Help using Office365Users

[dhalpin]

Hello all,

After typing a long-winded question, I was able to distill it down.  Please see below the asterisks for further details if you like.

I have a collection which contains Office365User information for a sub-set of employees in a column called "OutlookInfo", pulled from a Sharepoint List (type: People).  How can I select people using a dropdown, preferably using DisplayName?  collection.'OutlookInfo'._______________ does not return any auto-complete suggestions.

********************************************

I am making a Project Management app for my team.  I would like to allow the user of the app to choose Project Leads from a dropdown menu.  The list of individuals on this list would be very small - maybe 10 people.  Then each Project Lead will have their own dashboard showing projects which have been assigned to them. 

Because I was/am confounded by the Office365Users concept, my initial solution was to create a Sharepoint List which is manually populated with the columns "Name" (type: text), and "Outlook Info" (type: Person).  The Outlook Info is not used anywhere else, but I added it to the SP list in the hopes I could leverage that information in the future.  The future is now 😉

So, in PowerApps, I have the following for OnVisible:

ClearCollect(projectLeads, (Sort('Project Leads',SortingOrder,Ascending)))

Then the dropdown pulls from the collection: projectLeads.Name.  That works great for the purpose of the dropdowns, but now I am making the separate dashboards for each Project Lead and I realize I cannot filter by Office365Users.MyProfile().DisplayName because the dropdowns use a manually-entered text field which might be misspelled or otherwise different from the official employee record.  This is my current (non-functional) filter for showing a person's projects on their dashboard's dropdown:

Distinct(Filter('Active Project List', 'Project Lead'= Office365Users.MyProfile().DisplayName), 'Collection Name')

So, I think my issue could be solved if I could populate the dropdowns with Office365Users.DisplayName (which is contained in the collection, but I don't know how to access nested tables' values). 

[dhalpin]

Ah, no there is some confusion.  Here is the structure:

SP LIST #1:  "Project Leads" 

This is a list that we can fill out as team members join/leave the organization.  It has a "Name" column which is just text and entered manually - almost like a nickname.  It also has an "Outlook Info" column which is a Person or Group data.  This is manually entered in SP, but it is validated via auto-complete while typing.

SP LIST #2:  "Active Projects"

This is a list of active projects where the "Project Lead" is initially blank.  There is a meeting and the manager assigns a Project Lead (see below "Power App #1), and then the person's name appears in the Project Lead column of this "Active Projects" list.

Power App #1:  Project Assignment

This is where the Project Lead dropdown is used to select from the list of possible project leads (see SP List #1, above).

Power App #2:  Project Lead Dashboard

This is an app that recognizes the user and displays only the projects that are assigned to this user by referencing SP List #2 above.

So, to reiterate my issue - I am looking for a way to populate the PA Dropdown with the Project Lead's name in such a way that it can also be referenced by the Dashboard (PA #2 above).  Referencing the SP List 'Project Leads'.OutlookInfo.____________ doesn't seem to return anything like "Name" or "DisplayName" etc.

Hope that helps!

[RandyHayes]

@dhalpin 

So then I believe this is much simpler than we're making it.

In Power App #1, you have a dropdown list that is populated by List 1 - Project Leads and you are updating the record in List 2 - Active Projects by setting the Project Lead column.  Please confirm that the Project Lead Column is a Person column in your list.

SO...in App #2, you don't need a dropdown, you just need to filter the Active Projects by the Project Lead column.

[dhalpin]

Confirming:  Project Lead Column in List 2 ("Active Projects") is a person column.

Confirming:  App#2 (Project Lead Dashboard) will only be filtering/displaying the active projects for the person viewing the app.  No dropdown necessary, although a text label confirming the person's name might be nice.

[RandyHayes]

@dhalpin 

Yes! I believe we are getting there now.

So, you would just like a label, you can either just show the current user in the label User().FullName since you are already filtering the items they see.

Or, if you want it from the record, you can use the 'Project Lead'.DisplayName for your label (of course, prepend that with the record).

Does that get you there?

[dhalpin]

Well, I am still unsure of the dropdown Items=____________ .  I would like to reference the 'Project Leads' list's Person column ("Outlook Info"), but as you mentioned there is some translation necessary between SP and PApps.

[RandyHayes]

@dhalpin 

Confused!  I thought we were done with the dropdown in the app??  Are we talking about App #1 or #2?

Even so, I am not sure why you would want the Person column of that other list as you ALREADY have this now in the Project Lead column...they are identical because you assigned it in App #1.

Where am I not understanding? 

[dhalpin]

The dropdown exists only in App1.  It is used for the manager to ASSIGN a Project Lead to a new project.  This dropdown references a SP list ('Project Leads') as a kind of personnel roster.  Once a person has been assigned to a project, their name is shown in 'Active Projects' list.  Therefore, when they visit the "Project Lead Dashboard" app, the results are filtered to show only their projects.  They are not interacting with Sharepoint - it is only used as a data source (not ideal, I know). 

[RandyHayes]

@dhalpin 

I am not sure what you mean by "they are not interacting with SharePoint" - your app MUST be interacting with SharePoint...confused!!

Still the point remains, once the Project Lead in the record in SharePoint has been set, it HAS all of the information about the user.  There is no need to look it up in the other list as it is exactly the same.

[dhalpin]

Sorry, I don't seem to be explaining myself very well.  Let's use an example:  You're my boss and you want to assign me to Project1.  You go to App1 where you input all the info about the project and select me from a dropdown of 5 possible people.  Afterward, I go to App2 ("Dashboard") and I see Project1 appear as a "to do" kind of gallery.  Aside from adding me to the "Project Lead" list, neither your nor I interact with Sharepoint directly, just the Apps. 

So - my challenge remains: how does App1 reference the DisplayName (or similar) from 'Project Leads' Person column?

Hope that helps!  And thanks for your tenacity! 

[RandyHayes]

@dhalpin 

Actually I was following that concept 100%.  I think I lost you when you mentioned not interacting with SharePoint and then you said "not ideal, I know".  That part confused me because it is actually quite ideal.

So, I thought we already worked through the setting of the Project Lead.

The plan is (in App #1), that you have a Dropdown with the formula of the Items set to: 'Project Leads'

You display the column of Name

When you Submit the record to change the Project Lead of the Active Project record, you will be using the dropdown.Selected.OutlookInfo column to assign to the 'Project Lead' column

   'Project Lead' : dropdown.Selected.OutlookInfo

At that point, the Project Lead is set.

In App #2, you will be filtering your list based on the Email of the OutlookInfo column equaling the current user.

I am not recalling if your App 1 record update is Form based or Patch based, otherwise I would expand more on the details for the App 1.