Solutions in Power Platform How to
manage and share
your Designed Solution

Solutions in Power Platform: bundle, manage, maintain and share Projects

Both in Power Apps and in Power Automate you will find the “Solutions” tab. But what kind of solutions are referred to here?

The term “solution” refers to the possibility to bundle a project and centrally manage, maintain and share it. A closer look at the content of the displayed solutions reveals that both paths access the same thing. This means that you can access the same solutions from both Power Apps and Power Automate.

Note: if you cannot find the “Solutions” tab in your environment, you may need to add a Microsoft Dataverse database  to this environment.

One Project: bundling Everything

The first flow you create is easy to handle at the beginning. A single flow can also be easily transferred from the development environment to the production environment in the same tenant, i.e. the company that manages all your clients. However, as soon as a subordinate flow  is added and possibly even a Power Apps app, which is triggered by a flow and also requires another flow for processing, it becomes cluttered.

The best antidote to this is to create order. Everything that belongs together is brought together in one solution.

Tip: Microsoft offers you the learning path Introduction: Planning a Power Automate project , which you can use to extend your knowledge.

Components: Connection References and Environment Variables

Everything you can add to a solution is considered a component. Two essential components are connection references and environment variables. You can find out exactly how to use these and what you need to bear in mind in the following articles. At this point, you will first receive an overview of these two tools.

Connection references allow you to detach objects such as flows or apps from the environment in which they were created. This allows you to specify, for example, that a flow has a connection to Business Central and one to Outlook. During an import, the connection references are then requested so that the imported objects will be aligned with the correct connection in a new environment or a new tenant.

Environment variables are intended to record constant values that can be used in different places across several objects. The Business Central trigger ‘When a record is created’ can be provided with one environment variable for the name of the environment and one for the name of the company. These in turn can also be reused in the action ‘Get record’ in the same place as well as in any subsequent action of Business Central that uses one or both environment variables.

You can create both within your solution and reuse them in different solutions.

Managing your Project

Solutions offer you a way of version management of your project. You can export your solution when you raise the version and store it as a backup in a location of your choice. This makes it possible to revert to a previous version at any time.

Note: to return to an earlier version, delete the current version and re-import the previous one.

A distinction can be made between unmanaged and managed solutions.

Note: if your solution contains environment variables and you are creating a backup, make sure that the “Default value” for the target environment is filled in each environment variable before exporting. This also applies if you want to provide a solution via AppSource  with a prefilled default value. However, if you want new values to be specified during the import, you can leave the “Default value” and “Current value” fields empty. This allows the required data to be entered during the import after the “Select connections” step.

In a managed solution, you do not have the option to adjust these values after the import.

Sharing a Solution

From your development environment, you can export a solution either as “unmanaged” or “managed” - depending on the target of the import. To do this, open the “Solutions” tab and select the solution you want to export. In the dialog box, perform the action “Publish” to ensure that all added components are published. To continue, click on “Next”.

Note: only published components can be exported.

In the next dialog box, you can choose the version number for your solution. Power Automate automatically increments the last value. However, you can decide whether you want to accept this number or assign your own. At this point, you must now make the previously mentioned choice as to whether you want to import the solution into another development environment (= unmanaged) or into another environment such as test or production (= managed). Also check the box to have your solution tested by the “Solution checker”.

As long as the export is being prepared by Power Automate, the following display appears above the solution overview.

If the export was successful, download your solution using the “Download” button.

Next, you can import your solution into another environment. To do this, change the environment and open the “Solutions” tab again. Then click on “Import solution” in the top ribbon and select your exported solution.

If you continue with “Next”, you will see a summary of the environment into which you want to import as well as the solution with its version number.

In the next step, select the necessary connections for the solution or create new connections - if these do not already exist. To do this, click on “New connection”, follow the steps in Power Apps and log in with your access data. As soon as the new connection has been created, you can close the Power Apps window and return to Power Automate. Confirm the displayed dialog with “Update” to accept the newly created connection and repeat the process for all requested connections.

As soon as your solution has been successfully imported, it is ready to use.

When a Solution is the Solution to the Mess

This concept for project management can be extremely helpful to keep an overview. The more you work with the Power Platform, the more flows, apps and dashboards you create and maintain, the more it makes sense to manage your individual projects as a solution. This way, everything that belongs to a specific project is located in one place and can be centrally administered and maintained there. You also have the option of saving and sharing your projects with versions.