DefaultSelectedItems in Combobox displaying data correctly but table filtered on combobox results does not show default values, only manually selected items

[jobb89]

Hello,

I was hoping to get some help with a combobox and the DefaultSelectedItems property. From my reading of quite a few other posts, it seems that the DefaultSelectedItems for a combobox can display the correct default items for that combobox, but when trying to display more detailed information about the lookup items in a table, the default selected values are not displayed in this table.

To provide more information about the set up. I have a gallery displaying summarised data from a list called space allocation. In this space allocation list is a multi-select lookup column to a personnel list. This is so that you can say 'this person is assigned to this workspace, or these two people share this workspace' as an example, and the person(s) assigned to the workspace are the personnel records from the lookup list. It should display the people already assigned to this location, but it should also allow users to add new people to this space by searching the personnel list.

I have created a gallery which has personnel lookup column values shown in the gallery using a combobox. There is a button for the gallery item which says 'view all details', and this will navigate the user to a new screen with an edit form. In this edit form is another combobox which also displays the personnel lookup data.

Gallery Combobox properties:

DefaultSelectedItems - ThisItem.PersonnelIdentifier

Items - SortByColumns(Filter('Personnel List',StartsWith(Identifier,Self.SearchText)),"Identifier")

Edit Form Combobox properties (called Personnel_SpaceAllocationDetails_Combobox):

DefaultSelectedItems - ThisItem.PersonnelIdentifier

Items - SortByColumns(Filter('Personnel List',StartsWith(Identifier,Self.SearchText)),"Identifier")

When in the Edit Form section, the table that displays the detailed data from the personnel list has this set as the Items property:

Filter(
    'Personnel List',
    Or(
        PersonnelIdentifier = Last(FirstN(Personnel_SpaceAllocationDetails_ComboBox.SelectedItems,1)).PersonnelIdentifier,
        PersonnelIdentifier = Last(FirstN(Personnel_SpaceAllocationDetails_ComboBox.SelectedItems,2)).PersonnelIdentifier,
        PersonnelIdentifier = Last(FirstN(Personnel_SpaceAllocationDetails_ComboBox.SelectedItems,3)).PersonnelIdentifier,
        PersonnelIdentifier = Last(FirstN(Personnel_SpaceAllocationDetails_ComboBox.SelectedItems,4)).PersonnelIdentifier,
        PersonnelIdentifier = Last(FirstN(Personnel_SpaceAllocationDetails_ComboBox.SelectedItems,5)).PersonnelIdentifier,
        PersonnelIdentifier = Last(FirstN(Personnel_SpaceAllocationDetails_ComboBox.SelectedItems,6)).PersonnelIdentifier,
        PersonnelIdentifier = Last(FirstN(Personnel_SpaceAllocationDetails_ComboBox.SelectedItems,7)).PersonnelIdentifier,
        PersonnelIdentifier = Last(FirstN(Personnel_SpaceAllocationDetails_ComboBox.SelectedItems,8)).PersonnelIdentifier,
        PersonnelIdentifier = Last(FirstN(Personnel_SpaceAllocationDetails_ComboBox.SelectedItems,9)).PersonnelIdentifier,
        PersonnelIdentifier = Last(FirstN(Personnel_SpaceAllocationDetails_ComboBox.SelectedItems,10)).PersonnelIdentifier,
        PersonnelIdentifier = Last(FirstN(Personnel_SpaceAllocationDetails_ComboBox.SelectedItems,11)).PersonnelIdentifier
))

The personnel list has >5000 records, and that's why I used self.search in the combobox lookup function.

Now the issue I am having is that both the gallery and edit form comboboxes will display the already assigned people without an issue. However, the table, which is displaying the selected items from the Edit Form combobox, will NOT display any results even if there were people already assigned here. If you select new people in the combobox, they will display in the table straight away. If you remove the previously assigned person from the combobox and then manually select them again, they will also display in the table.

From my reading the issue seems to be that DefaultSelectedItems will 'load' the default items, but will not 'select' them (Solved: ComboBox DefaultSelectedItems functionality - Power Platform Community (microsoft.com)). Some people say that the DefaultSelectedItems and Items properties should be equivalent and this will also fix the issue, but I can't see a good way to do this or the approach from the linked post.

Any assistance would be appreciated, thank you!

[WarrenBelz · Accepted solution]

Hi @jobb89 ,

Firstly, you might try this on your gallery filter - the only Data Row Limit restriction here is on the output which I assume will be fairly small.

Sort(
   Ungroup(
      ForAll(
         Personnel_SpaceAllocationDetails_ComboBox.SelectedItems As _Data,
         Filter(
            'Personnel List',
            PersonnelIdentifier = _Data.PersonnelIdentifier
         )
      ),
      "Value",
   ),
   PersonnelIdentifier
)

As to your DefaultSelectedItems, the Personnel_SpaceAllocationDetails_Combobox would be

{PersonnelIdentifier: ThisItem.PersonnelIdentifier}

so the first part is the field name displayed (.Selected.xxxx) in the Combo Box and the second the field content you want displayed.

Please click Accept as solution if my post helped you solve your issue. This will help others find it more readily. It also closes the item. If the content was useful in other ways, please consider giving it Thumbs Up.

MVP (Business Applications)   Visit my blog Practical Power Apps

[BDallas · Accepted solution]

@jobb89 The problem is that while DefaultSelectedItems may load default items correctly, it might not effectively select them in a way that updates the associated table.

You can try a different approach to ensure the selected items are properly reflected in the table. Instead of relying on DefaultSelectedItems, you can dynamically set the selected items using the OnVisible property of the screen or any other appropriate trigger.

In the ComboBox OnVisible property, Enter : 

Set(Personnel_SelectedItems, ThisItem.PersonnelIdentifier)

That will store the initial selected items in a variable (Personnel_SelectedItems).

Update the DefaultSelectedItems property of your ComboBox in the edit form to use this variable:

DefaultSelectedItems = Personnel_SelectedItems

Also modify the Items property of the table to use the variable:

Filter(
   'Personnel List',
   Or(
      PersonnelIdentifier = Last(FirstN(Personnel_SelectedItems,1)).PersonnelIdentifier,
      PersonnelIdentifier = Last(FirstN(Personnel_SelectedItems,2)).PersonnelIdentifier,
      PersonnelIdentifier = Last(FirstN(Personnel_SelectedItems,3)).PersonnelIdentifier,
      PersonnelIdentifier = Last(FirstN(Personnel_SelectedItems,4)).PersonnelIdentifier,
      PersonnelIdentifier = Last(FirstN(Personnel_SelectedItems,5)).PersonnelIdentifier,
      PersonnelIdentifier = Last(FirstN(Personnel_SelectedItems,6)).PersonnelIdentifier,
      PersonnelIdentifier = Last(FirstN(Personnel_SelectedItems,7)).PersonnelIdentifier,
      PersonnelIdentifier = Last(FirstN(Personnel_SelectedItems,8)).PersonnelIdentifier,
      PersonnelIdentifier = Last(FirstN(Personnel_SelectedItems,9)).PersonnelIdentifier,
      PersonnelIdentifier = Last(FirstN(Personnel_SelectedItems,10)).PersonnelIdentifier,
      PersonnelIdentifier = Last(FirstN(Personnel_SelectedItems,11)).PersonnelIdentifier
   )
)

If this solves your question, please accept it as a solution.

Thanks!

Dallas

[jobb89]

Hello Dallas and WarrenBelz, thanks for your responses. I tried Warren's solution first as it seemed to be the quickest to test, and it worked! Thank you, much appreciated. I will look at your solution as well Warren, to try and learn from it. 

[WarrenBelz]

Hi@jobb89 ,

If mine worked for you please mark that as well as future users need to be able to find it.
In particular, the alternate Items are much more efficient (it only queries the ones selected) and also a Variable does nothing different to what I posted than add an extra step and leave a "one use" Variable in the app, which can have a cumulative affect on performance (though there needs to be a lot of them for this to be relevant).

[jobb89]

Hi Warren,

I tried your solution, but am having a bit of trouble getting it to work. With the Sort and Ungroup formula, is this supposed to be on the data table that displays the combobox values?

As for the defaultselecteditems, I tried 

{PersonnelIdentifier: ThisItem.PersonnelIdentifier}

It ends up showing nothing in either the combobox or the data table.

I tried adding a drop-down menu whose items property was Personnel_SpaceAllocationDetails_ComboBox.SelectedItems, and the dropdown menu options will populate with the correct combobox default values. However, if I also set the data table properties to Personnel_SpaceAllocationDetails_ComboBox.SelectedItems, it will have x number of blank rows, were x is the number of default values in the combobox. If I manually select an additional combobox option, it will then display the correct information in the data table. I don't really understand how a dropdown control can recognise the defaultselecteditems of the combobox, but the data table only recognises the manually added options. Interestingly, if I have say 4 default selections, the drop-down will have these 4 values appropriately, and the data table has 4 blank rows. If I add 1 manual selection, then the dropdown shows 4 options and an additional blank option, whereas the data table will show 4 blank rows and then 1 correct row.

I also tried to mimic the combobox defaultselecteditems property with the same data source as is used in the items property. So instead of ThisItem.PersonnelIdentifier, it would be:

ForAll(ThisItem.PersonnelIdentifier,Filter( Personnel List, PersonnelIdentifier = ThisRecord.PersonnelIdentifier)). This will then say error when trying to retrieve data from the network, which is presumably because there are >5000 records. If I change it to mimic the combobox items lookup:

ForAll(ThisItem.PersonnelIdentifier,Filter( Personnel List, StartsWith(PersonnelIdentifier, ThisRecord.PersonnelIdentifier)))

It recognises there are the correct number of default values, but the display fields are [object object] in both the combobox and the dropdown which is using the combobox selected items as its items property. The data table still is blank