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Setting Text Inputs Directly

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Posted on by RAMoore

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to build an app that utilises a series of text inputs and I've hit a bit of an issue. The text inputs should be fillable by 2 different methods; manual entry and barcode scanning. The barcode scanning was simple enough - I set the default value to a local variable and then used UpdateContext with the barcode scanner value but the issue is that if someone attempts a manual entry then the field no longer uses the local variable.

So my question is this: Is there a way to set the text value of a text input using a button (or barcode scanner in this case) WITHOUT using a local variable as the default value?

I tried this but nothing happened:

TextInput1.Text = BarcodeScanner1.Value

I'm assuming TextInput1.Text is a read-only field?

Thanks

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Building Power Apps

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timl 36,411 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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@RAMoore

It's not possible to assign the content of a text input control using the syntax you describe. The correct way is to use a variable, as you're currently doing.

If you've set the default of TextInput1 to the variable and if the user were also able to manually type a value into TextInput1, why does this cause you a problem? Presumably, you can just reference the value in TextInput1 to retrieve either the barcode scanned or manually entered value.

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RAMoore 7 on at

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Hey @timl thanks for your reply. Apologies, I've also made a mistake in my original post. The issue is actually with using globals, not locals so I'll update the thread title accordingly.
So to give a bit of context, this field essentially is to collect the serial number of a device but the app should be usable both on PC and phone. The assumption there would be that the user isn't using a barcode scanner on their PC, so they would need to do manual entry.
So for TextInput I've set the default value as a global called serial and the OnScan function for the 'Scan Barcode' button is:
Set(serial, BarcodeScanner1.Value)
I found that if a user manually enters a value into the TextInput, the 'Scan Barcode' button no longer works. I presume this is because the value of the field isn't 'serial' anymore.
Essentially the desired behaviour here is that a user should be able to manually enter a value into the field and if for what ever reason they want to scan the barcode after, it should still be able to set the text value of the TextInput.
I hope that makes sense and I really hope that's possible.

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timl 36,411 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Hi @RAMoore

Thanks for the detailed explaination. The answer to this is to reset the text input control after you set the variable. That will then override any text that the user might have entered into the control.

Set(serial, BarcodeScanner1.Value); Reset(TextInput1)

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RAMoore 7 on at

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Perfect! Works like a charm. Thanks so much for your help.

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timl 36,411 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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You're welcome @RAMoore - glad to help!

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