PARTIALLY FILL FORM WITH ITEM SELECTED AND MANUALLY FILL THE REST, UPDATING LISTS WITH NEW DATA

[Anonymous]

I have adopted a couple PowerAutomate flows from my predecessor and fixed them, now I need to create a new one based on these...and don't know where to start.
I have created a flow map,  

and already have a sharepoint table that has projects listed and know I need to create another list for subcontractors and their data. 

I don't really know how to start, beyond creating a gallery and allowing the user to select an item to fill some fields. 
1. Which field type do i use to type in a project# or project name so it can be selected?

2. Once selected, I can populate existing fields, but how do I create a [handsome] pdf and a separate email with the information in it that gets sent to various people?  

3. What control can be used to look at the value in a field, and determine 1 or 4 different routes to be sent down. This is a determination by Project# , where if it begins with 1, it goes to a certain person, if 9 another, if jv another, and if anything else, it should go to admin because there's a mistake.

4. In our other app, we have tabs and the information collected in all tabs gets populated in the emails it sends. I was planning on starting with a copy of this and changing the fields, content, etc. to maintain consitency. Any issue with that approach?

Thanks for any help you can give.

[PatrickMSFT]

CraigBarbieri,

There's quite a bit to unpack with this one and it seems more Power Apps centric than Power Automate centric. I'm going to focus on your queries.

1. Which field type do i use to type in a project# or project name so it can be selected?
If you're looking for an autocomplete kind of experience, we recommend using a combo box control in your app. Autocomplete functionality has been reviewed but it's not something currently on the roadmap.

References:
https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Power-Apps-Ideas/Autocomplete-control/idi-p/1474 
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/canvas-apps/controls/control-combo-box 

2. Once selected, I can populate existing fields, but how do I create a [handsome] pdf and a separate email with the information in it that gets sent to various people?
The PDF component will take the most work. In Power Automate, you can convert a file to a PDF but not sure you can generate one. Generating a PDF is possible in Power Apps but will take some labor. As far as the email side of it, that should be fairly direct. Power Automate has mail connectors and you can write an expression in Power Apps to do this, too.

References:
https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Power-Apps/Create-pdf-from-PowerApps-form-and-upload-it... 
https://wonderlaura.com/2019/07/17/powerapps-flow-convert-to-pdf/ 
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/email-triggers 
https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Webinars-and-Video-Gallery/Send-an-email-from-PowerApps/td-p/743... 

3. What control can be used to look at the value in a field, and determine 1 or 4 different routes to be sent down. This is a determination by Project# , where if it begins with 1, it goes to a certain person, if 9 another, if jv another, and if anything else, it should go to admin because there's a mistake.
Power Automate lets you impose Conditions, such as Apply to each. This is probably better fit for Power Apps, though. We have a LookUp function and you can basically interact with your Collection as desired. The expressions will take time to refine but it's possible.

References:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/canvas-apps/functions/function-filter-lookup 
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/user/lookup-field 
https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/support-for-lookups/ 

4. In our other app, we have tabs and the information collected in all tabs gets populated in the emails it sends. I was planning on starting with a copy of this and changing the fields, content, etc. to maintain consitency. Any issue with that approach?
Not at all! The only major caveat with this is that your data sources and the connections to them may not work until you specifically update them.

I hope this helps you get on the right track!

Patrick

[Anonymous]

thanks so much for your help Patrick! This is great.