Cascading Dropdown in Model-driven App Form

[Anonymous]

With all the customization options in powerapps, it seems as though a cascading dropdown in a model-driven app form should be easy. 

Looking for a way to filter regions - the user selects a country, and then the regions dropdown only shows regions in that country (If the user selects USA, regions dropdown shows US states, if the user selects Canada, regions dropdown shows Canadian provinces)

Thanks!

[v-xida-msft]

Hi @Anonymous ,

Do you want to configure a cascading dropdown in a model-driven app form?

If you want to configure a cascading dropdown in a model-driven app form, I afraid that there is no way to achieve your needs in PowerApps currently. Cascading Dropdown functionality is not supported within Model-Driven app form.

If you would like this feature to be added in PowerApps, please consider submit an idea to PowerApps Ideas Forum:

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/PowerApps-Ideas/idb-p/PowerAppsIdeas

As an alternative solution, you could consider embed an canvas app within your Model-driven app form. Then use the embedded canvas app to add data to your CDS Entity. Within the embedded canvas app, you could configure a cascading dropdown functionality between the Region Dropdown box and the Country Dropdown box.

More details about embedding an canvas app into a Model-Driven app form, please check the following blog:

https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/announcing-the-general-availability-of-embedded-canvas-apps-in-model-driven-forms/

Please consider take a try with above alternative solution, then check if it could help in your scenario.

Best regards,

[Tiamo_Liu]

Is this feature still not supported in model-driven apps?

[EricRegnier · Accepted solution]

Hi @Tiamo_Liu,

There are several tricks to get that work as per below, but unfortunately cascading optionsets are not supported out-of-the-box.

1. Use entities instead. This is always my preference as entities give more flexibility, especially if eventually you need more properties/fields to the drop down items (e.g. Display Order). Using entities, you can filter out-of-the-box the related drop down/lookup/list on the form.
2. Define the values of your optionset items with a prefix, then with JavaScript, filter the child dropdown based on the selected parent. For example:
   1. Parent optionset:
      • item 1: 11001
      • item 2 11002
   2. Child optionset:
      1. item 1: 11001001
      2. item 2: 11001002
      3. item 3: 11002001
      4. item 4: 11002002

Hope this helps

[Tiamo_Liu]

Hi @EricRegnier , sounds reasonable, thank you! 😉

[RobSchootman]

Can we do anything with Business Rules on this?

[EricRegnier]

Unfortunately up to now it’s now possible to filter option set with business rules... you can submit that idea though at: https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Power-Apps-Ideas/idb-p/PowerAppsIdeas

[Kobia]

@EricRegnier,  If my cascading tables are very similar in structure and I would like to generalize it with a single parent-child table, can this be supported with solution 1 you have suggested above?

or... if I want to generalize it more, to consolidate all my different category, sub-category tables into one entity, (adding a subject field to filter for the relevant cat, sub-cat...) can I create a filter with model driven app for the relevant one?

[EricRegnier]

Yup this is feasible with custom entities/tables

[testasdfasfsafa]

I can't believe Infopath had cascading field support in 2003.. 20 years later, its "replacement" doesn't even have an easy cascading pulldown menus....  not impressed by how slow Power Apps/Power Automate is evolving.