Dataverse view into collection

[stuax]

I have an app where by I am reusing some Dataverse views in a Canvas App and want the user to be able to select from some predefined ones.

I can do the below to bring data from a view into a collection.

ClearCollect(

colTesting,

Filter(

'Test Entity',

'Test Entity (Views)'.'Active Test Entities'

)

)

However if I wanted to store the names of the views in a entity within Dataverse and refer to them from within the Canvas app - something like:

ClearCollect(

colTesting,

Filter(

'Test Entity',

Gallery1.Selected.ViewName (Which resolves to 'Test Entity (Views)'.'Active Test Entities') 

)

)

Where Gallery1 is the entity that holds all the views and there relevant name - the problem I have is that PowerApps is not seeing the above as valid, it just says it fails to retrieve data.

I also tried it just referring to a label instead but I get the same issue.

Can anyone think of a way I can refer to this other entity that has the text name of the view in the Canvas App?

[GarethPrisk]

The Dataverse views can be stored in a Table/Array/Collection, as long as its the explicit view reference.

For example, I added two Galleries.
Gallery1 has some of my custom table views, in an array:

[
    'Account Contacts (Views)'.'Active Account Contacts',
    'Account Contacts (Views)'.'Inactive Account Contacts'
]

Gallery2 can have Items, which is a Filtered list that is based on the selection of Gallery1.

Filter(
    'Account Contacts',
    Gallery1.Selected.Value
)

This appears to work.

However, I do not believe you'll be able to dynamically get ALL the views from a table. You may not want this, anyways, since it would include system views (like Lookup, Quick View). Instead, if you're okay with setting them manually like this, then it should work.

[stuax]

Thanks for the reply @GarethPrisk.

That does work but its not quite what I am after which is probably due to my poor explanation! Essentially I am storing the "view details" (name and entity) in another entity.

I have an entity in dataverse called "App Views" which has a record for each of the views I want - the view name is stored in a field called "View Name" and its stored like - 

'Accounts (Views)'.'Active Accounts',

But I will have multiple records in this entity with different view names specified eg:

'Accounts (Views)'.'Active Accounts',

'Contacts (Views)'.'Active Contacts'

So if I take a gallery which has the view entity and follow similar to what you have above and have another gallery use the selected value of the first gallery, I just don't get results in the gallery. 

If I then try and set the entity as well in the second gallery by doing something like below I do get an error with the formula where it says the formula is incorrect. 

Filter(Gallery6.Selected.'PA Entity Name',Gallery6.Selected.'View Name')

[GarethPrisk · Accepted solution]

Power Apps allows you to use the View references, but they have to be explicitly defined.

You will not be able to convert a non-View reference, to a View reference, dynamically.

• You will not be able to add a record to your entity, have it resolve to the View in Power Apps
• You will be able to convert those entity records, to an explicit View in Power Apps, but - again - it won't resolve records that aren't explicitly mapped
• What is the point of the entity again?
  • Were you intending to be able to dynamically add/remove views as records, so they'd be available in the app for filtering?
    • If so, this is not possible (as outlined above)

The Gallery of records will return a record, or text, or some non-View reference. Unfortunately, Power Apps does not yet support this type of dynamic view resolution, outside of the studio editor.

[stuax]

ok that's a shame but thanks for confirming. The whole purpose of this was to try and achieve a sort of admin maintenance area where the info about views could be stored (As there would be other info associated with them as well) rather than having to hard code it into the formulas.