Binding Rating Control To SharePoint list

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Posted on by CW

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Hello.

For the life of me I cant figure out how to 'actually' bind the rating control to a SharePoint list user rating field.

I even tried having PowerApps do the auto build for that list and even that didnt bring over the user rating field. (?????)

I've set the datacard update function to the value (yes RatingControl.Value) and even the datacard value field to the Rating Control and tested it. All attempts updates the SharePoint list as expected except the user rating field which only displays a zero (no stars) result. Surprise!!! Gotcha!!

So am I to understand that this rating control is simply a cute little dud of a control to make little fake surveys look cute and responsive but no real-world binding with real data? The User Rating field can only be leveraged on a SharePoint list from the list itself and the rating control in powerapps is different? No actual, intuitive way to marry the two? 🙄🙄

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Building Power Apps

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RandyHayes 76,297 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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@CW

In your EditForm, open the Edit Fields list. Then choose the field you want to make a Rating control and change the control type to Edit Rating.

If you have already unlocked and modified this field in your form, then delete the field and add it back into the field list. Then perform the above.

Powerapps will automatically add the right control and connect it to the field in your data for both displaying and updating.

I hope this is helpful for you.

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CW 1,044 on at

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Thanks Randy. Yes that all makes perfect sense. Tried that a couple of times but nothing. I'll try one more time then if it doesn't work, it gets turned off. Craziness. Thanks for the quick response too!!!! Carl Williams

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RandyHayes 76,297 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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@CW

Carl - what do you mean by nothing?

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CW 1,044 on at

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Oh. I meant no value was submitted to the user rating field. All other fields were written to fine via the PowerApps app but from the star control, zippo, zilch.

I'll try another list but I've already spent wayyyyyy too long trying to make something simple like this work.

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CW 1,044 on at

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Hey Randy. So I tried it your way. Surprising I never read that in the Microsoft literature on this very topic. I'm being facetious, it's not surprising in the least.

I've also tried this to no avail: How To Bind PowerApps Rating Control To Sharepoint Column (c-sharpcorner.com)

I re-added the field and tried your suggestion. Mine doesn't look anything like yours. There's no seeming relationship to any rating or number based field, just a dumb text field.

And for proof of it being an actual rating:

And here's bringing it in manually

And here's PowerApp's' "interpreation of it's 'Rating' field. A text box. Excellent!!! 😠

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RandyHayes 76,297 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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@CW

Ah ha!!! The picture is worth a thousand words.

I had assumed you had a numeric column that was storing the rating. The control type change that I showed would only apply to a numeric column.

So, the Ratings column is not going to work well for you (not impossible). That column stores a comma separated list of all ratings given. When you add ratings to a list, you get that column (which ends up being the comma separated list of numbers) and the Number of Ratings and Number of Likes (if you choose to use likes instead).

Interestingly, PowerApps sees that column as text as well, but also provides a RatedBy column which can be set to the person giving the rating.

What I do not know for sure is if the people in the RatedBy column align with the numbers in the Ratings string. In other words, if there are 5 people giving ratings does the 3rd number in the comma separated list equate to the third person in the list of RatedBy names?

Figuring out that logic would allow you to put a Ratings control in your app and then finding the corresponding rating for the current user in the ratings string and use that to default the value on the rating control in PowerApps.

Then you could update the value in the string to write it back (maintaining the order of names and values in the commas).

SO...there it is! I apologize that it didn't hit me right away that you were talking about the Ratings settings in the list itself.

Where to go from here?

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CW 1,044 on at

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Hi Randy. Thanks for the real quick response!!! Wow.

No, it's not your misunderstanding it's my assumption that Microsoft would make this, not a little, A LOT more clear! In fact there wouldn't be five people rating. This M365 subscription is solely for me to fool around. I'm retired, no company, just me for personal use. And it's been nothing short of extremely frustrating and I did SharePoint and IMIT for a living.

Boy, why would ANYONE expect the user rating to "link up" with the Rating control in powerapps? Hmmmmmm. I can't give enough sarcastic comments about this type of thing with MS.

I've been rebuilding my legacy sites and in a month had to make several (not two, three or four, >7) posts about similar things. I don't even know why I continue using this stuff. It's non-stop idiocy for me. This, pdf viewers that cant load pdfs within your environment etc. etc. etc. It's never ending stupidity.

Thanks you so much for trying to help. But in answer to your question "where do we go from here"; no where!

If I can't use the rating field in a simple list and make changes through PowerApps without employing rocket science and ensure its done on a Tuesday with a full moon then the technology is utterly useless.

All user rating fields will consequently be removed from all lists and libraries never to see the light of day until MS
implements a viable option. But we all know normal, typical everyday functionality is lost on Microsoft. They need to ensure connections are built for things like Trello first.

Sorry to dump all this on you, I really do appreciate your trying to help!!!! But I'm sure you can sense my continual frustration with their tech.

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RandyHayes 76,297 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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@CW

The biggest frustrations I find people have are similar. The thing is, when you go to PowerApps and use a Datasource (like SharePoint, Excel, etc.) the datasource should be considered for PowerApp use only. People get into trouble when trying to, for example, use Excel in PowerApps and still try to do things like formulas and formatting in the Excel file. It never ends well. The Excel file should be considered a database for PowerApps only.

Same goes for SharePoint.

Now, why do I say that? Because some things that are in SharePoint are purely about making the user experience better IN SharePoint. Things like calculated columns, ratings, picture columns, etc. Same concept with Excel - "I have a pivot table in Excel. Why can't I connect it to PowerApps?" - because that is a User Interface element, not a data element.

Since PowerApps is more focused on getting the data because it is its datasource, user interface niceties are not relevant. So it's kind of like this...what good is a rating column in a list if no one is ever going to look at that list in the SharePoint interface? What good is a pivot table in Excel if no one is going to see it? So in that case of ratings, the PowerApp designer says - how will I do ratings? And the first thing that comes to mind is a numeric column. AND...as you can see in the EditForm, it IS built to account for that by allowing you to turn a numeric column to a Rating control.

So, hopefully that gives a little more insight as to why some things are the way they are. The basic concept is, if it is User Interface nice things, don't bother with them if you are going to be using the list solely as the datasource for PowerApps.

If it helps any, when I first started working with PowerApps it was frustrating to no end. Over time I "got it" and it is pretty much all that I do any more...I don't believe I would ever go back to anything else.

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CW 1,044 on at

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Yes understood Randy. Thanks.
I only use SharePoint for all my data use but there wayyyy too many of these little issues.

I've been using it for years but ALWAYS, CONTINUALLY I would run into these issues and get so frustrated I'd leave it for over a year. As soon as I came back this time I've talked a good 9 issues and contacts with support within the month.

As soon as we ended our last conversation I went to do some little tasks on my app and lo and behold ANOTHER problem.

This time the clear icon "X" doesn't work on a standard comments field. A field straight from Microsoft. It works fine on a simple text box control but not a multiline box. SURPRISE!!! GOTCHA.

I did some research and people have been complaining about this since early 2019.

The workaround (there always has to be a workaround or a hack to make MS stuff work) is to add an 'X' icon and set on select to Reset(control). Well that's well and good but that doesn't seem to work when referencing a data card or the text box inside. Why would it? See? It never ends.

If there was a comparable technology I'd be gone in an instant.

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