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Former Employee Built Power App, Can't Tell How it Works

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Posted on by IPC_ahaas

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A former employee built a Power App that staff use on their iPads. I can't tell what it does with the data that gets inputted. It seems like it goes into a SharePoint List, but I cannot find where the connection is within the App.

I am trying to relocate the List into another Site, but without knowing where in the App the List is referenced, I cannot begin to make the change. Power Apps are still a little daunting to me. Can I get some guidance on where to look within the App to find the List reference?

There is a Submit button that has the code "SubmitForm(Form3);Navigate(Home)", but I don't see where it is submitting the data to.

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Building Power Apps

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Drrickryp Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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@IPC_ahaas

Look at the connections icon on the left of your screen. (It looks like a tin can). If you see SharePoint, click on it and choose edit. It will take you to the list where the data is stored.
IPC_ahaas 1,401 Moderator on at

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I have a "Data" Icon, but no "Connections". I do see the List name there, so that's progress.
I also see something listed as "Collection", what is that?
Drrickryp Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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Please post a screenshot of the Data fly out. A collection is a temporary table created from a permanent datasource like a sharepoint list or a table from Dataverse, SQL or Excel and it only exists during the current session and it has to be recreated each time.
IPC_ahaas 1,401 Moderator on at

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OK, interesting.

I don't think the process this Power App is apart of is as efficient as it could be. It seems like it puts data into a List, then there is a separate Power Automate Flow that executes when that same List gets a new item added. I would think instead the Power App would execute a Flow that also inserts the data into a the List so there is some correlation between the two. It was driving me crazy how items were getting added to the List until I found this Power App earlier this week.
Drrickryp Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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There are many ways that data can be added, modified or deleted from the datasource within PowerApps itself, without having to resort to a flow. The simplest is the default method PowerApps uses, that is to provide a gallery for viewing all the data and an edit form for adding new data or modifying existing records one by one. In building my own apps, I rarely have to use collections and never use flows.
IPC_ahaas 1,401 Moderator on at

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That's what I thought. This App is inserting data into the List somehow. I get that it has the list added to the "Data" section here, but I'm still stuck on the how so that I can point it to a new List that I will be creating in a different Site.

The Flow will still be needed, because it takes the latest record and converts it into an HTML table to email someone.
Drrickryp Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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Before you get started I would refer you to my post https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Power-Apps-Community-Blog/The-Ten-Commandments-of-SharePoint-in-PowerApps/ba-p/848842 to avoid some common pitfalls. Then create your list in a new site and import it into your app. Activate the new Search option in the Settings and that will help you find references to the old list that you can replace with your new one. @WarrenBelz has a great web site, Practical PowerApps that has great information, particularly dealing with delegation issues in SharePoint.
IPC_ahaas 1,401 Moderator on at

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I'll take a look, thanks.
IPC_ahaas 1,401 Moderator on at

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Finished reading it... I have much bigger problems now. 4000 limit, yikes.
IPC_ahaas 1,401 Moderator on at

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@Drrickryp I am now looking at switching this PowerApp so it inserts data into a table on our on-premises SQL server. Seems like I need a data gateway which seems pretty straightforward. What I'm unsure about is if it's safe to install this on the same server that has the SQL database, or if I should put it on another server.

Also, given that I still don't see how the PowerApp is inserting data into the List, I don't know how to change it so that it goes into the SQL server. The "Submit" button for this PowerApp has "OnSelect: SubmitForm(Form3)". "Form3" is where all the data is inputted. I'm expecting to see somewhere that "DataCardValue2" of the PowerApp goes into "Employee Name" of the SharePoint List, but I'm not finding it.