Accidents happen. We’ve all been there—accidentally deleting something important or submitting a form too soon. In PowerApps, preventing these mishaps is essential for a polished user experience. That’s where confirmation popups come in. In this guide, you’ll learn how to build responsive, interactive popups in PowerApps to confirm user actions. From preventing accidental deletions to collecting user input before triggering key actions, you’ll explore step-by-step how to create a sleek and foolproof experience.

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Why Do You Need Confirmation Popups?

Imagine a user mistakenly deletes a file or submits a form without double-checking their entries. These small errors can lead to major problems, especially in systems handling critical data. By incorporating confirmation popups, you add a safety net, ensuring users confirm their actions before anything is final. It’s like adding a seatbelt to your app—it protects users and improves trust in your tool while creating a smoother UX.

This tutorial is packed with practical tips, such as:

• Building responsive popups using PowerApps containers.
• Dynamically showing and hiding popups with variables.
• Using modern buttons for sleek confirmations and cancellations.
• Capturing user comments or inputs for accountability.

Let’s dive in and make your app error-proof!

Setting Up the Basics

The App Structure

For this demo, we’re working with a SharePoint document library as the data source, complete with metadata columns like comments. Don’t worry if your data source is different—this approach works with Dataverse or others too.

The app has a clean layout with a vertical gallery pulling data from SharePoint. There’s a simple header and footer for structure. Each gallery item includes dynamic icons for actions like delete or restore. These icons, controlled by variables, reflect the current status of the record.

Dynamic Popups Powered by Variables

When building confirmation popups, flexibility is key. Using variables, you can control when and how the popup appears. Here’s a quick rundown:

1. Trigger the Popup: Clicking an action icon (like a trash can) sets a variable, VAR_Delete, to true.
2. Show the Popup: The popup container’s Visible property checks if VAR_Delete is true.
3. Cancel the Action: If the user clicks cancel, reset VAR_Delete to false, and clear inputs like comment fields.

This simple variable-driven logic ensures your popup behaves predictably.

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Creating the Popup Layout

Using Containers for a Responsive Design

PowerApps’ container controls simplify popup design by treating grouped elements (text, buttons, images) as a single unit. You can think of a container as a flexible tray holding your content, making it easier to manage spacing and alignment.

Here’s how containers work in this build:

• Main Popup Container: Sits on top of the screen with a semi-transparent background, giving users feedback that the app remains active.
• Vertical Subcontainer: Holds the popup content—labels, text inputs, and buttons—stacked neatly.
• Horizontal Containers: Align elements like a button and a preview image side-by-side for clarity.

Containers save time, reduce complexity, and keep designs consistent.

Modern Buttons & User Input

Modern controls (like buttons) are used throughout the popup for a polished look. Confirmation and cancellation buttons are dynamic:

• If a record is pending deletion, the button displays “Yes, Delete.”
• If a record is marked for restoration, it shows “Yes, Restore.”

To capture user feedback, include a text input field for comments. This extra step ensures users think carefully before completing any action. Hint text like “Add comments here…” provides subtle guidance without clutter.

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Error Handling Built Right In

Showing Helpful Feedback

In a perfect world, everything works on the first attempt. But in real life, errors happen—especially with backend data sources like SharePoint. That’s why error handling is critical.

For this popup, if something goes wrong (e.g., a failure to update SharePoint), users get an immediate notification explaining the issue. This feedback helps users understand what went wrong and reattempt the action if needed.

To show this feedback:

1. Set a variable like VAR_Spinner to true during processing.
2. Display a “spinner” animation (a simple GIF) to indicate the app is working.
3. If there’s an error, reset the spinner and show an error message.

By keeping users informed, you minimize frustration and build trust.

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Extending Functionality

Previewing Documents Before Confirming Actions

No one likes guessing what they’re deleting or restoring. With this popup, users can click to preview files directly from SharePoint (or your chosen data source).

Add an image thumbnail paired with a button that launches the file. This gives users visual confirmation of what they’re working with, reducing mistakes.

The ability to click and open files, make edits, and return to the app ensures your workflow stays seamless.

Tracking User Comments for Accountability

It’s one thing to confirm an action, but adding a comment field takes things a step further. By capturing user comments like “Please delete, it’s a duplicate” or “Restore this file urgently,” you leave a digital trail of who did what and why.

In this solution:

• Comments are appended to the existing data using the Patch function in PowerApps.
• Each comment includes a timestamp and the user’s name.

This approach is ideal for audit purposes and collaboration across teams.

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Putting It All Together

Example Workflow: Deleting a File

Let’s walk through the process the user experiences:

1. They click the delete icon on a record in the gallery.
2. The confirmation popup appears, showing details about the file, including its name and current status.
3. The user can preview the file, add comments, and either confirm or cancel the action.
4. On confirmation, the app processes the action with a spinner animation.
5. If successful, a notification confirms the change. If there’s an error, the app provides clear feedback.

The same workflow applies to restoration actions, with slight tweaks to button text and logic.

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Final Thoughts

Building user-friendly apps isn’t just about great features—it’s about designing experiences that prevent mistakes and guide users effectively. By adding confirmation popups to your PowerApps, you’re creating a safer, more reliable app for everyone involved.

Try out these techniques and start refining your apps today. If this guide was helpful, let us know in the comments! Got questions or suggestions? Drop them below.

And don’t forget—you can download the app files mentioned in this post by subscribing to the original tutorial creator. Happy coding!