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Hello,
So im somewhat new to developing a full blown canvas app. My business wanted this pretty extensive app with a lot of columns and data on it and i wasn't sure what to do, i built my SharePoint list with 40 + columns and as i was being handed requests I just created more fields just on the PowerApps form itself. Now that I'm nearly done building out this app I realized the data they enter in the fields (textinputs etc.) that don't have a SharePoint column doesn't save and goes blank after submitting the form. Is there a way i can connect the fields that I just created in the PowerApps to write to the SharePoint list and keep the data when editing the form without having to start from scratch? im using tabs to break out the information as well but doing that i found out moving fields is a pain.
In a powerapps Form, every data card has an DataField associated with it. Assuming you have a custom datacard for every field you want to connect to the SP list, all you have to do is go through all of these cards and enter the appropriate column name in the DataField.
Hope this helps!
This is a fork in the road. You can try and make this work in Forms(create the columns and assign it to the data cards) Or you can abandon Forms and start using Patch. The main difference here is the performance increase you are going to see using Patch.
If you want to stay with forms then just create the columns and modify the datacards 😄
Hope this helps
Kyle
So here is an example textinput i have (below) this has not datacard associated with it i just added a textinput box from powerapps. When a user fills the form out in sharepoint and submits it then goes and edits the item the field goes blank since there is no place for the data to get saved i was told.
Yes that's were Patch comes in handy. Form just submits datacard values(it operates in the list schema).
Your Patch code can look like this:
Patch( datasource, Defaults(datasource), { Title: txtbox1.Text, Column1: txtbox2.Text } )
You would have to write each column you want patched to the record so all 40 would need to be here.
@KRider Thank you!
However with writing the patch would i be able to see the data in those textinputs when i go edit an item in sharepoint once submitted? Because i wrote a patch it creates 2 items in my sharepoint list one with the data written back in the column but no other fields get data and another one without the patch data but all other fields filled out. Then when i go open that item up the field is still blank so i cant see what was inputted
(Patch(AD20_1,Defaults(AD20_1),{'New Employee Name': TextInput1.Text}))
Yeah so when you are "loading" an item are you storing that in a variable? You would need to set the textbox Default to your item. This is a pretty big separation from Forms and Patch. It needs to be either all in Form or all in Patch.
What do you mean by all in form or in patch?
So when you submit a form it just takes the data from the cards and submits to the sharepoint list.
If you are writing a Patch after that it would be in another item.
The best way to do this is to write it all in Patch.
Ah so i cant just patch a few items i would need to do all items even with ones that have a datacard? Also do you have recommendations in what i should of done differently or if i can take this form into a another direction without a major rework?
As i read about this having 80+ columns writing back to a single sharepoint list im going to run into performance issues, i was told to break out lists in sharepoint for the data to write to and modify my app a little bit
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