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We have a development SharePoint online site >> and its lists' forms have been customized using Nintex forms. Now we are on the stage of converting the Nintex forms to Power Apps. and we have 2 approaches to follow:-

  1. Customizing the SharePoint list forms using Power Apps, as follow:-

enter image description here

  1. Build a Standalone Canvas App, and use the build-in SharePoint lists' forms as is.

but we have the following issues:-

  1. If we follow the first approach >> then when we finalize the development work on the development site and we need to create the live site >> then we will have to rebuild the customized forms, as currently there is not a way to export and import the customized Power Apps forms.

  2. If we follow the second approach to be able to import and export the power apps from dev to live >> then users can still interact with the SharePoint lists using the SharePoint built-in forms, so any business logic implemented inside Power Apps (like cascading drop-downs, hiding fields, make fields as disabled) can be over passed by users when they create or edit list items using SharePoint built-in forms.

so how we can fix these issues? for example is this scenario achievable:-

To build power apps standalone apps >> so we can Export and Import them between different sites >> then inside the standalone app to define deep linking >> and finally , to define a redirect from SharePoint list to the standalone app. So if the user click on edit link inside SharePoint list view Or click on the edit button or click on New button, as follow:-

enter image description here

to redirect the users to the standalone power app instead of opening the built-in forms? is this approach achievable? if not then which approach of the above 2 approaches we should follow? and why?

Thanks in advance for any help.

1 Answer 1

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H.e.l.l.o. there :)

I think your train of thought are correct here: the forms app is in my mind for smaller customization or a smaller app. Its not for enterprise level app where you need a more robust setup (ownership, backup, moving through environments etc).

And yes, the users can still use the out of the box sharepoint list features. However, you can hide the list and parent site for the end users, and only let them interact with the items on that list through the app that you build. This also gives you the ability to add logic and business support not only when creating items. This also gives the users the same UI/UX when they create items/edit items.

If users need to see the list, you can insert a link in a column (with json formatting), that will open your app and send the corresponding list item id along in the url as a parameter, which you can use in the app to open up a specific form for instance in edit mode for that particular item.

I dont think anyway will recommend using a Power App form app in this scenario. I would never recommend a form app in any case.

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  • hiding the list is a bad approach as we still want the users to search,filter & extract the list items using SharePoint built-in features...
    – John John
    Feb 11, 2022 at 19:37
  • also inserting a link in a column (with json formatting) to redirect to power apps.. will not prevent the users from using the built-in New & Edit buttons and links!
    – John John
    Feb 11, 2022 at 19:40
  • Let the users search, filter and extract from the app. The hybrid scenario you desire would require taking over the list all together with an spfx solution just to host a low code form for creating list items.... Enjoy the low code and live with the constraints that in this case can easily be rebuild in the power app (search, filter, extract + much much more).
    – RuneBH
    Feb 11, 2022 at 20:40
  • but if i hide the list then we will lose the advantages of having SharePoint at the first place... so we will have to re-implement the whole functionalities inside Power apps which is an unnecessary work... since SharePoint provide all this for us out of the box..
    – John John
    Feb 11, 2022 at 20:54

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