Extending PowerApps from Application to SharePoint Form

[LachlanB]

Hey everyone

I have a situation where we have built a PowerApps application which uses SharePoint as a backend for storing data. Our expectation was that the client would not need to visit the backend SharePoint to view data as they would use PowerBi for that.

Now we have learned that they would like to access SharePoint - the issue is that we are concerned users may try to create or modify data from the SharePoint list which is using the generic form (We are using special columns on the PowerApp so adding rows in SharePoint via the ootb SharePoint form will likely cause issues).

I have since learned that you can replace the ootb SharePoint form with one from PowerApps. There is some detail to this here

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/canvas-apps/customize-list-form

I need to know how to safely extend the existing PowerApp to also replace the OOTB SharePoint Form? Does the application need to be uploaded & maintained seperately for both the PowerApp and the SharePoint Form? I need some understanding on how this is maintained should there be later updates to the application.

This will allow users to access SharePoint to use views and filters and also protect the integrity of the data should they add or edit records in the SP List.

Thanks

[Egle_Amidus]

Hi @LachlanB , you can create empty customized SharePoint list form and use Launch() function to redirect to your existing app.

[v-yutliu-msft]

Hi @LachlanB ,

SharePoint customized form and app connected with sharepoint list are two different things.

The first one only exists in sharepoint list.

The second one is a standalone app which can interactive data with sharepoint list.

Here's a doc about it, I suggest you read the Q&A component:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/canvas-apps/customize-list-form

As to avoid users to modify data in the sharepoint list, I suggest you set permission to your list.

Only allow them to view the list.

Best regards,

Community Support Team _ Phoebe Liu

[Egle_Amidus]

Setting permissions to View on SharePoint list will not help in this case as the users should be able to edit via standalone PowerApp.

[LachlanB]

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@v-yutliu-msft wrote:

As to avoid users to modify data in the sharepoint list, I suggest you set permission to your list.

Only allow them to view the list.

Hi

This won't work as we need the PowerApp to inherit permissions from the SharePoint list.
I see that I can both build a form in SharePoint as well as the independent PowerApp but I need some best practice for this (my concern is version control between the the 2 forms).

The document linked doesn't particularly go into a lot of detail regarding this.

[LachlanB]

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@Egle_Amidus wrote:

Hi @LachlanB , you can create empty customized SharePoint list form and use Launch() function to redirect to your existing app.

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Thanks for the suggestion. Can this work from a different list? - I am trying to test this approach.

I have App A which is connected to List A and I want a form A to also sit on list A.

Are you suggesting I can test this by having list B & an empty form B that runs the Launch() function to link form B to App A? Or are you suggesting we create an empty form A on List A and link that to App A?

Hope that is easy to understand haha. 

[Egle_Amidus]

Same list - so if your current app is on list A, then you modify list A form with PowerApp and do redirect with launch() function and you'll need to pass SharePointIntegration.Selected.ID as your selected item ID to your current standalone app A. Here is the link to an article where this idea is explained in detail: https://www.sharepointsiren.com/2019/05/opening-powerapp-using-sharepoint-column-formatting-part-2/

[LachlanB]

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@Egle_Amidus wrote:

Same list - so if your current app is on list A, then you modify list A form with PowerApp and do redirect with launch() function and you'll need to pass SharePointIntegration.Selected.ID as your selected item ID to your current standalone app A. Here is the link to an article where this idea is explained in detail: https://www.sharepointsiren.com/2019/05/opening-powerapp-using-sharepoint-column-formatting-part-2/

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Thanks - that sounds like that could be the solution for us! I'll give it a go.