After Patching Record, Remove Item does not work in formula, but Remove item works outside formula

[virakones]

Hi,

I have a small app that will collect Start and End Times for a Job.

The goal is that after submitting End Time, the item will Patch the selected record to a Sharepoint list and then delete the record from the local collection.

Users can Start multiple times, so I do not want to Clear the whole local collection to avoid removing items that are in progress.

Start Button (outside Gallery) OnSelect: Collect(Time, {Start: Now(), End: DateTimeValue(Blank())})

Gallery Items: Time

End Button (Inside Gallery record) OnSelect: Select(Parent); Patch(Time, ThisItem, {End: Now()}); Remove(Time, ThisItem)

The above scenario only completes the Patch. It will supply an End Time but will not Remove the record from the collection in the same formula.

However, I have a Trash icon with the same formula:

Trash Icon (Inside Gallery Record) OnSelect: Remove(Time, ThisItem)

And this works.

Here is a demo of the above

Question: Why can't I have a local collection patch a record to complete the local Record and remove it from my collection within the same formula that patches?

I want the local collection to temporarily display the work in progress, and items that are ended, to end and complete in the local collection > patch to Sharepoint list > and then remove from the local collection all in the same formula.

[WarrenBelz]

Hi @virakones ,

I am a little confused with this code

Select(Parent); 
Patch(
   Time, 
   ThisItem, 
   {End: Now()}
); 
Remove(
   Time, 
   ThisItem
)

Is the top line supposed to be to the list and the bottom removing it from the collection? Also I assume Time is not the name of your list - it is a Reserved Word in Power Apps.

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[virakones]

Hi @WarrenBelz 

Sorry, yes, Time is the collection. To clarify I can change the name to "coltime" but in either case this was just a sample set up.

Button outside of Gallery collecting Start time:

Collect(
    colTime,
    {
        Start: Now(),
        End: DateTimeValue(Blank())
    }
)

Gallery that displays those records of started times. 

Gallery1 Items:

colTime

And then, each record in the gallery will have a button that ends the time by patching Now() to the end time field. 

However, I'd like to clarify more that in between adding and removing the record, I patch the completed Record with Start & End time to the Sharepoint List (this works), but it doesn't then subsequently remove the item from my temporary collection (colTime).

Select(Parent);
Patch(
    colTime,
    ThisItem,
    {End: Now()}
);
Patch(
    SharePointList, 
    Thisitem
);
Remove(
    colTime,
    ThisItem
)

In essence, shouldn't this work out as if I had done each step seperately since each action is seperated by a semicolon?

[WarrenBelz]

Hi @virakones ,

Why are you bothering patching to the collection when you are about to remove it? You might also try RemoveIf()

Select(Parent);
Patch(
   SharePointList, 
   ThisItem,
   {End: Now()}
);
RemoveIf(
    colTime,
    ID=ThisItem.ID
)

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[virakones · Accepted solution]

@WarrenBelz 

Thank you for the suggestion, really appreciate the help on this!

For more context, this apps purpose is to allow users to work on multiple jobs (collecting start time those jobs), and view those same jobs that they're working on. Those start times are stored in a collection and that is viewed in a gallery.

However, those jobs can end at different times, even though one job may have been started later than the other. This is where I need to collect the end time for that specific record/job but not others. When a specific job is done, the purpose of patching to the collection is to provide an end time to that particular record that they started in the collection/gallery. When that job is ended, the completed record should then be submitted to the Sharepoint list, but ultimately the user doesn't need to view that item anymore because they are done with it - this is where removing from that local collection is required.

I could easily have a trash icon and have the user manually delete the record after they complete but I'd rather complete the removal from the collection in the same formula under the same button they use to "end" the job.

I do not have an ID column in the collection that would match the Sharepoint list ID, if I'm understanding your solution correctly, but unfortunately the solution you've provided will only collect the end time to my Sharepoint list, not the completed record with start time (and other details collected but thats irrelevant). Below is a demonstration with the End button only patching to the Sharepoint, the items End time:



However, there is another solution (credit: @stevegeall) where the Patch to the collection is stored as a variable. I've called this "varEndTimePatch" indicating that its only use is to store the immediate end time patch for that record and then I can work with that.

Then I patch varEndTimePatch to the Sharepoint list, and from there I'm able to now remove varEndTimePatch from the collection. @stevegeall  imagines in the original formula that the "Thisitem" used in the first line to patch to the collection, is not the same as the "ThisItem" that is attempting to remove the record in the formula. This variable method also removes the need to patch an ID field to the collection/Sharepoint List.

Here is one last demo of the intended work! I hope this demonstrates this particular use-case a little more clearly. 

[stevegeall · Accepted solution]

I'll leave what I wrote below as it might help others with troubleshooting, anyway - I worked out a solution; set the result of your patch to a variable then use that variable in the Remove, so in your end button:

Set(varPatchResult,Patch(Time, ThisItem, {end: Now()}));

Collect(SharePoint, varPatchResult);

Remove(Time, varPatchResult)

(This way also means no need for patching an id value either, which I use below)

Here's a vid: https://youtu.be/eszlcmb1Y5g

---

I think 'ThisItem' is updated to a value that differs to what the next lines 'ThisItem' is trying to remove (in the same function).

I tested this by creating a Time2 collection that used strings instead of datetimes. When the start button is pressed it adds the words "start words" and when the end button is pressed in the gallery item, the words "end words" are added but the item isn't removed (because 'ThisItem' has updated? The "end words" were added to the record). Pressing the end button in the gallery item again, now successfully removes the item, maybe because 'ThisItem' hasn't changed (the end button patched "end words" to the record, but since they were already there, the Remove(Time2,ThisItem) removed the item ok.

As an idea, I added an id to each item that is added to the collection when the start button is pressed, with 'id: Last(Sort(Time2,id)).id+1'. Then I changed the Remove in the gallery's end button to 'RemoveIf(Time2,id=ThisItem.id)'. The end button now patches the "end words" and removes the item all in one go.

I tested this back in the Time collection, with the datetimes; and as shown in your video, clicking the end button in the gallery, even multiple times, just updates the end time and never removes 'ThisItem' (maybe because the 'ThisItem' it's trying to remove is now different because the endtime value is changed by milliseconds/seconds).

Using the same idea of adding an id when the start button is pressed, and updating the gallery's end button to 'RemoveIf(Time,id=ThisItem.id)' works correctly, the end datetime is patched and the item is removed.

Here's a vid: https://youtu.be/eszlcmb1Y5g