Saving numerous forms

[donnacha]

So I have 6 screens that have 6 forms each one of them have cards that have come from the table that is linked to that form but they also have custom cards that are taken in from different tables. 

So for example 

Table Player: has playerID, playerDOB, playerHeight fields

Table Name: has playerName, playerAge, playerWeight fields

Form 1: is linked to Player and I have added all the Player table fields but I also have a custom card that takes in playerName from Name table 

My question is if I have different forms linked to a table then take in custom cards that have different fields from different tables how can I save this information?

The way I have it set up now is that I have all the fields I need in the different forms but if I have a "Next" button on each of my screens until the last one where I have "Save" will all the information on each screen be saved? because after filling in the information needed on screen 1 then the user hits "next" can I still save all the information on that screen? at the very end on screen 6 where I have the "save" button? 

[BrianS]

I would look into "tabbed" forms. They will give you the ability to separate data into related groups and still allow you to have a single form to submit. Basically you set up a series of buttons that changes the value of a variable and then use the Visible property of the datacard to create the groupings. 

Here are 2 different videos explaining the concept. They both use slightly different takes. There is also this blog post that contains some ideas

[donnacha]

So if I created the tabbed forms that would mean that the form is connected to one table only? 

What if I wanted to have fields from other tables in the same form is that possible? 

So for example

The form is connected to Player table but I want to take some fields from Name table can the fields from the Name table be saved at the end? 

[Mike2500]

You can refer to fields on any form. If you don't save until the last page, that's fine from a powerapps perspective, as it still has all the data and can save on the last screen. (it might confuse your users if they fill in five pages of six, close their browser, and assume that their progress was saved).

IF you have multiple forms that all have different fields of the same row of the same list, you can patch multiple forms in the same call:

Patch('my list', Defaults('my list'), Form1.Updates, Form2.Updates, Form3.Updates)

One potential gotcha to know about. Just in case you have the same field appear on two different forms, whichever form is submitted last will "win". Otherwise, this works pretty well.

If the forms contain fields from different lists, you'll need different patch statements per list. I recommend that step one is to go and rename the controls so they're meaningful, and then you can do something like:

Set(
    newRow,
    Patch(
        SampleList,
        Defaults(SampleList),
        {
            Title: "some title",
            TextField: "some text"
        }
    )
);
Patch(
    SampleList2,
    Defaults(SampleList2),
    {
        Title: "title for item in list 2",
        SampleList1Lookup: {
            Id: newRow.ID,
            Value: newRow.Title
        }
    }
)

The first statement sets a variable, newRow, that contains the return value of the first patch statement. Importantly, newRow will have the ID of the newly created item in the first list.

The second patch statement is patching to a second list. In this example, SampleList1Lookup is a lookup field in sharepoint that connects to list 1. Of course, just swap out the hard coded strings for the control values, such as:

Title: txtField1.Text

Note, txtField1 is the actual control, not the card.

[donnacha]

So the custom cards I have in my forms are ok to use but the custom cards the actual control is the textfields I have in some of the custom cards? what if the custom card has a dropdown? is it still the control?

[Mike2500]

The card is the container that holds a few different things, including the control. The control is what actually has the value that we need to patch to the list. So yes, this applies to any sort of control, including dropdowns, though different controls will have slightly different ways of getting to the data. For example:

Dropdown1.Selected.Value

Though, dropdowns get confusing, as often you're submitting them to a choice or lookup field in sharepoint, which changes what has to be submitted. I would work on getting a very simple patch statement to work with perhaps only the title field, and then slowly add each field, testing each time. Resources like this can be very helpful in dealing with the different data types and controls.

[donnacha]

So I can still have the custom cards in my form and still save all the information in the form using a patch function?

[Mike2500]

Again, Patch is quite flexible, you can either submit multiple forms to a single list, or you can have a button that runs multiple patch statements to submit to multiple lists. Though, using patch is a reminder that we're in a low code environment, not a no code environment.

[donnacha]

What happens if I'm pulling from multiple tables how does my patch function work then? 

would you be able to give me an example of a patch function that has numerous forms and takes in numerous fields and custom fields? just so I can understand more 

[Mike2500]

The first code sample does exactly that. Each patch statement goes to one list. If you have 3 lists, you'll need three patch statements. You can patch a form, or you can do what's in the code sample and patch individual fields. The docs have further examples, or you can search for "powerapps patch examples" to find many more.