Customizing SharePoint forms using Power Apps Vs Building standalone apps? Can I have a hybrid appro

Steel Contributor

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.

cus.png

  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 a power app standalone >> 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 , as follow:-

 

edit2.png

 

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.

4 Replies

@john john it is possible to export a customised form and the steps are described here.

 

We normally use the second approach and don't tell our staff where the datasource and list is as they don't need to know and therefore they don't create or edit items in the list directly, only via the app.

 

Rob
Los Gallardos
Intranet, SharePoint and Power Platform Manager (and classic 1967 Morris Traveller driver)

You can also set the list as hidden, using PowerShell. This way users cannot navigate to the list. As said above, use the list only as data source for users.

@RobElliott  Thanks for the reply, but i have these 3 points:-

 

1) but in our case we do not only use the SharePoint site to manage this list , we have news pages other lists, document libraries etc.. also hiding the list from the users, does not mean that they can investigate the url and access the source list. also we still want to benefit from SharePoint built-in features, so users can filter, search & export the list items... i do not want to reinvent the wheel inside the Power Apps i just want to customize the new,edit & view forms,.. that why i am asking this question.

 

2) Also for the approach to export/import power apps customized list forms.. i think this approach is not supported by Microsoft and is considered as a hack.. so officially MS does not support export/import customized power apps.

 

3) now since i asked this question, i came access this hybrid solution.. to create a standalone app and define deep linking on it , then customized the SharePoint forms using Power Apps, and inside the customized forms >> to just define a redirect to the standalone app... in this case we can export/import the standalone app + users can not use the SharePoint built-in forms.. so what do you think of this? any drawbacks i am unaware of ?

@Robert Schouten 

Thanks for the reply, but i have these 2 points:-

 

1) In our case we do not only use the SharePoint site to manage this list , we have news pages other lists, document libraries etc.. also hiding the list from the users, does not mean that they can investigate the url and access the source list. also we still want to benefit from SharePoint built-in features, so users can filter, search & export the list items... i do not want to reinvent the wheel inside the Power Apps i just want to customize the new,edit & view forms,.. that why i am asking this question.

 

2) now since i asked this question, i came access this hybrid solution.. to create a standalone app and define deep linking on it , then customized the SharePoint forms using Power Apps, and inside the customized forms >> to just define a redirect to the standalone app... in this case we can export/import the standalone app + users can not use the SharePoint built-in forms.. so what do you think of this? any drawbacks i am unaware of ?