Power Automate - Call child flow with custom value dynamically

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Posted on 22 Apr 2024 10:39:35 by santoGD

Hi All,

I have a requirement to call child flow dynamically based on workflow id .

I have more than 50 child flows and these child flows need to be called from a generic parent flow based on some values.

I have the flow names and the workflow id in a table and I need to call the child flows based on passing that id in the custom value.

Thanks in Advance

Santo

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bengo83 159 on 16 Oct 2024 at 14:40:48

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Power Automate - Call child flow with custom value dynamically

Hi All

Maybe i found a solution...

Instead of using the "run a child flow" action you can use an HTTP trigger. And then you can trigger the child flow with the HTTP request in the parent flow.

Best regards

Beny
AJ-29080028-0 5 on 29 Aug 2024 at 00:35:03

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Power Automate - Call child flow with custom value dynamically

Hi there,

I have the same requirement and so far have not found a solution. Passing a workflow ID to the custom option in the Child Flow action results in an error where the flow cannot be found. Pretty disappointed with how this product seems to hang together. Coming from a coding background it's really poor to have so many constraints applied when they could be easily fixed. Referencing things by GUID vs common name, having to prefix items workqueues(xxxxx) etc ... all a bit unfinished in my humble opinion.

Sorry to say that I found the issue with child flow names not being dynamic after I'd constructed some basic framework to handle queue items which I'd assumed I could dynamically redirect without the need for a giant switch block. Sigh ... I hate this.

Regards,

Andrew
Spearruleina 36 on 24 Apr 2024 at 12:18:01

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Re: Power Automate - Call child flow with custom value dynamically

True, i have used this technique sometimes to group related, nested sets of parameters to cut down on the count...

But this forces you to architect all the callees in a generic manner. Which i guess you would do anyway if attempting to implement dynamic invocation? : ) It would still be nice if the collapse of the info could happen only on the dynamic caller, because without that, you may as well spell out the parameters on both ends anyway, for clarity, and since you can't actually dynamically call.
Chriddle 7,706 Super User 2025 Season 1 on 24 Apr 2024 at 07:21:24

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Re: Power Automate - Call child flow with custom value dynamically

You can create something like dynamic input parameters:

The child flow need one text input

The parent flow needs to create an object with the parameters that is passed to the child via string(obj)

The child uses json(objString) to convert it back into an object.
Spearruleina 36 on 24 Apr 2024 at 04:19:22

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Re: Power Automate - Call child flow with custom value dynamically

Oops, not even that proves correct. As soon as you enter specific workflow id, it still generates the specific schema for that workflow. You can't get dynamic input parameters as just "body": <json> either...
Why, then, the 'Enter custom value' at all? No dynamic capacity, only an unreadable GUID instead of a text name...
A tease! Maybe the next release? : )
Spearruleina 36 on 23 Apr 2024 at 20:03:16

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Re: Power Automate - Call child flow with custom value dynamically

I guess this setup at least saves you on the body of the input parameters. You could at least dynamically define that one time, up front... (and then boom, giant switch statement! ; )
Spearruleina 36 on 23 Apr 2024 at 19:57:52

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Re: Power Automate - Call child flow with custom value dynamically

I feel moderately disappointed to find this out, as i do not see the use in having what Power Automate calls a 'Custom value' which essentially remains hard-coded, literal and fixed, only more inscrutable (as a GUID) than a text name selected from a dropdown.
Chriddle 7,706 Super User 2025 Season 1 on 23 Apr 2024 at 10:19:47

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Re: Power Automate - Call child flow with custom value dynamically

A "Cusom value" has to be the id of the child flow.

There is no way to determine at runtime which flow should be executed within a "Run a child flow".

Seems like you need to add a lot of conditions like this:

... or find a different approach for your problem.
santoGD 56 on 22 Apr 2024 at 20:00:31

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Re: Power Automate - Call child flow with custom value dynamically

Hi @David_MA

Thanks for the update.

I have tried using the custom value option but it is showing error while saving the flow.
The output is the workflow id from the process table.

Please help if there is any way to call it via custom option.

Thanks
Santo
David_MA 10,802 Super User 2025 Season 1 on 22 Apr 2024 at 18:50:40

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Re: Power Automate - Call child flow with custom value dynamically

Have you tried populating the Child Flow field using the Enter a custom value option?

If not, I would try that to see if it works. I haven't found a use case for that option, so this isn't something I have tried. If I need to call a flow, I choose it from the menu.