Best way to set up a complex "InfoPath like" form in PowerApps that is connected to a Sharepoint List.

[Anonymous]

I'm trying to upgrade a complex form that was set up in InfoPath to PowerApps. So far the experience is incredibly frustrating but I'm not giving up yet.

I'm searching through various forums, tutorials, and youtube videos. Almost everyone creates an example using the build-in "Customize Forms" option where PowerApps generates a mobile phone layout |dry-heave| with a simple form that puts all the fields you have in the SharePoint list in a "nice" /s vertical layout.

This method fails miserably if you have a complex form because:

- For some extremely stupid reason, Microsoft thinks an InfoPath form must have a mobile layout with no option to change to a desktop layout.

- In a form where you have over 50 fields, a simple vertical layout of all the fields is a UI nightmare and a torture for the user that actually uses the form.

So, instead, I created a form manually and adjusted the screen size.

Now, what's the best way to create this custom form? Let's say I have something similar to this form but even more compact and more fields. https://chippaynedesign.com/sharepoint-pricing-form

- I tried to add manually text inputs only to find out that you can't link them to the sharepoint list. 

- I tried to add choice fields from sharepoint and connect it to a drop down only to find out that this is not supported.

So I'm only left to use the "Edit Form" container but it looks like a nightmare to adjust each field because it tries to use the entire width of the screen so I'd literally have to manually enter the width for every single field not to mention that I'd need to add multiple "edit forms" and then submit them all as one form using the "Patch" function. 

Are "edit forms" the way to go in my situation? Why can't I just add manually text boxes all over the form in a layout that makes sense to me and then connect each of those text inputs/boxes to the sharepoint list?

[JasonAlmeida]

Heyo,

I went though a similar experience with a TON of fields and I went down the edit form route too. The main reason was because the edit form handles validation and updates for you. Instead of having to do a Patch, you can use SubmitForm(formName) which saves you a bit of pain having to push through every field.

Yes, forms can be a difficult to work with initially, but they have a fair few options to customise layouts:

- change the number of columns you want in a row to 2/3 if needed

- turn 'Snap to columns' off to let you play with the width of each field/dataCard. this will let you add multiple fields on the same row if needed

- change field label layout from vertical to horizontal

looking at the infopath form, you could achieve that using 7 edit/view Forms.

Hope this helps 🙂