Mark items as Favorite

[RobRoy]

Hello,

Is it possible to mark items in a list using a "favorite" icon such as a star, and then toggle that star on and off? It would also be nice to filter by favorites. I tried using the Rating control, but once you click a star (even if you set it to show only one) you cannot reset the star to zero. I am thinking you would need some sort of palette swap or color fill control toggle to switch between "starred" and "unstarred". Or maybe the solution is a checkbox, except I would liek a star icon instead of a checkbox.

Thanks.

[v-yamao-msft]

Hi RobRoy,

It might be possible to mark items in a list using a "favorite" icon such as a star, and then use a Toggle control to control the Star On/Off.

I create a Yes/No column and named it as “Favorite” in a SharePoint list. Then create a connection from PowerApps to this list.

I configure the app looks like below:
>Add a Toggle icon.
>Add a Star icon. Set its Visible property as: If(Toggle1.Value=true,true,false). When the Toggle is on, the Star will be appear, when the Toggle is Off, the Star will be disappear.
>Add a Text input control.
>Add a button, set its OnSelect property as: Patch(AskForLeave,Defaults(DataSource),{Title:TextInput1.Text,Favorite:Toggle1.Value})
>When I click the button, I can write the new item to the list with the Favorite(Yes/No).

Hope this can be a reference for you.

Best regards,
Mabel Mao

[mr-dang]

Yes, this can be done, but it requires some setup. 

I do something similar with a star that makes a record a "favorite." My favorites are used to Sort, not Filter, but it's the same kind of idea. See my green star:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0iHNZhZKR6YX0N3NklFbHlUVUU

My favorites are written back to the datasource as a column, but you can use a temporary collection to identify favorites too.

Method 1: Your datasource has a column called "favorite" which is true/false for each record

1. Make Gallery1 with whatever records you want. 
   

   Gallery1.Items:
   
   datasource

2. Add Star1 into Gallery1.
3. Set Star1.OnSelect property to change the status of whether the record is a favorite or not:
   

   Patch(datasource,First(Filter(datasource,RecordId=ThisItem.RecordId)),
   	{favorite: If(ThisItem.favorite=true,false,true)
   	}
   )

   This means, "Change the favorite column of the record to false if it is true, and true if it is false." My Patch formula is based on CDS entity where RecordId is used to uniquely identify records."
   
   
4. Set the Star1.Fill to be the color of your choice when it is a favorite, and transparent when not a favorite. 
   

   If(ThisItem.favorite=true,
   	RGBA(color of your choice),
   	RGBA(0,0,0,0)
   )

5. You need to know that Star is there when its Fill is transparent. The Border will show the Star when the record is not a favorite. So set Star1.BorderThickness so that it is greater than 0, which is the default. Change Star1.BorderColor and Star1.BorderStyle to what you need. Use a condition if you don't want the Border properties to be visible all the time:
   

   Example: 
   
   If(ThisItem.favorite=true,
   	None,
   	Solid
   )

   This means, "Show a solid border if the record is not a favorite. Show no border if the record is a favorite."
   
   
6. Now that you have a way to "toggle" whether a record is a favorite or not, you can edit Gallery1.Items to be Filtered to show only the favorites if another Control (Toggle, CheckBox, Radio, ContextVariable) says so. For this Example, I use CheckBox1 to determine whether or not to Filter Gallery1 to only show favorites:
   

   Add CheckBox1 to the screen. Set CheckBox1.Text to:
   "Show only favorites" 
   or something descriptive
   
   Edit Gallery1.Items to:
   
   Filter(datasource,
   	If(CheckBox1.Value,
   		favorite=true,
   		true
   	)
   )

   This means, "If you checked CheckBox1 to only show the favorites, then Gallery1 will only show records where the favorite column is true. Otherwise, Gallery1 will show all records."

Method 2: You prefer to use a temporary collection to identify which ones are favorites and do not need it written back to the datasource

1. Make Gallery1 with whatever records you want. 
   

   Gallery1.Items:
   
   datasource

2. Add Star1 into Gallery1.
3. Set Star1.OnSelect property to change the status of whether the record is a favorite or not:
   

   If(ThisItem.RecordId exactin favorites.RecordId,
   	Remove(favorites,ThisItem),
   	Collect(favorites,ThisItem)
   )

   This means, "If the record is already in the favorites collection, remove it; otherwise, add it to the collection." I use RecordId as a unique identifier for the record. You could presumably use the condition "ThisItem in favorites" but it might not return the exact results you are looking for.
   
   
4. Set the Star1.Fill to be the color of your choice when it is a favorite, and transparent when not a favorite. 
   

   If(ThisItem.RecordId exactin favorites.RecordId,
   	RGBA(color of your choice),
   	RGBA(0,0,0,0)
   )

5. You need to know that Star is there when its Fill is transparent. The Border will show the Star when the record is not a favorite. So set Star1.BorderThickness so that it is greater than 0, which is the default. Change Star1.BorderColor and Star1.BorderStyle to what you need. Use a condition if you don't want the Border properties to be visible all the time:
   

   Example: 
   
   If(ThisItem.RecordId exactin favorites.RecordId,
   	None,
   	Solid
   )

   This means, "Show a solid border if the record is not a favorite. Show no border if the record is a favorite."
   
   
6. Now that you have a way to "toggle" whether a record is a favorite or not, you can edit Gallery1.Items to be Filtered to show only the favorites if another Control (Toggle, CheckBox, Radio, ContextVariable) says so. For this Example, I use CheckBox1 to determine whether or not to Filter Gallery1 to only show favorites:
   

   Add CheckBox1 to the screen. Set CheckBox1.Text to:
   "Show only favorites" 
   or something descriptive
   
   Edit Gallery1.Items to:
   
   Filter(datasource,
   	If(CheckBox1.Value,
   		RecordId exactin favorites.RecordId,
   		true
   	)
   )

   This means, "If you checked CheckBox1 to only show the favorites, then Gallery1 will only show records where the record presides in the favorites Collection. Otherwise, Gallery1 will show all records."
   
   
7. Add a way to Clear the favorites Collection as needed.
   

   Clear(favorites)

The next advanced step is to be able to Filter Gallery1 based on a Star Rating. You'll need to tinker with Reset properties to make it work.

[RobRoy]

Thank you for your responses. I tried Method #1 since I want the state to be written back to the record and saved. I followed your instructions and what I currently see happening is that no stars are showing at first. If I click where the star is I see the hollow version of my star. If I click a different record the current hollow star disappears and a new one appears for the different record. What I want to see are hollow stars for all records, and then clicking each star fills it in and saves it as a favorite in the record. Clicking the filled star should return it to a hollow state. In the attached image, EventFavorite is the yes/no column in my SharePoint list (Events).

Thanks.

[mr-dang · Accepted solution]

Hi @RobRoy,

Thank you for posting a screenshot. Here's some things to check:

• The formula you put in BorderThickness needs to be used for the BorderStyle instead. BorderThickness can be set to 4.
• I think the star is not showing up because you might need some default data inside the EventFavorite column. Set all records in the EventFavorite column to "false" right now (no quotation marks). And wherever you write back to the datasource, set the column to false by default.
• Your Patch formula is currently:
  

  Patch(Events,First(Filter(Events,EventFavorite=ThisItem.EventFavorite)),
  	{EventFavorite: If(ThisItem.EventFavorite=true,false,true)
  	}
  )

  The part in red above is problematic because it does not point to a unique record. If it is kept this way, the Star will set the first record in the datasource that is the same as the selected record from true to false or false to true.
  
  You will need to reference a column with unique values like:
  

  First(Filter(Events,ColumnWithUniqueValues=ThisItem.ColumnWithUniqueValues))

Try that and let me know how it goes.

[RobRoy]

Ah! That worked, thank you. Now I have a system for marking each item in a record as a favorite, and it writes back to the table. I am having trouble with the Filter part, as my Gallery Items field already has the default Filter applied that comes with he initial ap setup (BrowseGallery1) How can I add on a second filter to the same Items box?

SortByColumns(Filter(Events, TextSearchBox1.Text in EventDate), "EventDate", If(SortDescending1, Ascending, Descending))

I tried using operators (And, Or) but I may have the order wrong.

Thanks.

[mr-dang]

Hi @RobRoy,

I personally use && in place of And() and || in place of Or() because I save myself lots of confusing parentheses and commas. Here's an example. I spaced everything out so you can see where "&&" goes in place of And():

SortByColumns(
	Filter(
		Events, 
			TextSearchBox1.Text in EventDate &&
			(condition 2) &&
			(condition 3) &&
			(condition 4) etc.
	), 
"EventDate", 

If(SortDescending1, Ascending, Descending)
)

Sometimes you may need to wrap parentheses around each condition when you use && because PowerApps combines the equivalence of one condition to that of another.

If you still want to use And(), it would look something like this:

SortByColumns(
	Filter(
		Events, 
			And(
			TextSearchBox1.Text in EventDate,
			condition2,
			condition3,
			condition4 etc.
			)
	), 
"EventDate", 

If(SortDescending1, Ascending, Descending)
)

Since arguments in And() are separated by a comma, it's not necessary to wrap the conditions with parentheses.

[RobRoy]

Thank you again, that worked. Learning the proper syntax is so important to understanding how these expressions work together. Here is the working code:

SortByColumns(Filter(Events, TextSearchBox1.Text in EventDate && If(Checkbox1.Value,EventFavorite=true,true)), "EventDate", If(SortDescending1, Ascending, Descending))

[BuiDucNghia]

@mr-dang I want to multiple user in my organization to click favourite mark (or remove) if they like that item (as favourite mark business app)

[MortenBak]

Hello mr-dang,

To continue on this question, what if I want to display everything that is a favorite from a list, by filtering after email? 

Say, and enduser is using the gallery, marking as a favorite, and wanted to display all of his/her favorite items in the gallery?