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Help with people picker linked to SharePoint People/Group field

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Posted on by biterbit

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I have created a form to update a record in a SharePoint list ('Risk action')where one of the columns ('Assigned to') is a Person field. I added the field to the form and a ComboBox datacard was created as usual. The combo box's Items property was defaulted to:

Choices([@'Risk action'].Assigned_x0020_to)

As this produced no names in the combo box list, I followed some advice online and added the Office365Users data source and changed the combo box Items property to:

Office365Users.SearchUser()

Now I got a list of names, but some names were shown twice, and external email addresses and group names were included.

I also wanted the list to be searchable, so I changed the combo box's IsSearchable property to true. Now the comb box just provided a text entry field where I could type, but no results were shown. After more searching on line I tried changing the Items property to:

Office365Users.SearchUser({searchTerm:valueAssignedTo.SearchText})

but this had the same result: a place to enter text but no results. In both cases, changing the combo box to searchable generated an error indicator prompting me to edit the Items property - but no error was shown in the formulas. Selecting 'Get help for this error' showed the issue to be:

Issue: Unexpected characters. The formula contains 'ParenClose' where 'Eof' is expected.
Location: valueAssignedTo.SearchItems

I'm not sure what the reference to 'SearchItems' means as I can find no such property.

I've spend several hours now changing various things, deleting and re-adding the field, all to no avail.

Can anyone help identify why the combo box cannot be searchable and if there is any way to limit the combo box results to show the same list as I see in SharePoint?

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v-xiaochen-msft Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi @biterbit ,

If you use the Office365Users connector, the value it returns is that all users are in Azure AD.

If you want to search on the displayname column, you could refer to this step:

Best Regards,
Wearsky
If my post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help others. Thanks.

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james_hathaway 427 on at

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I am having the same issue, and I couldn't help but notice that you didn't answer biterbit's question.

Why does a "person picker" combo box not allowed to be Searchable?
I have collected a list of Users to show in a ComboBox, but whenever I turn on the "IsSearchable" option, I get a formula error saying "Unexpected Characters in the Formula "SearchItems", which of course is preposterous, as there ISN'T A PROPERTY CALLED "searchItems", and I have no control over it's contents.

Also, with the "isSearchable" field set to false, the comboBox shows my User list as expected. However, if I set isSearchable to True, the drop-down list is suddenly empty - perhaps because of the Error mentioned above?

Note that ComboBoxes seem to work for ALL other types of data, it just doesn't like a list of Users.

Can Microsoft let us know that they have acknowledged this Bug, and let us know when they are going to fix it?

James.

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MVP-Phipps 3,521 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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You can use a combo-box with search functionality whilst storing this in a SharePoint person/group column:

Please Accept as Solution if it solves your question. Or just give it a Thumbs Up if it is helpful as can help others.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlie-phipps-%F0%9F%91%A8%E2%80%8D%F0%9F%92%BB-91338715b/
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tadams 2 on at

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I was having a similar issue with my sharepoint-list-backed ComboBox:
I tried retyping the Items property as suggested in other similar questions, but it didn't work.

To fix it I had to:
1. Clear the Items property
2. Select my data source from the "Data source" dropdown in the ComboBox's Properties panel (or from the dropdown that appears beside the ComboBox on the canvas):
3. MANUALLY retype the formula into the Items property (it won't work if you copy-paste)
4. If necessary, set isSearchable to true and SearchFields to whatever you need

Step 2 is important because I think selecting the data source from the dropdown may be what sets/resets that elusive SearchItems property (whereas changing Items may not reliably do it). Just a guess.

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