cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Reply
JacoMathew
Frequent Visitor

Power Apps(Pages) Issue with connection and working with sql database connected table with foreign key

Hi All,

 

I am trying to create an app with Power pages. I have a set up an azure sql database with table that have primary key and foreign key. I was able to make the connection to the solution. I have tables in the following format :
Employees table :
Id, FirstName, LastName, EmpType, Status ....

 

EmployeeSkill Table :
Id, EmployeeId, Skill .....

 

I created views with an additional column called DVID. DVID in Employees is a concatenate of (Id,FirstName,LastName). DVID in EmployeesSkill is a concatenate of (Id,EmployeeId,Skill). I created this DVID column as while loading the table, we have to set a "Primary field". I have read that and also found out that this has to be unique. As I cannot select Primary Key Id, I created DVID as the combination would be unique. 

As per the instruction on one of the videos, I deleted the EmployeeId column from the table, created a relationship (many to one) between EmployeeSkill and Employees and set the Primary name as EmployeeId. This worked and I was able to see the correct option in the drop down of the form. However, as soon as I submit the form. I get an error but the data is getting saved in the EmployeeSkill table. Also I noticed that once I create the relationship, the table in the solution stops showing the records. Also the list that I had added to the page doesn't show data. 

I am not sure if I am doing any of the steps wrong. Any suggestions and advice on how to setup the connections correctly to be able to save and view the records correctly. 


Thanks in advance,

Jaco

 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions
JacoMathew
Frequent Visitor

Hi All,

 

Closing this topic as I have resolved the issue. The issue was Id doesn't work in Power pages virtual table. I had to create GUID and use that as the primary key while making the connection.

Thanks

View solution in original post

3 REPLIES 3
MissingLink
Resolver II
Resolver II


You don't mention which video you have been following, so I could be giving information that differs.

You are aware that you need a PRIMARY KEY when patching (Add, Edit, Delete) records in a canvas Power App.
And you already have these. They are your 'ID' fields that exist in the SQL table.

 

Just a few tips here
I find it useful to name the ID fields to include the name of the table. So instead of calling them all just 'ID', I call them 'ID_Employee' or 'ID_Skills'. I Also prefer to put the 'ID_' in front of the table name. This makes it easier to find fields and follow the logic later.

Also - Think about your use of the singular/plural when naming your tables. This is a hotly debated topic - so use your preference. In the case of you Skill related table, I prefer the plural because EmployeeSkill implies that each Employee only has one skill.

And finally, If you are want your user to only use a finite list of skills, then I am guessing that you will probably want to be able to choose a skill from a drop down list rather than allowing your users to type whatever they like into a free-text box. So you might also want to create a 'SkillList' table.

 

Anyhow, lets get back to your SQL tables.
I am presuming that the 'Id' field in each SQL table was created something like this ?

TABLE CREATION
CREATE TABLE Employees (
ID_Employee INT IDENTITY(1,1) PRIMARY KEY
FirstName ...( blah blah blah
)

and

CREATE TABLE EmployeeSkills (
ID_Skills INT IDENTITY(1,1) PRIMARY KEY
Skill Varchar(255) NOT NULL, --Think about making this a foreign key to a Skills Table
ID_Employee INT,
CONSTRAINT FK_EmpID FOREIGN KEY (ID_Employee) REFERENCES Employees(ID_Employee)
)

 

FYI:
The 'IDENTITY(1,1)' part tells SQL to start from the number 1 and add a count of 1 to each record as it is created. So in effect, each ID be a unique number that is on each record.

 

The 'PRIMARY KEY' tells SQL that the ID field should be treated as the primary key for the table.
NOTE: It is possible to create a primary key based on multiple fields. (Similar to what you have tried to do - but it is NOT necessary in your case.)


FOREIGN CONTRAINTS
In the EmployeeSkills table, The ID_Employee is the foreign key because it is a reference to the Employees table.

However, whether you include the line:
'CONSTRAINT FK_EmpID FOREIGN KEY (ID_Employee) REFERENCES Employees(ID_Employee)'
is up to you.


If you include the line, it establishes the relationship between the two tables in SQL which invokes some rules that you need to be aware of.

The EmployeesSkills table is now dependent on Employees table.
The net result is that
1. You will not be able to add a record to the EmployeeSkills tables that has an ID_Employee number which is NOT in the Employees Table.
2. You will not be able to delete the Employees table without breaking the dependency (foreign key reference).
3. Depending on whether you have turned on referential integrity or not, If you delete an Employee, then the Skills record will either be deleted, or it will become an 'orphan' (IE: It will be linked to an Employee that no longer exists - This could mess with reports that you write later.)

For more info see: https://www.w3schools.com/sql/sql_foreignkey.asp

 

POWER APP.
To use the above setup in your Power App.
On any screen that shows the EmployeeSkills info, change the ID_Employee field to a DropDown list.
Default value = Thisitem.ID_Employee
Text to be displayed is the ThisItem.EmployeeName &" "& ThisItem.EmployeeSurname

 

I hope that helps you get started.

Thanks for the detailed explanation. Appreciate it but I believe you missed that the solution I am asking is for Power Pages/Portal. I am not new to database development but I am new to Power pages development.  The video that actually helped was this by @nickdoelman. The issue I am facing is after I delete the column and create the relation, the table data stops showing. I also get the error in the Power pages when I submit the form. However, when I check the database table, the records is inserted. The list that is connected also doesn't show the records.

JacoMathew
Frequent Visitor

Hi All,

 

Closing this topic as I have resolved the issue. The issue was Id doesn't work in Power pages virtual table. I had to create GUID and use that as the primary key while making the connection.

Thanks

Helpful resources

Announcements

Tuesday Tip: Community User Groups

t's time for another TUESDAY TIPS, your weekly connection with the most insightful tips and tricks that empower both newcomers and veterans in the Power Platform Community! Every Tuesday, we bring you a curated selection of the finest advice, distilled from the resources and tools in the Community. Whether you’re a seasoned member or just getting started, Tuesday Tips are the perfect compass guiding you across the dynamic landscape of the Power Platform Community.   As our community family expands each week, we revisit our essential tools, tips, and tricks to ensure you’re well-versed in the community’s pulse. Keep an eye on the News & Announcements for your weekly Tuesday Tips—you never know what you may learn!   Today's Tip: Community User Groups and YOU Being part of, starting, or leading a User Group can have many great benefits for our community members who want to learn, share, and connect with others who are interested in the Microsoft Power Platform and the low-code revolution.   When you are part of a User Group, you discover amazing connections, learn incredible things, and build your skills. Some User Groups work in the virtual space, but many meet in physical locations, meaning you have several options when it comes to building community with people who are learning and growing together!   Some of the benefits of our Community User Groups are: Network with like-minded peers and product experts, and get in front of potential employers and clients.Learn from industry experts and influencers and make your own solutions more successful.Access exclusive community space, resources, tools, and support from Microsoft.Collaborate on projects, share best practices, and empower each other. These are just a few of the reasons why our community members love their User Groups. Don't wait. Get involved with (or maybe even start) a User Group today--just follow the tips below to get started.For current or new User Group leaders, all the information you need is here: User Group Leader Get Started GuideOnce you've kicked off your User Group, find the resources you need:  Community User Group ExperienceHave questions about our Community User Groups? Let us know! We are here to help you!

Tuesday Tip: Getting Started with Private Messages & Macros

Welcome to TUESDAY TIPS, your weekly connection with the most insightful tips and tricks that empower both newcomers and veterans in the Power Platform Community! Every Tuesday, we bring you a curated selection of the finest advice, distilled from the resources and tools in the Community. Whether you’re a seasoned member or just getting started, Tuesday Tips are the perfect compass guiding you across the dynamic landscape of the Power Platform Community.   As our community family expands each week, we revisit our essential tools, tips, and tricks to ensure you’re well-versed in the community’s pulse. Keep an eye on the News & Announcements for your weekly Tuesday Tips—you never know what you may learn!   This Week's Tip: Private Messaging & Macros in Power Apps Community   Do you want to enhance your communication in the Community and streamline your interactions? One of the best ways to do this is to ensure you are using Private Messaging--and the ever-handy macros that are available to you as a Community member!   Our Knowledge Base article about private messaging and macros is the best place to find out more. Check it out today and discover some key tips and tricks when it comes to messages and macros:   Private Messaging: Learn how to enable private messages in your community profile and ensure you’re connected with other community membersMacros Explained: Discover the convenience of macros—prewritten text snippets that save time when posting in forums or sending private messagesCreating Macros: Follow simple steps to create your own macros for efficient communication within the Power Apps CommunityUsage Guide: Understand how to apply macros in posts and private messages, enhancing your interaction with the Community For detailed instructions and more information, visit the full page in your community today:Power Apps: Enabling Private Messaging & How to Use Macros (Power Apps)Power Automate: Enabling Private Messaging & How to Use Macros (Power Automate)  Copilot Studio: Enabling Private Messaging &How to Use Macros (Copilot Studio) Power Pages: Enabling Private Messaging & How to Use Macros (Power Pages)

April 4th Copilot Studio Coffee Chat | Recording Now Available

Did you miss the Copilot Studio Coffee Chat on April 4th? This exciting and informative session with Dewain Robinson and Gary Pretty is now available to watch in our Community Galleries!   This AMA discussed how Copilot Studio is using the conversational AI-powered technology to aid and assist in the building of chatbots. Dewain is a Principal Program Manager with Copilot Studio. Gary is a Principal Program Manager with Copilot Studio and Conversational AI. Both of them had great insights to share with the community and answered some very interesting questions!     As part of our ongoing Coffee Chat AMA series, this engaging session gives the Community the unique opportunity to learn more about the latest Power Platform Copilot plans, where we’ll focus, and gain insight into upcoming features. We’re looking forward to hearing from the community at the next AMA, so hang on to your questions!   Watch the recording in the Gallery today: April 4th Copilot Studio Coffee Chat AMA

Tuesday Tip: Subscriptions & Notifications

TUESDAY TIPS are our way of communicating helpful things we've learned or shared that have helped members of the Community. Whether you're just getting started or you're a seasoned pro, Tuesday Tips will help you know where to go, what to look for, and navigate your way through the ever-growing--and ever-changing--world of the Power Platform Community! We cover basics about the Community, provide a few "insider tips" to make your experience even better, and share best practices gleaned from our most active community members and Super Users.   With so many new Community members joining us each week, we'll also review a few of our "best practices" so you know just "how" the Community works, so make sure to watch the News & Announcements each week for the latest and greatest Tuesday Tips!   This Week: All About Subscriptions & Notifications We don't want you to a miss a thing in the Community! The best way to make sure you know what's going on in the News & Announcements, to blogs you follow, or forums and galleries you're interested in is to subscribe! These subscriptions ensure you receive automated messages about the most recent posts and replies. Even better, there are multiple ways you can subscribe to content and boards in the community! (Please note: if you have created an AAD (Azure Active Directory) account you won't be able to receive e-mail notifications.)   Subscribing to a Category  When you're looking at the entire category, select from the Options drop down and choose Subscribe.     You can then choose to Subscribe to all of the boards or select only the boards you want to receive notifications. When you're satisfied with your choices, click Save.   Subscribing to a Topic You can also subscribe to a single topic by clicking Subscribe from the Options drop down menu, while you are viewing the topic or in the General board overview, respectively.     Subscribing to a Label Find the labels at the bottom left of a post.From a particular post with a label, click on the label to filter by that label. This opens a window containing a list of posts with the label you have selected. Click Subscribe.           Note: You can only subscribe to a label at the board level. If you subscribe to a label named 'Copilot' at board #1, it will not automatically subscribe you to an identically named label at board #2. You will have to subscribe twice, once at each board.   Bookmarks Just like you can subscribe to topics and categories, you can also bookmark topics and boards from the same menus! Simply go to the Topic Options drop down menu to bookmark a topic or the Options drop down to bookmark a board. The difference between subscribing and bookmarking is that subscriptions provide you with notifications, whereas bookmarks provide you a static way of easily accessing your favorite boards from the My subscriptions area.   Managing & Viewing Your Subscriptions & Bookmarks To manage your subscriptions, click on your avatar and select My subscriptions from the drop-down menu.     From the Subscriptions & Notifications tab, you can manage your subscriptions, including your e-mail subscription options, your bookmarks, your notification settings, and your email notification format.     You can see a list of all your subscriptions and bookmarks and choose which ones to delete, either individually or in bulk, by checking multiple boxes.     A Note on Following Friends on Mobile Adding someone as a friend or selecting Follow in the mobile view does not allow you to subscribe to their activity feed. You will merely be able to see your friends’ biography, other personal information, or online status, and send messages more quickly by choosing who to send the message to from a list, as opposed to having to search by username.

Monthly Community User Group Update | April 2024

The monthly Community User Group Update is your resource for discovering User Group meetings and events happening around the world (and virtually), welcoming new User Groups to our Community, and more! Our amazing Community User Groups are an important part of the Power Platform Community, with more than 700 Community User Groups worldwide, we know they're a great way to engage personally, while giving our members a place to learn and grow together.   This month, we welcome 3 new User Groups in India, Wales, and Germany, and feature 8 User Group Events across Power Platform and Dynamics 365. Find out more below. New Power Platform User Groups   Power Platform Innovators (India) About: Our aim is to foster a collaborative environment where we can share upcoming Power Platform events, best practices, and valuable content related to Power Platform. Whether you’re a seasoned expert or a newcomer looking to learn, this group is for you. Let’s empower each other to achieve more with Power Platform. Join us in shaping the future of digital transformation!   Power Platform User Group (Wales) About: A Power Platform User Group in Wales (predominantly based in Cardiff but will look to hold sessions around Wales) to establish a community to share learnings and experience in all parts of the platform.   Power Platform User Group (Hannover) About: This group is for anyone who works with the services of Microsoft Power Platform or wants to learn more about it and no-code/low-code. And, of course, Microsoft Copilot application in the Power Platform.   New Dynamics365 User Groups   Ellucian CRM Recruit UK (United Kingdom) About: A group for United Kingdom universities using Ellucian CRM Recruit to manage their admissions process, to share good practice and resolve issues.    Business Central Mexico (Mexico City) About:  A place to find documentation, learning resources, and events focused on user needs in Mexico. We meet to discuss and answer questions about the current features in the standard localization that Microsoft provides, and what you only find in third-party locations. In addition, we focus on what's planned for new standard versions, recent legislation requirements, and more. Let's work together to drive request votes for Microsoft for features that aren't currently found—but are indispensable.   Dynamics 365 F&O User Group (Dublin) About: The Dynamics 365 F&O User Group - Ireland Chapter meets up in person at least twice yearly in One Microsoft Place Dublin for users to have the opportunity to have conversations on mutual topics, find out what’s new and on the Dynamics 365 FinOps Product Roadmap, get insights from customer and partner experiences, and access to Microsoft subject matter expertise.  Upcoming Power Platform Events    PAK Time (Power Apps Kwentuhan) 2024 #6 (Phillipines, Online) This is a continuation session of Custom API. Sir Jun Miano will be sharing firsthand experience on setting up custom API and best practices. (April 6, 2024)       Power Apps: Creating business applications rapidly (Sydney) At this event, learn how to choose the right app on Power Platform, creating a business application in an hour, and tips for using Copilot AI. While we recommend attending all 6 events in the series, each session is independent of one another, and you can join the topics of your interest. Think of it as a “Hop On, Hop Off” bus! Participation is free, but you need a personal computer (laptop) and we provide the rest. We look forward to seeing you there! (April 11, 2024)     April 2024 Cleveland Power Platform User Group (Independence, Ohio) Kickoff the meeting with networking, and then our speaker will share how to create responsive and intuitive Canvas Apps using features like Variables, Search and Filtering. And how PowerFx rich functions and expressions makes configuring those functionalities easier. Bring ideas to discuss and engage with other community members! (April 16, 2024)     Dynamics 365 and Power Platform 2024 Wave 1 Release (NYC, Online) This session features Aric Levin, Microsoft Business Applications MVP and Technical Architect at Avanade and Mihir Shah, Global CoC Leader of Microsoft Managed Services at IBM. We will cover some of the new features and enhancements related to the Power Platform, Dataverse, Maker Portal, Unified Interface and the Microsoft First Party Apps (Microsoft Dynamics 365) that were announced in the Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform 2024 Release Wave 1 Plan. (April 17, 2024)     Let’s Explore Copilot Studio Series: Bot Skills to Extend Your Copilots (Makati National Capital Reg... Join us for the second installment of our Let's Explore Copilot Studio Series, focusing on Bot Skills. Learn how to enhance your copilot's abilities to automate tasks within specific topics, from booking appointments to sending emails and managing tasks. Discover the power of Skills in expanding conversational capabilities. (April 30, 2024)   Upcoming Dynamics365 Events    Leveraging Customer Managed Keys (CMK) in Dynamics 365 (Noida, Uttar Pradesh, Online) This month's featured topic: Leveraging Customer Managed Keys (CMK) in Dynamics 365, with special guest Nitin Jain from Microsoft. We are excited and thankful to him for doing this session. Join us for this online session, which should be helpful to all Dynamics 365 developers, Technical Architects and Enterprise architects who are implementing Dynamics 365 and want to have more control on the security of their data over Microsoft Managed Keys. (April 11, 2024)     Stockholm D365 User Group April Meeting (Stockholm) This is a Swedish user group for D365 Finance and Operations, AX2012, CRM, CE, Project Operations, and Power BI.  (April 17, 2024)         Transportation Management in D365 F&SCM Q&A Session (Toronto, Online) Calling all Toronto UG members and beyond! Join us for an engaging and informative one-hour Q&A session, exclusively focused on Transportation Management System (TMS) within Dynamics 365 F&SCM. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or just curious about TMS, this event is for you. Bring your questions! (April 26, 2024)   Leaders, Create Your Events!    Leaders of existing User Groups, don’t forget to create your events within the Community platform. By doing so, you’ll enable us to share them in future posts and newsletters. Let’s spread the word and make these gatherings even more impactful! Stay tuned for more updates, inspiring stories, and collaborative opportunities from and for our Community User Groups.   P.S. Have an event or success story to share? Reach out to us – we’d love to feature you. Just leave a comment or send a PM here in the Community!

Exclusive LIVE Community Event: Power Apps Copilot Coffee Chat with Copilot Studio Product Team

We have closed kudos on this post at this time. Thank you to everyone who kudo'ed their RSVP--your invitations are coming soon!  Miss the window to RSVP? Don't worry--you can catch the recording of the meeting this week in the Community.  Details coming soon!   *****   It's time for the SECOND Power Apps Copilot Coffee Chat featuring the Copilot Studio product team, which will be held LIVE on April 3, 2024 at 9:30 AM Pacific Daylight Time (PDT).     This is an incredible opportunity to connect with members of the Copilot Studio product team and ask them anything about Copilot Studio. We'll share our special guests with you shortly--but we want to encourage to mark your calendars now because you will not want to miss the conversation.   This live event will give you the unique opportunity to learn more about Copilot Studio plans, where we’ll focus, and get insight into upcoming features. We’re looking forward to hearing from the community, so bring your questions!   TO GET ACCESS TO THIS EXCLUSIVE AMA: Kudo this post to reserve your spot! Reserve your spot now by kudoing this post.  Reservations will be prioritized on when your kudo for the post comes through, so don't wait! Click that "kudo button" today.   Invitations will be sent on April 2nd.Users posting Kudos after April 2nd. at 9AM PDT may not receive an invitation but will be able to view the session online after conclusion of the event. Give your "kudo" today and mark your calendars for April 3rd, 2024 at 9:30 AM PDT and join us for an engaging and informative session!

Top Solution Authors
Top Kudoed Authors
Users online (3,945)