SharePoint Column Formatting – use JSON to show column data in a pop-up window

Sometimes a SharePoint column has too much information, which eventually stretches rows and distorts the look. An example below is a Multiple lines of text type column: This simple JSON code is useful to hide noncrucial information, while still allowing easy access to that data by hovering your mouse cursor over it. { "$schema": "https://developer.microsoft.com/json-schemas/sp/v2/column-formatting.schema.json", "elmType": "div", "style": { "display": "=if(@currentField, '','none')", "font-size": "12px" }, "txtContent": "Hover to see more", "customCardProps": { "formatter": { "elmType": "div", "txtContent": "@currentField", "style": { "padding": "5px 5px 5px 5px", "border": "solid", "border-radius": "2px", "border-width": "1px", "box-shadow": "0 0 2px 0" } }, "openOnEvent": "hover", "directionalHint": "bottomCenter", "isBeakVisible": false } }

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SharePoint Column Formatting – hide Title column and use JSON to show View and Edit buttons in any column

It’s not always convenient to use a default Title column that comes standard with a newly created SharePoint list. PowerApps form can take care of it and add some logic to it but it is still a Single line of text column. To make it even more complicated to remove, that Title column ties to a "view/edit an item" link. If you still want to get rid of it and not lose any functionality you can use a simple JSON code below: { "elmType": "a", "txtContent": "@currentField", "attributes": { "href": "='https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/dev/Lists/TestList/DispForm.aspx?ID='+[$ID]" }, "style": { "padding": "10px", "font-weight": "bold" } } However, this method has quite a few downsides: when closing a form, it redirects to a Default view (it is possible to specify which view to go but that might be a lot of hard-coding depending on how many views you have); the link is hard-coded; does not seem to open "modern…

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PowerApps form in SharePoint – create a configurable auto-incrementing column without Flow

If you search for SharePoint auto-incrementing column or SharePoint counter column you will notice that most of the examples use the old Workflow or Microsoft Flow to achieve that. In this blog post I will explain how to use PowerApps to do the same and even better. The benefits of using this method are: Configurable counter (if you would like to skip or reserve some numbers, you can adjust the counter to anything). That counter list can have many configuration items for other custom lists and applications. No Microsoft Flow runs are used. Further customization is possible (e.g. reserved numbers). The only downside I could find so far, when several users submit the form at once (literally within the same second), one of them will get an error message. So I'd recommend catching that error and let a user know to retry saving the form. Please note that in this…

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PowerApps – using Checkbox controls with Multi-Valued Choice columns

At some point Microsoft PowerApps Team added support for fields with multiple values through a Combo Box control. However, as of this moment (2/3/2019) there is still no native support for Checkbox controls even when you configure your Choice column in SharePoint to have Checkboxes (allow multiple selections). There is a good article (https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/multivaluedchoicesinforms/) published by Carlos Figueira from PowerApps Team that shows how to implement Checkbox controls. The downside of it was using a Text column that imitates a Choice column. It's been a while since that article was published, so it's hard to say if anyone has done it differently. In this post I will explain how to pair Checkbox controls with a true Multi-Valued Choice column. Please note, in my example I will be using a PowerApps Form rather than PowerApps App; however, it shouldn't make any difference. Let's create a SharePoint List, name it TestList, add a TestListColors Choice column.…

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SharePoint Document Library – show Path column in the view and make it clickable to open that path

How to add / show Path column in a view in a SharePoint Document Library appears to be a question with hundreds of different answers to it. The reasons for such a variety are: different versions of SharePoint (on premise, online, 2010, 2013); two Workflow variations ("old" workflow, Microsoft Flow); SharePoint Designer (2010, 2013); using Web Parts and more. Why would one need to see a Path column? Take a look at the two examples below; however, there might be more use cases. Example 1 - when searching for files. Example 2 - when using a view with "Show all items without folders" option selected Here is a test Document Library with a folder and some document in it: It's not possible to show Path column using out-of-the-box tools, the Path column is just not available to be selected: Although the Path can be seen if you open the details pane:…

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SharePoint Column Formatting – customize the look of Hyperlink columns and their Display Text

There is nothing wrong with how SharePoint Hyperlink columns display information by default. However, some users believe that the look is too generic, hard to bring attention to, which I myself tend to agree with. Let's see how it looks by default: The issues in my opinion are: the Display Text is grey and no different than any other column if Display Text needs to always be the same (e.g. CLICK HERE), then it has to be typed in that way in every single list item. We will address both issues. 1. KEEP THE ORIGINAL DISPLAY TEXT AND CHANGE THE LOOK The following JSON code is applied to both Hyperlink columns: { "$schema": "http://columnformatting.sharepointpnp.com/columnFormattingSchema.json", "elmType": "a", "txtContent": "@currentField.desc", "style": { "color": "red", "font-weight": "bold" }, "attributes": { "target": "_blank", "href": "@currentField" } } 2. SHOW PREDEFINED DISPLAY TEXT AND CHANGE THE LOOK The following JSON code is applied to both…

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SharePoint Column Formatting – make choice type columns that represent boolean values visually stand out

If you have a SharePoint List that has a Choice type column with the following choices as an example: On / Off Active / Expired Yes / No True / False Enabled / Disabled (used in this example), then you might consider adding some column formatting that will help those different choices stand out. With Microsoft constantly simplifying Column Formatting it is possible now (as of 1/3/2019) to just select the color of the background depending on the choice. The editor is very limited though. See the screenshots below. All great, but let’s add our own formatting that in my opinion looks cleaner: To change formatting, click on Status column header – Column settings – Format this column. Once selected, there will be a Format column window on the right side. Paste the code from down below into that windows and save to get the result. The long version of…

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SharePoint – use Microsoft Flow to enforce uniqueness of a combination of two or more columns

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In SharePoint there is an out-of-the-box way to enforce uniqueness of fields. Let’s say you have a SharePoint list with events and dates and by design you would like to allow any combination of events per day as long as they don’t have the same name and date/time at once. According to the requirements, this is not allowed: Team Lunch – 12/29/2018 12:00 PM (same name and date/time) Team Lunch – 12/29/2018 12:00 PM (same name and date/time) And these combinations are allowed: Team Lunch – 12/29/2018 12:00 PM (same name, different date/time) Team Lunch – 12/29/2018 2:00 PM (same name, different date/time) OR Team Lunch – 12/29/2018 12:00 PM (different name, same date/time) Vendor meeting – 12/29/2018 12:00 PM (different name, same date/time) If you make both Event and Date fields unique then you won’t be able to achieve that. Would be great if we could create and use a…

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SharePoint Column Formatting – show stars that match ratings from 1 to 5

Similar to what is done in the SharePoint Column Formatting – add different mood emojis that match ratings from 1 to 5 post, let's replace rating values with corresponding number of stars. Personally, I think it even looks better. Please note, the formatting doesn't adjust any data. If you export your data to Excel, you will still see numeric values. The icons are from https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric#/styles/icons To see how it works we will create a SharePoint list, then add a “Rating” column (Number type). For example purposes, five different ratings are added with scores from 1 to 5. To add matching number of stars to the “Rating” column, click on its header – Column settings – Format this column. Once selected, there will be a Format column window on the right side. Paste the code from down below into that windows and save to get the result. { "$schema": "http://columnformatting.sharepointpnp.com/columnFormattingSchema.json", "elmType": "div", "children": [ { "elmType": "span", "attributes":…

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SharePoint Column Formatting – add different mood emojis that match ratings from 1 to 5

If you have a SharePoint List that stores some kind of reviews, usually those are from 1 to 5. Let's add some emojis that match the scores: sad face for 1 and 2 (usually 1 and 2 are equally bad); neutral face for 3; happy face for 4; overly happy face for 5. The icons are from https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric#/styles/icons It doesn't really add any practicality to the list but makes it look nicer. To see how it works we will create a SharePoint list, then add a "Review" column (Number type). Five different reviews are added with scores from 1 to 5.  To add emojis to the "Review" column, click on its header - Column settings - Format this column. Once selected, there will be a Format column window on the right side. Paste the code from down below into that windows and save to get the result. { "$schema": "http://columnformatting.sharepointpnp.com/columnFormattingSchema.json", "elmType":…

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