Subform or Sub-Grid in Canvas Apps

[ghdunn]

Firstly, thanks for all of the great support the community is offering in helping me up the curve of Power Apps!

I am trying to do the simplest of things and I am sorry if I am just not quite getting it.

I want a form and sub/form to View/Edit two lists in SharePoint, which have a 'relationship' of a lookup.

In simplest terms:

Account

a

b

Contact,Account (looked up from Account)

x,a

y,a

z,b 

In Microsoft Access I have a very simple way of including a Subform into a Form to access.  In Model Driven Apps this seems to be similarly easy...to add a Sub-grid.

However in Canvas Apps this seems not to be quite so straightforward. 

I have looked at this solution, and I am not sure it fully resolves explains how to do this, or not in a way I understand.

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Power-Apps/PowerApp-Creating-a-subForm-in-a-form/m-p/36...

I have watched these videos which talks about Repeating Tables.  I did emulate Shane's solution, but it just seems to elaborate given how easier the other solutions are. Is it really this involved?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgznk4XlPCo&list=PLCGGtLsUjhm2bonhBZuEhZU72QkFjOpc6&index=36&t=0s

If I google 'sub-grids' then I get lots of references to Model Driven Apps, but nothing simple/elegant for Canvas.

Can anyone point me to a simple solution that would allow this very simple form/sub-form:

[PowerAddict]

To be sure, here are the requirements:
1. Ability to edit a Contact record
2. Ability to add a new Contact record
3. Ability to edit Account data (not sure if you meant this by saying writing the Account data back???)

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Thanks!
Hardit Bhatia
https://thepoweraddict.com

[ghdunn]

1. Ability to edit a Contact record - yes
2. Ability to add a new Contact record - yes
3. Ability to edit Account data (not sure if you meant this by saying writing the Account data back???) - what i mean is that having done '2' and pressed 'save' it needs to be smart enough to update the AccountField field in the Contact table even though that field isn't in the ContactGallery

in short..to replicate the functionality of a Form/Sub Form.

[PowerAddict]

The reason your gallery wasn't editable is because the controls you had within your gallery were labels. You need to replace them with input controls like text input, dropdown, combo boxes etc. 

Anyways, attached is what I believe meets all your needs. If it does, please let me know and I will share the details. Here are the steps I followed:

1. Account a has 2 contacts x and y

2. Account b has 1 contact z

3. I modified contact x to link to account b

4. Account a now has 1 contact y

5. Account b now has 2 contacts x and z

6. I created a new contact Hardit and linked it to Account a

7. Account a now has 2 contacts Hardit and y

Note: I have not focused on the UI or any other details e.g. the gallery default view should be read only and when an edit icon is clicked, the view should change to allow edits. This is pretty easy to achieve once the desired functionality is achieved. 

---
If you like this reply, please give kudos. And if this solves your problem, please accept this reply as the solution.

Thanks!
Hardit Bhatia
https://thepoweraddict.com

[ghdunn]

Hardit,

I have run out of time to replicate this just right now.  I will look at it first thing to confirm

Very many thanks for your FANTASTIC efforts to help me out, man...great job!

Gerald

[PowerAddict · Accepted solution]

No worries at all. In the meantime, I have attached a document that shows each control in detail. Hopefully, this will help you implement the same on your end. 

Let me know in case of any questions or I missed any details in the document. 

---
If you like this reply, please give kudos. And if this solves your problem, please accept this reply as the solution.

Thanks!
Hardit Bhatia
https://thepoweraddict.com

[PowerAddict]

@ghdunn did you get a chance to test this out? If your problem is resolved, please consider giving kudos and mark the reply as an accepted solution so others can find it easily.

Thanks,
Hardit Bhatia
https://thepoweraddict.com

[ghdunn]

@PowerAddict 

Hardit,

I am sorry I didn't reply yesterday.  I spent quite a lot of time yesterday on this, googling around.

I think your solution is abslutely fine from a purely functional point of view, however (and, please understand, this is no criticism!) it lacks the simplicity/elegance I was looking for compared to the sub grid functionality in Model Driven Apps. It is clearly a reflection of the (obvious) deficiencies of Sharepoint as a 'database' - I wonder whether over time sharepoint will move towards CDS or perhaps Canvas App capabilities are still mature.

Very grateful for all of your efforts...i have learned a lot

What are your thoughts?

Gerald

[ghdunn]

@Pstork1 

Sorry for belated response but worked through a similar route with @PowerAddict .

I think I now recognise this is the reality given the underlying data source but was hoping for more of an out of the box solution.

Thanks once again for your support!!

Gerald

[PowerAddict]

No worries at all, its always fun to research things!

I think it all boils down to the expected functionality and choosing which type of app will better meet your needs. In this case, while a sub grid might look like an easier option, it doesn't give you the same UI and customizing options like a canvas app (conditional formatting is much simpler in a canvas app, there are many more examples). If you haven't noticed by now, I am a bit biased towards canvas apps 🙂

That being said, whenever I have to make a choice between 2 things, I always hope to get the best of both worlds. Which is exactly what embedded canvas apps do! In this case, if a sub grid better meets your needs, you can have that on a model-driven form but embed a canvas app for something else (I typically use them when there is a guided process which can easily become clunky in a model-driven app if the user has to navigate to multiple screens).

Also, in this case, I really don't think having CDS as your data source would have made much of a difference. The high level approach would have still been the same. I personally don't think (and hope) that SharePoint will move towards CDS (if you meant CDS will replace SharePoint). They both have their own advantages with document storage/management being a big plus of SharePoint. As far as Canvas app capabilities are concerned, capabilities with SharePoint are pretty decent in comparison to CDS, it could probably have a better list of delegable functions, but we all know that Microsoft keeps adding functions to that list.

So I would say stick to a model-driven app if it meets your needs and UI is not your main focus. If you still want UI and some extra customization capabilities, switch to a standalone canvas app. Or use embedded canvas apps if you want to take advantage of both in your solution.

Glad I could help! Good luck with the rest of your app! Feel free to reach out in case of any questions!

Thanks,
Hardit Bhatia
The Power Addict
https://thepoweraddict.com