Load collection to datasource when back online

[rmccook]

I have created a collection to store the data entry from my edit form when the connection.connected = false. I would like to load my collection into the datasource when the connection.connected = true. Is there any way to do this?

[rmccook · Accepted solution]

For those of you who are also facing the dreaded task of making an App that is available offline, let me try and help you out a little bit. Before beginning the steps please note that the following solution I did not do any of the below:

1. Displaying items submitted offline in the Detail Screen to users
2. Updating items submitted offline when offline

The following are the steps I followed to create my form:

• I created a form from a list on SharePoint
• The default created forms are the Browse, Detail and Edit screens
• The Edit screen automatically places a check mark at the top right of the form for submission
• Select the check mark
• From Home menu select the first drop down to go to the OnSelect option of the check mark
• The default formula for the OnSelect action of the check mark field is set to SubmitForm(<name of form>) , in my case it was SubmitForm(EditForm1)
  • What this does is submits the form back to SharePoint which requires an internet connection.
• To work around this and provide an option for submitting offline, erase the formula from the OnSelect action
• Start the formula out with the Collect function (https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/tutorials/function-clear-collect-clearcollect/)
• Example: Collect(TestCollection,{Title: Title!Text})
• Where TestCollection is any text you want to call the collection
• Where Title is the name of the column you are adding to the collection. Hint: Keep these the same as your original datasource table headers to make it easier later
• Where the Title in Title!Text is equivalent to the name of your field on you form. This one got me since I assumed the names of the field would be equivalent to the headers from my datasources table. Unfortunately the names are usually something like DataCard####. So make sure you click on the actual field to get the names or rename the DataCard before doing this.
• You can add more fields by placing a , at the end of each new field like the following Collect(TestCollection,{Title: Title!Text, Column2: Column2!Text})
• Note: Use Value for instead of Text after the exclamation point for any numeric fields
• After your Collect statement add a semi colon so it looks like the following:
  • Collect(TestCollection,{Title: Title!Text, Column2: Column2!Text});
  • (the semi colon pretty much acts as a indicator to move onto a new action)
• Now that we have our temporary storage collection we'll add an IF statement to check to see if the user has an internet connection or not.
• Add the following after the semi colon:
  • If(Connection.Connected = true,
• So now your formula looks like the following:
  • Collect(TestCollection,{Title: Title!Text, Column2: Column2!Text}) ; If(Connection.Connected = true, 
• Now add Collect('Data Source', TestCollection);
  • Where Data Source is the name of your Data Source for the form
  • Where TestCollection is the name of the collection you created in the first step
• Finally add the following:
  • Clear(TestCollection);Back(),Back())
  • Where TestCollection is the name of the collection you created in the first step
  • The Back() function takes the user back to the Display screen
  • The Clear function clear the temporary collection so you don't duplicate values when the user get online and submits a new record

You final formula should look something like the folowing:

Collect(TestCollection,{Title: Title!Text, Column2: Column2!Text}) ; If(Connection.Connected = true, Collect('Data Source', TestCollection);Clear(TestCollection);Back(),Back())

Hopefully this help a few of you. I wasn't able to figure out how to change my display to show the collection information when offline but it'll work for what I need.