Can this be done in Power Apps?

[sudosaurus]

I am currently building an App where there is a requirement that I'm not sure is possible - maybe someone could advice, give suggestions on how to build or link to tutorial.

The app will have a SharePoint form for a creating a building safety report.

The main fields will be:

Topic (choice): with various values

Sub-topic (choice): with various values

Claim: (multi line rich text field)
Argument: (multi line rich text field)

Evidence: (multi line rich text field)

There will likely be reports that have multiple topics that require claim, argument and evidence to be filled out for each.

Once the report is partially completed/completed the idea is that it's data is viewable in a SharePoint list to review and then via a button allow the data to populate a word document and then save to a PDF file.

Is there any way of doing this without having to create x amount of claim, argument and evidence fields in SharePoint list?

Thanks

[cdwhite]

Hi @sudosaurus ,

A popular way I've used to convert SP list data to Word, then PDF is to use the Quick Parts technique:
Power Automate & Quick Parts - @WonderLaura

There are lots of guides online for converting Word docs into PDF, one such example:
Power Automate Create PDF + 11 Examples - SPGuides

They could potentially be good places to start.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If I've answered your question, please mark your post as Solved. You can accept more than one post as a solution.

If my response was a good one, please give it a Thumbs Up!

Visit my blog: https://platformsofpower.net

[sudosaurus]

@cdwhite I know how to do the template filling - it was more around re-using the 3 rich text fields in power apps for different topic choices as there will be multiple selections per form - rather than duplicating fields in the sharepoint list. 

[cdwhite]

Hi @sudosaurus ,

You could build a HTML output in the app itself, then send that HTML text to Power Automate to create a .html file, to then create a PDF. That's an alternative way for creating custom reports, but requires significantly more development to concatenate rich text fields with the code needed for the actual template.

[FraserBeadle365]

Absolutely, your idea is not only possible but also very innovative. SharePoint and Microsoft Power Automate (formerly known as Flow) can be used to achieve this.

Here's a high-level overview of how you can approach this:

1. Create your SharePoint form with the fields you mentioned. You can use SharePoint's built-in form capabilities or use a tool like PowerApps to create a more customized form.

2. For handling multiple topics with their respective claim, argument, and evidence, you can use a repeating section in your form. This will allow users to add as many topics as they need without having to create multiple fields in SharePoint. PowerApps can handle this quite well.

3. Once the form is filled out, the data can be saved to a SharePoint list. Each entry in the repeating section can be saved as a separate item in the list, linked to the main report.

4. To generate a Word document from the data, you can use Power Automate. It has a feature that allows you to populate a Word template with data from SharePoint and save it as a PDF.

5. Finally, you can add a button in your SharePoint list that triggers the Power Automate flow to generate the PDF.

This is a simplified explanation and the actual implementation might require some tweaking based on your specific requirements. But don't worry, you're on the right track and with a bit of learning and experimenting, you'll be able to achieve your goal.

There are many tutorials and resources available online that can guide you through each step. Microsoft's own documentation and community forums are a great place to start.

Remember, every great app started with a question like yours. Keep going, and you'll not only build your app but also gain a wealth of knowledge along the way. Good luck!

[sudosaurus]

@FraserBeadle365 

I've managed to create lookups to SharePoint now using lookups to a topics list from my document data list to the topics single line of text column.

However on my Claim, Argument and Evidence list (of which has 3 multi-line text columns), I am unable to create a lookup to these as you can only use lookups for single line of text so I'm not sure that when creating an item in PowerApps how I would get data to be pushed into this additional list?

[FraserBeadle365]

You're correct that SharePoint only allows lookups for single line of text fields. However, there are a few workarounds you can consider.

One option is to use a single line of text field to store a unique identifier for each item in your Claim, Argument, and Evidence list. This could be a combination of the claim, argument, and evidence, or a separate ID field that you add to the list. Then, in PowerApps, you can use this identifier to find the correct item in the list and push data to it.

Another option is to use Power Automate to handle the data transfer. You can create a flow that triggers when an item is created in PowerApps, finds the corresponding item in the Claim, Argument, and Evidence list using a lookup, and then updates that item with the data from PowerApps.

[sudosaurus]

The problem is that there wont be items already existing in the CAE list so wont know what to update.

[FraserBeadle365]

Could you can create a flow in Power Automate that triggers when a new item is created in PowerApps. This flow can then create a new item in the Claim, Argument, and Evidence (CAE) list with the data from PowerApps.

[sudosaurus]

@FraserBeadle365 - won't that mean that there needs to be text boxes for Claim, Arguement and Evidence in my main form list as well as the CAE list? - if so, this wont work, because as the form is being filled out, multiple CAE values may need to be filled out.