Having trouble patching a certain Choice column from a canvas app.

[jzcase]

I have a dataverse table "CASE Services" with each record representing a student receiving a certain kind of service.

I also have it set up to create "Groups" that are hierarchies with in the same table, with one "Service" acting as a "Group" and other Services joined to it as "Members".

To distinguish between parent records (Groups) and child records (Group Members), I have a Choice Column called "Record Type" with the options of: Not Grouped, Group, Group Member

In my Canvas app I have a gallery of Services with checkboxes, and a submit button that is supposed to do the following:

1. Create a collection of the selected Services.
2. Create a new CASE Service of "Record Type = Group"
3. For each of the selected Services in the gallery, join to the new Group and set "Record Type" to "Group Member".

Everything works except for one hitch. The final Patch() is failing to update the "Record Type" to "Group Member". No matter what I do, the member Services' "Record Type" remains "Ungrouped". This is so weird because this Patch() is otherwise working just fine.

Here's the code:

   ClearCollect(selectedStudents,Filter(
            StudentList.AllItems,
            Selected.Value = true
        ));
    Set(
        newGroup,
        Patch(
            'CASE Services',
            Defaults('CASE Services'),
            {'Group Nickname': TextInput2.Text},
            {'Record Type': 'Record Type'.Group},
            {'Service Type': First(myStudents).case_servicetype},
            {'Attending School':First(selectedStudents).case_AttendingSchool}
        )
    );
    Patch(
        'CASE Services',
        newGroup,
        {'Service Provider': appUser}
    );
    
    ForAll(
        selectedStudents,
        Patch(
            'CASE Services',
            LookUp(
                'CASE Services',
                Service = selectedStudents[@case_serviceid]
            ),
            {'Record Type': 'Record Type'.'Group Member'},
            {Group: newGroup}
        )
    );

 Here is the result. You can see that it successfully created the group.

AND the initial Patch() that created the Group has no problem setting "Record Type" to "Group".

But the subsequent Patch() refuses to update the "Record Type" field on the child Services, which will cause me problems down the line because I will need to distinguish which of my "Services" are "Group Members".

[Bilakanti]

@jzcase ,

I believe Lookup is not getting the record to update. can you update any other field and check if that field value is updated in your final patch function.

[jzcase]

Yes actually. That final Patch() is populating the "Group" lookup column just fine. Hence why the system successfully creates the groups.

That's what boggles my mind so much. Part of the Patch() is working, and the rest of it isn't.

[jzcase]

You know, I don't have a fix, but I might have a workaround.

How I should really resolve this is by using Flow to auto-update the "Record Type" column whenever there is a change in the "Group" field. If "Group" is populated, Flow can set "Record Type" to "Group Member." That takes the burden off the Patch() to do it.

[Bilakanti]

@jzcase ,

Agree! But that adds another set of maintainability to be taken care as part of overall business requirements and there are API limits as well, that we need to take into consideration when we go using flow.

[jzcase]

Update: My workaround doesn't work!

Here is what I am observing. I have this choice column, called "Record Type", and the ONLY way I can make changes to it is directly through the model driven app. 

When I try to update the column using a Canvas App or Power Automate, two things happen:

1. Neither one produces an error, and both think they run successfully.
2. The field does not change.

OK so I have a new hypothesis here, tell me if this is crazy. Could it be the fact that it named it "Record Type"? Could that be a reserved name? The schema name is case_recordtype so I would be surprised... but maybe it's kind of like how you can't name a Sharepoint folder "Forms".

I'm going to try two different tests,

First, I'll try renaming it to "Group Status" instead of "Record Type" and see if that makes a different.

Second, if the behavior continues, I'll create a different column called "Group Status" with its own schema name and see if that makes a difference.

EDIT: A new weird observation. I trigger my workflow and it DOES seem to change the "Record Type" field, but it immediately reverts back. I was refreshing the MDA page and could swear I saw it on the correct value for a *split second* before it reverted.

No I do not have any other workflows automatically modifying that field. This is bonkers.

[jzcase · Accepted solution]

OK I'm sort of finding a way around all of this. There's no reason for my "Group Status" / "Record Type" column to have 3 choices.

It can just have two: Group or Individual.

From that point I can sort Individual services by "Group" (hierarchical lookup) contains data or not. Having an additional field indicate "Group member" or "Not group" was redundant.