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Power Platform Community / Forums / Power Automate / How to fix "Create sim...
Power Automate
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How to fix "Create simple connection failed." inside solution

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Posted on by 20

I want to add "Start and wait for approval" to flow which is inside solution but when I try to do this I get following error: "Create simple connection failed.". How do I fix this?

 

Reimporting solution does not work. Importing flow to solution is not possible. What else can I try?

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  • Jcook Profile Picture
    7,783 Most Valuable Professional on at

    Hello @adressler 

     

    Have you tried importing the Flow without being in a Solution.

     

    Please try and import the Flow by itself.

  • adressler Profile Picture
    20 on at

    Hello,

     

    yes, it works outside of solution but I don't see a way how to do this inside a solution. 

     

    The "best" I can do inside ssolution ends with following error:

     

    InvalidTemplate. Unable to process template language expressions in action 'Start_and_wait_for_an_approval' inputs at line '1' and column '3109': 'The template language expression 'json(decodeBase64(triggerOutputs().headers['X-MS-APIM-Tokens']))['$connections']['shared_approvals_1']['connectionId']' cannot be evaluated because property 'shared_approvals_1' doesn't exist, available properties are 'shared_sharepointonline_1, shared_office365'. Please see https://aka.ms/logicexpressions for usage details.'.

     

    The flow is complex with a lot of inputs from powerApp so I would love to find a solution to avoid creating the flow from scratch.

  • Jcook Profile Picture
    7,783 Most Valuable Professional on at

    Hi @adressler

     

    Just import the Flow and the Solution separately. (Is this possible)?

  • Community Power Platform Member Profile Picture
    Microsoft Employee on at

    Having the same problem here - I initially created a complex flow including an Approvals step under "My Flows", then added it to a Solution, where it continued to work. The purpose of moving to a Solution was so that I could break it down into multiple smaller flows with "Run a child flow" links connecting them.

     

    Bug #1 - The original one can't be used as a child flow, because: "Flow save failed with code 'WorkflowUnderWrongSubscription' ...", and you can't see or change the subscription for either flow, and it doesn't update like it presumably should when adding that original to the Solution.

     

    Ok, create a new Flow inside the Solution, so that it gets the right subscription setting, then copy-paste the components across.

     

    Bug #2 (this one)- Approvals component says "Invalid connection" after being copied in, with no way to fix it or create a new one inside that Flow ("Create simple connection failed") .

     

    Presumably the connection is dependent in some way on this subscription setting and only works while that still has the value carried over from "My Flows". Once inside the Solution it will still work, but new Flows you create inside the Solution simply can't use Approvals actions. My grand idea of simplifying this by using "Run a child flow" seems dead in the water now (only works in Solutions), and I'm sure not paying MS for this garbage just so that I can use HTTP parent-child integration instead.

  • adressler Profile Picture
    20 on at

    I prefer to fix existing problem rather than create new flows.

     

    Developer tools shows following error: {"error":{"code":"ApiConnectionLimitExceeded","message":"You have reached the maximum number of connections for the 'approvals' API."}}

     

    But I have only one approval connection under data/connection. Why it is not possible to use existing connection? 

  • pj7 Profile Picture
    3 on at

    I'm having the same problem adding Approvals to a flow inside a solution.

     

    Strangely, I have an older flow inside a solution where I was able to add an Approval, and this has been working fine for months.

    The other thing I have found is the problem seems to be account specific.

    I have no problems when using my user account, but when using a generic account, it doesn't work.

     

    The UI only returns a message "Create simple connection failed".

    pj7_0-1604890440967.png

    However, when looking at the response in the developer tools in the browser the error is:

     

    {
     "error":
     {
     "code":"ApiConnectionLimitExceeded",
     "message":"You have reached the maximum number of connections for the 'approvals' API."
     }
    }

     

     

  • adressler Profile Picture
    20 on at

    Hello, 

     

    I'm not sure about this issue being account specific - I have tried it with multiple accounts with the same result. 

     

    what worked for me was to delete existing connection and then I was able to create new one. But I have to fix all other approvals, which was doable in my case with approvals. I would be hell to fix all sharepoint or CDS connectors. 

     

    Good luck

  • RodriCharni Profile Picture
    8 on at

    Hi.

     

    I have the same problem, make sure the 'Approvals' is connected creating a new one from the template.

     

    RodriCharni_0-1653489207057.png

     

    And it solved my problem.

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