Patching updates to multiple person field in SharePoint without over-writing

[GavSirisena]

Hi community!

I haven't been able to find an answer to this and I have looked, apologies if it is out there.

We have a sharepoint list that is being used for an events booking app with a person field for 'Attendees'.

Desired functionality: When Users click a button, it adds their name to the Attendees field, in addition to any names that are already there.

What is happening when using this Patch code below is that it is over-writing what is there, I need it to append...any ideas?

Patch(Training, Gallery1.Selected, {Attendees:
Table({
'@odata.type': "#Microsoft​.Azure.Connectors.SharePoint.SPListExpandedUser",
Department: "",
Claims: "i:0#.f|membership|" & User().Email,
DisplayName: User().FullName,
Email: User().Email,
JobTitle: "",
Picture: ""
})
}
);

[RusselThomas · Accepted solution]

Hi @GavSirisena ,

You're overwriting a table of possibly multiple people with a table of one person.

The idea would be to get the table of existing people, add your person to it, then write the table back.

Try this;

ClearCollect(collectMultiPersons, Gallery1.Selected.Attendees); //collect current attendees
Collect(collectMultiPersons, //add this attendee to the collection
{
'@odata.type': "#Microsoft​.Azure.Connectors.SharePoint.SPListExpandedUser",
Department: "",
Claims: "i:0#.f|membership|" & User().Email,
DisplayName: User().FullName,
Email: User().Email,
JobTitle: "",
Picture: ""
});

Patch(Training, Gallery1.Selected, {Attendees: collectMultiPersons})  //overwrite the existing table with your collection 

I'm not sure if there's a more efficient way of adding a single person to an existing list of people, but as the underlying data type is complex, it may in turn be quite complicated.

Hope this helps,

RT

[RandyHayes · Accepted solution]

@GavSirisena 

Please consider changing your Formula to the following:

With({_itm: Gallery1.Selected, _usr: User()},

   UpdateIf(Training, ID=_itm.ID, 
       {Attendees:
           Ungroup(
               Table(
                   {Item: 
                     Table({Department: "",
                            Claims: "i:0#.f|membership|" & Lower(_usr.Email),
                            DisplayName: _usr.FullName,
                            Email: _usr.Email,
                            JobTitle: "",
                            Picture: ""
                           }
                      )
                   },
                   {Item: _itm.Attendees}
               ),
               "Item"
           )
       }
   )
);

This will include the current user in the Attendees Person column while maintaining the existing users that are already there.

The collection method can be used, but if you're trying to avoid clutter in your app, the above will work without the heavyweight collection as well.

I hope this is helpful for you.

[GavSirisena]

You're a genius Russel! Thank you very much for this solution, it worked exactly as I needed it to.

[GavSirisena]

Hi Randy, this also worked really well and was probably a bit faster so thanks a lot!

[niklasjegg]

Hi @RandyHayes 

this also works fine for me. However i have another question.

I want to Patch all the previous selected users of my Combobox and the newly selected ones to my person column.(Multi selection enabled).

My Combobox Properties: 

Filter(Office365Users.SearchUser({searchTerm:ExtendedProjectTeam_input.SearchText}),AccountEnabled=true,Not(IsBlank(Mail)),Not(IsBlank(Department)),Not(IsBlank(JobTitle)))

Default and default selected items are

LookUp(Request,ID = RequestID).ExtendedProjectTeam

With({_itm: varItem , _usr: User()},
    UpdateIf(Request,ID = _itm.ID,
        {memberstest:
            Ungroup(Table(
                {Item:
                    Table({ Department: "",
                            Claims: "i:0#.f|membership|" & Lower(_usr.Email),
                            DisplayName: _usr.FullName,
                            Email: _usr.Email,
                            JobTitle: "",
                            Picture: ""
                           })
                },
                   {Item: _itm.memberstest}
               ),
               "Item"
           )
       }
   )
);

 i want to patch these users into a separate column of persons in order to later add them to a team in teams

BR Niklas

[DirkWellnitz]

Dear @RusselThomas ,

you helped me as well. However, I am struggeling to do the reverse for deletion:

ClearCollect(collectMultiMainContacts, Gallery2.Selected.'Main Contacts');

ClearCollect(deletionIndex, LookUp(collectMultiMainContacts, Claims = "i:0#.f|membership|" & MainContactsDelete.Selected.Mail));

Remove(collectMultiMainContacts, deletionIndex);

Patch(
    'LSO Primary Contacts',
    Gallery2.Selected,
    {
        'Main Contacts': collectMultiMainContacts
    }
);


Notify(MainContactsDelete.Selected.DisplayName & " has been removed from Main Contacts", NotificationType.Success, 5000)

I dont get any errors but the selected Person from 'MainContactsDelete' doesnt get removed.

MainContactsDelete is a combobox with people picker.

May you have an idea. Any hint is appreciated. Thanks, Dirk

[DirkWellnitz]

Solved. I dont know why but with 

ClearCollect(deletionIndex, LookUp(collectMultiMainContacts, DisplayName = MainContactsDelete.Selected.DisplayName));

it works.

[jerry86]

Can I do this for all Share Point List Items , this Specific Column to update? How do i do that? 

[DirkWellnitz]

Can you be a bit more precise respective provide context what you're trying to achieve?