Connect PowerApp to local documents for offline mode

[rschneider]

I would like to build an app that can connect to locally stored data (like a synchronized SharePoint DocLib or OneDrive) so that the users can still open pdfs when the app is in offline mode.

I have tried loading the pdfs into a collection, but cannot get it to load the actual file, neither as an attachment in a SP List nor as a document in a doclib.

Does anybody have any experience with this? Or has gotten this to work?

[v-xida-msft]

Hi @rschneider ,

Could you please share a bit more about your scenario?

Do you want to create a connection to your local data source from your app, and want to load data from your local folder?

Based on the issue that you mentioned, I think you have something misunderstanding with local connection (On-premises connection) in PowerApps.

When you created a connection to your local data source using On-premises data gateway, it do not mean that you could connect to your local data source from your app directly without internet (in Offline mode).

When your app is in Offline mode, your app could not send a request to your local data source through the On-premises Data Gateway. So if you want to load data from your local data source into your app when the app is in Offline mode, I afraid that there is no way to achieve your needs in PowerApps currently.

If you would like this feature to be added in PowerApps, please submit an idea to PowerApps Ideas Forum:

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Power-Apps-Ideas/idb-p/PowerAppsIdeas

Best regards,

[rschneider]

Hi @v-xida-msft ,

Thanks for the reply. I did think that the app would be able to connect to a local data source while offline. This should definitely be a feature!

I was thinking of solving it in a different way however, by uploading pdfs into the powerapp's collection while the app is online and having the powerapp then access the pdfs in the collection when offline. I cannot get the pdfs to be saved properly in the collection however.

[rschneider]

As you can see, the upload of the pdf into the collection does not work: