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How can I protect a flow from changes, misuse, or copying?

How can I protect a flow from changes, misuse, or copying?

Kim_Eriksen
Shopify Partner
8 0 3

Hi, 

I would like to protect a flow from changes / misuse / copy. Is there any way to do this?
Any plans for this in the future?

/Kim

Replies 4 (4)

paul_n
Shopify Staff
1429 156 330

Not currently, other than limiting which users can access the Flow app. How would you want to do that ideally?

Paul_N | Flow Product Manager @ Shopify
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Kim_Eriksen
Shopify Partner
8 0 3

Hi Paul, thanks for the quick reply!

 

Ideally the option to make a setting on any flow:

-private (only creator can see and edit)

-shared (select users that can see/edit)

-public (default, everybody with access to flow can see/edit)

Admin can always disable or delete (but not see/edit)

 

The above would also make it more interesting for partners to create more advanced flows for clients (avoiding duplication by other collaborators). 

 

...but I would also be happy with a simple password protection 😊

 

/Kim

paul_n
Shopify Staff
1429 156 330

The merchant-partner angle is more complicated. Are you an agency partner or an app? 

 

A couple of quick reactions:

Currently partners cannot build workflows for merchants that the partner fully controls. So there isn't much use in worrying about visibility. 

 

For merchants, it's dangerous to fully hide workflows because they can impact what other people build and cause issues troubleshooting. 

 

Paul_N | Flow Product Manager @ Shopify
- Finding Flow useful? Leave us a review
- Need Flow help? Check out our help docs.
- Building for Flow? Check out Flow's dev docs.
Kim_Eriksen
Shopify Partner
8 0 3

I'm asking for a friend 🙃

 

Flow is so powerful - but not many merchants can use flow.

An agency partner could solve a lot of things creating personalised flows for merchants... but they hold back because they see the work being copied by other collaborators. They end up building unlisted apps instead - which works perfectly, but is more expensive for the merchants.

 

I totally see the issue with private flows. Bad creators would be able to do bad stuff... but don't let the bad people win (it is only 4%).

 

I don't have a perfect solution, but I think flow could be even bigger with some sort of privacy/security option.