As of October 2021 form footers were no longer to be supported in Microsoft PowerApps model-driven apps. What does this mean for you?

Here is a diagram of a typical instance in Dynamics 365.

The form footer is commonly used to display relevant information such as whether an account is active, or when the form was last modified and by whom. It’s up to the individual what sort of information is displayed in the footer. The advantage of having this sort of information here is that it remains visible regardless of which tab you are in.

Why Are Microsoft Removing Support for PowerApps Form Footers?

Microsoft cite web content accessibility among several reasons for not supporting footers any longer.

The other reasons include:

Data density is highly impacted by the form footer and doesn’t support a good customer experience. Controls aren’t discoverable and can lead to customer usability issues.

Makers have moved away from adding controls into the footer and there’s low usage of other controls, out of box or custom, in the current form footer experiences.

Components created using Power Apps component framework aren’t fully compatible with form footers, which cause usability issues when added to a form footer.

Form footers aren’t included in the mobile experience or on the view and dashboard pages. This change will align the form experience with other pages in a model-driven app

What Happens Now?

How this change will impact on your operations will depend on how reliant you are on the information in the form footers.

Inevitably you will need to relocate the footer information.

It could be moved to another part of the form, to the header or to the form body. Where it goes is at the discretion of the customer, but it is not something you can do yourself. It requires a configuration change that your provider will need to make for you.

For forms with more than one tab, Microsoft recommend moving fields that users need to access to the header and set it to use the high-density header with flyout. If the form has only one tab, the recommendation is to move fields into a new section on the form.

What Do I Need to Do?

Your D365 partner should have moved any fields or controls which have been added to form footers by October 2021.

If your partner isn’t able to help you, or if you don’t currently have a partner but do use model-driven apps, then we would be happy to help. Just send a short message and one of our friendly team will be in touch to discuss next steps.

What Happens if I Don’t do Anything?

Any footer fields and controls which have been added will not be available to users and will no longer render on the form.

Read the full statement from Microsoft.

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