Solved: How to change an existing SharePoint Canvas Power ...

DS2

We have a test Canvas Power App in a solution with Flows that currently uses SharePoint as a data source, and this test App is in a personal development environment. We would like to export it for use in DEV, QA and PROD Power Platform environments and use separate SharePoint lists for each environment. We did not add environmental variables to the Power App in the beginning but would like to set variables for the SharePoint Site and List.
I read the documentation here: Use data source environment variables in canvas apps - Power Apps | Microsoft Learn on the creation of environmental variables, but am struggling to see if the data source is already created how to change it to use environmental variables instead as there are many connection throughout many screens.

Does anyone have any instructions on how to change to using SharePoint environmental variables for the data source for an existing Canvas App? We also have Flows associated to the App that would need to be changed as well.

iAm_ManCat

Hey @DS2

Yes you can convert from standard SharePoint datasource to using environment variables - sometimes its a bit of pain when the names don't exactly match but luckily Power Apps has Find-and-Replace.

Take your existing app, add it to a solution, create the environment variables you'll need for the solution - you'll need one for each site and then one for each list used within each site (as the list env vars use the site env vars as a 'base' of sorts). In my example I will use a single site and two lists within it, that are both part of an app:

Create a site environment variable in the solution you created to add the app to, and add to it the current site value (the site value in this environment):

Then do the the same for the lists, choosing the Site Environment variable for the site when setting up the list environment variable, and setting up the current value to point at the list you are creating the variable for:

Then select to edit your app from the solution:

Once in the app, select the datasource option from the left rail and then the ellipsis next to each datasource and select remove (ignore all the errors that come up, those will be dealt with when we add them back via environment variables):

Then select Add Data either from the option the datasource list or the big button (if you removed all datasources), choose SharePoint and your connection:

Then, when it asks to connect to the SharePoint site, choose Advanced:

Then select the site environment variable we set up in the earlier steps:

Then it will ask you to choose a list, make sure to click Advanced again:

Check the boxes for the list variables we set up in the earlier steps then click Connect:

Now, we can see them listed by the Environment variable name in your datasource list and most, if not all, of our errors are solved:

If you've used a lot of custom code, you may need to use the search-and-replace function (bottom left of rail) to replace the old name with the new environment variable name - replace the old name including its single quotes with the new name, in our example here that would be:

'All Data Types'

with

AllDataTypes_ListEnvVar

We can then look at the app details to confirm it is still designated as non-premium 🙂

Hope this helps solve your situation, and apologies for your previous experience on the forums, not everyone on here is the same 💜

Cheers,

Sancho

@iAm_ManCat

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View solution in original post

VishalJhaveri

Using environment variables will make the application licensing to premium from standard. Are you sure you want to use Environment Variables?
This video from Reza Dorrani might help you: https://youtu.be/BFGcXSAgawM?si=TLVSg-zgGzPntcWc

If my answer helps you please mark it as solution.

DS2

Thanks for your reply @VishalJhaveri but the documentation says that premium licenses are not required: Use environment variables in Power Platform solutions - Power Apps | Microsoft Learn

"Are premium licenses required?

No. While ALM requires Dataverse (or Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement), use of premium connectors isn't required. The one caveat is if you're using the Dataverse connector to interact with environment variables as you would with other data records like accounts or contacts. Previously this was the only way to use environment variables in canvas apps and flows."
As we are not using Dataverse, but SharePoint, we will not consume premium licenses. I have seen the video, but it does not address what to do if you have an existing canvas app, unfortunately.

VishalJhaveri

I made an application 2 years ago and created Environment variables, and used them as parameters inside the application, it turned my application to premium. So I quite remembered that was the reason why I removed those Environment variables.
And my backend was : SharePoint as connector.
Please check if it is currently working for you or not.

DS2

Things have changed @VishalJhaveri - the subject of this post is if it is possible to change from using a SharePoint data source to using data source environmental variables. I'm hoping to get responses on that 🙂 I tested creating an App from scratch with SP environmental variables and it did not make the App premium. If it did, it's possible we'd be OK with it.

VishalJhaveri

I verified it with my team and they are saying that Environment variable uses Dataverse as backend and henceforth it will make the application premium. But we didn't try it. Can you please share the screenshots after creating Environment Variables of the application not being premium?

DS2

We have a test Canvas Power App in a solution with Flows that currently uses SharePoint as a data source, and this test App is in a personal development environment. We would like to export it for use in DEV, QA and PROD Power Platform environments and use separate SharePoint lists for each environment. We did not add environmental variables to the Power App in the beginning but would like to set variables for the SharePoint Site and List.

I read the documentation here: Use data source environment variables in canvas apps - Power Apps | Microsoft Learn on the creation of environmental variables, but am struggling to see if the data source is already created how to change it to use environmental variables instead as there are many connection throughout many screens.

Does anyone have any instructions on how to change to using SharePoint environmental variables for the data source for an existing Canvas App? We also have Flows associated to the App that would need to be changed as well.

DS2

This is not a question about licensing.

Gochix

@DS2 ,

You have the same thread open:

How to change an existing SharePoint Canvas Power ... - Power Platform Community (microsoft.com)

Please close the thread.
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