or a link in a column.

It works for me as an owner of the flow and the library.
It works when I add a person from the members permission group to run only-user.
When I remove the person mentioned above from the single user-permission, and add the whole library as a run-only user (she is member of the library), she cannot see the flow or click the link. Nothing happens.

Members in my library have "contribute-no delete" access.

What could have gone wrong to prevent them from even seeing the workflow as members of the site/library?

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Using flows

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Pstork1 68,717 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Are the users who need to run the flow members of the Official "Members" group? Or do they get permissions another way? Using the Library as the Run-only user only works for people who are in the regular "Members" group. Having permissions is not enough.

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ProcessGirl 30 on at

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Hi Pstork1

The users are in the site members group.

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Pstork1 68,717 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Not sure what else might be wrong. As long as they are in the actual Members group I can't reproduce your issue. Does the Library have unique permissions or does it inherit from the Site?

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ProcessGirl 30 on at

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No unique permissions for the library.

I have tried instead to share the flow with a O365 group for our whole company, but my test user still cannot see the flow. (this user group is part of the visitors permission group for the site/library in question).

Would this have anything to do with my flow being "for a selected item" and not a button or whatever people have been writing about?

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Pstork1 68,717 Most Valuable Professional on at

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For a selected Item? or For a Selected File? For a document library you should be using For a selected File. If you are using that then it should work. I tested it in one of my libraries and the flow is visible if the user is in the Members group and not visible if they are in some other group, like Visitors.

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ProcessGirl 30 on at

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It was a flow for a selected file.

I have found the solution for my issues with the share with sharepoint library-function.
The permissions group in my library had a modified Contribute setting, to enable contribute but not delete. When I tested to use "Contribute", original version, it worked well. At least I did not have to go as far as to make everybody editors.

I just have to find a better solution to prevent deletion of documents. 🙂

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annetoal 1,934 Moderator on at

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Does the Flow share not take effect if the users are only in the Visitors group?

Anne

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ProcessGirl 30 on at

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I ended up having to set special permissions for the library since the Members-group had to have Design-permission level to both start the workflow and approve any items sent from the flow. Not ideal. Do not understand why you have to be able to modify the site to start workflows or approve publication of files.

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annetoal 1,934 Moderator on at

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They currently are in the Members group, but since the Members group allows users to add or change columns, I need to find another way. I found that in a SharePoint site that is part of an O365 Group, the Visitors permission does everything I need--contribute, edit, and can't change columns--but Visitors cannot run Flows that are shared to the library.

Members can run the Flow but they can also mess with the columns so I would like to avoid that. The Permission Levels in SharePoint mention nothing about ability to run Flows, so I was wondering where this privilege comes from. The Manage List permission mentions editing columns so I can see where that permission comes from.

If having permissions is not enough, what else do I have to do?

Anne

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ProcessGirl 30 on at

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My only recollection now is that people could start the flow with only Contribute permissions (but it had to be "standard contribute" and not my first modified version). I don't know if they can modify columns with that permission though.

But since the approvers are in the same group I needed to give them Design permission. I don't want to mess with more user groups and frequent updates. So I pray that no one will mess with this library unintentionally or intentionally. (I have unique permissions for the library which the flow runs for.)

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