Create A PowerApps App For SharePoint List

PowerApps can be used for creating user-friendly apps, forms, solution, etc. in the Office 365 ecosystem. It can be used to create SharePoint apps and Views as well. It supports minimal/no-code app development. SharePoint provides a very neat integration with PowerApps. This connection can be utilized for creating a mobile/tablet friendly View for SharePoint lists and libraries.

To begin with, here is the list with the data.

Follow the instructions to create a PowerApps for this.

Step 1

From the SharePoint list, click on “PowerApps” and then select “Create an App”. This will open the next screen where the user will have to enter the name of the app. Name the app “PowerApps Employees” and click on “Create”.

Step 2

The previous action will load the PowerApps Studio. This step will take some time as the engine builds all the connections from SharePoint and PowerApps. Once the background processes are completed, the user will be presented with a default Mobile View as shown in the screen below.

We can modify the View and make modifications as per our needs. Let us go ahead and change this default View’s theme. Locate the “Home” tab on the top-left corner, click on “Theme”, and then select “Brown”. The changes can be seen in the design view instantaneously.

Step 3

In this step, we will look at how to preview this app before publishing to SharePoint. Click on the “Preview the app” button found on the top-right corner. This can also be done by pressing F5.

Clicking on it will open the real-time View of the app in a new tab. In this step, we can still go back and make the necessary alterations if necessary.

Step 4

This preview shows how the app will behave and interact. You can click on "Add new item" and experience the behavior. Once the test is complete, the preview can be closed.

Step 5

To publish this app into SharePoint, click on “File” tab, then click on “Save”.

Once it is saved, the user will be prompted with the "Publish" screen. Click on “Publish” to get this View across the original SharePoint list.

This step completes the app development steps. The PowerApps Studio can be closed now. Navigate back to the SharePoint list. We will look at the usage now.

Usage - via SharePoint

To launch this app from SharePoint, navigate to the list. Select the dropdown “All Items” and then click on the app/view “PowerApps Employees”. This will launch the list in its PowerApps mode. You can then use the app for the desired operations, all within the browser.

Usage - via PowerApps

This app can be downloaded for Android and iPhones from Google PlayStore and Apple Store respectively. Once downloaded and installed, you need to login to the app with the same credentials as you use for logging into the Office 365 system.

Once you open and authenticate yourself in PowerApps, the app “PowerApps Employees” will be listed there. Click on the app to open it. You can then navigate around and add the items.

It is worth noting that you can use this app outside the context of SharePoint. That is the feature of PowerApps - it provides a remote connection to SharePoint. Users can add/edit/view items from SharePoint on-the-go in their handheld devices, all the while without logging into SharePoint.