Many teams utilize SharePoint lists to access, share, and collaborate around structured data.  So the ability to create apps using PowerApps that utilize SharePoint lists as a data source was an important capability that we launched with last week’s public preview.

Today, at the Future of SharePoint event in San Francisco, we made two exciting announcements: the integration of PowerApps within the SharePoint Online modern experience for custom lists and the ability to create new apps in PowerApps using a web browser.

 

Create new PowerApps from your SharePoint Online list in the browser

With the launch of the new SharePoint modern list experience will come the ability to create an app for a list from directly within the SharePoint list experience.  Specifically, the new SharePoint list view menu you will now have an option to create a PowerApp for this list.

When you select the Create PowerApp option for a SharePoint list, the PowerApps web designer will open in your browser.  Since the web designer knows the context of the SharePoint list you came from, it will automatically create a default app for you in the web designer based on the schema and data of that list .  You can then use the web designer to customize the app to meet your business needs, since it will share the same capabilities that are available in the PowerApps Studio today.

 

Apps that you create in this way will show up as views that can be shared and launched from within the new SharePoint modern list experience.  This will allow you to leverage PowerApps to build custom, mobile-optimized views of your existing lists and share them with your co-workers.  Furthermore, since PowerApps is a cross-platform service, you are able to run the apps you create across all of your devices including Windows, iOS, Android, and the web browser.

When can I try it out for myself?

Soon! Both the integration of PowerApps within the SharePoint modern experience for custom lists and the ability to create new apps in PowerApps from a web browser will be available in the coming months.

In the meantime, you can still signup for PowerApps today and start building cross-platform apps that connect to your SharePoint Online lists through the ‘Create an app from your data’ experience.

Our team is also working hard to expand the current SharePoint functionality available in PowerApps today to include:

• Full read/write support for all Sharepoint list data types including Person or Group, Managed Metadata, Lookup, and Multi-select Choice
• Support for document libraries

We would love to hear your suggestions and feedback regarding our current and upcoming functionality. Please reach out to us via the PowerApps community site.

Thanks!

PowerApps team