Custom text when gallery contains no items

[Anonymous]

I have a gallery that searches for users in my org based on the value from a SharePoint list. The gallery contains labels that display name, title, department, etc. If nothing is returned in the gallery, can I have the labels default to specific text? For example, I would like the name label to display CONTACT@Contactus.com if no one is returned in the gallery.

[Pstork1 · Accepted solution]

There is nothing I'm aware of that lets you set an empty recordset value for the cards in the gallery.  What I would suggest you try is to create a collection that has a record containing the values that you want to display.  Then use an IF statement in the Items property of the gallery to supply that collection as the recordset if the other filtered datasource returns no records.

I haven't tried it yet, but that is the approach I would attempt.

[PowerAnalytics]

As @Pstork1 mentioned, try to create a collection of your dataset and then you can use the IsEmpty() function to check whether the collection is empty or not. If the collection is empty then you can display the default value of your choice.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/canvas-apps/functions/function-isblank-isempty 

In addition to this, and in my opinion this is a smarter solution, you can use the CountRows() function within the Visible property of your label (in your Gallery) to check whether it should be visible or not.

CountRows(YourGallery.AllItems) = 0

https://docs.microsoft.com/de-de/powerapps/maker/canvas-apps/functions/function-table-counts 

Best regards,

PA

[dbro]

The problem with this approach is that while the dataset is loading your message will show for a period of time.  It may be that your gallery has to load a large quantity of items and for a brief timeframe (up to 3 seconds in my case) the message will show until the countrows() function returns > 1 items.

I stumbled across this thread while trying to come up with a solution. 

[rennys66]

I am having the issue as well! Did you find a solution to fix this problem?

[dbro]

I ended up creating a new home page for my app. Then a button lives on home; when pressed it checks the gallery and displays a message if gallery count = 0.

[Boneckrh19]

All you need is a label with this in the visible property

CountRows(YourGallery.AllItems) = 0 && !_loading

Where _loading is set to true any time code is currently running. It doesn't fix the fact that there is background loading even after the app says your code is done, but it helps a bit. I have the following code in the onselect property of every control in my apps. 

Set(_loading, true);

//all your code

Set(_loading, false);

[AndyK]

Good solution!  

I am using this by my loading code into a button OnSelect...

Set(_loading, true);
ClearCollect(collName, Sort(Filter(...)));
Set(_loading, false);

The Items property (or Data source) of the Gallery is set to collName.

Anywhere I need to refresh the datasource, I simply call...

Select(btnName);

The Gallery control, containing no records, seemed to be visible still, as my label wasn't appearing (using Vertical Container, the label was below the Gallery). So I set the Visible property of my label to !Gallery.Visible and the Visible property of my Gallery to...

CountRows(Self.AllItems) > 0 || _loading

[mdevaney]

Use this code in the Visible property of the gallery.  The IsEmpty function checks if the the gallery has any values and returns a true or false results.

IsEmpty(BrowseGallery1.AllItems)

If you would like a full tutorial on how to create a gallery that shows a message when empty I've provided a link below.

Link to article:

Show A Message If A Power Apps Gallery Is Empty - Matthew Devaney

 

[Boneckrh19]

I think we have already gone over how to show a message based on empty results or a count of 0. The issue is that powerapps does not give access to the fact that the server is still loading, so the empty message will show up when there are plenty of records that just haven't loaded yet. Ideally there would be something like App.Loading which, if true, can be used to show a "please wait" instead of a "there are no records"