NestedWorkflow Error Solution in Power Automate Child Flows

Understanding 'NestedWorkflowDoesNotContainResponseAction' in Child Flows

The blog post written by Rajeev Pentyala describes the issue he encountered while implementing a Power Automate Child Flows scenario. The error was titled 'NestedWorkflowDoesNotContainResponseAction'.

He narrates about creating a system managing student enrollments using two Dataverse tables, namely Students and Enrollments. His process involved creating two flows; a Parent flow ('Enrollment Process') and a Child flow ('Complete Enrollment').

The 'Complete Enrollment' flow reads data in the form of comma-separated email identifiers, processes them, and creates Enrollment records. The author takes you through setting up the child flow, naming it 'Child - Complete Enrollment', detailing each action used along the way.

Following the creation of the child flow, the process moved to setting up the Parent flow named 'Enrollment Process'. This is an instant flow that triggers the child flow, reading parameters from it, and passing them to the 'Child - Complete Enrollment' flow.

Upon setting up these two flows, we are met with the error message 'NestedWorkflowDoesNotContainResponseAction'.

Displaying exceptional problem-solving, the author highlights the issue was a missing 'Response' action in the child flow. He rectified the issue by adding 'Respond to a Power App or flow' action, effectively resolving the error.

This particular post, written in simple language, not only illustrates how to create a child and parent flow using Power Automate but provides a detailed solution to fix an error message that may arise during the process.

It's an informative read for anyone interested in automating processes and encountering similar technical challenges.

• The blog illustrated the use of Power Automate Child Flows.
• It showed how to create and comprehend the interaction between 'Parent' and 'Child' flows.
• It demonstrated a precise solution to an error that may arise during the process.
• The error was fixed by adding a 'Respond to a Power App or flow' action.

Digging Deeper into Power Automate Child Flows

Power Automate Child Flows provide an efficient way to create complex workflows by breaking them down into more manageable sub-flows or tasks. Each child flow can be triggered by a parent flow, allowing for a more modular and organized workflow design.

Typically used for repeating or common tasks, Child Flows can help to simplify the design of large and complex flows, enhancing readability, and maintainability. By effectively managing the interaction between parent and child flows, users can handle errors and exceptions easily.

Getting acquainted with this feature can significantly enhance your workflow automation capabilities, especially when dealing with complex processes that necessitate data parsing from multiple sources like in our author's case, managing a student enrollment system.

Read the full article Power automate | Child flows | ‘NestedWorkflowDoesNotContainResponseAction’ error

Learn about Power automate | Child flows | ‘NestedWorkflowDoesNotContainResponseAction’ error

If you've come across the error 'NestedWorkflowDoesNotContainResponseAction' while running a child flow in automated setups, this article is a helpful guide on how to navigate it. The error usually occurs during the implementation of Power Automate child flows. The detailed step-by-step instructions provided herein will help you understand and fix the error more efficiently.

First, let's start by understanding what the scenario is about. It involves two Dataverse tables, namely Students and Enrollments, with the Enrollments table having a lookup column of the Students table. In this setup, the flow receives interested students' EmailIds for enrollment in a comma-separated format. It then proceeds to read the emails and create Enrollments records. Two flows get created in the process, namely, the Parent – Enrollment Process and Child – Complete Enrollment flows.

In a nutshell, the Parent – Enrollment Process triggers the child flow by passing comma-separated Email Ids. On the other hand, the Child – Complete Enrollment reads the comma-separated Email Ids passed by the Parent flow and creates rows in the Enrollments table.

To create the above scenario, we need to either connect to the PowerApps maker portal or the automated system portal. Pick an existing solution or create a new one, keeping in mind that the setup works only when creating flows from solutions.

Let’s focus on creating the ‘Child flow (Child – Complete Enrollment)’ first. This flow involves reading comma-separated email ids and creating records in the Enrollment table. It involves creating an Instant flow and adding two input parameters to read the EmailId's passed from the Parent flow.

• InterestedEmails: Comma-separated Email of interested Students to enroll.
• UninterestedEmails: Comma-separated Email of uninterested Students to enroll.

The Split function, coupled with Apply to each, comes in handy for reading the comma separated Email ids to an array. An array of interested Student Email Ids is obtained after applying the Split function.

The next step involves fetching the matching Student record by 'Email Id' from the Dataverse, which necessitates the List Rows action. A 'Student' lookup is needed to create the 'Enrollment' record. List Rows action comes in handy as GetStudentbyEmail and filter rows, with 'Email Id' from Split Function.

With the matching 'Student' (from GetStudentbyEmail) now in possession, creating the 'Enrollment' record using the Add a new row action becomes possible. Lastly, the flow gets saved.

Let’s now switch to creating the Parent flow (Parent – Enrollment Process). Unlike the child flow, the parent flow can be of any type, including Automated, Instant, or Scheduled. For this example, an Instant flow gets created with two input parameters. By adding a 'Run a Child Flow' action and selecting our ‘Child – Complete Enrollment’ flow, passing required parameters to the Child flow becomes feasible through parameters of 'Parent – Enrollment Process'.

Now, let's address the ‘NestedWorkflowDoesNotContainResponseAction’ error. Notably, if you open the ‘Flow Checker’ of the ‘Parent – Enrollment Process’ you will notice an error "Update the child flow for action ‘Run_a_Child_Flow’ to end with a response action". This error occurs because the Child flow must have either one of the two following actions:

• Respond to a Power App or flow (under the Power Apps connector)
• Response (on the premium HTTP request/response connector)

To rectify this, open the ‘Child – Complete Enrollment’ flow and add Respond to a Power App or flow action. After saving the 'Child – Complete Enrollment' flow, the ‘NestedWorkflowDoesNotContainResponseAction’ error should be resolved.

In conclusion, implementing child flows in automated environments can encounter issues like the ‘NestedWorkflowDoesNotContainResponseAction’ error. However, with a step-by-step approach as outlined above, it's possible to tackle such issues head-on and ensure seamless operations.

More links on about Power automate | Child flows | ‘NestedWorkflowDoesNotContainResponseAction’ error

Power automate | Child flows

Mar 15, 2023 — While running a Power automate Child Flows scenario, encountered the following exception. NestedWorkflowDoesNotContainResponseAction.

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Apr 26, 2021 — 1. Re-create the child flows again. 2. If you have too many child flows to recreate then raise a ticket with Microsoft support.

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Nov 10, 2021 — When you create Child flows in Power automate and your child flow fails, you will find that the parent flow will retry your child flow a number ...

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