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Best Approach for Managing Multiple Screens and Features in Power Apps for Optimal Performance

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Posted on by belhajlaila

Hello,

I'm developing a complex application in Power Apps that will be used by many users. The application has many screens, each with different features, and all screens will use the same database. I'm concerned about the potential impact on performance and scalability.

I would like advice on the best approach for organizing these screens and features:

Single Application: Should I create one large Power App with all the screens and features included?
Multiple Applications: Alternatively, should I create multiple smaller Power Apps, each handling different features, and link them together through a main application?

Which option would provide better ? thanks in advance

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Building Power Apps

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WiZey 3,023 Moderator on at

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Hello @belhajlaila ,

I usually start building my apps around an initial request from my users, then slowly add more and more features on those apps whenever they ask me for those features or when I deem them necessary.

I don't think a "big" app is a "heavy" app, for example in one of my apps a screen has more than 800 controls yet does not feel slow at all as I'm simply using an efficient way of showing/hiding only the controls the user currently needs to see.

Also, I'm not lost at all in this vast app because I've organized every related control under the same name/group/container.

Hope this helped you in any way.

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belhajlaila 45 on at

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Thank you so much for this advice,
may I ask you, you may have enough Knowledge. My question, My application is connected to many tables in dataverse, for example in a gallery I need to get daba from two different tables, it’s a little bit slow to display data, what is the best approach, het data using a lookup function, or it’s better to create a dataverse table that collects data I need and then I call this table on my gallery. 2nd and last question, in my app, I need to display data from 1 table, but in different positions of the screen (I simulate the plant Layout) for each position I put a gallery and I filter on the data that I need.. do you know a better way how to do this ? Create a Layout ( like: equipment image, running product in it.. current status of the product, sending notifications, moving product from a position to another etc.. )

thanks in advance

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WiZey 3,023 Moderator on at

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For your first question, how "slow" is it? For PowerApps, reading two tables should take no more than 10 seconds. Anything below that time is not considered slow by our standard.

Plus, I'm not sure there is really any method faster than another. "LookUp()", "Filter()" and "Search()" all send network requests, which end up being dependant of your own network connection and speed.

It is still relatively faster for PowerApps to work with Dataverse than with SharePoint list, so that's something.

One thing you maybe can try is, if your table have less than 2000 records, is to store them in a local collection on app start, then work on this collection instead of the dataverse table. This "may" saves time by extracting data locally instead of sending requests, waiting for response and consumming your connector's bandwidth and limits.

As for your second question, this is both an issue of "app design" and "what exactly do you need?". Personnaly, whenever I design a screen for my users, I always keep in mind three points:

Keep the screen as simple as possible: actions must be limited to a few interactable controls, while information must be displayed in size an place in order of importance

Organize the screen, create "thematic" container: one example is splitting the screen in three parts with a screen-wide and short header, a thin filter on the left and fill the rest of the screen with the gallery, as you often see on shopping websites.

Stay consistent with theme and colors: apply the same color for interactable controls, so the user quickly recognize what can be pressed and what is simply for display.

What advice I could give you here is maybe create separate container for each view you need (equipment image, status of project) and new screens for each new actions you want to give to the user (sending notifications, moving product). That way, you'll have a main "view screen" with filters and tabs, and many screens for each action the user will be able to do.

Hope this was helpful to you.

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belhajlaila 45 on at

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Thank you so much 😊

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belhajlaila 45 on at

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Hello WiZey,
I want to share with you the idea of my App, I have a Layout, and I created different Galleries for each are,
Is that a good approach ? or I can do better
Gallery1 : Filter(MyDatabase, (Area = "OVEN"))
Gallery 2 : Filter(MyDatabase, (Area = "3B"))
etc.

The issue with this solution, every time I want do an action on a Gallery I have to do something like

If(
varGall = 1,
// Update myDatatable..
);
If(
varGall = 2,
// Update myDatatable..
);
If(
varGall = 3,
// Do action..
);
Is there a way to define which gallery of all galleries is Selected without the IF condition ?

Thanks

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WiZey 3,023 Moderator on at

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I would say it depends on the scope of your actions. What kind of actions do you want for all your galleries?

If an action is specific to a gallery, then why not put said action in the "OnSelect" of said gallery then? Something like that.

If it's about updating the record in the table, I think a single "Patch()" is enough without the need of duplicating conditions because all your galleries work on the same datatable. In the "OnSelect" of your galleries, add "Set(glbVar, Self.Selected)" or something to store the selected record so you can work with it later.

Same if you want to reuse the record for displaying or using its values.

As for the layout itself, that's more something you should check with your users as they will be the one using your app the most. I'm a bit surprised to see five galleries on a single screen, but I'm sure you have a reason to show that many lists on the screen.

One thing I'd say, though I'm not sure it would really be useful or not, would be to add some space for a header for your app. A simple horizontal bar to show the app name with enough space for icons to refresh or navigate home, if it is even useful in your app.

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belhajlaila 45 on at

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Yes correct, I'll do that, thanks
and regarding If it's about updating the record in the table -> yes it's the same
I will try this solution On the "OnSelect" of your galleries, add "Set(glbVar, Self.Selected)" and check if it will work,
because when I click on Edit btn (shared in all galleries), I'm not able to identify the name of the selected gallery, I do the following
If( varGall = 1,// on select the first gallery I Set varGall to 1, I have to do the same for the other galleries Patch( MyTable, GallOven.Selected, // I hope there is a function to say: the selected gallery.SelectedItem {MyField:""} ) );
thanks

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