After a button is pressed I want it to change colors for a certain period of time then back to its original color.

[kziegler]

I'm not sure which category this fits under but I would like a few things to happen when you press a button on power apps. I have a list of buttons that I'm not sure should be free-floating or in a gallery and the main goal is to make it easier to log routine repairs to machines.

1. When the button is pressed I'd like it to move to the bottom on the button list.

2. When the button is pressed I'd like it to change color for 5 days, (until the following Monday would be better but I'm not sure how to routinely calculate that date) then change back to it's original color when that time is up or on midnight the following Monday. 

3. When the button is pressed I would like it to create a predetermined item in Sharepoint. There is already a different Power Automate flow set up for each button I want to connect. I just need to modify it from being "on button press" to when a button in Power Apps is pressed.

I have no idea how to properly code any of this is my issue. I really want to be able to achieve all of this with MS Flow buttons but those are too limited.

If anyone has any tips or ideas on achieving these goals it would be massively appreciated!!

Thank you!

[abrae005]

1. I haven't done this, but you could set ButtonName.X and ButtonName.Y properties (X is left/right and Y is up/down) as part of your OnSelect for the button
2. You'll probably want to add a field in your SharePoint list (or whatever your datasource is) for "ButtonName Last Pressed Date", and set that value to Now or Today as part of the OnSelect. Then, you'll want to use a formula in the button's color property to check if that value is within 5 days of the current day and set the color appropriately
3. You can trigger a Flow with a PowerApps button, but you can also add the item to SharePoint directly from PowerApps without needing the flow.

[kziegler]

1 and 2 are both actually super helpful, I'll need to figure out how to code them still. I won't be able to add a date sponge in the list directly as this button would only make an item which is where the flow comes into play, I don't think you can have premade forms in Sharepoint through Power Apps and each button creates a different form and we need to trigger the creation of each form on a weekly basis so Power Automate Flows keep it a little more organized for me.

[kziegler]

My work flow needs to look a little something like this, please excuse the poor quality, I made it super quick in paint.

[abrae005]

So, if you're using a SharePoint list (Is that what you mean by "Pre-Filled Item in SharePoint" on the beige side of your flow?), you've already got a date for the button press, which can be referenced in Powerapps to help determine the color of the button.

For the Moving Button, you'll want to set the Y property of the button to be a variable, called var_ButtonY Then in the OnSelect property, you can reset the variable, using 

Set(var_ButtonY, 350)

(350 is just an example. Adjust to be higher or lower, depending on where exactly you want the button to move to on the screen). In the screenshot below, you'll notice the "Return Button 1" button, which will set the variable back to 128, which is the original location.

For #2, it sounds like (see question above) you're already storing the button push date in your SharePoint, so you'll want to connect that Sharepoint to your powerapp as a data source. Then for the button's "Fill" property, you'll want to create an If/Then statement, checking to see if the date stored is within your range. The code below will need to be updated with the data source details. If the value stored is more than 5 days ago, it will turn the button (a very bright annoying shade of) green, otherwise it will turn red. (Feel free to adjust the RGB values for colors)

If(DataSource.StoredDate < DateAdd(Today(), -5,Days), RGBA(255,0,0,1), RGBA(0,255,0,1))

[kziegler]

I don't already have a date stored in sharepoint for the button press, if I'm picking up what you're putting down correctly. Theoretically I would be taking the date when the button is pressed and using it to autofill the Sharepoint item, I will be doing the same for the user that presses the button; it will be taking the user's name and putting it in the Sharepoint item when they press the button. 

For the moving button I'm not sure what the substitute for the stored date would be since it's dynamic, not local to sharepoint and changes every time the button is pressed, thought I understand the thought process of it. 

Also with the movement of the button, it's more like the buttons would need to be in a gallery because my thinking was that I'd be able to move the button down to the bottom of the list and as every button is pressed they all move to the bottom after time so after time the button that was first would return to its original position. However the button movement is not super important compared to everything else.  

Also I really appreciate you working with me on this, I've been troubleshooting different ways to make this system easier for my team and Power Apps seemed best, but I know nothing about it or Power FX.

[kziegler]

I'm not sure if this works but I have a different flow for each button, so I would need to assign each button to start a flow and I'm not sure how to do that

[abrae005]

When you say "Sharepoint Item", do you mean adding (or updating) an item in a SharePoint List? Or are we talking about some other type of item?

There are lots of articles and tutorials on how to add/update items to a SharePoint list using PowerApps, I'm not going to rehash that here, but basically it involves connecting to your SP List as a data source in PowerApps, and then there are several functions (Update/Patch/SubmitForm/probably more) that can make changes to the SP List.

You can use the Now() function in Powerapps to return the current date/time, or Today() to return the current date. Those can be passed to your SharePoint List (or to your Flow, although it may end up being easier to do everything through PowerApps, unless there are other steps in your flow which haven't been mentioned in this discussion 🙂 )

For the color changing, the code is looking up the date is stored in the SP List (or the last saved date- that's a little more difficult, but still do-able), and then doing a comparison (using the DateAdd function) to see if the stored date is more/less than an arbitrary number of days. (5 in the example above).

Basically:

1. Button is pushed in PowerApps
2. This stores the date (and user name who pushed the button) in SP, either via Flow, or in PowerApps
3. The "Fill" variable for the button is not a static value, but a formula
   1. Compares the current date (using the Today() function) to the stored date in SP
   2. If Stored Date is more than 5 days before Current Date, button is green
   3. If Stored Date is less than 5 days before Current Date, button is red

As for starting a Flow from a button in PowerApps, I haven't done it, but a quick google search should help you out there.

[kziegler]

So I've managed to achieve everything except for changing the color based on the date, I have no clue what code I would use as I tried using your previous example however, I'm still not sure how to grab the previous date stored. If you have any further tips on that it would be much appreciated, but its totally okay if not.

[abrae005]

Again, I don't know your complete setup. I'm going to assume you're using a SharePoint list to share the data.

I created a test list, called "Powerapp_Test", and created 3 columns - Title (default column), Date_Button_Pushed (Date), Button_Pusher_Username (Text).

In Powerapps, click on the Data tab, then click Add Data

Select "SharePoint" as a Data Source, and find your SharePoint site, then choose the correct list.

Then, you'll need to find the latest date in the SharePoint list. I threw a label on the screen, and used this formula. (This is helpful when building the app, it'll help you see the data better, but you don't need to)

First(Sort(Powerapp_Test, Date_Button_Pushed, Descending)).Date_Button_Pushed

I also threw another label, to show the date 5 days ago, using this formula

DateAdd(Today(), -5, Days)

Here's an If Statement that will show if the Last Date is more recent than 5 days ago:

If(First(Sort(Powerapp_Test, Date_Button_Pushed, Descending)).Date_Button_Pushed > DateAdd(Today(), -5, Days), "Yes", "No")

Then, select your button, and modify the "Fill" property to be the following

If(First(Sort(Powerapp_Test, Date_Button_Pushed, Descending)).Date_Button_Pushed > DateAdd(Today(), -5, Days), RGBA(255,0,0,1), RGBA(0,255,0,1))

The format of the IF statement is If(Logical Test, True Value, False Value). So, in the first If statement above, we are comparing the most recent date (that's the big long formula with first/sort) to 5 days ago (the dateadd formula), and returning the text values Yes or No if the statement is true or false. That's good for the label, but for the button fill, we want to set the color using RGBA values - RGBA is Red, Green, Blue, Alpha. Leave the alpha at 1. I used (255,0,0,1) for the Red (the button HAS been pressed within the past 5 days) and (0,255,0,1) for the Green (last button push is more than 5 days ago).

Do a google search for RGB color picker, and put in (255,0,0) or (0,255,0) to see what colors those correspond to.

You will probably also want to add a Refresh(Powerapp_Test) as part of your button's on-select action. That will make sure it pulls the latest date after you push the button.