SharePoint Consulting Blog

Introduction:

Setting up workflows in Power Automate can take a lot of time, especially when the same workflows need to be recreated every time a new SharePoint site is created.

Instead of manually creating the same workflows repeatedly, you can automate the process. This means that whenever a new SharePoint site is created, the necessary workflows are automatically duplicated and configured without any manual intervention.

In this blog, we will walk through the steps to automatically duplicate Power Automate flows whenever a new SharePoint site is created.

Use case:

One of our clients required that a specific Power Automate flow be automatically replicated whenever a new SharePoint site was created. Manually duplicating the flow each time wasn’t scalable, so we implemented an automated solution.

Architecture Overview:

Here's a high-level overview of the automation process:

Trigger: A new SharePoint site is created.

Retrieve: The definition of the existing (source) flow is fetched.

Update: The flow definition is modified to align with the new site’s parameters.

Recreate: A new flow is created from the modified definition and assigned to the new site.

Step-by-Step Guide to Automating Workflow Duplication

Step 1: Detect New Site Creation

Add a trigger that detects when a new SharePoint site is created.

Step 2: Get the Source Flow(Template Flow)

Use the Power Automate Management connector.

Add the action "Get Flow" to retrieve the definition of the existing (template) flow.

This action returns a JSON object containing the flow’s full definition, including triggers, actions, and metadata.

Step 3: Get Flow Definition and Modify Site-Specific Values

You will now modify the values in the flow definition to suit the new site.

Update the flow definition retrieved from the "Get Flow" action by replacing the template’s Site URL and List Name or Library ID with the values from the newly created SharePoint site.

In Power Automate, this is typically accessed using dynamic content like

string(body('Get_Flow')?['properties']['definition'])

Step 4: Get All Connection References

Use the "Select" action to format the connection references by mapping fields like connectionName, id, and source from the connectionReferences array, These will be used when creating the new flow.

Step 5: Create New Flow in Target Environment

Use the "Create Flow" action from the Power Automate Management connector to create the new flow using the modified definition and updated connection references.

Environment Name: Choose your environment

Flow Display Name: Provide a unique name

Flow Definition: Pass the modified JSON definition from Step 3

Flow State: Set this to control whether the flow is turned on/off after creation

connectionReferences: Pass the formatted connection references from Step 4

Conclusion:

This blog demonstrated how to automate the creation of workflows in Power Automate by duplicating an existing flow. By implementing this automation, you can eliminate repetitive manual setup each time a new SharePoint site is created. This approach not only saves time and reduces the chance of errors but also ensures consistency across all sites.

If you have any questions you can reach out our SharePoint Consulting team here.