Set Lookup Field Value from PCF

[Serviced2000]

Hi Everyone,

I hope I have posted this in the correct place and hopefully this will be a simple thing for most. I am *very* new to PCF development (there is nobody else in our company to do it) and I'm looking to use a component to solve our addressing issues (seems to be a common theme too). I have used another component from the PCF Gallery to get the addressing details, but now I need to set the value of a couple of lookups (State and Country) to the values returned from the API. 

I've seen a lot of posts about creating custom lookup components, but I can't seem to find anything that relates to this slightly simpler task (or it seems simpler). Can anyone point me at any resources that might help me walk through this?

Thanks!

[HemantG]

This is helpful, thanks for sharing the details. 

So you are just using the option set and lookup as additional parameters and not trying to use the same control for both types as I thought earlier. 

This does seem to be a bug and we will investigate.  Seems there is some special handling for salesOrganization  property which is interfering - might be formXML treatment.

Hemant 

[Anonymous]

---

@HemantG wrote:

So you are just using the option set and lookup as additional parameters and not trying to use the same control for both types

---

Exactly. I've just rechecked the behaviour and checklist is now always null while salesOrganization has the correct formatted value but many more properties only the dataset normally has like below. It's mixed up when using a lookup. Didn't try using the lookup as the first property yet.

checklist:

checklist:
attributes: {}
error: false
errorMessage: null
formatted: null
isPropertyLoading: false
raw: null
security: {}
type: null

salesOrganization:

salesOrganization: n
addColumn: ƒ ()
allowFilterOff: true
attributes: {DisplayName: "Sales Organizsation", LogicalName: "tvd_salesorganizationid", Type: "lookup", IsSecured: false, RequiredLevel: 0, …}
availableViewIds: ""
clearSelectedRecordIds: ƒ ()
columns: (2) [{…}, {…}]
dependentAttributeName: ""
dependentAttributeType: "account"
disableQuickFind: true
enableViewPicker: false
entityDisplayCollectionName: "Sales Organizations"
error: false
errorCode: undefined
errorMessage: null
executeNotifyHandlersThatEventOccurred: ƒ ()
filterRelationshipName: ""
filtering: {aliasMap: {…}, getFilter: ƒ, setFilter: ƒ, clearFilter: ƒ, canDisableRelationshipFilter: ƒ}
formatted: "Germany"
generateAdditionalAttributes: ƒ ()
getAllViews: ƒ ()
getCellImageInfo: ƒ ()
getDataSetParameter: ƒ ()
getDefaultViewId: ƒ ()
getLookupConfiguration: ƒ ()
getRecentItems: ƒ ()
getSelectedRecordIds: ƒ ()
getTargetEntityType: ()=>r
getTitle: ()=>i
getViewId: ()=>t
innerError: null
isPropertyLoading: false
linking: {addLinkedEntity: ƒ, getLinkedEntities: ƒ, clear: ƒ, removeLinkedEntity: ƒ}
loading: true
notifications: null
openDatasetItem: ƒ ()
paging: {pageNumber: 1, totalResultCount: 0, firstPageNumber: 1, lastPageNumber: 1, pageSize: 25, …}
raw: [s]
records: {}
refresh: ()=>{i(this,this.contextToken)}
runPreSearch: ()=> {…}
security: {secured: false, editable: true, readable: true}
sendLookupRequest: ƒ ()
setMyRecordsOnlyFilter: ƒ ()
setRelatedFilter: ƒ ()
setSelectedRecordIds: ƒ ()
sortedRecordIds: []
sorting: []
targetEntityType: "tvd_salesorganization"
type: "Lookup.Simple"
useMainFormDialogForCreate: undefined
useMainFormDialogForEdit: undefined

Thank you!

[DianaBirkelbach]

Hi @Serviced2000 , @Anonymous 

The combination of dataset and bound field PCFs doesn't work in model-driven apps. 

The combination of dataset and input field PCFs works. 

That means that you get the value of the input fields, but you are not notified if the value of the field changes; you get only the value in the beginning. I have an older blog where I refer to this too: https://dianabirkelbach.wordpress.com/2020/06/14/features-of-a-dataset-pcf-2/

Last year when I've tried to customize such a control on a form, I could do it but I couldn't save the form customization. Since a while we cannot even find the control in the list of controls for the form.

But, I've heard that the combination of the dataset and bound fields works in Canvas Apps. If that's right, I can understand that the manifest allows us to define this combination.

Not sure if there is a workarround for the problem for now. Maybe working with the input parameter and use form scripting to refresh the PCF if the lookup changes. 

Hope this helps!

Kind regards,

Diana

[Anonymous]

---

@DianaBirkelbach wrote:

The combination of dataset and bound field PCFs doesn't work in model-driven apps. 

The combination of dataset and input field PCFs works.

---

---

Last year when I've tried to customize such a control on a form, I could do it but I couldn't save the form customization. Since a while we cannot even find the control in the list of controls for the form.

---

This is what I've observed too. OptionSet as input works, Lookup.Simple as input doesn't work, cannot register the pcf control anymore unless I change the lookup property to unbound but then the issues arise which I've documented in my last post.

Let's see what time brings.

Thanks for your input and best regards,

David

[DianaBirkelbach]

Hi @Anonymous , 

Another workarround (not so sure how supported that would be) could be:

 - make a separate Lookup PCF (it doesn't have to show something, it will just get the changes when the Lookup changes)

 - use window.postMessage from inside the Lookup PCF, and attach to the message from inside the dataset PCF. That way you should be able to get  notified about the change of the Lookup.

I have a blog about using postMessage to simulate events: Can PCFs communicate? – Dianamics PCF Lady (wordpress.com). It should work, because both PCFs should be on same window, but as I said, I'm not so sure if it's supported.

Hope this helps!

Kindn regards,

Diana

[Shivang03]

I am having similar issue. I don't know why but When I attempt to save the form with my Custom PCF control that have a input of type lookup it is giving an error "We ran into a problem publishing the form. Please try again. (SessionID: 260112e0-f34d-11ee-8d75-f70c432897b0)"
Error I can see through innerError in the console is "Property TestField is configured as a static value and cannot be declared as static."
I have <property name="TestField" display-name-key="Test Field" description-key="test" of-type="Lookup.Simple" usage="input" required="false" /> in ControlManifest file and I want to use that selected field to filter records.

[DianaBirkelbach]

Hi @Shivang03 , 

I think that a dataset can't be combined with a lookup in the same manifest.

Source: Property Element - Power Apps | Microsoft Learn

You could try to customize with the classic customizing, but I'm not sure you can work around that.