PowerApps and SharePoint: A budding love story
Article by Shinelle Bovell
Cleopatra and Mark Anthony, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, Johnny Cash and June Carter, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, and SharePoint and PowerApps all have one thing is common; they fit together seamlessly. In every love story however, there are tragic moments that pull at the heartstrings. Today we will explore the beautiful yet adolescent relationship between SharePoint and PowerApps.
PowerApps was not SharePoint’s first serious form builder relationship. For those of you that have been following this roller-coaster ride of pairings, you know that InfoPath has been the most prominent partner of SharePoint. InfoPath allowed you to build complex, dynamic forms with rules, repeating tables, Active Directory Integration some seriously awesome customizations. InfoPath, unfortunately, was not the sexy, slinky spouse that the world wanted SharePoint to elope with but developers accepted InfoPath for its personality…..not looks.
Despite the hours/ days/ months/ years of work that SharePoint and InfoPath had put in, they decided to finally call it quits. The InfoPath 2013 Mainstream support end date is July 13th, 2021 with an extended end date of July 14th, 2026. This raises a lot of concerns for SharePoint fans everywhere? Where do I get my form fix now? How can I replicate the same function of InfoPath and improve upon the SharePoint’s User Interface?
Like every single person, there is a checklist that people look for in the perfect partner for their beloved SharePoint. These must have qualities include:
1) Cascading lookups
2) Repeating tables/ combing multiple list
3) Rules to dynamically hide fields
4) Instant calculations based on other fields
5) Business rules
6) Low code implementation
7) Mobile experience
8) Print the form page
9) Identity based form sets: managers may see fields that employees cannot
10) Ease of maintenance
11) Reliable support
There may be some qualities missing in the list above, nevertheless, developers and businesses wanted more from SharePoint’s next great form builder love than what InfoPath offered.
Microsoft, being the powerhouse of technology, would not easily allow SharePoint to run off with some side of the road spouse so they developed PowerApps with the potential to be the perfect mate. PowerApps brings some fascinating fineries to the feast, yet, there are some doubts about this young stud. Firstly, PowerApps is not as pretty as the alternatives and it does take quite a bit of “makeup” to get you excited. Additionally, if repeating tables were a dress, PowerApps is Cinderella before the Fairy God Mother arrives on the scene. In reality, you have to sew Cinderella’s dress yourself, and it takes a copious amount of effort compared to some of the other options like Plumsail and Sintel Forms.
Moreover, why…why…WHYYY do I need to write custom code to save SharePoint multiple choice fields with multiple selections and open text. That was something that was unexpected and Microsoft could have done more to make that feature much easier. One has to initialize an expedition to unearth the knowledge on how to save a multiple choice field with an open text option.
There are however some electric properties of PowerApps that really shine. It enables you to design multiple screens for various functions and it easily connects to Power Automate. These traits come in handy when you are replacing your SharePoint Designer workflows with Power Automate. The ability to build cascading lookup fields was simple and it was thanks to the simple and thorough PowerApps documentation. I would also be remised if I did not mention how painless it was to copy branding elements across PowerApps screens.
SharePoint enthusiasts will continue to look forward to Microsoft’s PowerApps love letters. I personally look forward to improvements in the areas of modifying the form layout, combining multiple lists into one PowerApps, printing abilities and for Heaven’s Sake…..easier repeating tables!