Explicit column selection - Preview features

[SabineR]

Hi all,

I tested the Preview features "Explicit column selection" and I got issue with. Here is the detail:

I'm connecting to a sql datasource.
I created some sql views, next put in collections, used in multiple screens.

Some columns I need are detected as not necessary and not loaded...

If I use views, it's not for losing columns I specifically created in.

Can you confirm that we will continue to have the option to turn it off?
If not, can you adapt this feature in order to not apply to sql views?

Or maybe add the option Explicit Off/On per datasource or in ClearCollect(), Collect() functions ?

Many thanks in advance,

Sabine R.

[sridutt]

SabineR Can you please share details of issues experienced / session id. This Preview feature toggle options will be available till there is high reliability across data sources. I can share more detail once I am able  to investigate your session.

[SabineR]

Hi,

Here are more details:

I'm connecting to as SQL 2012 database.

I got issues with 2 sql views:

1. The first one is returning a list of zones. These zone must be audited during the year with a certain frequency.

In the view, I get hierarchical info( department > service > team > zone) + the last visit date, the audit frequency required, if the zones has been audited for the current month, the remaining days/months and other details.

Screen 1: Departments are displayed. (every zone belongs to one department. In this screen I put all the zones in a collection and do a group by)

Screen 2: Services below the department selected are displayed, with the number of zone which needs to be audited this month. (Group by on the collection. Remark: some department are not split in services and this screen is bypassed  )

Screen 3: teams below the service (same principle than in screen 2.  )

Screen 4: finally the zones below the responsibility of the team, with the remaining day or month for the monthly audit, if it's required or not and if the audit for the current month was done.

In another Screen , I display directly all zones for the connected user, with some combobox selections (department, sub department etc)

With the explicit column selection turned on, the following details disappeared:

- Number of remaining day: with only 8 visits, it was empty. Now, with 14 visits registered for the month, I see it. (?)

- Number of remaining month: same thing, empty with 8 visits for the month, now ok.

--> so, depending the number of visit, these information are not returned.. Or the number of visits will be reinitialized every month and year?!

2. In another screen, I display 2 charts: first, the number of audit done per each department for all the current year and all user and for the second, per the user connected. I currently created one view for the 2 charts which return the 6 fields:

- visit_type_code

- Department

- Created_by

- Total

- TotalWithAction

- TotalWithActionCompleted

==> The Department is not displayed when I do the following:

ClearCollect(colMyVisitByDept,AddColumns(

        GroupBy(Filter('[dbo].[v_report_visit_all_year]',visit_type_code="WLK",Created_by=UserId),"Department","visits"),"Total des visites",

        Sum(visits,Total),

        "Total des visites avec actions",

        Sum(visits,TotalWithAction),

        "Total des visites avec actions complétées",

        Sum(visits,TotalWithActionComplete)))

It appears if I add an additional unnecessary filter : Department <>""

I got in the past, issues too with sharepoint datasources, but I don't remember exactly the details.

But as a result, I turned this option off.

Thank you in advance for your answer,

Sabine

[sridutt]

Hi @SabineR Thanks for your response. Formula that you mentioned above should work fine with Explicit column selection. I may be missing some minute details for your description, Is it possible to share session Id and App Id for app having this issue? We would be able to back trace root cause of issue from data calls made with and with out Explicit column selection.

[jbentley]

This feature caused issues for me as well.  I was using clearcollect against an SQL table.  The string values in one of the collection fields was blank until I turned off the feature.  It had been working fine, but stopped sometime in the past 24 hours.

[sridutt]

@jbentley Can you please provide more details on recent issue  like power apps version where it worked and where you have issue recently. Please share session id / app id as well to investigate.

[jbentley]

been using the same app version while buidling the app over the past few weeks.  The issue just started tonight while adding some more feature to other screens in the app.  turned off the feature then turned it back on.  It seems that Set() function is getting confused now as well in areas is was working perfectly fine before.

app version:  3.20022.19

app id: 486311f9-dc4b-4af7-bed4-58bcbcab0635

[SabineR]

Hi Sridutt,

app id : bd8b7386-b8e2-4a59-a4af-0e0e375f0000

app version: 3.20022.19

I tested it last Friday 21.02.2020: normally with version 67 (remark: TEST Settings changes: explicit column selection + Error mngt), 68.

Thank you in advance,

Sabine

[VIGAPS]

Hi @sridutt 

I am having a similar problem to this. Due to needing my application to work offline I load all data needed into collections on startup of the application.

Then as the user drills down into different parts of the application, if I have the Explicit column selection turned on, some fields that I need are not populated. If I turn it off all is ok. On Startup do I need to reference all fields needed to make sure all the fields I need are populated? 

The difference is I am using the CDS connector not SQL.

Thanks

[Iwarzon]

We have been migrating a canvas app from Sharepoint lists to dataverse, and this Explicit column selection, turned out to be the bad data mystery. When we finally found and turned it off, the two tables started to show vital data in the app (otherwise blank in gallerys and forms). We though disabling Explicit column selection was our saviour, but turned out it created a weird error in all Comboboxes connected to a Lookup column instead... so we had to roll back and now we are working with blank data instead.

Any help on how you can get past it would be appreciated. We have created collections with issue columns at the app start, mainly only to force the app to get the missing data, but without success...