Updating a SharePoint list choices column with gallery selections

[westerdaled]

Yesterday,  I had an issue  with positioning a gallery control in a Data Card.  Ironically , I was still able update the Data Card choices column with a collection built up of choice values.  Just when I placed the gallery in the Data Card this seem to stop working🙄

Just to recap, I have DataCard for a choices column which is hidden, but highlighted in the pic below.. I have expanded the DataCard and placed a Gallery control which hosts a single checkbox control :

The Gallery Items are populated with a SharePoint list.  Oddly I am having to use the Title column as otherwise I don't see any choice values  next to my checkboxes

'Supervision Types'.Title

I use the checkbox->check event  to simply keep collection maintained of choices

Clear(colSupervionTypesSelected);
// get each selection
ForAll(Filter(galSupervisionTypes.AllItems, chkSupervisionTypeSelected.Value = true), Collect(colSupervionTypesSelected,Title));

Now in the Update method of the DataCard , I attempt to update this required column - but this is not currently working, so the form submit shows a missing required column error. The colSupervisorTypesSelected does indeed have 2 rows matching the user selected choices shown in the pic.

//DataCardSupervisionTypeValue.SelectedItems
colSupervionTypesSelected

[RandyHayes]

@westerdaled 

So glad to hear, and happy to help!   

I often am found questioning "why are you using a collection?", "why are you using a variable?", etc. 

This is not because they don't provide value, it is just that so many use them for places that they don't need them and they only make things more difficult.  The more you reference and the more you get rid of these things, the easier it all gets.   I want everyone to have an excellent experience with PowerApps, the more complicated (and developer like) they make it, the worse that experience is. 

So, to read "Cool That" and "less stressful" - these are the goals of why I go down those roads...because ultimately, it's quite simple and easy to go with the "PowerApp way".

Anyway, keep at it and feel free to post back any problems you run into and have a good weekend.

[Anonymous]

You are a life saver @RandyHayes . This solution helped me end the Saga of the Gallery inside a DataCard.

One sleepless night later I found your solution which worked beatifully.

[westerdaled]

Hi

Your approach works really well when the user makes the selection, submits the form the exists the Power App.  However, if they want to make form submission, the previous values are still present. In other words  on ResetForm I need to clear out the previous selected check boxes and the backend selected DataCard dropdown values that it front ends.

FOr debuging purposes ,  added the following statements in the On Select of an icon but this doen't  do anything☹️

ForAll(
 Filter(galSupervisionTypes.AllItems,chkSupervisionTypeSelected.Value),ThisRecord.chkSupervisionTypeSelected.Value = false

);
ResetForm(frmEmployeeSupervision)

I guess I need a way to reverse the DefaultSelectedItems statement whenever I navigate to the screen and or  ResetForm / NewForm is set on the form in the screen.

[RandyHayes]

@westerdaled 

Yes, your formula does nothing.  ForAll is a function that returns a table.  It is NOT a For/Loop like in development.

So, as you have it written, ForAll is iterating over the filter result table and performing a logic test of a checkbox value to false.  That will then all return a table with a single column called Value that will have either a true or false in it.

What it looks like you are trying to do is to set a checkbox value to false.  You cannot assign values in PowerApps like that....it's not development, it is formulas.  So, your controls need to derive their values through formulas.

Without going back and reading over this whole post to see what is what, the quickest solution is to do the following formula:

UpdateContext({lclReset:true}); UpdateContext({lclReset:false});
ResetForm(frmEmployeeSupervision)

Then on the chkSupervisionTypeSelected control, set the Reset property to:  lclReset

The above will quickly set the context variable to true and then to false.  Since the Reset of the checkbox is set the that variable, it will briefly turn to true and reset itself.

As long as the Default property of that control is set to false, then it will uncheck.

[westerdaled]

Wow that is a neat trick .. I added the code to the onvisible part of the form and the reset property of the checkbox .  Worked like a charm.  I get what you are saying about doing this in formula and  the for each in  traditinal dev languages such as PowerShell or C#.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

[Anonymous]

@RandyHayes , This solution appears to have stopped working 😭. I am no longer able to paste the Form inside the DataCard. The Paste button is still available but does nothing (same with ctrl-v).

[westerdaled]

@Anonymous , If I remember correctly this was always a workaround.   Hence, if you are now able to add the gallery to the choice DataCard ( hiding the value) , and your checkbox selection now updates the value, then you don't need to paste the form.    I think the scrolling was ok when I originally explored this option but had to abandon this and go for @RandyHayes  approach. Incidentally this app is used every day by my NHS client so it still works 😀 

[Anonymous]

@westerdaled , adding a gallery inside a Datacard (making it one level down from the Form) has yet another bug/limitation that will make your values in the datacard incorrect. I've read through this thread and it looks like you are not experiencing this issue. Perhaps it's because you are not adding/removing/modifying the values in the Gallery in an "excel like" repeating table fashion. 
Point is, in my case, placing a Gallery in the datacard makes it so that variables cannot be properly referenced. So, I can't place a gallery in the datacard. The Form and the Gallery must be on the same "level" in order to reference eachother.

If you are saying that this bug was fixed, that's another story, but I highly doubt it was fixed.

I researched this further and it looks like placing the Gallery and the Form in an additional Container fixes this and makes the workaround provided by Randy here work again.