Power Apps Standalone App versus Customized List Form
There are two types of Power Apps canvas apps, and it may not be obvious that these are two different things, but it is IMPORTANT that you understand this BEFORE creating a PowerApp.
A common point of confusion when creating PowerApps, is the difference between the two different types of apps. First of all, most people do not even realize that there are two different types of apps until it is too late.
- When you go to a list in SharePoint, and click the PowerApps menu and choose Customize forms, you are creating a customized list PowerApp. The same thing can be done from list settings –> Form Options.
- When you create a PowerApps in any other way, such as going to web.powerapps.com, and clicking Create an app, or Make this app, or even if you go to the SharePoint list and click PowerApps –> Create an app…. all of these other ways will create a standalone app.
Once you’ve created an app using one of these two methods, there is not an easy way to switch it to the other kind of app. So, it is very important that you choose the correct kind of app right when you get started. At the end of this article, I will mention a very time consuming way it can be achieved, but it is definitely not a simple click of a button.
Here’s a further explanation as to what the two different types of apps are, and why you would choose one over the other.
Customized list forms
Did you go to a SharePoint list and click PowerApps -> Customize forms? If so, you are using a customized list form, and not a standalone app.
Permissions:
In order to control who can use the app and edit the app, it’s simply a matter of using SharePoint permissions. People who have Edit permission will be able to design/customize the PowerApp, and people who have Contribute permission will only be able to use the PowerApp, which entails filling out the form as an end user. Note that by default on your SharePoint site, all members of the site have EDIT permission on the whole site. You may want to change this to Contribute, at least for any list where you don’t want them designing the app.
End user interaction:
To use this app, it is simply a matter of going to the list and adding or editing items in the SharePoint list. This PowerApps is the list’s default form. If you don’t want users going to the list or seeing the list, there is no reason to create this type of app.
Mobile:
If the PowerApp has been embedded on a page on your site, using the PowerApps web part, End users can go to the SharePoint mobile app, and go to that page to use the customized form. These types of PowerApps will *not* be listed in the PowerApps mobile app.
* 3/31/2019 update: Apparently it does not work in the SharePoint app anymore.
Designing the app:
You can only design the app by going to the SharePoint list, and customizing it from there. This app will not be listed along with your standalone apps at web.powerapps.com.
Backup / Export of app:
This is not possible with this type of app.
Versioning:
Click File –> Save, then click See all Versions
QUICK TIP:
If you would like to get the App ID, which you may need for using this app in the PowerApp web part, from this screen, click the Details tab, and check out App ID.
Standalone Apps
Permissions:
You have two options for the type of roles you can give to users.
User – Allows them to use the app. This is what your end users need to access your app even if you embed it on a SharePoint page
Co-owner – Allows them to edit and design the app and publish changes to the app. This is ideal for any fellow developers that need to help you build the app.
When you first add someone, they are “User”, then when you check this checkbox, it makes them a co-owner. Optionally send them an email, too.
End User Interaction:
Some ways that end users can get to the app, to use it:
- Open the PowerApps mobile app on their device. You can even pin your favorite apps to your home screen.
- Go to web.powerapps.com, and peruse the list of apps, and open any app they need to use.
- Click the app launcher (waffle) menu at the top left in Office 365 and click PowerApps to get to the list of apps
- Provide the end users the URL to directly go to the app. This can be found on the Details screen (see image below).
- Create a button on your SharePoint page, using that URL, for users to go directly to your app.
- Use the PowerApps web part to embed your app on any page in SharePoint.
Mobile:
Install the PowerApps app from the app store, and authenticate to your Office 365 tenant, then see the list of apps that have been shared with you.
Designing the app:
Go to web.powerapps.com, click the ellipsis next to your app, and click Edit. See image below. You can only edit the apps where you have either created them, or have been given the Co-owner role.
Backup / Export of app:
Go to web.powerapps.com, and click the Export package button. See image below. Give it a name, and click Export. It spits out a zip file. Then, go to another environment or tenant, click Import package, and upload that zip file.
Versioning
In your list of apps at web.powerapps.com, click the Details button on any app.
Then go to the Versions tab.
Here is a quick table, summarizing these points:
| Customized list form | Standalone app | |
| Permissions | SharePoint permissions on the list | User or Co-owner |
| End user interaction | On the list | from the list of PowerApps, or using a direct link |
| Mobile | In SharePoint app, if embedded as a web part | In the PowerApps app |
| Designing | From the list, customize list form | at web.powerapps.com |
| Export | Can’t be done | at web.powerapps.com |
| Versioning | save, then see all versions | from the app’s details screen, web.powerapps.com |
Thanks for reading, I hope this was helpful to you!
4/20/2019 update: I love April Dunham’s post, Open PowerApp using SharePoint Column Formatting. You can get the best of both worlds with this solution!
If you do need to try to “convert” one type of app to the other, it’s going to be a matter of copying and pasting. Create a new app, and open each app in a separate browser window. You can copy and paste in controls and even screens. You may even want to group controls together before copying, if you don’t want the whole screen, just some controls. And of course, re-create your data connection(s) in the new app.
Are you brand new to PowerApps, and interested in getting started learning some fundamentals? Try out my
FREE 5 day PowerApps Beginner Email Course
Beyond beginner? Check out my full (12 hour) PowerApps training class!
Hi,
Can we add the script on the List Forms. I need to run some script on from form load.
Please let me know my options ?
Thanks in Advance,
Sadhana
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No, no script in PowerApps, use PowerApps functions and formulas. The OnStart property is where you’ll put those.
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Hi Laura,
I work for the State Government and Flow and PowerApps are not yet available in our tenant. We are using the trial license for both Flow and PowerApps. With Trail license, I don’t see an option to customize list form from the custom list. I have to go to the web.powerapps.com and create an app which is what you explained as a standalone app. The app connects to my SharePoint list. From what I understand, Flow and PowerApps will be disabled to users, by default. It is only assigned licenses to designed people. Does it mean if we have a customized list form, does it mean Flow and PowerApps don’t need to be enabled to users in order for them to submit the request (they only need contribute permission to the list)? If it is a standalone app, the app will need to be shared with users and do PowerApps need to be enabled to those people that the app is shared with in order for them to view the app?
PowerApps web part is still not yet available to GCC.
Thank you for you reply.
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Hi Laura,
for the standalone app, the user also needs permissions on the SharePoint Lists the app interacts with. To my knowledge the users needs minimum Edit permissions.
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Yes, that’s true. The info I was writing about was just how to share the app / who can open the app itself. So yes, to be able to do anything with the data like see it or edit it, the users do also need to have SP permissions on the list(s).
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Hi Laura,
How handle SharePoint user permissions on standalone power apps. Ex: User have read only access in SharePoint site will not be able to add/Edit Items in power apps.
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Hi I’m not really sure what your question is. Yes, users who have read-only access in SharePoint won’t be able to edit items in the PowerApp. This may be helpful… If you have, say, an “EDIT” button in your standalone PowerApp, and you don’t want the read-only users to see it, you can hide it from them using this formula in the Visible property: DataSourceInfo.EditPermission
Does the logged in user have edit permission to this data source? True/False. So, therefore, the button will automatically be hidden from people who don’t have edit permission.
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My “app” is losing connection to the list and I cant save items / edit or w/e. I havnt used powerapps in almost 2 years since it worked so bad and it hasn’t got better. Don’t use this people. My worst decision 2019.
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It was crap a couple of years ago. I refused to use it back then. It tremendously better now in 2019. (in my opinion)
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Anyone confirmed that the sharepoint form work in the sharepoint app? I have been trying and its asking to sign in again. Then when you click that it says to allow popups. Then it just breaks. Has anyone gotten this to work, or am I missing something?
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Apparently it used to, and does not anymore.
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Hi,
My requirement is to implement a big supplier details form in PowerApps having different sections. These sections have multiple fields. The editing rights for these sections depend if the user is part of particular sp group, eg: Finance, Quality, etc.
Also, along with this, I want to create FLOW for approvals of new/update supplier cases.
In your opinion, should I go for Standalone or customize form options?
Any help is appreciated.
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Always standalone.
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Hi, Laura. Thanks for a great article. Is a PowerApps license required for a user to access and submit the PowerApps form for both methods? Somewhere I heard that if you customize a list with PowerApps, you do not need a PowerApps license to complete the form. That doesn’t seem to be true. We have a large organization (120+K users) and we will be licensing over a long period of time. Thank you so much.
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I don’t know what your Office 365 license is, but I have E1 and PowerApps is free with it. There are certain “premium” features of PowerApps and Flow, like certain connectors that require “plan 1 or 2” but most likely you won’t need that.
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Hi Laura,
Great article. Unfortunately I still think that PowerApps is missing one critical element – when a user goes into the SharePoint app on their mobile device and go into the list, they still see the out-of-the-box view/edit forms.
If you create a customized PowerApp from within the List it doesn’t reflect in the mobile app via the SharePoint app.
If you create a standalone PowerApp it still doesn’t reflect within the SharePoint app.
I’ve customized a list to use Tabs and hide/disable some columns depending on a status value and user permission level (based on some of your great tutorials :)).
But there is no way that I can use this solution as a user might bypass SharePoint Online and PowerApps and go directly into the SharePoint app on their mobile rendering the entire solution useless.
Hopefully I’ve made sense, and hopefully I’m completely wrong (please please please let me be wrong).
Question is – how do we get the list to use the custom list forms from the SharePoint app on a mobile device? If we can’t do that then PowerApps is a fail for so many scenarios that people may not realize until it’s too late.
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Hi Laura. any ideas on how to make the app without the end users being able to access the full datasource? I’m having the issue that some info on the datasource is not shareable with all users(for security reasons)
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You can set the default view of the SharePoint list to be filtered by something that will never show any items, like ID=0
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Pingback: PowerApps Form Logic | @WonderLaura
Hello Laura,
Thanks for the article. I am wrestling with an issue where a PowerApps SharePoint List customized form app cannot accept a parameter in its query string when being called. Plain canvas app it works fine. Not sure why that is but oh well. Anyway, my next thought is to generate a basic app, call it with the app url and parameter (an id on another SharePoint list), save it as a global variable and then have the basic app make the customized form app call. Not sure how I will get the global variable passed but working on that.
Do you think that will work? Any other thoughts on how to achieve?
Thanks,
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yet another reason to not use customized list forms.
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Hi Laura,
I have an issue. I published my customised list form before it was finished to test assuming I could switch between the default form and the customised form in form settings. Once I published, the default form has disappeared but so has the ability to switch it back. is this normal behaviour? Thank you, Vicki
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Go to the list’s settings, “Form Settings” to switch it.
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That’s the problem, Form Settings is completely empty. There are no settings in there.
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That’s really odd. Your list must be broken. I’ve never seen that happen, in my 13 years of using SharePoint. 🙂 See if any other lists have that setting? Create a new list and see if it’s there?
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Hi Laura, thanks for your article, it brought light into the darkness. One question, I am working in a supporting org where we want to establish an app/a form for new purchase requisitions. Means, that a person needs to fill an app/a form and this is then routed to the relevant Project Manager (with MS Flow). Currently we are a bit stuck as we started to do that with a customized form… for our list we need some source data – which will end up in some dropdown fields for the user (e.g. the right project). We want to feed these fields with a PowerBi report. Do you have any knowledge about such a setup? would wou recommend to go for a standalone app? thanks so much for your feedback. kind regards Anna
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Hi Anna, what do you mean by “feed the fields with a PowerBI report”? All of your data is in SharePoint? What data is in the PowerBI report? Is it also SharePoint data? Are you saying you need a drop-down to have choices that come from some other source?
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Hi Laura,
Which is the best approach to build an app. Customized list form or a standalone?
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Standalone.
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Hi Laura,
What is the best and safe (in terms of security ) approach to create an app? Is it customized list form or standalone. Also would like to know if there any document which explains the samr. Your article also explains the difference between two types of apps. But I would like to know which one out of these two are safe and effective.
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Standalone. https://wonderlaura.com/2019/07/18/powerapps-as-a-front-end/
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Hi Laura:
I have an OOB SP Form Library with two content based long and elaborate no code InfoPath forms with plenty of rules and mathematical formulas built on the InfoPath form. The forms collect in vicinity of over 250 data fields. Only portion of these data fields are promoted, concatenated and grouped per Fiscal Year in the SP 2019 Form Library for further analysis. We would like to migrate to SP 2019 online (from SP 2019 On Prem), Power Automate and Power App.
Is there a Form Library concept exists in SP Online using Power Apps?
Can such a complex InfoPath form be translated to a SP content-based no code/basic low code Power App?
Are we there yet in Power App journey to match comparable rules to an InfoPath form? or,
Should we wait a few more months/years?
Thank you for your consideration.
SRA
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No, there’s no form library concept in PowerApps. Yes, you can build something complex like that in PowerApps, you’ll just have to start from scratch. No need to wait, though.
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Thank you kindly for the reply. If possible can you guide us?:
In our case, our customers would like to refer to non-promoted fields (150-200) with some long explanation fields, in case of any legal issue. And, there has been cases in the past where they needed to open the form and review the values of the non-promoted fields for that specific submission. If there is no form library and/or an option to select what to promote to SP, how such situation where large number of field values are collected, can be handled?
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In PowerApps, you create everything as a SharePoint list or a table in the Common Data Service or SQL. PowerApps is just the front end user interface. There is no concept of “non-promoted”. Everything has to be a column.
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Hi Laura, can the standalone form be configured for new items and the custom SP form be configured for editing directly from the list? I need to be able to have an “intake” form that all of our customers can use without accessing the list (so standalone seems to be the answer), but then once we receive the submission there are a bunch of other fields that we fill out and update throughout the lifecycle of the request and we are typically working directly in the list to make the changes. For that I was hoping that when we click on the item in the list it can bring up a custom tabbed form (I saw this in another one of your videos) to complete the items that are being updated at the time.
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Hi Sarah, yep, sure, there’s a link at the bottom of this blog post, in red, referring to April Dunham’s post. It shows how to create a hyperlink to open an existing item in a standalone PowerApp, directly from the SP list.
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Hi Laura,
I want to know if there is way to use the standalone powerapp for editing /viewing the sharepoint item as we can do in the customize list form?
Your input on this would help me in deciding which type of app to use.
Thanks and Regards
Hameed
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Yes, I wrote it in this blog post, read the April 2019 update.
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I built my first standalone power app and published it to a SharePoint page. There is a button and when you click on it, it calls a flow and saves the data to a SharePoint list. The flow is run by a generic admin account. With my other flows, the ‘created by’ saves as this generic admin account. With this power app, it saves as the user. Is it possible to have it save as the generic admin account? Looking to have this form be submitted as anonymous.
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No, I don’t know of a way.
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Hi Laura, great article! I know this was written some time ago, but there is a minor correction I’d like to point out with SharePoint customized form Power App types. You actually *can* export them now. That may have not been possible a couple years ago.
When you go to “See all versions” within your Power Apps customized form (SharePoint) and save it, you can click this button. From there you can Export package. This is useful if you are developing customized forms for SharePoint Online in a DEV to PROD lifecycle manner.
You will need to unzip the App Package and make some changes to one of the apps JSON files. This is necessary to connect your data sources and list references to the SharePoint Online site you are moving it to. It’s best to do this in Visual Studio Code. I can provide step-by-step details if anyone is interested. Of course, by now .. there are a couple articles on how to do it already floating around out there.
This method of exporting is particularly useful when you aren’t creating standalone apps and your use case is for end users who are using SharePoint for collaboration and document management purposes, especially users who use SharePoint workflows (which are being deprecated in SharePoint Online). So, in this scenario (and to support some sort of application lifecycle for development and testing, to deployment and production), going through the export process and updating the apps JSON file as appropriate, does work fairly nicely. You do have to drop your list data source connections in the app, re add them to the destination list and re-publish the app, but afterwards it works great.
Thanks!
Matt
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Pingback: Learnings from Rewriting InfoPath and SharePoint Designer Workflow to PowerApps and Power Automate. - Siddharth Vaghasia | Independent Consultant
Hi,
I need to customize new/edit/view forms not for only one site and it’s document library, but for all sub-sites and their libraries in a site collection. Should I customize the forms on one site, then make that site a template? Will the custom forms work on new sites made from the template? Or is it possible to create a standalone app and somehow have it used on all libraries in the whole site collection by default? It just seems the “customize forms” option only will apply to one single list or library in a single site, which is too narrow for my needs. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks Anton
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Hi Anton, there is not a way to do that. You could create a standalone Power App, then use the “save as” to create a copy of that power app. Then, you could delete the data source(s) in the Power App and then re-create them to go to the new other library. Do that each time, for each library.
Then, you could follow April’s instructions in the link at the bottom of my post, for adding the hyperlink to the standalone app in your library, for each library.
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Hi Laura, What would you recommend when starting a new App? An stand alone power app or a sharepoint customized list form? App will be used mostly in laptops and occasionally in cell phones. Data will be stored in sharepoint lists.
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I always create mine as standalone, and never use customized list forms.
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