ightning Forms helps you to transform your SharePoint 2019 list forms from a column of fields, to a logical, well laid out form design. Multiple column, Tabs, Rich Text areas, and drag and drop operations help you to build a very effective form solution. Nested sublists help to achieve one to many type forms with powerful logic through calculations and actions. Lightning Forms is also available for Classic SharePoint lists in SharePoint 2016 and Modern SharePoint lists in SharePoint Online.
Customize Any SharePoint 2019 List Form
Each SharePoint List is made up of New Form, Edit Form, and Display Form. Using Lightning Forms, you can easily improve the layout of those forms with features such as Cascading Lookups, Tabbed Interfaces, Custom Buttons, Validation, and Embedded Sublists (Repeating Tables).
If you are looking to replace InfoPath forms, Lightning Forms could help you to build similar logic into your SharePoint lists, which then benefits you with an intuitive form designer.
Using Lightning Forms
You can quickly, and easily build powerful forms which enable you to add your business logic and processes to out-of-the-box SharePoint lists and libraries. Using SharePoint, you can build views, apply filters, and add columns.
Adding logic such as hiding fields based upon user selection, customizing input validation, or performing an action are just some of the additional capabilities that Lightning Forms provides.
Customize SharePoint Forms from within the browser
SharePoint Forms can be customized from within your browser and within the context of the form that you are editing. For instance, from within the SharePoint site, simply select the SharePoint List Form that you want to edit. An editor will be displayed allowing you to arrange the form to suit your requirements.
You can insert tables, horizontal and vertical groups, insert buttons and action links as well as SharePoint fields. Every change you make can be seen instantly within the WYSIWYG editor.
Insert Sub lists and Sub libraries into your SharePoint Forms
SharePoint Sub Lists and Sub Libraries are a great addition to your SharePoint Forms especially when you have lookup columns between lists or libraries. In a similar way to how relational databases contain one-to-many relationships, joins can be created between SharePoint lists using lookup columns.
Lightning Forms enhances this functionality with sub lists or sub-libraries, which will display the related list items within your SharePoint lists Display or Edit forms. An example would be to display a Customer with related purchase orders in a document library. Or, as this example shows, expense items on an expense claim.
Input Validation
Ensure that your SharePoint content and External Data is valid and consistent using Input Validation on SharePoint Form fields. Input Validation is especially useful on External Lists since the out-of-the-box External List forms only offer basic validation such as ‘Required’. If you want to offer a minimum and maximum range for a numerical field value, or check for a valid email address/phone number.
You can use Lightning Forms to easily add validation and custom error messages if the validation returns false for example.
Add Logic to your SharePoint Forms
Out-of-the-Box SharePoint List Forms provide a great means to collect information but lack logic. Using Lightning Forms, you can build logic into your forms using the Behaviour tab.
For instance, the Behaviour tab features include the ability to Enable and Disable Fields based upon a condition, Hide or Show Fields, Set Initial Values, Calculate Fields, and provide Field Validation. The Expression Builder makes working with existing fields and functions straightforward with the ability to test the results before saving.
SharePoint Form Action Builder
Lightning Forms Action Builder can be used to build actions behind the SharePoint Form load or behind buttons and links. Actions include Send Email, Show Message, Start Workflow, Open List Form, Redirect to URL and many more including Execute Script.
Furthermore, using the Action Builder is simple, and a great way to control the flow and notifications of data collection within your SharePoint Forms.
Lightning Forms Roadmap
The latest updates and plans for Lightning Forms.
Feature |
Release |
|---|---|
| Support for Modern List Forms | Q4 2019 |
| Responsive Forms | Q4 2019 |
| Modern Forms Sublist handling | Q4 2019 |
| Cross Site Lookup Data Connectors | Q3 2020 |
| Conditional Formatting on Fields and Controls | 2020 |
