{"id":110989,"date":"2018-11-05T10:29:15","date_gmt":"2018-11-05T18:29:15","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-06-11T08:06:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T15:06:17","slug":"solutions-in-microsoft-flow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/power-platform\/blog\/power-automate\/solutions-in-microsoft-flow\/","title":{"rendered":"Solutions in Microsoft Flow"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a recent announcement<\/a>, Microsoft shared news about a new Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) capability for PowerApps and Microsoft Flow. This new capability is built upon the Common Data Service solution system.\u00a0
\nIn this blog post, we will share more details about how Microsoft Flow makers can use Solutions to bundle related flows (and apps) within a single deployable unit.<\/p>\n

Application Lifecycle Management<\/strong><\/p>\n

Previously, we provided the ability to export and import a single flow from one environment to another environment. While this feature was useful for promoting individual flows between environments, it required many clicks to move multiple flows.<\/p>\n

We have also received feedback from our customers regarding the ability to logically group related flows as they are being built and managing them. For example, you may have multiple flows that are part of a project you are working on. While working on, or managing these flows, you don\u2019t want to have to scroll and search for these flows when you want to access them.<\/p>\n

Solutions address deployment needs by allowing you to export and import a set of flows (and apps). In addition, you can organize these flows within a single \u2018container\u2019 which simplifies navigating and managing these flows.<\/p>\n

Accessing Solutions<\/strong><\/p>\n

For customers who meet the environment prerequisites (see more below), a Solutions <\/strong>link will appear within the left navigation of the Microsoft Flow maker portal.<\/p>\n

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The Solutions experience will be loaded where we can find our deployed solutions. As part of this experience we can determine the Date<\/strong> it was installed on, if it is Managed externally<\/strong>, Version <\/strong>and the name of the Publisher<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Creating a new Solution<\/strong><\/p>\n

From the Solutions experience, we have the ability to create a new solution by clicking on the New Solution <\/strong>button.<\/p>\n

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A new tab will open where we can provide the Display Name<\/strong>, Publisher <\/strong>and Version <\/strong>of our solution. Once we have provided these details, we can click Save <\/strong>and Close<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Adding flow(s) to a Solution<\/strong><\/p>\n

From the Solutions experience, we can click on our newly created solution and navigate to its default view. A context-aware menu will appear that allows us to add New <\/strong>and Existing <\/strong>assets to our solution. Click on New \u2013 Flow<\/strong> to add a new flow to our solution.<\/p>\n

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A new tab will open that will take us to the flow design surface where we can construct our flow and add our related trigger and action(s). Once we are done editing our flow, we can press the Save <\/strong>button to save our flow.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Once we have saved our flow, this flow will be part of our solution.<\/p>\n

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We can repeat these same steps to add subsequent flows to our solution.<\/p>\n

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Exporting our Solution<\/strong><\/p>\n

After validating our flows work in our test environment, we now want to promote it to our production environment. We can export our solution by finding it in our Solutions <\/strong>experience, clicking on the \u2026, selecting Export <\/strong>and then clicking on As unmanaged<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Once we click As unmanaged<\/strong>, a zip file will be made available for us that we can download and store locally.<\/p>\n

Importing our Solution<\/strong><\/p>\n

With our solution exported, we can now import it into another environment, such as a production environment. With our production environment selected from the environment picker, we can now choose to import our package by clicking on the Import <\/strong>button.<\/p>\n

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We now need to browse <\/strong>to select our solution package and then complete the wizard to load the solution.<\/p>\n

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Once we complete the import process, we will find our solution deployed within our new environment.<\/p>\n

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Configuring and Enabling our Solution<\/strong><\/p>\n

With our solution imported, there are still a couple of activities that we must perform:\u00a0<\/p>\n