SharePoint

PowerApps – 3 different ways to implement currency input mask

As far as I know at the time of this post PowerApps doesn't have an Input Mask (currency mask in this particular case) feature. It is possible to mimic that feature using Text function but implementing it is not really straightforward and gets even more complicated if you are dealing with PowerApps integrated with SharePoint. In this post I will show you 3 different ways of implementing a workaround for a currency input mask, each has its own pros and cons: The currency mask formatting is not visible until you submit the form (the simplest). You can see the mask formatting even before submitting your form but you need to click away from the field to see the formatting (medium complexity). The currency formatting is applied real time as you type in the numbers (the most complicated but the most natural way of working with currency). Let's create a testprice…

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PowerApps form in SharePoint – show values of Created and Created By before item submission

I am huge advocate of using as few columns as possible when building PowerApps forms in SharePoint. Let's take a look at a very simplified example - a custom Requests SharePoint list.  It surely has to have fields like: Requested By (a user name here) Requested On (a date and time here). So rather than creating two more columns and populating them with values, I would highly recommend using columns that already exist in SharePoint - Created and Created By. The downside of these columns is they don't have values until a user submits the request. Because of this it might be not the cleanest user experience if you decide to use and show those fields. There is a simple way to prepopulate those fields with values that will be exact (user name) or very close (date and time) to the ones that will appear after submission. Let's create a…

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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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Microsoft Flow – 2 methods to not use Apply to Each action when only a single filtered item is expected

  • Post category:Flow
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In this post I will show you 2 methods when using Apply to each Flow action is not necessary. By not using them you make your Flows look cleaner, less complicated. Please note, these methods are mostly good when only a single item is expected after filtering an array. I created a SharePoint List with two text columns - Title and Color. Both columns are required. Title values are set to be unique (!). When using Get Items action, an array of items is returned regardless if it's a single item in it or not. The moment you try to use a Condition action on its result, the system will insert an Apply to Each action to go through every single possible item. Again, it's redundant when by design a single item is returned after filtering. In my test flow I'm using a very simple Filter Query on purpose - Title…

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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

  • Post category:Flow
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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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