Working with long list of parts

[barrymac20]

Hi all.

I have an excel spreadsheet that contains a list of around 150 parts alongside their individual prices. For any given project I can enter a quantity beside each part and it calculates total price. Simple stuff.

I have an app and I want to incorporate this function. I.e. within the app I will see the list of the parts, I can fill in the quantities required and hit save. 

I have gone ahead and created a sharepoint list with a column for every part (around 150). The app has a form that shows all of the parts and when I hit save the values are stored in the sharepoint list. Is this the best way to approach this or is there a better way?

[jlindstrom]

this approach works well if there is only one price for part.

if you have different pricing, for example different pricelists for different customers, you might want to do a master product sharepoint list, and have a list that stores the relationship between customer with the specific pricing.

If there is just one price for each product, your approach will work.

[barrymac20]

Yep this list of part prices will be fixed. I do have it working but I'm wondering is there a better or more efficient way as it seems slow to load up the screen where this form is, due to the amount of items.

Barry

[barrymac20]

Just had another read of your post....

My plan is to have a separate lookupnlist with the prices for each part. The list I'm referring to above will just contain the quantities required for each customer. Hope that makes sense.

Barry

[Anonymous]

@barrymac20 

A SP List with 150+ columns is getting quite large and redundant so I'd definitely look at building this differently. What happens if your parts list grows??

I'd do a 'normalisation' of sorts with 3 SP Lists, ie

SP Lists

1. Parts:

Possible schema: Category, PartName, PartNo, Price

2. Projects:

Possible schema: ProjectName, ProjNumber, ProjLocation, TotalPartsPrice, [ ... other relevant fields to suit ...]

3. Project Orders (or name that you prefer):

Possible schema: Ref_ProjNumber, OrderedPart, PartPrice, OrderDate, [ ... other relevant fields to suit ...]

Inside your app:

- a dropdown that selects your Project Name / Number

- a gallery of parts, can be filtered by category if needed

  - this gallery uses a "+" icon

  - click "+" adds the selected part to another collection inside the app

- a second gallery which uses the collection created above

  - this gallery displays each selected part with an text input field for Qty

  - a good idea would be to add a "Delete" icon, just in case

Add any needed labels, etc that show totals, etc?

Add a SUBMIT button that:

- sends the second gallery data to the Project Parts List along with the Proj Name/Number

- adds the Total Parts Price to the Project list

Just how I'd do it but if you want simples and are happy with what you've got then leave it as is 🙂 

[barrymac20]

I do like simples, but I much prefer smarts!! 

This form is only a small part of my app so I already have project information entered earlier in the process in separate datasource. 

I'll take a look at your suggestion in more detail and see if I can incorporate any of it. I do think the idea of breaking my list down by category will help.

[barrymac20]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Inside your app:

- a dropdown that selects your Project Name / Number

- a gallery of parts, can be filtered by category if needed

  - this gallery uses a "+" icon

  - click "+" adds the selected part to another collection inside the app

- a second gallery which uses the collection created above

  - this gallery displays each selected part with an text input field for Qty

  - a good idea would be to add a "Delete" icon, just in case

Add any needed labels, etc that show totals, etc?

Add a SUBMIT button that:

- sends the second gallery data to the Project Parts List along with the Proj Name/Number

- adds the Total Parts Price to the Project list

---

@Anonymous 

I'm interested to expand on this idea if you have time?

I have created the parts lists with pricing and a list for the project specific items.

In the app I want to click on a button that will show current items in project (this will be empty if nothing has been added)

Then as you say, some way of adding parts. You mention using two galleries to show the current items in a project, if any, and then another showing all available parts. I think I can figure out how to "add" items to the project specific gallery within the app (collection) but in terms of submitting back to the list, are you suggesting using Patch?

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

@barrymac20 

Certainly, happy to help.

re: "In the app I want to click on a button that will show current items in project (this will be empty if nothing has been added)"

There are a number of ways to do this, with a button something like this works:

// OnSelect of button
ClearCollect( colProjList, Filter(ProjectItems_List, ProjName = vProjName))

// vProjName is a variable that gets set to the ProjectName on gallery select or via the TextInput

In the gif below I've just demo'd a dropdown with hardcoded Project Names.

Items Property of Project items gallery

Sort( colProjList, PartName, Ascending)

Add a trash can icon to this gallery with this code

// note, this removes this item from SharePoint
RemoveIf(ProjectItems_List, ProjName = ThisItem.ProjName && PartName=ThisItem.PartName);

// remove item from local collection
Remove(colProjectList, ThisItem)

Setup another gallery linked to your Parts List. Add labels, etc that you need and a '+' icon. Add this code to the '+' icon:

If(IsBlank(LookUp(colProjectList,PartName=ThisItem.PartName)),Collect(colProjectList,ThisItem))

The If() statement is needed to ensure you don't add doubles/triples of the same Part. You can also add a Category filter, then code like this on the gallery Items property does the trick:

// Parts gallery items property
// ddCat is the dropdown for Category
// colParts is the name I've givem your Parts List 
Sort(If(!IsBlank(ddCat.SelectedText),Filter(colParts, Catergory=ddCat.Selected.Result),colParts), ID, Ascending)

Then a Submit button for sending it back to your Project Items SP List.

ForAll(
        // name of the gallery using colProjectList
        galProjectParts.AllItems, 

        // RefID is the item ID of the Part, from the Parts SP List
        // If there's no ID this means it's a new addition, so we Collect() all data to SP
        If(IsBlank(RefID),
                Collect(ProjectItems_List, {ProjName: ddProject.Selected.Value,
                PartName: ProjPartName.Text, Quantity: Value(inputQty.Text), Price: Value(lblPrice.Text), PartsCost: Value(PartsCost.Text), RefID: Value(Label70.Text)}),

        
                UpdateIf(ProjectItems_List, PartName = PartName, 
                {Quantity: Value(inputQty.Text), Price: Value(lblPrice.Text)}))
    );

    ClearCollect(colProjectList, Filter(ProjectItems_List, ProjName=ddProject.Selected.Value))

I've probably missed something above so just let me know if you don't understand anything. Here's the gif of the basic functionality which hopefully gets you on the right path?

** note how the If() statement doesn't allow addition of already existing Parts 

[barrymac20]

@Anonymous 

Wow, thanks so much for your time.

I'm actually delighted as I had made a start and have ended up with something similar, albeit not as finessed.

The main differences I've have made:

- My parts list gallery also contains a qty field so I can fill that in before I add to the project list

- As with yours, I have it so that I cant add a duplicate line item but I've used an If(Not(Thisitem.ID in ProjecttList ...... function instead of IsBlank

- So if it does exist already it wont add a new line item, but it will add a quantity. e.g. If itemA exists already with a qty of 5 and I try to add itemA again with a qty of 4 it updates the project list to 9. Not sure yet if I will keep that but it works

- I also have done this in a way that when I add part from parts list it patches straight to the sharepoint list, so no need for a "submit" button.

- I have filtered categories with a button for each instead of drop down (same difference)

I will have a good look at your suggestion and implement where I can

[Anonymous]

@barrymac20 

Happy to help or at least show you how I'd do it, seems you managed to build it yourself anyways, which is great 🙂 

I like your process Flow of Qty in the Parts list --> Patch to SP.  Then you can work directly with the data in the second gallery linked to a SP list instead of a collection. I tend to work more with in-app collection (making sure my data won't exceed 2000 records) purely because most of my users are mobile and need it for 'slightly' better performance.

Hit me up if you need anymore help but I don't think you will. And mark some of the responses as the solution/s - just keeps the MS forum mods happy 😛