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Sharing Flows with Business Users

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Posted on by EricDeferm

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).

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v-xida-msft Microsoft Employee on at

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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
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ScottShearer 25,331 Most Valuable Professional on at

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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
EricDeferm 24 on at

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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
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ScottShearer 25,331 Most Valuable Professional on at

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To add read only users to a "for a selected item" Flow:
Click on your "for a selected item" Flow in My Flows to get to the Flow properties page
Directly below the Owners box at the bottom right, you'll see a box titled "Manage Read Only Users"
Click on "Add another User" in this box
A panel will open
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
You probably want to specify that the existing connection be used (rather than having users supply)
Click the dropdown box under each connection and select "use this connection"
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
EricDeferm 24 on at

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Tx a lot @ScottShearer, silly me that I didn't notice this new option. It is indeed the solution to what we need. Brgds.
SPDevOne 46 on at

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"Manage Read Only Users" is not available in my account.
PFA for the details:

I have free account in Microsoft flow.
Community Power Pla... Microsoft Employee on at

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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 ?
ScottShearer 25,331 Most Valuable Professional on at

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

See this Blog post for details.
Community Power Pla... Microsoft Employee on at

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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.
8BitWarrior 68 on at

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@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.