Combo box auto populated data not working with Patch or in email

[joesmith820]

I have two combo boxes in my app. One for users and one for vendors. The values for the users I can get to populate with patch and in my email but the vendor information refuses to save or populate. I am not getting any errors it just will not work.

ForAll(ProcurementRequest, If(!IsBlank(requesterinfo), Patch(OrderRequests, Defaults(OrderRequests), {Date:date, 'Requester Name': rname,'Requester Email': remail, Department: rdepartment, 'Vendor ID': vid,'Vendor Name': vname})));

Office365Outlook.SendEmailV2("user@email.com",

/*subject*/
"New Purchase Request Submitted",

/*body*/

"<h3>Following has been submitted for approval by <div>" & rname.Selected.DisplayName & "</div> <div>" & remail & "</div>
</h3>" & "<table width='100%' border='1' cellpadding='5' style='border:1px solid black; border-collapse:collapse'>" & "<tr style='background-color:#efefef'>
<th>Vendor</th><th>Terms</th><th>Item</th><th>Qty</th><th>Price</th><th>Total</th>
</tr>
<tr>" & Concat(
ProcurementRequest,
"<td>" & vname & " </td>
<td>" & vterms & " </td>
<td>" & item & " </td>
<td>" & qty & " </td>
<td>" & price & " </td>
<td>" & total & " </td>

",
"
</tr><tr>"
) & "</table>")

[v-jefferni]

Hi @joesmith820 ,

Could you please share more details about your scenario? What's you data source? What is the Items of the vendor combo box? Are both the two combo boxes in a Gallery?

Best regards,

[MechEng2013]

I am also having trouble with patching a lookup field (So patching a record from another table) on a button select. This button sends me to a form page and I need that new patch to show up in the combo box for that field in the form. It doesn't show up until I exit the form and then open it up again. 

I've tried resetting the form in the code, and changing the Default value, but it just doesn't populate... Hopefully someone out there can help us. @poweractivate  want to take a stab at this one?

[joesmith820]

@v-jefferni 

This is a purchase request app. The user looks up their name in the first combo box against AD and then it populates the email and department. Then they use the second combo box to look up the vendor from a SharePoint list. Once they select a vendor it then populates other boxes with the tax id, payment terms, etc.. The next screen is a gallery with four boxes for the item they want the qty, price, and the total.

The combo boxes are in a form not a gallery. 

[v-jefferni]

Hi @joesmith820 ,

I see you are using vid/vname/vterms in Patch function as well as for sending Email. Could you please tell what are these variables? How did they generate? If you use VendorCombobox.Selected.ID/Name/Terms, will the app word?

Best regards,

[poweractivate · Accepted solution]

@joesmith820 

I suspect you have the same issue faced by @MechEng2013 in this thread: Combo Box Selected Items - Lookup Field Issues 

It can be solved.

I would suggest you check on a few things:

Sometimes only 2 columns, the primary key and the primary column are available when you try to autopopulate the DefaultSelectedItems  (or the parent datacard default) of a Combo Box control based on information from another Table or other data source, especially when this information is being passed around in variables (but it may not necessarily be because of using variables).

You should check carefully, the actual available columns with any data in them, might be only 2 of them - the primary key, and the primary column - and not any other columns you might have expected to be there. 

This issue can cause the Combo Box default to appear as if it is populating and showing a selected value there, but for other columns to be inaccessible (that's because they aren't present). Another sign of the issue, is that the Combo Box might appear to be blank, but in fact, it is actually populated with a selected value (that's because the Combo Box Primary Text is not matching the primary column). 

To see if you have the issue, and to resolve it, try the following:

1. Perform the actions you are doing to cause the Combo Box to appear to be blank (or, that is causing the Combo Box to appear to be populated, but "the auto populated data is not working with Patch or in email"), then go to the formula bar of the Combo Box DefaultSelectedItems (or, if it says Parent.Default in there, the parent datacard Default property instead) and hover over the formula bar. When you see Record and a small chevron, click on the chevron to inspect the Record, and check what columns are there.

1B. Take a screenshot of what you see. Repeat Step 1 after "going back into the form" and "noticing the Combo Box is there" - or doing whatever causes the value to "appear to be auto populated correctly" - and inspect the Record in the scenario or case that is working correctly. If you cannot have any scenario or case that is working correctly, then skip this step and go to the next step.

1C. Compare the two screenshots, the first screenshot should have way less columns (only 2 columns to be exact) compared to the second screenshot. If you have only the first screenshot, notice it has only 2 columns in it, when you should probably have way more than 2 columns. Now go to the next step.

2.  If you confirm that you do indeed see only the primary key and primary column being brought over when the form is first opened, now select the Combo Box, then on the right side click the purple Edit text (Fields), and in the flyout, change Primary Text to match the primary column.

It should work correctly now.

If the Combo Box did not appear blank to begin with then skip to the next step

3. If #2 above does not work as a final solution ( for example, because you don't want to change the field that is shown to the user), or because you skipped step #2 above altogether (because the Combo Box did not appear blank to begin with, but the issue is that no columns are accessible besides the primary key and primary column, and because you need to access data from one or more columns other than the primary column, such as to use in your Patch), then do as follows:

    - If needed, revert the step performed in #2 above, and then
    - you must explicitly LookUp the Record for the case that the column is missing so you can have access to the data in those columns. To do this, you can use the below pseudocode as a starting point, you'd put this in the Default property of the parent datacard of the Combo Box control

//pseudocode - this formula will not work for you literally as-is
//you should change the formula so it makes sense for your scenario

If(
    IsBlank(yourPotentiallyProblematicRecord.yourTargetColumn),
    LookUp(yourUnderlyingDataSource, yourPrimaryKeyColumn = yourPotentiallyProblematicRecord.yourPrimaryKeyColumn),
    yourPotentiallyProblematicRecord
)

The above formula will not work for you literally as-is - you should change the formula so it makes sense for your scenario.

The above says that for the specific case that the column you are having an issue with is not present (which is usually when you first notice it's missing, yet when you go back in, it's still there), explicitly use a LookUp to get the underlying record. Otherwise (i.e. when you go back in and notice it really is there), just use the Record as-is without the LookUp since the issue isn't present in that scenario.

So this should solve the issue you are having.

There is a possibility you have multiple issues in your case, so use the above as a starting point, but see if the above helps you.

It is also, I believe, expected out-of-the-box behavior and I think it might not be a "bug".

It is possible to solve it and you should not have the issue any more after you try something like the above.

See if it helps @joesmith820