Search SharePoint List and Display last value entered

[masterp]

Hello Everyone,

Sorry, I'm new to development and PowerApps and have a question for the community. 

I'm currently, working on an app for our company in which form entries are automatically collected and stored in a Sharepoint list.  Each entry has a unique identifier column and for any new entry we would like to collect the previous entry for that unique identifier.

For Example:

User1@contoso.com submits an entry for vehicle VIN (Unique Identifier) and then opens the form later on to submit another entry for that same VIN.

User2@contoso.com  submits an entry for vehicle VIN (Unique Identifier) and then opens the form once again to submit another entry for the same VIN.

Date	Email	VIN (Unique Identifier)	Starting Mileage
08/03/20	user1@contoso.com	XXXX123	45,000
08/03/20	user2@contoso.com	XXXX432	58,000
08/04/20	user1@contoso.com	XXXX123	45,050
08/04/20	user2@contoso.com	XXXX432	68,200

Is it possible to for PowerApps Form entry to automatically pull the previous information for that VIN (Unique Identifier).

For example:

New Form Entry:

Date	Blank
Email	Blank
Vehicle VIN (Unique Identifier)	Select
Starting Mileage:	If the above VIN is selected, look at the last entry submitted for that VIN and display value here.

Is this possible?

Thank you,

[masterp]

@RandyHayes 

Step Number 3 - Did not work because the column type is a "Choice" and looks like function does not work for this type of column.  If I change to another column type: "Single Line of Text" it works. Please view the image below.

Vehicle VIN Type: Choice

Let me know what you think.

[RandyHayes]

@masterp 

I would have never suspected that your VIN column was a choice.  I would have (based on the nature of the variety and number of VINs) guessed that it was a standard text column.

Yes, this changes everything. 

Can you leave it as a single line of text in SharePoint?

[masterp]

@RandyHayes 

I guess I can do that but how do I get a VIN dropdown selection for a list of allowed Vehicle VINS.

[RandyHayes · Accepted solution]

@masterp 

Yes, so what I was suggesting was based on having your Vehicle VIN's in a separate list.  Based on what you are doing in this list - which is entering records of information based on a particular VIN, I had assumed that you had the VIN's a separate list.

It's your design, but my recommendation is that you get rid of the Choice column and replace it with a text column.  Create a separate list with the VIN's in it (and perhaps other relevant information about that vehicle - make, model, license, year, etc.)

Then, in your app, you would reference that list in the DropDown - ex. VehicleList.VIN and ultimately you would store that VIN in your Vehicle Mileage Report list (or better yet, the ID of the Vehicle record...but let's at least start with the unique VIN).  

I hope that makes sense.  I believe you will have a much more maintainable app in general as you could also design an app to maintain and update the Vehicle List.  This way, no one has to dig through SharePoint choice columns to add, remove or change a vehicle if the fleet changes.  I designed a slick Fleet Manager app that uses these principles, but the key was that regular users needed to maintain the vehicle list.  Going into SharePoint choice columns was not an option for the user knowledge levels.

[masterp]

@RandyHayes 

Yes, your recommendation makes sense and it would be the best design.

Let me try a few things and report back.

[masterp]

@RandyHayes 

Sorry for the delay on this but I started working on this and I created a new Vehicle Information List. Can you help me create a drop-down list from the Vehicle information list and update the column Vehicle VIN under Vehicle Mileage Report? Is there an easy way to update the datacardfield to display Vehicle VIN's from Vehicle information?

Hope I'm explaining this correctly.

[RandyHayes]

@masterp 

Sorry for my delay on this one.  Are you still having this issue or have you resolved it?