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PowerApps getting Stale data all the time (Flow and Sharepoint)

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Posted on by Community Power Pla... Microsoft Employee

Begin rant

I can't believe how much time I'm wasting dealing with huge bugs in the PowerApps tools.

We're trying to roll out apps that allow our staff to work in a touchless manner and I've wasted more time dealing with low code (super cumbersome) tools. I wasted a half day yesterday with Sharepoint issues (column names not updating when sharepoint list schemas change - even after refresh and re-add data source. took me an hour top track down the issue and more time trying to solve it. Ended up having to delete Sharepoint lists completely and recreate from scratch

Now I have similar issues with Flows. i change something in a flow. Save and Exit. Go back into edit to make sure it's gone.

I go back into my PowerApp which I'd closed completely, add the Flow and it's still got parameters from the steps I deleted. I've wasted 2 hours on this again, and now the only solution I see is ditching the flow and recreating it from scratch,

This is hands down the most unproductive dev environment I have ever used (no proper source control, tons of duplicate code because of lack of any kind of procs. terrible editor, no debugger). As soon as we're through this Covid 19 stuff. I'm done with it

End Rant

In the interim, anyone got any idea how to make PowerApps get up to date Data Connection definitions (flow and Sharepoint)

Thanks

Mark

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Building Power Apps

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WarrenBelz 156,536 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hi @Anonymous ,
Three word response to rant - Welcome to Power Apps.
A couple of things you need to accept in development
If you change something external (flow, data definition etc), delete it from PowerApps and reconnect - saves a heap of frustration.
When you create a field in SharePoint - the name you give it originally is there forever when you reference it externally no matter how many times you change it. It you want a new name, create a new field, copy any data over (you can do this in a datasheet view easily) and delete the old one.
You can however do quite a bit of debugging with labels on screens tracking values being set and also having the ability to look at the current state of all variables and collections. As far as stored procedures (like VB where I came from), yes that is frustrating. One small workaround I do, particularly for collections I need to refresh is have a hidden button or icon on the screen (it has to be the same screen) with the code required in the OnSelect property and use the Select(ControlName) function to call it.
One more thing you need to do during development if you start changing data is the refresh the data source - just right-click on it and you will see the option.

Please click Accept as solution if my post helped you solve your issue. This will help others find it more readily. It also closes the item. If the content was useful in other ways, please consider giving it Thumbs Up.
Community Power Pla... Microsoft Employee on at

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Hey Warren

Thanks for reply.

I did try deleting and re-adding connections, didn;t help. I ended up having recreate flow from scratch. I'm (too) familiar with the refresh option 🙂

Thanks for info on Sharepoint fields. I figured it was going to be something along those lines.

Have a ton of debug labels (actually a whole hidden debug canvas, I turn on and off with a button). It just sucks having work with the dev tools the way I had to 20 years ago

Thanks again for response

Regards

mark