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ENABLE(Location)

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Posted on 3 Jan 2019 05:06:07 by PaulB1

I have developed an app for timesheets. In the app I collect location (Latitude and longtitude) details. The command line I use is:

Enable(Location);Set(_startdate,(Text( Now(),"[$-en-US]hh:mm" ))); Set(_startlat,Location.Latitude);Set(_startlong,Location.Longitude);Disable(Location)

This works well when a user has the location services turned on on their device (smartphone or tablet) and I receive the latitude and longtitude data into my variable.

However if a user has their location services turned off on their device I get a NULL result.

I use the enable and disable as per the powerapps guide which states "The Enable and Disable functions turn a signal on and off, respectively.". When installing the App for the first time the user is asked to use the location and camera services which they respond to "Allow". However when the user turns off their location service on the device you cannot pick up their GPS Location.

So my question is how to turn on Location signal when the user has the location services in the OFF position on their device?

Any thoughts?

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Community Power Pla... on 25 Jun 2020 at 17:12:23

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Re: ENABLE(Location)

Hi @PaulB1 ,

thanks for this, i have tried using this function. However how can i compute the location basis latitude & longitude.

Thanks.
PaulB1 14 on 03 Jan 2019 at 21:55:34

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Re: ENABLE(Location)

Thank you.

That was my thought process but wanted to see if there may be another option out there.

Cheers
Paul
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Mr-Dang-MSFT on 03 Jan 2019 at 08:44:11

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Re: ENABLE(Location)

Hi @PaulB1,

I can look into this for confirmation, but my instincts tell me this is by design. As an app user, I would not want an app to get my location if I expressly told it no.

My recommendation here is to check if the Location is blank. If so, Notify() the user that they should enable the location services for PowerApps to work and then restart the app. This would be done after attempting to set it to a variable.

Ex:

Enable(Location); Set(_startdate,(Text( Now(),"[$-en-US]hh:mm" ))); Set(_startlat,Location.Latitude); Set(_startlong,Location.Longitude); Disable(Location); If(IsBlank(_startlat), Notify("The location was not successfully retrieved. Be sure to enable location services and restart PowerApps.",Warning) )

This means, "If the variable _startlat ended up being blank after attempting to get it, notify the user to enable location services and restart the app."

Mr. Dang