Creating personalised comments

[Newbie2021]

Hi,

I am wanting to create a comment bank for school data reporting. I plan on having a drop down of all of the adjustments that I may make in class.

If I select 3 adjustments, I would a string formed that automatically adds the first name followed by he / she to the second sentence, then back to the first name again on the third.

For example, if a person selects:

- presented to class today tired and withdrawn

- had difficulty comprehending simultaneous equations

- required teacher assistance to scribe work into the workbook and the reading of questions

If the students name was Tom, it would need to pull it together as:

Tom presented to class today tired and withdrawn. He had difficulty comprehending simultaneous equations. Tom required teacher assistance in scribing work into the workbook and the reading of questions.

If it was a girl named Kylie, it would need to do the same but instead of He, put She.

Kylie presented to class today tired and withdrawn. She had difficulty comprehending simultaneous equations. Kylie required teacher assistance in scribing work into the workbook and the reading of questions.

A teacher may select more than three statements.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

[Newbie2021]

Hi @Anonymous ,

I have made some progress; but have a bit of an issue with static data. I had been creating SharePoint lists to lookup; however, they are open to all staff and there was a need to reduce the number of them.

As there are some lists that don't need to be updated or changed (Curriculum etc) I have uploaded them from an excel file directly into power apps.

While they are working fine, I have a persistent message on the screen that the form isn't connected to any data yet, even though data is displayed.

My understanding is that this is happening because the static data isn't a data source as it can't be edited?

I am still able to collect it.

Is it okay to ignore this message and continue, or will it create issues?

Cheers

[Anonymous]

@Newbie2021 

Great to see you are making progress. There are a few things here that I can guide you on that may help you out.

Firstly, 

I had been creating SharePoint lists to lookup; however, they are open to all staff and there was a need to reduce the number of them

- "... open to all staff ..." - you can set permissions on Lists. The ideal setting for your setup would be Read only that way staff would be able to see the list data but not edit it

- " ... a need to reduce the number of them ..." - you should only need one list, not many. A two column list with a Subject column and a Descriptor column is all you need by the looks? Then you can just use Filter() in you app to display the Descriptor you need. This would also allow easy editing to the Subjects and Descriptors for future maintenance of your data (see below re Excel data sources).

Excel data sources are great for one purpose, load in the data once then never again. If this is your business case then you are fine. However, if at some future point new Descriptors get added/removed or if you notice a spelling mistake, etc then the only way to update your in-App Excel data is to remove the Excel data source then re-add it back in ... there isn't a refresh option for Excel ... unless that's changed recently??

This can add future maintenance issues for your app eg will you always be doing this job 1,2,5 years into the future? Can someone else easily manage the data maintenance ... and so on. As I mentioned above, the easier way is to have a SP List setup with two columns with Edit/Contribute access given to an admin who may need to adjust the data at a future point.

My apologies for the above essay, haha, now, onto your more pressing issue. I'm unsure exactly how you have your Form setup. What is the DataSource and Items properties of the form?

[Newbie2021]

Hi @Anonymous ,

I appreciate the essay. I have a lot of questions and you always answer them 😁. I understand your point with the single list. The multiple lists that I mention are due to the size of the curriculum /  descriptor / elaboration list. If I have one list with all subject descriptor / elaboration combinations it has 17812 rows:

This froze the app due to the delegation. To reduce this I created a list just for Year 7, then another for year 8 etc.

It was more the appearance of the lists on the SharePoint that those in power don't want. 

When I read about static data, I thought that would be a good idea, as the curriculum doesn't change.

I would therefore have 11 static data lists (Years - foundation,1,2,3,4,5,6,7, 8, 9 &10).

I am happy to remove and re-add the excel data if required. This would only be every 3 years if at all.

With the form, I set it up as follows:

The data source is the uploaded static excel data (Year 7). I am just finalising the comments and will add them to the collection. If it's okay I will then seek clarification on the previous coding which you provide for the pronoun etc.

Cheers

[Anonymous]

@Newbie2021 

Delegation should've been an issue on a list that size if you use a gallery and the  correct filtering. Anyway, you've moved onto Excel so I'll leave it there.

Im still unsure about how you app is setup and why your form is showing it's not connected to a data source. Seems odd. The data doesn't appear to be part if the form so I'm also unsure about why you are using it?

My thoughts were that you'd use a gallery to display the Descriptors, Collect these to a collection, then Patch to a data source. In this scenario you wouldnt need a form as forms only work on one record at a time.