Configure forms and rules in Microsoft Lists
Published Jan 25 2021 08:00 AM 61.6K Views
Microsoft

Going beyond the out-of-box experience doesn’t always require coding or separate tools. With Microsoft Lists, you can further customize forms and notifications with a few clicks, or a copy/paste of JSON code. Both capabilities are now rolling out into Microsoft 365.

 

Watch @Chakkaradeep (Chaks) Chinnakonda Chandran, senior program manager on the Microsoft Lists engineering team, as he provides a 10-minute demo of what you can do with Lists rules and forms customization:

 

 

Writing rules as easy as point-and-clicking structured sentences [Roadmap ID: 64163 – rolling out]

Create simple if/then rules, based on changes to list information, to set reminders and send notifications. Users with edit permissions on the list can create and manage rules. Users with read-only permissions can’t create or manage rules. Once the feature is available to your users, they’ll be able to create a rule by selecting Automate and then Create a rule in the list command bar near the top of the page.

 

Click the Automate drop-down menu, and then select “Create a rule” to begin creating rules for your list.Click the Automate drop-down menu, and then select “Create a rule” to begin creating rules for your list.

Create your rule(s) is like writing a sentence. Select each of the underlined portions of the rule statement to customize the condition by choosing a column, the value of the column, and who to notify.Create your rule(s) is like writing a sentence. Select each of the underlined portions of the rule statement to customize the condition by choosing a column, the value of the column, and who to notify.

 

JSON list form customization: footer, header, body text [Roadmap ID: 63519 – rolling out]

You can configure the list form in a list or library with a custom header, footer, and the form body with one or more sections with fields in each of those sections. The form configuration does not change the data in the list item or file; it only changes how the form is displayed to users who browse the list or library. Anyone who can create and manage views in a list can use form configuration to configure the form with header, footer, and body with sections.

 

A Microsoft Lists form configured with a custom header (the calendar icon plus text incorporating Title field), a custom layout (expanded left-to-right to show more), and a custom footer (here adding a link to a related site). Small meta-note: this is the list item from our internal roadmap list to track this exact roadmap feature and Chakkaradeep is our lead PM.A Microsoft Lists form configured with a custom header (the calendar icon plus text incorporating Title field), a custom layout (expanded left-to-right to show more), and a custom footer (here adding a link to a related site). Small meta-note: this is the list item from our internal roadmap list to track this exact roadmap feature and Chakkaradeep is our lead PM.

Edit form > Configure layout. To configure a form, you will use JSON formatters that you are already familiar with when formatting a column or a view in a list or library. Form configuration allows for certain predefined elements and attributes to build the custom header, footer, and body with one or more sections.

 

Learn more (docs.microsoft.com) including sample JSON for header, footer, and body sections for your forms. Plus, Microsoft senior partner technical architect, April Dunnam, recently published a ‘how to’ blog + video + samples, "Customize SharePoint Forms with JSON" (April’s 'ListFormatting' repository in GitHub).

 

To learn more about Lists throughout the year, please visit our Lists help and learning site, plus our updated Microsoft Lists resource center (adoption materials, blogs, demos, videos, podcasts, and more).

 

Track what matters most. Make a list, and let it flow.

 

Thanks, Mark Kashman – senior product manager – Microsoft 365

34 Comments

Cool updates...Microsoft lists are growing very fast!
Here's my blog on: Rules in SharePoint Online/Microsoft Lists 

Copper Contributor

Hi - i still can't see the rules function in Lists (27 January 2021).  when will this be available?  Thanks, Lauren

@laurenwilson 

List rules feature is still showing status as In development and gradually rolling out to targeted release tenants.

You'll have to wait until it shows up in your tenant.

Copper Contributor

@Mark Kashman When you configure the form layout for the body, can you only add sections and define fields within those sections? The header and footer allow you to add some style JSON. Similarly, I would like to add JSON that defines how one field is displayed within the body. Specifically, I would like to have a "multiple lines of text" field display all text within the field and not just a few lines with a "see more" button.

@msullivan-csulb Yes, currently body configuration only allows defining one or more sections and adding one or more columns into each of those sections.

For more information check documentation at: Configure the list form 

 

Hoping to have more functionalities added to body section in near future!

Microsoft

@msullivan-csulb - ☝ What @ganeshsanap said. The documentation has some nice samples - including what you're looking to accomplish. Plus, check out @April Dunnam's video, "Customize SharePoint Forms with JSON" with her samples here: 'ListFormatting' repository in GitHub. Cheers, Mark  

Microsoft

@laurenwilson - Rules are not fully rolled out. It will be ~ 2-3 weeks until we near 100% WW release. Adding @Chakkaradeep (Chaks) Chinnakonda Chandran who may be able to share more. Once available, you'll see it within Lists from Lists home and from SharePoint - within the "Automate" drop-down menu; the team is working on exposing rules when working on Lists in Teams soon. Thanks, Mark 

@laurenwilson Rules are close to being released to all Microsoft 365 tenants. We will update once it is available to all. Thank you!

@Mark Kashman

I have been playing with list rules in one of my tenant and found that site visitors (read permissions on site as well as lists) can create list rules, edit/delete list rules created by others. This doesn’t seem like the way it should work ("Users with edit permissions on the list can create and manage rules. Users with read-only permissions can’t create or manage rules"). Is this a bug?

Microsoft

Hi @ganeshsanap - seeing if my peer, @Chakkaradeep (Chaks) Chinnakonda Chandran can help review and respond. Thanks, Mark 

Copper Contributor

I'm curious to learn more about how multiple rules interact.  For example, I set up two rules: one to notify me when a new item is created, and another rule to notify me when a people-picking column has my name in it.  When I created a new item with my name in the column, I only received the first notification.  Is that the intention?

Copper Contributor

Referring to "Users with edit permissions on the list can create and manage rules. Users with read-only permissions can’t create or manage rules" does this mean users with contribute permissions cannot create / manage rules?

Copper Contributor

What permission level is required to Configure or Edit a List Form?

Copper Contributor

So I am able to create a list (which by the way is super easy). I also created 4 rules for the list. None of the rules will work. Rules: 1. Let me know when and event is created. 2. Let the person know who created reported the event 3. Let the me know when the column is resolved. 4. Let the person who reported the event know the status is resolved. None of the rules will run.

 

Is this product still being worked on? 

Copper Contributor

Although I am the one creating the list I don't see the options to edit.  Is that something I can turn on and off? 

Copper Contributor

I am testing the rules functionality. I am trying to create the following rule: "When column 1 IS NOT NULL, send email to column 2". I am not able to make this rule working. I am presuming I am using the wrong word for the NULL (BLANK, EMPTY) value for the column 1 attribute. I am not able to find anywhere how empty cell is being referred to at Lists. Thank you so much for your help. Vera 

Brass Contributor

So rules don't yet support the following types of columns:

  • Managed Metadata
  • Lookup
  • Calculated
  • Choice, Person or Group, Task Outcome that allow multiple selections

Where can we find out more details about which of these column types will be supported in the future, or will never be supported?

@Justin Huang Rules support choice & person or group columns in few conditions. You can find complete list of supported/unsupported column types at the end of this article: Rules in SharePoint Online/Microsoft Lists 

Steel Contributor

I'm assuming this is known, but there continues to be theming problems when using the calendar view of lists in Teams.  Dark mode uses a text color that is unreadable for items.

Brass Contributor

@ganeshsanap thanks for the link to your blog post, however what I am looking for is the roadmap information of "when, or never", where the M365 roadmap lacks of such details:

  • if we know some column types will never be supported, then we would be able to better design our Lists with some workaround data structure to avoid these column types;
  • if we know some column types will be supported roughly in a certain time frame (in a few months, vs in a few years), then we factor in Microsoft's development timeline, and make an informed decision according to our own needs, whether to wait or implement with some workaround;

Otherwise it would be a waste of time to be left hanging with the vague phrase "currently".

@Justin Huang Agree, you might want to create a support ticket with Microsoft for such information.

Brass Contributor

@Mark Kashman Rules can only contain email addresses from a member or guest account in the tenant, right? 

 

I can share a list with any email address I like, so it should be possible to also notify these email addresses that I shared the list with, right?

 

 

Microsoft

Hi @Gunter Danzeisen. The current Lists Rules behavior in the people picker is that all members in the tenant are searchable. If you attempt to add an email address of someone who is not in the tenant already, the person won't resolve and the rule can't be created. If you share the team site with an external user and they accept the invite, the user will then appear the people picker and thus can be added to a rule so long as they maintain access/permission granted via the invite. To be clear, the rule itself won't send or start an invitation. Hope that makes sense, Mark. 

Copper Contributor

Are (SharePoint) list rules deployable? PnP schema, PowerShell, or any other way?

Microsoft

@panggio - the team announced this capability would be coming to Lists custom templates, meaning you will be able to programmatically apply pre-defined rules as a part of your list deployment. If this is possible now, I'd ask that you reach out the to PnP team/community. They'll know how, and possibly closer to the when. Thanks, Mark 

Copper Contributor
Brass Contributor

@Mark Kashman Any news on configuring the list body? I've been staring at 'Configure the list form' for what feels like forever reading this:

Configuring form body will switch your list or library form layout from single-column to a multi-column layout. We will add support for configuring the body with single-column layout in a future update.

Is that still happening, and if so is there anything I can do to help because more customization like even this simple piece would be amazing!

 

Thanks!

Microsoft

Hi @RobertAttrell - you can find more info/sample here, plus the below is an easy version of JSON to use to try it out, plus a link to a related blog with more info/samples:

{
"sections": [
{
"displayname": "",
"fields": [
"Title"
]
},
{
"displayname": "",
"fields": [
]
}
]
}

 

The above JSON, when pasted in the Form edit pane (Open a view form, in the upper right select "Edit form" button" > Configure layout > "Apply formatting to" Body.

Also, this blog may help, "Configure forms and rules in Microsoft Lists."

 

Cheers, @Mark Kashman 

Brass Contributor

Thanks for the quick answer @Mark Kashman, I've got the body formatting working and the documentation is quite clear, so thanks for that! I'm specifically asking about the option for single column layout with sections. We have some fields with multiple lines of text and when it switches to multi column layout the text boxes become TINY. The note I mentioned from the list form help article says that some kind of method to trigger sections of a form to keep the single column layout, which as far as I know isn't a thing yet.

 

Cheers!

Microsoft

Understood, @RobertAttrell

I'll need to defer to a few SMEs more fluent than I in this space: @Chris Kent@joao ferreira, and @David Warner II.

There are a number of good resources here, too: https://pnp.github.io/List-Formatting/ + form samples: https://github.com/pnp/List-Formatting/tree/master/form-samples 

 

Cheers, Mark 

Copper Contributor

Are these rules user/owner specific, as in these rules will only exist per list by the exact Sharepoint owner who placed them on that exact List and that rule will then subsequently disappear when the user/owner is removed from the Client, or could we request that these become user agnostic in the future?

 

If this is the intended usage for the rules, this is a common problem in Sharepoint that is a bugaboo in my user group.  In a small user group (less than 5 owners), if the person in charge of placing rules or making custom coding leaves, then all of that work ceases to operate b/c its linked to a specific profile.  When we had layoffs at the beginning of the pandemic, this became a work-stopping problem. 

 

If we make a List Rule as an Owner, why can't it be user agnostic and link the rule to something more permanent, like the "user" account created when we create a Sharepoint group?  Example:  John Smith is a user in a small group, who is also granted permission as an Owner on a List.  He's in charge of creating Rules on Lists for 3 different Sharepoint groups in his department: XSecurity, YSecurity, and ZSecurity.  There are other Owners in this group besides John, but if John leaves the company, any Rules or work created in the Sharepoint groups for XSecurity, YSecurity, and ZSecurity will cease to function (again, because settings are not user agnostic).

Copper Contributor

Those rules are great, but is there a way you can customise a rule in a way that a column and and make an other column automatically filled? I mean, instead of sending an email to someone if is a way to have a column filled or made mandatory? 

Microsoft

Hi @Jenny_Ordonez - you could approach it two ways - using Lists "Lookup columns" or designing a custom Power Automate flow for your list (one action in the flow triggers another - by your design). Hope that helps - and good feedback for the team to consider Rules influencing other columns beyond email notifications. - Mark 

Copper Contributor

Hi

I have a list that I use every day for work, it generates emails as I have the alerts all set up, i'd like to edit the content of those emails. Where can i do this ?

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