Dropdown, datepicker, and combobox selections reset when editing a prior entry

[rboyd3]

Hello Power Apps Community,

I've been trying to solve this problem for some time using solutions that I found on this forum but I've had no luck so far.

I have a canvas app that I started from an Excel online table (dropdown and combo boxes items come from input tables and the app writes to an output table). The purpose is for users in my organization to record interactions that they have with stakeholders. Form entries are written to the excel online table and appear in the Power App gallery. That process works just fine. The issue is that when a user wants to edit a previously made entry the dropdown, combo box, and date picker controls all reset even though the text fields maintain their values. It is important that users are able to go back to previous entries to add notes and make updates and I worry that the need for them to re-select dropdowns will lead to errors. I have outstanding tickets with Microsoft to help with these issues but they've had no luck so far either.

Here are some of the methods that I've tried. 

1. https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Power-Apps/Edit-Form-resets-drop-downs/td-p/60588

     -In dropdown default I tried If(FormMode=FormMode.Edit, Parent.Default, "-"). Power Apps recognizes this formula with no issues for dropdown controls but the dropdowns continue to reset in practice. Combo box controls return an error that it expects a record value.

    -After making a practice app using a Sharepoint data source instead of Excel, I tried several variations of this formula: If(FormMode=FormMode.Edit, Lookup(TableName,ID=Value(DatacardvalueNumberForTheID.Text),FieldName) but I get an error that the right value is a text value and the left value is a record value. I'm not sure how to work the syntax on this to have power apps recognize items populating the dropdown and the previously selected items in the output table are the same text values.

2. https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Power-Apps/Preserve-selected-value-of-custom-dropdown-c...

 -In the default property I wrote EditForm1.LastSubmit.ColumnName. This actually does work, but only for the current session. If a user closes power apps and returns to make an edit then the dropdown controls all reset. 

The above formulas don't work at all for datepicker and combo box controls. I'm still working on finding solutions for those but my focus is on the dropdown controls right now. 

Thank you for reading and I will be grateful for any ideas. Please let me know if more context is needed. 

[RandyHayes]

@rboyd3 

In order to get dropdowns and comboboxes to have their default property (or defaultselecteditems) work as you would like, you need to make sure that you are supplying the EXACT record as it is defined in the Items property for the control.

You were kind of close with your:

If(FormMode=FormMode.Edit, Lookup(TableName,ID=Value(DatacardvalueNumberForTheID.Text),FieldName)

Except that you were doing a LookUp to return a FieldName, not a record.  If you change that (again, highly dependent on the Items property of the control) to:

If(FormMode=FormMode.Edit, Lookup(TableName,ID=Value(DatacardvalueNumberForTheID.Text))

You would probably get closer.

But - that is for ComboBoxes!  You mention your focus is on the DropDowns right now.

Dropdown controls are pretty easy to deal with as they usually resolve to a since text element.

So, in a simple scenario - DropDown has an Items property of ["1", "2", "3", "4", "5"]  This means that the Dropdown really has a Table with a Value column with those values. In this example, we are displaying "Value" as the items in the dropdown (as it is the only column to display).

Default on a Dropdown is a TEXT value.  So, this text must equate to whatever value you are displaying in the dropdown. 

So, setting the Default to "2" would set it to "2" as a default.  

If, we get a little more complex and set the Items property to:

    Table({ID:1, Name:"Joe"}, {ID:2, Name:"Steve"}, {ID:3, Name:"RBoyd"}, {ID:4, Name:"Randy"})

Which might be something similar to what we get from a Filter or other data gathering, then again, we need to set the default based on the Value displayed.  We can set that in the property pane to "Name" in this case, or you can append .Name on the Table formula above if you ONLY need the Names to display and have no use for the ID's.

So in this case, if we want "RBoyd" to be the default selected, we need to set our Default property to "RBoyd" as that will match the display value of the dropdown.

I hope this gives you something to go on.  Feel free to let me know your Combobox issues in specific when you focus on them and I can explain those to you as well.

[rboyd3]

Thank you for the detailed suggestion @RandyHayes, I haven't yet had time to revisit this but I will do so early next week and get back to you. Thank you again!

[rboyd3]

Hi @RandyHayes ,

Thanks again for your response.

I am afraid I don't understand how the dropdown explanation addresses the issue of the dropdowns resetting to their default values when editing a previously submitted entry. My issue isn't with populating a dropdown or with setting a default value generally, but with maintaining a previously selected value. I tried your method of populating the dropdown but the result is the same. 

I believe the solution lies in the If(FormMode... formula but I still don't quite understand the syntax to match the left and right values as text values. I set up a dummy power app to test this out further. I have SharePoint input lists and dropdowns. The Sharepoint table the app writes to is called OCS Experimental Output. The list column is titled 'Test column 1'. Dropdown 1 is populated by a seperate SharePoint list containing some names using Items='Test names'. I tried this using Table{{Name:"test name 1"}, {Name:"test name 2"}...... etc. but it doesn't seem to make a difference how the dropdown is populated. 

Is there something I am missing with this formula that you can spot?

If(FormMode=FormMode.Edit, LookUp('OCS Experimental Output', 'Test column 1'=Dropdown1.SelectedText.ID, Value))

[RandyHayes]

@rboyd3 

Apologies if I misunderstood.

I read your post to say that you needed the dropdowns to have the value for the record you were editing.  So, if "ItemX" was selected and a record was created, then when the user returns, "ItemX" should be shown.  Is that correct?

If so, then what I mention was pretty much the process.  You are now mentioning a specific (form mode based), so let's address that.

In your scenario, your DropDown is getting its values from a list called 'Test Names'.  This is fine.

When you Edit a record, you want the stored value in 'Test Column 1' (which comes from 'Test Names') to be displayed again (please validate this statement is correct).

So, if that is the scenario, the next question I have is what kind of column is 'Test Column 1'?  Is it a Text column or a Choice column?

If it is a Choice column, then You are going to set your Default to ThisItem.'Test column1'.Value

If it is a Text column, then you are going to set your Default to ThisItem.'Test column1'

Please clarify some of the above so I know I'm on the right track for you.