List/Library configuration settings – skybow Portal

TL;DR: The List configuration panel in the skybow list/library control lets you control how a list/library is displayed and behaves within a form — including the view, grid/compact layout, column expressions, sub item linking, CAML filtering, etc. This article describes every available configuration option and what it does.

List configuration panel
View settings
Sub Item Settings
Folder Path (library only)
CAML Filter
Lazy Loading
List forms setting
Command bar settings
Appearance settings
JSON Formatting
Usability features

List configuration panel

A Lists & Libraries control shows items from a related SharePoint list or library inside a form.

To configure Lists & Libraries control on a form you need to:
1.    Open the form in the editor (Display Form, New Form or Edit Form).
2.    Clicking on the + icon within the section where you want to add the list/library control and navigate to Lists & Libraries control section.
3.    Select the list or library you want to add to the form. The List configuration panel opens on the right.
4.    Change the settings and click Save. Click Cancel to close the panel without applying changes.

From the side panel, you can configure how the list/library is displayed on a form and how it interacts with the parent form item - from selecting the view and layout mode to linking it as a sub item or applying CAML-based filters. The List dropdown at the top of the panel identifies the list or library currently being configured. This is set when you initially insert the list control into the form. Use this panel to fully customize how each embedded list behaves in the context of your form.

NOTE: Configuration settings are configured separately for each form. A list shown on the Display, New and Edit form has its own configurations. Some options are available or behave differently depending on the form.

View settings (List view settings)

The View dropdown lets you select which SharePoint view of the list is displayed within the form. By default, the view is set to All Items.

View dropdown — Select any existing view defined on the list. Only items and columns included in that view will be shown in the form.
+ (Add) button — Create a new view directly from the configuration panel without leaving the form designer.
Edit view link — Opens the currently selected view for editing, allowing you to modify its columns, filters, sorting, and grouping.

Compact View

The Compact view toggle switches the list between a standard row height and a reduced row height. When enabled, rows are displayed in compact style, list items are displayed with reduced spacing, allowing more rows to be visible at once without scrolling.

NOTE: Compact view is automatically disabled while the list is in Grid view mode. When a user edits the list in grid mode, rows are shown in normal height. Compact view style is restored again after exiting Grid view.

Grid view

The Grid view option allows users to switch the list view to the editable grid mode (spreadsheet-like), where cells can be edited inline. With Grid view enabled, users can edit the values of many items directly in the list: click a cell, type or pick a value, etc. They don’t need to open a form for each item.

Grid view toggle
- Yes (enabled) — Grid view is available for the list. User manually activates grid view on the sublist/sublibrary. When activated, users can click into cells and edit values directly inline, without opening a separate form.
- No — Grid view is not available; items can only be edited by opening the individual item form.

When you switch Grid view on:

The Edit in grid view/Exit grid view* commands are added to the command bar.
*You can rename it under Command bar settings.
Additional options to configure grid view mode appears below the toggle Grid view by default, Column expressions, Hide 'Add new item'.

With the Grid view option you can:

Edit multiple rows quickly
Add new rows*
Copy/paste data from Excel
Interact with cells using keyboard (Tab / Shift + Tab, Ctrl + Z, etc.)
Drag-to-fill
Save changes and switch back to the normal SharePoint list view

*Adding rows in the grid view is not available for libraries (upload files instead) and in grouped views.

LIMITATION:

Grid view mode automatically disable Lazy Loading toggle option.
Grid view option is not available for Board/Tiles, Calendar and Gallery list views. The Grid view toggle is disabled when the selected view is a Tiles/Gallery, Board or Calendar view.
Grid view works on Grouped views with some restrictions (New rows cannot be added)

Grid view by default option allows to open the list/library in the editable grid straight away:

Yes (enabled) — The list renders in grid/edit mode automatically when the form is loaded, without requiring the user to manually activate it.
No — The list loads in standard read mode; users can switch to grid view manually if it is enabled.

Column Expressions option is shown when Grid view is on. It allows to configure column expressions which will apply to the cells. The Column expressions section lists all editable columns that are included in the selected view. For each column, you can configure expressions to control its behavior within the list/library.

Expressions	Effect in the grid
Enabled	Control whether the column is editable or read-only. If it is set to false, the cell is read-only. (It can still be selected and copied).
Required	Make the cell required. A cell is required to set the value. A row with an empty required cell cannot be saved.
Calculated	Set a default or dynamically calculated value. The value is saved with the row.
Lookup Filter	Filter values of Lookup column with the CAML builder.

[[@SubListCurrentRow]] placeholder provides access to the values of the row currently being edited.

Use this placeholder in column expressions to reference values from the current row of the list or library being edited. This is particularly useful when configuring expressions that depend on other column values in the same row.

For example, you can use [[@SubListCurrentRow]] to reference other column values from the row currently being edited. This allows expressions to dynamically calculate or display values based on the current row. For example, an expression such as [[@SubListCurrentRow.Orders.Price]]*[[@SubListCurrentRow.Orders.Quantity]] can calculate an order total using the Quantity and Price values from the current row.

IMPORTANT: [[@SubListCurrentRow]] is available only in grid column expressions.

Sub Item Settings

The Sub item settings section defines how the list items connect to the parent form's item (how list/library items linked to the parent form's item), and how that relationship is maintained. Sub item settings connect the list items to the item of the form (the parent). When they are set, the list/library shows only the related items, and new items are linked to the parent automatically.

If Use as Sub item option is checked, the items in the list or library are linked to the parent list item via a lookup column.

This is the recommended approach when the sublist contains items that belong specifically to the parent item (e.g., line items belonging to an order).
When enabled, the sublist will automatically filter its items to show only those associated with the current parent item being viewed or edited.

Lookup field to parent list

This is a required option (when Use as Sub item? is checked) used to establish and maintain the parent-child relationship. You need to specify which lookup column in the sublist/sublibrary will link items to the parent list item.

Select an existing lookup column from the dropdown (e.g., LookupToDossier1).
Use the + (Add) button to create a new lookup column directly from this panel if one does not exist yet.

Cascade delete

When this checkbox is enabled, deleting the parent list item will automatically delete all related items in the sublist/sublibrary:

Enabled — When the parent list item is deleted, all related sub items linked to it via lookup column are also deleted automatically.
Disabled (default) — Sub items are not automatically deleted when the parent item is removed. They will remain as orphaned records in the sublist.

Initial folder name format (for library only)

Required for libraries that use a lookup relationship. It is an expression that builds the name of the document folder created for each parent item. For a folder-based relationship, the read-only Sub folder name format is shown instead. By default the initial folder name format is set to [[Title]]-[[ID]].

IMPORTANT: It is highly recommended to include a unique part such as [[ID]] in initial folder name format

Folder Path (library only)

Folder path option allows to specify the folder where the library view starts. If Folder path is set, only files inside this folder path are shown and new files will be uploaded directly to this folder.

CAML Filter

The CAML Filter field allows you to define a custom CAML query to filter which items are displayed in the list/library control.

Use a CAML query to restrict items based on column values, date ranges, user fields, or any other list column condition.
This is especially useful when you are not using the Use as Sub item? option and need to manually control which items appear.
Click the CAML Builder button (to the right of the input field) to open the visual CAML query builder, which provides:
- A Designer tab for building queries visually with conditions and operators.
- An XML tab for viewing or editing the raw CAML XML.
- A Custom expression tab for writing fully custom CAML queries.
- An AI Assistant for generating CAML queries from natural language descriptions.

IMPORTANT: CAML Filter is not available for list/library controls on a New form, because the parent item doesn’t exist yet. The box is disabled there, and a saved filter is ignored.

Lazy Loading

The Lazy Loading option allows loading items in lists/libraries on demand. That helps to speed up and improve the loading items process in the lists/libraries, especially in case of large numbers of items in the list/library. The option is available on the display form on the List/Library configuration panel and can be used with or without 'Use as Sub item' option enabled. Read more about Lazy Loading here.

Enabled — Items in the list or library are loaded on demand, rather than at the same time as the parent form. This improves initial form load performance, especially when the sublist contains a large number of items.
Disabled (default) — All items in the sublist are loaded together with the parent form.

IMPORTANT: On the New/Edit forms Lazy Loading option is disabled if 'Use as Sub item' option is enabled.

List Forms settings

Select which Modern Forms open when users create, edit or view an item from the control: New form, Edit form and Display form.

Libraries offer only Edit form, plus:
• Open edit form on file uploading – opens the edit form after a file is uploaded.
• Save file before open edit form – saves the file before the edit form opens, so configured Triggered Actions and Background calculations run first. This option isn’t shown for sub libraries on New and Edit forms.

Command bar settings

Within the Command bar setting you are able hide (Show/Hide toggle) command bar and configure List Actions. Default actions displays default list actions. For each default action you can change the name, icon, set the Visible/Enabled expressions, change order (move up/move down). You can also configure custom list actions within the configuration panel - clicking on [Configured List Actions].

LIMITATION: [Configured List Actions] option is not supported on New/Edit form if list/library is used as sub item

Appearance Settings

•    Show search – shows the search box above the list.
•    Show filters – shows filter icons in the column headers. Disabled when Lazy Loading is enabled.
•    Show header – shows a header above the list. Its Header text can be dynamic using an expression.

When Show filters option is enabled, it allows configuring dynamic filters on forms by the end user. It is possible to configure a filter for the whole list and for each column separately. A filter icon is displayed on columns with a filter applied.

JSON Formatting

List/Library control supported Column formatting (JSON formatting) and View formatting (JSON formatting) from SharePoint (SharePoint online). Here are examples how to configure:

JSON formatting on Lists & Libraries control has some limitations and will not apply in the following cases:

Column/View formatting on New/Edit form if list/library is used as sub item.
Board view
InlineEditField list formatting
The following customRowAction actions: share, openContextMenu, executeFlow

Usability features

Grouped view*
List view footer*
Tiles view in the document library (SharePoint online)*
Drag'n'drop - drag'n'drop files/folders inside sublist/sublibrary (SharePoint online)*.
Pin column - allows users to pin a column so it remains visible while scrolling horizontally through the list. If a Solution builder pins a column in the form editor, it will apply to all users. In addition, users can pin a column in SharePoint for their own use. Pin column option is available by clicking on a column header

Sorting - the ability to sort list items in ascending or descending order based on the selected column.
Resize column - the ability to change column width. The Solution builder can set default column width in the form editor and these changes will apply to every user. In addition, users in SharePoint can customize column width and reorder columns for their own use.
Reorder column - the ability to reorder columns. Users can change the order of columns to arrange the list according to their preferences. Solution builders can configure the default column order in the form editor, while users can customize the order for their own view.
Reset view - A 'Reset view' button appears when changes are made and it allows to reset the view to the default settings. (Users can change column widths to make the displayed data easier to read. When users customize column widths or ordering, a Reset view button becomes available. Use Reset view to restore the default view configuration)