New to powerapps and looking for help

[bgallup]

Good morning all,

I am working on my first power app with data from an excel table. The table is kinda wonky and need direction. Do I need to change the table layout or can I make this work in it's current configuration.

So the table tracks the client, payment, date of payment and type of payment. The client is a static field in the table with three collums underneath each client, payment, date, and type. So I can create an app but it's pretty unuseable. As I need the fisrt screen to show name, the second screen woud show all payments for that client and allow for entering a new payment.

I have attached the table for your edification in hopes someone might be able to help me out with this

Thanks in advance

[wyotim]

Good evening @bgallup! In looking at your data sample, I can see why you are probably having some difficulties. The structure of the data isn't going to be very compatible with how most things in PowerApps work. If you could get a structure more like the following:

Name               Date               Amount          Type          __PowerAppsID__
Michael B.         6/3/2018           200             CC            *PowerAppsID*
Jennifer           7/10/2018          100             CK            *PowerAppsID*
Charles            10/4/2018          300             CS            *PowerAppsID*

where *PowerAppsID* is the ID that PowerApps creates, you will have a much easier time. If you have access to PowerQuery (which I think everyone does if they have an Excel version 2013 or later; you may have to download the add-on from Microsoft but it is free), you could use it to clean up your data in Excel but even better would be if you could get it already in that format. 

In the format you currently have, I am not sure how you would get much of anything to work to be totally honest. Is it possible to get your data in the format I showed?

[bgallup]

I definately can put it in that format, how does powerapps deal with multiple entries? For example if Mikkel has four entries with associated dates and amounts, how would that work in the app? What I am trying to achieve is seeing Mikkels name and in the next screen his payments with the ability to add a new payment.  Hope this helps.

[bgallup]

I did redesign the data and have attached the file, however powerapps creates an app that does nothing.

[wyotim]

Quick question: is your data in a table? If memory serves, I am pretty sure that Excel data has to be in a table to be used by PowerApps. 

Beyond that, what do you mean by "creates an app that does nothing"? I assume you are using the "Start from data" to create your app, yes? If you could reply with some specifics of what it isn't doing, I would be happy to try and help out.

[bgallup]

@wyotim

Yes the data is in a table.

I tried again tonight and it did create an app with data, so I can only assume I was doing something wrong. Is there a way for me to show on the first screen the name only and then the list of records associated with that name on the second screen?  Not looking for someone to build the app just direction so I get a sense as to what I need to do.

[bgallup]

@wyotim

So here is the data structure

Name|Date|Amount|Type

What I am trying to create, and again let me know if I am going about this wrong:

Screen 1 - Just the names removing all duplicate names

Screen 2 - List of all payments associated with the name (so take Mikkel he has three payments on different dates with different amounts).

Screen 3 - Edit/Add payment details

I am just not sure how to get started. I am really new to powerapps.

[wyotim]

So what you are primarily needing for the first two screens are galleries and for the last one is a form. For the first screen, the gallery should have something like the following in the Items section:

Sort(
    Distinct(
        Table1, 
        Name
    ), 
    Result, 
    Ascending
)

What this is saying is get the distinct Name values in Table 1 and sort the Result in Ascending order (A-Z). Table1 would be the name of the Excel table. 

In the first gallery, you would also want a text label with the following in the Text field:

ThisItem.Result

This is going to show each Result from the Items section of the gallery, which is a single column table of distinct Name values. 

In the OnSelect field of the gallery, you would want something like:

Navigate(Screen2, None)

This is saying when an item in the gallery is selected (tapped, clicked, etc.) Navigate to the screen named Screen2 using the transition None, or no transition. The transitions are little animations for going between screens and some other options would be Fade, Cover, or UnCover. Try them out and see what you think.

For the second gallery on the second screen, you would have something like the following in the Items section:

Sort(
    Filter(
        Table1, 
        Name = Gallery1.Selected.Result
    ),
    Date,
    Descending
)

This is saying use the data in Table1 and Filter it by the Name equal to the Result Selected in Gallery1 (the first gallery), then Sort it by Date in descending order (newest first).

In the second gallery, you will want three text labels with the following items, one in each label

// First label
ThisItem.Date

//Second label
ThisItem.Amount

// Third label
ThisItem.Type

This is saying to show the Date, Amount, and Type for each of the items filtered by the selected name in that gallery.

I made a quick example app that you can import and check out if you like to see the above. It isn't anything pretty, but the basics are there. *edit: The link for this is at the bottom of the post*

For the form, there is a nice template under the New Screen section title Form that once you connect to your data should do most of the setup. If you need any assistance with the form, I will be happy to help out. 

To add new data or edit data, you would probably want an icon for each option in the second gallery with the following code in the OnSelect fields:

// New item
Navigate(Screen3, None);
NewForm(EditForm1)

// Edit item
Navigate(Screen3, None);
EditForm(EditForm1)

Basically, these statements say Navigate to Screen3 and then set the form named EditForm1 as either a new form or one to edit existing data. Depending on your location, you may need to use double semicolons ( ;; ) instead of a single ( ; ) and a single semicolon ( ; ) instead of a comma ( , ). I am in the US so I used the local syntax. *edit for the emoticons that came from not spacing out the parenthesis from the semicolons*

Hopefully, that gets you headed in the right direction! PowerApps can have a pretty tough learning curve at first, but it does get easier and there are tons of great and helpful people on these forums. I am happy to revisit this if you have any further questions or issues.

[bgallup]

@wyotim,

Thanks a ton for the help, this definately has me headed in the right direction. So coming from an "Access" centric environment, is it safe to say that galleries are akin to an Access Query? Basically I am just calling for specific data to be displayed based on specific criteria.  That may be way overstating it but that may help me wrap my mind around the whole thing.

Thanks again

[wyotim]

I think that is a great analogy for galleries. The Items field is where you define the query, through sorting or filtering. I bet your Access background will help a lot as you get rolling with PowerApps. The report and form sides have some definite parallels.

Glad you are headed in the right direction and that I could help a bit!