Question about Onboarding Tasks canvas app

[jvdlinden]

Hi all,

I am trying out the Onboarding Tasks canvas template app.

There's one thing that I find disturbing.

When I launch the app, it welcomes me and displays my team members in a Gallery. But you'll notice that the images to not take the entire space of the gallery, which leads to the images not being centered on the screen:

The Gallery control itself is perfectly centered.

Would it be possible to center the images inside the Gallery control?

Many thanks!

Joost

[wyotim]

@Aimeerosemulls Regarding the changes you make, does that mean you are making changes in the Edit Tasks portion of the app? If so, those would only be going to your Outlook tasks. To get a list for everyone, you would need something similar to the Tasks collection from the first screenshot I shared. Basically, the app uses that collection to generate tasks for new users (or users who don't have those tasks in their Outlook tasks). 

And just to be clear, is it still adding the GetOnboardMyProfile (with 3 default items), GetOnboardToDoList (with 7 default items), and GetOnboardTips (with 0 default items) groups to your Outlook tasks when you navigate to the MyProfileScreen? If so, I am curious where those are coming from! Otherwise, have you added a collection of tasks for it to pull in for each user?

If not, and assuming that the MyProfileScreen hasn't been changed too much, you could probably create a collection of the tasks you want (with that collection being located in the OnStart property of the App section and structured as it originally was) and the app should pull them into each user's Outlook tasks. Here is a screenshot of the original code that handles that, located in the OnVisible property of the MyProfileScreen:
OnVisible property of MyProfileScreen

The highlighted section is what generates the tasks in the user's Outlook tasks. The line before it is also relevant as it sets up the Tasks collection to be used in the next line.

Please let me know if this is helpful or not; I am assuming that the app is fairly stock so I am likely missing things that you have changed and/or handled already. In my limited understanding, it seems that you need the Tasks collection customized for your needs so that it can pull those items in for your users but I could be misunderstanding what you've done with the app so far. 

[Aimeerosemulls]

@wyotim 

I am making changes using the 'edit taks' button, how would I be able to create a list/collection for everyone?

It is adding to the getonboardmyprofile and getonboardtodolist and no change to the tips section.

My assumption was that as admin if I made changes using the 'edit tasks' button anyone who ran the app once it was published would be able to see the changes I had made.

Sorry if this is confusing, the image I had attached is what the users should be seeing but at the moment they see blank for both resources and the tasks.

thanks!

Aimee

[wyotim]

@Aimeerosemulls Your assumption makes a lot of sense but unfortunately it works differently than that. The Outlook Tasks connector can only assign tasks to the user's task list, which is what that edit screen is using. The way that the app gets around this limitation is by using a previously generated list of tasks, comparing it to the user's current list of tasks, and adding whatever is missing. So, sadly, adding tasks in the edit tasks screen will only ever add to your list, regardless of being an admin or not. 

It's pretty counterintuitive and, frankly, the Outlook Tasks connector is one of few connectors that operate like this. In fact, I haven't encountered another one that does.

So with all that said, if you recreate the Tasks collection that was in the app originally (but with the data you need), you should get the results you are after. Here is the screenshot of that again:
Original Tasks collection

From looking at your screenshot, the collection would look something like this:

ClearCollect(
    Tasks,
    {Description: "MyLearning description", URL: "https://mylearningsite.com", Name: "MyLearning"},
    {Description: "Travel tool account set up description", URL: "https://traveltoolsite.com", Name: "Set up account on travel tool"},
    {Description: "Expenses app description", URL: "https://expensesappsite.com", Name: "Set up Expenses app"},
    {Description: "Corporate AMEX description", URL: "https://corporateamexsite.com", Name: "Apply for Corporate AMEX"}
)

I am sure there are more but, hopefully, that gives an idea of the structure so that you could edit it to your actual needs. Again, this goes in the OnStart property of the App section and is used in the OnVisible property of the MyProfileScreen screen. If the relevant code from that property was changed it may not work, so you'll want to check that out. My post just before this one has a screenshot of that code if you need that.

I am sure that the resources area works in much the same way. In fact, I think it is just below the Tasks collection in the screenshot in this post. 

The way this app was created, that mock data is hard-coded into the app. Another option would be to use a data source that has the same structure (for instance, a SharePoint list or an Excel table stored in OneDrive) to make the lists more dynamic. That way you would be able to edit the lists independently of the app. Once you have the data source, you could then collect the data to collections of the same names as in the app so that you didn't need to change anything else to get the result you are after. This may be a bit more than you want or need, so feel free to ignore it altogether! 

Anyway, I hope that explains what is happening and helps you get where you need to be! If not, I'm happy to keep trying to help out! 

[Aimeerosemulls]

Hi @wyotim 

Thank you so much for all of your help I will try this out today, I already tried creating a different sharepoint list with the same columns and data but that caused some issues with other edits I had made in the app.

thanks so much again.

Aimee

[Aimeerosemulls]

I'm back again already!

I have two errors showing up when I use the code you suggested, I think I am just missing one connection.

the photos are attached 🙂

[wyotim]

@Aimeerosemulls Would you mind sharing the error that it is giving in both of those cases?

I'm not sure what the second one (the MyOutlookTasks collection) would be from as all the items needed are being collected in the statements before the one with the error. 

On the first one (the Tasks collection), is there another collection of the same name with different parameters? I couldn't find any syntax issues, assuming my eyes and brain aren't failing me there, so that would be my initial thought. 

If you could share the error messages you are getting that would be very helpful! We'll get things sorted out yet!

[Aimeerosemulls]

Hi @wyotim 

I would do but PowerApps doesn't seem to be working for me today, the edit view is completely broken...

There are no error messages but the views of the screens have changed and no buttons work ( I have attached photos)

thanks,

aimee

[wyotim]

@Aimeerosemulls Yikes! Are all apps acting up for you or just that one? If it is just that one, you could try rolling back to a previous version and see if that works. In your app list, if you select the ellipsis (three dots) next to that app, select Details from the list, and then select Versions you will see a list of every saved version. Restoring one will copy it and bring it to the front so you won't lose the newer version by bringing in an old one. Maybe start from the next most recent version and see if that one works, working your way back through the versions if it doesn't?

It looks like something isn't loading correctly so I would think through any changes that might have occurred on the data side, primarily in the OnStart property of the App section as that is where the majority of the heavy lifting happens. It might be handy to create a fresh version of that template so that you can compare the original to your version as well. 

Let me know if any of that helps! I hope you are able to get back to a stable state easily!

[Aimeerosemulls]

I think powerapps was having an off day with me! All sorted now, I have decided to take out the outlooktasks/tasks list they generated and add my own..

The only thing I am concerned about now is if I delete this formula from the onvisible property of the myprofilescreen, it will mess up the whole page...

ClearCollect(MyFolders, OutlookTasks.GetTaskFolders(MyOutlookGroupId));

Set(MyOutlookFolderId, LookUp(MyFolders,Name = ProfileTaskFolder).Id);
Set(MyOutlookTaskFolderId, LookUp(MyFolders,Name = ToDoTaskFolder).Id);
Set(MyOutlookTipsFolderId, LookUp(MyFolders,Name = TipsTaskFolder).Id);

ClearCollect(MyOutlookTasks, OutlookTasks.GetTasksByFolder(MyOutlookTaskFolderId,MyOutlookGroupId));
ClearCollect(MyTasksFull,ForAll(Tasks,{Name:Name,Description:Description,URL:URL,inOutlook:Name in MyOutlookTasks.Subject}));
ForAll(MyTasksFull,If(Not(inOutlook),Collect(MyOutlookTasks,OutlookTasks.CreateTask(Name,{folderId:MyOutlookTaskFolderId}))));
Set(NumberOfCompletedTasks, CountRows(Filter(MyOutlookTasks,"Completed" = Status)));
Set(NumberOfTasks, CountRows(MyOutlookTasks));

ClearCollect(MyProfileOutlookTasks, OutlookTasks.GetTasksByFolder(MyOutlookFolderId,MyOutlookGroupId));
ClearCollect(MyProfileTasksFull,ForAll(ProfileStatus,{Name:Name,inOutlook:Name in MyProfileOutlookTasks.Subject}));
ForAll(MyProfileTasksFull,If(Not(inOutlook),Collect(MyProfileOutlookTasks,OutlookTasks.CreateTask(Name,{folderId:MyOutlookFolderId}))));
Set(NumberOfCompletedProfileTasks, CountRows(Filter(MyProfileOutlookTasks,"Completed" = Status)));
ClearCollect(MyOutlookTasks, OutlookTasks.GetTasksByFolder(MyOutlookTaskFolderId,MyOutlookGroupId))

Will I ruin the whole app if I remove this/what would I need to replace it with?

thanks again and again over and over!

Aimee 🙂

[wyotim]

@Aimeerosemulls That code is what pulls in a lot of the information being used in the MyProfileScreen. The top four lines are used to set the IDs of each of the three Outlook Tasks groups that the app uses. The next five are used to check the list in the Tasks collection, add any missing ones, and set the counts of completed and total tasks. The last five do the same but for the MyProfileOutlookTasks collection.

Unless you have abandoned using those Outlook Task groups and/or collections and have written something to pull the new data in, I would keep that code in. You could try removing the sections you don't need; for instance, if you don't use the MyProfileOutlookTasks collection at all, you could just remove the bottom five lines.

Even if you used a different collection for the same usage (like if you are importing a SharePoint list for the Tasks collection and changed the name from Tasks to OnboardingTasks), it would probably be easiest to just change the collection name in that code to what you are using. You would need to write a similar chunk of code to check each item in your list so the app didn't just recreate the same tasks each time the user ran the app, so why not just use that? 

So, in summary, unless that code is causing problems in your app, it would probably be best to keep it and modify it if needed.

I hope that all makes sense! Please let me know if that sorts things out for you or if I can try to help out further! I am more than happy to continue trying to help until you get this app right where you need it to be!