This flow internal template gallery was designed and built in partnership with Daniel Glenn, Office Apps & Services MVP. For more information about the template gallery solution we developed, check out Daniel’s blog post and his Microsoft Ignite 2018 session.
In my earlier post, I laid out a business case for creating an internal Microsoft Flow template gallery for your organization. The internal template gallery enables you to build and share custom Microsoft Flows within your Office 365 tenant. The gallery ensures company data and internal data connections in your flow templates are secure, while safely enabling your users to pool their collective knowledge and avoid re-work in building flows. You can also create a formal approval process for internal flow templates. The process ensures that flow templates are reviewed for accuracy and are appropriate for internal sharing.
But we don’t have to stop there. We can take this template gallery idea several steps farther by creating a Microsoft Flow Resource Community. The resource community can serve as a self-service gathering place for Microsoft Flow users in your organization, complete with links to training resources, Yammer discussion groups, your internal template gallery, etc. The resource community will:
- Promote the use of Microsoft Flow by providing “getting started” materials for new users and a place for advanced users to share what they know
- Support open dialogue and troubleshooting of flow issues
- Prevent users from having to “recreate the wheel” by enabling easy re-use of flow templates
- Provide a browsable interface for reviewing and downloading flow templates
- Enable the submission and approval of flow templates for internal sharing
- Drive engagement and adoption by providing a “community space” for Microsoft Flow
We recommend building your Microsoft Flow Resource Community on a SharePoint Online Communications site. You’ll want to customize the contents of your resource community, but here’s a list of suggestions to get you started:
- Links to internal and external Microsoft Flow resources (e.g. 100-level introduction to flow, Microsoft’s flow guided learning site, the official Microsoft Flow team blog, and the Microsoft Flow Community).
- Events calendar that highlights flow and other Office 365 learning opportunities
- Microsoft Flow internal template gallery
- Instructions on how to download flow templates from the gallery and leverage them to deploy new flows
- Live display of Yammer conversations related to Microsoft Flow
- Links to your Microsoft Flow governance policies
- Information on where people can go to get advanced flow help
Most important–make the site relevant, engaging, and full of great flow content!
Now that we know what a Microsoft Flow Resource Community is, let’s take a look at a sample site.
The home page
We wanted a graphic, engaging home page for our Microsoft Flow Resource Community. The hero web part at the top of the page contains links to various flow learning resources. The remainder of the page includes our flow template catalog, a display of our Microsoft Flow Yammer group, and a list of upcoming Office 365 events. (Note: We elected to use the classic Yammer web part on our site because it enables full engagement. Users can like and comment on Yammer posts directly from the resource community without having to open Yammer in a new browser tab. For more information on the available Yammer web parts and the differencees between them, see my Yammer web part blog post.)
Our flow template catalog is built using a series of News pages–one page for each flow template. News pages are stored in the Site Pages library, and the catalog is displayed on the site home page via the News web part. To help users quickly see which app(s) are included in the flow template, we added an app graphic to each template news page.
Let’s take a look at one of our template news pages in more detail. The banner across the top of the page displays the name of the flow template and the related app(s) the flow uses. Screen shots of the flow are displayed on the left, along with a clickable link to download the flow ZIP file template. A detailed description of the flow is provided on the right. The description pages for all flow templates include the same standard information–a description of how the flow works, a list of the required Office 365 or external application connections that the flow requires (e.g. a valid OneDrive account, a valid Box account, etc.), and a link to instructions on how to use the flow template ZIP file. A comments box at the bottom of the page enables users to comment on each of the templates.
If you want to enable all Microsoft Flow users in your organization to submit workflow templates to your gallery, you may want to consider building out a review and approval process. Consider your must-have safety controls and review requirements as you build out this gatekeeping process. While governance is important, all governance policies and procedures should drive innate value.
We hope this Microsoft Flow Resource Community sparks your creativity. Best of luck in creating a site of your own!
Previous posts in this series:
Sarah Haase 
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