Auto-activate Power Automate Flow during Solution import

Update: New concept called "Connection References" is in public preview and is particularly useful when moving flows across environments, updating flow definitions, automating deployment pipelines for secure, and healthy Application Lifecycle Management. Read this introduction blog post and how to use blog post to learn more.

Solution-awareness for Flow was introduced about a year ago. You might have explored or noticed Solutions in the left navigation in Power Automate designer. Since initial release, solution-awareness for the Flow has been enhanced to improve Application Lifecycle Management of Flows using CDS.

This ALM improvement partially addresses a concern I heard from a customer using Flow. The concern: “Each Flow needs wiring-up connections for trigger(s) and action(s) while importing in target environment”. I can relate with developers coming from CDS world, “hey, legacy workflows get activated during Solution import, why this need for re-wiring”.

Answer is in two parts in my opinion:

1. Flow can include connectors interacting with external systems. Re-wiring connector is environment owners’ authorization for allowing data streams "from" and/or "to" the external system(s).
2. The ALM of solution-aware Flow mentioned earlier improves the way solution-aware Flow work. Flow that use Common Data Service (current environment) connector can be automatically activated after you import a Solution into an environment.

When you build the Flow, use the new Common Data Service (current environment) connector for all your actions and triggers. Common Data Service (current environment) connector is different than using Common Data Service connector and choosing (Current) from Environment drop down. Refer the screenshots:

To differentiate easily, the actions and triggers for this Common Data Service (current environment) doesn’t have the drop down to choose Environment, here is a screenshot:

You have to start from within a Solution in order to use the Common Data Service (current environment) connector as this connector is available only within a Solution. 

A Flow that use connectors other than the Common Data Service (current environment) require re-wiring connection(s) and activation, which is an intentional measure to avoid unintended integrations with external systems.

Hope this helps!

Bhavesh Shastri