Power Apps – Manage Attachments of SharePoint On-Premises List Item

[ShriramP]

In Power Apps, through on-premises data gateway, we can establish connections with SharePoint On-Premises servers like 2013, 2016 and 2019 and can connect to SharePoint OnPremise Lists.

But there is one problem.

SharePoint OnPremise List Item’s “Attachments” field is not supported in Power Apps forms. Whereas “Attachments” field is supported with SharePoint Online Lists.

There is an idea posted here in MS Power Apps comminity portal. But this feature is not yet availble.

Meanwhile, to address this problem, I worked on one custom “Attachment sync solution” which I hope will help many of you out there who are struggling with this problem.

Though SP OnPremise List “Attachments” field is not supported in Power Apps, it is supported in Power Automate.

So, the idea is, using 2 separate Power Automate flows, we will sync attachments from “SharePoint OnPremise List Item to SharePoint Online List Item” and vice versa.

This process diagram will help you to understand the “Attachment Sync Solution”.

Image – Process Diagram

Let’s go through steps one by one to implement this process and show “SharePoint 2016 (OnPremise) List Item attachments” on Power Apps.

Step 1: Create test list (named “testlist”) in SharePoint 2016 (or any SharePoint OnPremise server, 2013/2016/2019) as mentioned in Image 1.

Image 1

Step 2: Enable Attachments on the test list from Advanced settings.

Image 2

Step 3: Add sample data to the test list.

Image 3

Step 4: Create test list in SharePoint Online (named as “SharePoint 2016 List Items Attachments”)

Note: This SP Online list will hold Attachments for “SharePoint 2016 List Item”, where SP 2016 list item ID will be stored in Title column here. Attachments (for specific SP 2016 list item) from this SP Online list will be shown in Power Apps screen.

Image 4

Step 5: Enable Attachments in this SP Online list.

Image 5

Step 6: Data in SP Online list will look like this when it is updated by 2 Sync Flows, which we will talk in next steps.

Image 6

Step 7: Create On-Premises Data Gateway and SharePoint Connections.

Open Power Apps or Power Automate Portal.

Create SharePoint Online Connection.

Create SharePoint 2016 (OnPremise) Connection using SharePoint On-Premises Data Gateway.

Detailed steps are mentioned here in MS documents about how to create connection with On-Premise Data Gateway.

Image 7

Step 8: Attachment Sync - Flow 1 (From SP 2016 to SP Online list item)

Type: Automated Flow

Trigger: When an item is created or modified (SharePoint)

Connection: SharePoint On-Premises Data Gateway Connection

Please carefully go through each step’s mentioned in Image 8 and you will understand how it is implemented. It is straightforward.

In short, it gets attachments from SP 2016 list item and store in SP Online list item.

• If item already exist in SP Online list, then first delete all attachments from SP Online list item and then add attachments to existing SP Online list item.
• If item does not exist in SP Online list, then create SP Online list item and add attachments to that newly created item in SP Online list.

Image 8

Step 9: Attachment Sync - Flow 2 (From SP Online to SP 2016 list item)

Type: Automated Flow

Trigger: When an item is created or modified (SharePoint)

Connection: SharePoint Online Connection

Please carefully go through each step’s mentioned in Image 9 and you will understand how it is implemented. It is straightforward.

In short, it gets attachments from SP Online list item and store in SP 2016 list item.

• If item already exist in SP 2016 list, then first delete all attachments from SP 2016 list item and then add attachments to existing SP 2016 list item.
• If item does not exist in SP 2016 list, then terminate flow. It might be that list item is deleted from SP 2016 list.

Image 9

Step 10: Create new Canvas Power Apps and add Connections.

Open https://make.powerapps.com

Create new Canvas Power Apps.

Add SharePoint Online and SharePoint 2016 list connections.

Image 10

Step 11: Select “List” template from “New screen” action to create a Browse Screen.

Image 11

Step 12: Set Browse screen gallery with SP 2016 list items. Set “OnSelect” and “Items” properties of gallery as mentioned in Image 12

Image 12

Step 13: Select “Form” template for “Display Item, Edit Item, Display Attachments, Edit Attachments” screens as mentioned in Image 13

Image 13

Step 14: Set Display Form properties with SP 2016 list item as mentioned in Image 14

Image 14

Step 15: in Display screen, Add Attachment icon and set “OnSelect” action in Display Screen as mentioned in Image 15

Image 15

Step 16: In Display Attachments screen, set Display Attachment Form with selected SP Online list item and show only Attachment field. Please refer Image 16.

Image 16

Step 17: In Display Form screen, set Edit icon’s “OnSelect” action as mentioned in Image 17.

Image 17

Step 18: In Edit screen, set Edit Form properties with SP 2016 list item as mentioned in Image 18.

Image 18

Step 19: In Edit screen, set Edit Form’s “Item” property as item selected from Gallery control (of Browse screen) with SP 2016 list item and Set DefaultMode as FormMode.Edit as mentioned in Image 19.

Image 19

Step 20: In Edit screen, set “Attachment” icon’s “OnSelect” action as mentioned in Image 20. (Note: “New Form” case is also hanlded with Edit Form.)

Image 20

Step 21: In Edit Attachments screen, set Edit Attachment Form properties with selected SP Online list item and show only Attachment field. Set Default Mode as FormMode.Edit. Please refer Image 21.

Image 21

Step 22: In Edit Attachments screen, set “Accept” icon’s “OnSelect” action as mentioned in Image 22.

 

Image 22

Done!

Now Save, Publish and Run the Power Apps app in new browser tab.

Attachments will be visible in Power Apps like this.

Image 23

 

Image 24

Happy Learning, Anywhere! 🙂

[v-jefferni]

Bravo! Thank you so much for this useful solution!

Best regards,

[ShriramP]

Thank you @v-jefferni 🙂