How to change an existing SharePoint Canvas Power App data source to use environmental variables instead

[DS2]

We have a test Canvas Power App in a solution with Flows that currently uses SharePoint as a data source, and this test App is in a personal development environment. We would like to export it for use in DEV, QA and PROD Power Platform environments and use separate SharePoint lists for each environment. We did not add environmental variables to the Power App in the beginning but would like to set variables for the SharePoint Site and List. 
I read the documentation here: Use data source environment variables in canvas apps - Power Apps | Microsoft Learn on the creation of environmental variables, but am struggling to see if the data source is already created how to change it to use environmental variables instead as there are many connection throughout many screens. 

Does anyone have any instructions on how to change to using SharePoint environmental variables for the data source for an existing Canvas App? We also have Flows associated to the App that would need to be changed as well. 

[iAm_ManCat]

This is simply not true and you are creating confusion with your responses. We have created many applications using environment variables as datasources and the documentation clearly states what implications that has - do you not read the documentation?

The old way of doing things would result in premium due to its requirement of pulling environment variables via the dataverse table, however this has been possible for a long time to do via the studio itself. 

Please stop giving users answers that are very easy to prove wrong. You have literally said you didn't try it - do you hear how bad that sounds that you and your colleagues couldn't even put in the effort to test an answer that you are giving? You could have spent 2 minutes creating a solution that uses env variables as datasources to test it but instead you are arguing with someone who genuinely needs advice here.

Please do better.

[iAm_ManCat · Accepted solution]

Hey @DS2 

Yes you can convert from standard SharePoint datasource to using environment variables - sometimes its a bit of pain when the names don't exactly match but luckily Power Apps has Find-and-Replace.

Take your existing app, add it to a solution, create the environment variables you'll need for the solution - you'll need one for each site and then one for each list used within each site (as the list env vars use the site env vars as a 'base' of sorts). In my example I will use a single site and two lists within it, that are both part of an app:

Create a site environment variable in the solution you created to add the app to, and add to it the current site value (the site value in this environment):

Then do the the same for the lists, choosing the Site Environment variable for the site when setting up the list environment variable, and setting up the current value to point at the list you are creating the variable for:

Then select to edit your app from the solution:

Once in the app, select the datasource option from the left rail and then the ellipsis next to each datasource and select remove (ignore all the errors that come up, those will be dealt with when we add them back via environment variables):

Then select Add Data either from the option the datasource list or the big button (if you removed all datasources), choose SharePoint and your connection:

Then, when it asks to connect to the SharePoint site, choose Advanced:

Then select the site environment variable we set up in the earlier steps:

Then it will ask you to choose a list, make sure to click Advanced again:

Check the boxes for the list variables we set up in the earlier steps then click Connect:

Now, we can see them listed by the Environment variable name in your datasource list and most, if not all, of our errors are solved:

If you've used a lot of custom code, you may need to use the search-and-replace function (bottom left of rail) to replace the old name with the new environment variable name - replace the old name including its single quotes with the new name, in our example here that would be:

'All Data Types'

with

AllDataTypes_ListEnvVar

We can then look at the app details to confirm it is still designated as non-premium 🙂

Hope this helps solve your situation, and apologies for your previous experience on the forums, not everyone on here is the same 💜

Cheers,

Sancho

[DS2]

@iAm_ManCat - I can't thank you enough for taking the time to lay this all out in your wonderfully detailed step by step with images instructions. I worked with the end user of the App this morning and we have successfully got the App and Flows using the environmental variables rather than the SharePoint data source. I learned a lot going through this process! We are unstuck and are most grateful - and thanks to you, my faith in the forums is restored!❤️