Power Forms Help

Preview and Edit Mode

Preview

Preview mode allows you to view the Form without having to save the page. Switch back and forward beteween Preview Mode and Edit Mode.

Edit

Controls

You can add controls to any Cell in the layout. Click the Plus button to show the Control Search Panel.

Publishing

Drafts

Forms have a Version number, displayed top right of the Form Designer and start at "0.1". This uses a Major and Minor version number standard. In the case of the Form version being "0.1", 0 is the Major Number and 1 is the Minor number. In draft mode the Minor version number will always be greater than zero (0).

All updates are saved when you save the SharePoint page.
However users of the form will not see drafts after the initial Publish.

Remember: Your Form is not ready to be used until it has been Published. The Form Designer will let you know if you have an unpublished draft with the yellow banner:

Publish your Form

Click the Publish button in the menu to start the Publishing Process.

This dialog will Validate your form and may Provision Fields in the List. You can click Show Details to see what fields will be created in the List or Library.

There are some fields that will be created to store information, such as the Form Data, Form Status, Workflow Status and a Form Url field.

If you have enabled the "Save to List" option on any of the controls, then a field will be created to store that information. If edited in the List directly it will be shown in the form when it is opened using the Form Url field.

In order to publish your form needs to have:

• A Submit Button
• A List or Library assigned in the Data Source section of the Property Pane
• No Validation Errors

You can add a Submit Button just like any other control.

After publishing your form, don't forget to Save the SharePoint page.

Form Validation

At any time you can validate your form. During validation your form is checked for issues, such as missing a submit button. Click the Validate button from the menu.

Web Part Properties

Form Title

To set a Title for the form, which is displayed to users, edit your web part and update the Form Title property.

List or Library

You can select an existing List or Library, or click Create List to create a new one.

Sections

Sections are helpful when you want to hide or show a set of controls, or to provide structure to your form.
Click the Layout Insert menu (Plus button), then select Add Section.

You can also click the Pencil icon to update its properties.

Section Properties allow you to hide or show the section based on the Form State, Workflow State, or simply bind the Visible Property to your data model, Fact or Rule.

Workflow

Edit your Web Part Properties and Expand the Workflow group. After Enabling Workflow Support, you get the following benefits:

• A Field called WorkflowStatus will be added to your List or Library to manage the Workflow State
• A Field called WorkflowApprovalID will be added to your List or Library to manage Approvals (if required)
• Integration with Power Automate where users can be directed to the specific approval using a Button in the form (optional)
• A Workflow States Management Panel, where you can define your own workflow states, and make the form controls react accordingly

Click the Manage Button to access the Workflow States Management Panel. Here you can add, edit or delete a Workflow States.

A Workflow State is just some text to represent the state at any point. When you add a Workflow State, you can then bind your Sections to only Show during that State.
The Workflow State is managed as data in the List/Library field called WorkflowStatus.
Your Workflow (in which ever Workflow Technology you use) should update this value.
When first submtted, the WorkflowStatus field will have the value Pending.
It's up to you to change that value with the Workflow.

Print

To improve the Print experience for users, you can enable the Print Options in the Web Part Properties.
Expand the Display group.

When Print Options are enabled, a Print button will be displayed when users View an existing Form Record. The Print Button will be displayed next to the Edit and Update Buttons. When the Auto Print option is selected, the Form will display the Print Dialog immediately after initial submission. The Print Dialog instructs users to ensure that Background Graphics are enabled when the browsers Print Dialog is displayed. This is needed to ensure fields are printed correctly, as some use graphics to show their state, such as the Toggle Control.

Permissions

Power Forms will save and load data based on the current users permissions. If the user does not have appropriate permissions to read, create or update items in the List or Library then an error will occur.
To reduce user frustration, Power Forms will check users permissions when the form is first loaded. If the user does not have the correct permissions an error message is displayed. At least this way they know it won't work before filing out the form.

However, there may be situations where you want to disable this. If for example, you are using custom item level permissions. In this case you can disable the permission check by setting the Verify User Permissions toggle to off.

Repeating Sections

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Facts

Facts allow you to establish value and name it. Facts can be based on data in the Form or you can supply the value. For example: Min Order Quantity = 5.

Facts can be simple, or be more complicated by adding functions and comparisons.
Facts make other things easier, such as binding Control Properties. You could create a Fact like Customers Age, then have a Section Hide or Show if the Customers Age fact is greater than 21 by binding the Section Visible property and using a comparison.
Facts can also be saved to the List or Library. Enable the Save To List toggle, then when you publish a field will be created in your list for the fact data.

Rules

A Rule can be a Business Rule. Use these to model your business processes.
Rules can use many different types of values, including Functions, Url Parameters, User Profile Properties, Form Model Values and more.
Rules consist of:

• A name
• One or more values
• A comparison (optionally)
• One or more Model Actions. (Updates the Form Data)
• One or more Validation Actions. (Adds Validation Errors to Controls)
• One or more Form Actions. (Updates Form or Workflow Properties)

Example Business Rule. The following example, uses a function to determine the customers age. It uses a Date Control value and another function [Today]. This allows the customers age to be calculated. Then it is compared Greater than a Literal Number of 21.

After creating your Rule, you can use the Edit Actions button to decide what happens if the Rule is met or not.

You can create actions to change things within the form or the data. You can also have many actions.

Functions

Functions are used within Facts or Rules to do more advanced calculations. Here are some of the Functions and what they do:

• Today: Returns Today's Date without the Time
• Now: Returns Today's Date including the Time
• Days Between: Calculates number of days between dates
• Years Between: Calculates number of years between dates
• Absoluete Number: Ensures number is postive
• Count: A count of the number of items
• Largest Number: Largest of all of the values
• Smallest Number: Smallest of all of the values
• Sum: Total sum of all of the values
• Average: Average of all of the values
• Concatenate: Joins 2 strings together

Form Templates

Form Templates are Pre-Built Forms, that allow you to quickly get going. Select Templates from the Menu.

The Success Page Editor

The Success Page is shown to a user after they initially submit a form. By default, they will see a Thank you message.
You can customise what the user sees in the Success Page editor. Click the Success Editor option from the menu.

The Success Editor looks similar to the standard editor. To get back to the main editor, click the Form Editor icon in the toolbar.

Import and Export

The Import and Export functions are great for:

• Backing up a Form
• Moving a Form from a Test Environment to a Production Environment
• Creating your own Template Forms, and Importing them when needed

You can access these functions from the Menu. Some properties of the Form or Controls may be reset during the Export/Import process. After Import you will need to re-publish the Form.

Customising the Layout

The Form Editor supports a customisable layout system. you can have any number of Rows, and up to 12 Columns per Row.
The Layout Menu appears when you click on a Cell. You can Remove Columns, Shrink and Expand Columns from this Menu.

There is only limited space within the page, so if there isn't enough room you won't be able to add extra columns. In order to add new columns, you need to Shrink an existing one first.
Here's an example of a Varied Layout with a different number of Columns Per Row.

Licensing

Access the Licensing Menu to View your Existing Licence details, or Import a new one.
When importing a Licence for the first time, a Library called PowerForms Licence will be created for you at the Site Collection level, assuming you have appropriate permissions in the SharePoint.

Default Values

Most Controls support Default Values. Choosing these can save a lot of time for your users by pre-filling the value for them. This is especially useful for User Profile Properties, or for Auto Selecing the User's Manager in a People Control.

Other Controls will have different options depending on the Data Types. With some controls, you can also click the Binding Button next to the Property to set it to something different. This will give you a lot of control over the initial values. Most commonly, you would use the User or Literal values.