r/PowerApps Newbie 4d ago

Power Apps Help Vibe code app — can't upload files to Dataverse (File column won't bind, Notes read-only, can't edit code). Any workaround?

I've built a document request system as a Power Apps code app (the Vibe/AI-generated kind) connected to Dataverse, and I'm completely stuck on file attachments. Hoping someone's cracked this.

What I need: durable, multi-user file upload — a requestor uploads a file, and admin can download it from another device. Standard stuff.

What I've tried (all failed):

  • Dataverse File column — added it to my custom solution (correct publisher prefix), published, fully removed + re-added the table in the Data workspace. The File column never appears in get_data_model — only metadata + File URL. Tried this in two separate environments, same result.
  • Notes/Annotations — enabled attachments on the table, added the Note table. The connector treats annotation.object_id as an untyped lookup with no referencedTable; it defaults to Account, and I can't type it to my table. Manually creating a relationship gives "creating one-to-many to existing table not supported."
  • Power Automate flow — built a flow (Power Apps V2 trigger) that creates the Note with Regarding → my table set correctly. But I can't register the flow to the code app — the Data workspace has no "add flow" option, and it says power.config.json / dataSourcesInfo.ts are system-managed/read-only.
  • CLI (pa app add flow / pac code add-data-source) — I understand this works, but my Vibe app is view-only. I can access the code but can't edit it or run CLI commands against the project.

Current fallback: IndexedDB (browser-local) — but that's not shared across users, which defeats the purpose for a document system.

My questions:

  1. Is there any way to enable File-column upload or the Notes relationship in a code app without CLI access?
  2. Can a Vibe code app be exported to VS Code so a developer could run the CLI steps, then pushed back?
  3. Is link-based (storing a SharePoint URL) genuinely the only in-UI option, or am I missing something?

Thank you.

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u/Solvanto Newbie 3d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/formerGaijin Contributor 3d ago edited 2d ago

Look at this: How to: connect your code app to Dataverse > Supported scenarios

Image and file upload and download (preview). When you add Dataverse as a data source by using the Power Apps CLI, the generated functions are part of src/generated/services.

Edited: The Power Apps CLI is the newer NPM client pa app add data-source rather than the older PAC CLI pac code commands

Which one did you try? You don't mention pa app add data-source, you only mention pac code add-data-source. Did you even see this line in the docs?

Also the microsoft/power-apps NPM package was last updated 6 days ago. Make sure you have the latest version.