Multiple odd behaviours when creating/editing edit forms

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Posted on by ha_wai

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Hi there,

apologies for the summary title, but I couldn't come up with a better description. Here is what happens:

I am working on an app for data entry into a Sharepoint list. I have split the process into multiple edit forms, using @RandyHayes method.

1. issue: after editing a data card or something within the data card PA Studio freezes and the form cannot be selected any more. Saving, closing and re-opening fixes the issue, but it is generally very annoying having to do this multiple times per hour.

2. issue: adding fields to an edit form from the "Edit fields" in the property pane the list contains two entries for a column "Name" although there is only one column by this name in the Sharepoint list. Oddly it seems to treat those differently. I must have picked two different versions of this column in two different forms. Entering data on one form does not fill the other one in the summary form, throwing me a "required field" error when trying to submit the form. Both DataCards have the same default property ( ThisItem.'Name (Title)'.

3. issue: adding fields the same way also results in this annoying Name/Title DataCard to be added everytime I add another field to the edit form.

Environment I'm working in: MacOs 12.0.1, Firefox 95.0, Logged in to Office365 via our organisation environment.

Anybody any ideas?

Thanks in advance for time and help

Hansjoerg

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Building Power Apps

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AJ_Z 3,711 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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Lets try tackle these one at a time.
so your first issue I think you are having the resetform issue. To fix this go to your form and find it's name
My form is called Form1 for this example.

Then click the form (not one of the cards in it) and go t OnSuccess. Then in Onsuccess put ResetForm(Form1)
But make sure to change Form1 to the name of your form

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AJ_Z 3,711 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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Let me know if that helps with the first issue

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AJ_Z 3,711 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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Issue number 2 seems to sound like one of them got customised perhaps if it was unlocked. try to delete both and add back in one only that should do the trick. let me know what happens

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AJ_Z 3,711 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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I am a tad confused by issue 3 are you able to posta pictureof it or would you like to screenshare on a teams call either works. but a screenshot is fine if you prefer not to call

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RandyHayes 76,299 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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@ha_wai

The splitting of the form as I've demonstrated does not cause such issues, so, my first question would be what else has changed in the form - what have you customized?

Usually freezing in the app designer means that there is some formula somewhere that is evaluating in a deadlock. So that would be something to consider as well - have you created any formulas in the form or out that cause this problem.

I would assume that you are referring to the main master form when you speak of changes. Or are you referring to changes in the supporting/split forms?

As for the names of the columns. Have you renamed any columns in your SharePoint list? If so, keep in mind that a column never gets renamed. It always has the original name forever. You can change the "display name" of the column, but underneath, it is still the original name. PowerApps will, in many cases, show both.

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ha_wai 104 on at

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Hi @AJ_Z ,

thanks for your quick reply.
re first issue: I have changed the OnSuccess property. So far it hasn't frozen up. Although I can't see why the presence of the appropriate property would change the behaviour of PowerAppsStudio.
Unfortunately it didn't work, it froze up on me again, this time after making a change to a column in Sharepoint 😞

re issue 2: all the data cards are unlocked and some of them quite heavily customised, I thought that was the point of developing individualised apps 😉
I was under the impression that the "edit fields" list pulls the columns from the Sharepoint list via the connector. Therefore I am a bit confused why it is conjuring up a duplicate of a column that only exists once in the original list.

list with doubled entry
Is there maybe a default column called Name somewhere in the bowels of Sharepoint? I will try to rename the offending column to something else and see what happens.

issue 3 seems to have been pretty random. After the last freeze, save, reload cycle it didn't happen again.

Cheers
Hansjoerg

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ha_wai 104 on at

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Hi @RandyHayes

that sounds like I have overdone the customisation. To avoid having to change the layout of every individual DataCard on the form I have basically sized one or two cards per form to the shape I want them and then referenced all the others to those. The busiest sub-form contains about 20 DataCards. Is that already too much customisation?
Apart from that I haven't even started on data validation yet, which I planned to make happen on the individual sub-form level. I probably have to go through every individual thing I made changes to and double check that nothing ends up in a circular reference or so. Unfortunately there are no red dots anywhere in sight to help me find the problems.

The random adding of the "Name/Title" Card happened in a sub form not the master form. After simply deleting it, nothing noticeable happened, so I'm happy for now.

Thanks heaps for the information about naming of Sharepoint list columns. I have indeed changed some column names after finding out that the original names were sometimes misleading or I had to add another column and had to find a name for that. It seems that adding columns on the fly is bad style I should have first got the list right. Stupid amateur mistake (this whole thing is just a sideshow to my normal job because our IT guys are totally understaffed and won't be able to develop the list and app any time soon 😞 ).

Another random question regarding the master form: I assume that all the DataCards have to be present on that one and I just have to make the ones I don't need to be changed invisible to get a useable form? Or would it even be easier, for the sake of a meaningful screen layout, to just add the master form as an invisible form to the screen and not use it at all for user interaction?

I know some of the questions may seem pretty stupid for the professionals, but I really appreciate the helpful community here!

Cheers
Hansjoerg

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RandyHayes 76,299 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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@ha_wai

Sounds like you are on the right track. The customizations you mention should not be overloading anything. Those are pretty common. It sounds like something else is at fault. Depending on how it is all playing out, you might be able to utilize the Monitor Tool to see what is going on behind the scenes.

As for the master form, you can do either one of the things you mention. You can make it the master form and make datacards invisible that you don't want to show (but yes, the master form will need ALL of the fields in it that you want to submit from the supporting forms). Or, you can make it a master form on another screen that would not even be seen (or invisible if desired - but that makes working with it a challenge sometimes).

The concept of the form in another screen or hidden really start to play more into the Super Forms that I did in the Forms Plus video. Specifically in Part 3 - Super Forms. If you've not seen that, you might want to take a look as it could spark some new ideas on what you are doing...perhaps.

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