Input Tool in Power Apps

[Anonymous]

Hello All,

I am new to Power Apps and have been assigned to create an Input tool to capture data. Originally it was collected through excel which has 17 columns. Users are expecting similar layout where they can copy paste one field to subsequent rows, while my app allows only one entry at a time. This is already a complex one as I have 3 cascading drop-downs and Validation of all 17 columns. Is there any way to have Excel like look and feel with 17 columns in a gallery where we can copy paste some column data to next rows(like Excel)? 

Ex: I have Product Category and Sub Category and want to add Supplier details which could take any number of rows. That is, I can have 1 or many suppliers for above product and it should appear as:
Product-1 Sub-Cat1 Supplier1 Details1
Product-1 Sub-Cat1 Supplier2 Details2
Product-1 Sub-Cat1 Supplier3 Details3

Product-2 Sub-Cat2 Supplier1 Details1
Product-2 Sub-Cat2 Supplier2 Details2
Product-2 Sub-Cat2 Supplier3 Details3

Data Source : Excel for Drop-downs and SharePoint list as a main data source. However we are supposed to have all data capture on Azure Db.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks & Regards,

S 

[mdevaney]

@Anonymous
No, there is not any way to have Excel like look and feel in PowerApps

The closest thing we have are repeating tables. See this link for a video by Shane Young on how to build them

Link to Video:
https://youtu.be/xgznk4XlPCo

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[Anonymous]

Thank you. 

I already checked his videos but he is using different list for repeating table and I want it in a same list. 

Regards,

S

[WarrenBelz · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous ,

I am going to give you a real left-field solution that we use extensively and effectively for bulk data management.

MS Access connects directly to SharePoint as sees it like any other data source. The Datasheet view looks exactly like an Excel sheet and you can freeze panes, set column widths and decide which columns can be read only or edit. You can also do drop downs with an SQL query from another list and actually have the full power of VBA and SQL at your disposal.

I use Access for a lot of Excel formatted reports directly from SharePoint lists.

I hope this might help you.

Please click Accept as solution if my post helped you solve your issue. This will help others find it more readily. It also closes the item. If the content was useful in other ways, please consider giving it Thumbs Up.

[mogulman · Accepted solution]

I had a similar requirement many years ago.  It was an engineering application that required complex input.  Engineers use Excel.  I created an Excel VBA addin that would create a user workbook.  The addin had forms with comboboxes.  The comboboxes changed based on prior selections.  It would add rows to worksheet.   The user could manually edit a row or edit it with form.  The addin calculated the results and put it on the row.  The engineering data could either be in a local Access DB or a remote Oracle DB.  The user data could be kept in user workbook, saved to another local Access DB or saved to remote Oracle DB.  This allowed offline operation with the capability to later load data to Oracle DB.  Excel VBA is very powerful for creating applications and can easily save data to Azure SQL DB.  The Excel addin had all the VBA code.  The user workbook had no code was very simple.  I had constant updates and I didn't want to obsolete user workbooks.

[WarrenBelz]

Thanks @mogulman ,

Yes VBA and SQL are old but powerful tools. The great thing about the Access datasheet is that it is so easy to set up and modify if required.

[Anonymous]

Thank you @mogulman and @WarrenBelz . Both are great solutions!