Navigation in App.OnStart not allowed anymore (New App.StartScreen??) - Deep Link problem

[MarkusG]

Hi,

Issue Description:

Since some days I have the problem that the deep linking parameters that I set in App.Onstart are not working anymore. 

I want the users that use the deep link to navigate to a separate page with all the details about the entry.

Apparently it is not allowed anymore to use the "Navigate" function. There is now also an App.StartScreen property and I'm not sure if that is new or was there all the time. I was not able to find any information about it online.

Does anyone know how to fix this, so that the deep linking is working again??

Parameters in App.OnStart:

Set(varDemandIDView, Value(Param("DemandIDView")));
If (varDemandIDView <> 0, Set(varRecord, LookUp('Project Portfolio Management', ID = varDemandIDView)); Navigate(ScreenDisplayDemand_OnePage));

Error Message:

[poweractivate]

App OnStart not creating variable maybe if you check here the reply post from @timl it might help you

[timl]

Hi @MarkusG 

I would attempt to work around this problem by creating a new screen and setting it as the start screen in the app node. On this screen, I would add a timer control and set the OnTimerEnd property to the formula that you currently have in App.OnStart. You would also need to set the AutoStart property to true, and to set the Duration property to a low number. Hopefully, that might fix the problem.

[MarkusG]

Thank you for the workaround! Appreciate it.

Unfortunately this adds a small delay in loading the app, that was not there before. So I still wonder why suddenly "Navigate" in App.OnStart is not allowed anymore. Has that been introduced in the last release? Or is it a setting somewhere, that can be turned off?

[timl]

Hi @MarkusG 

I don't think unfortunately that there's any way to re-enable the use of Navigate in App.OnStart. This is very recent change that was introduced this week to coincide with a setting that completely turns off App.OnStart.

[Mostafa]

Hi All,

Sorry for the inconvience. There is away to allow using Navigate in OnStart by turning on this feature flag on. Save and you will be allowed to use Navigate() as is in your apps.

Also, I have a blog post explaining why this change has been rolled out which should be affecting only the new apps but not the existing apps. We are investigating this issue, but I'd like to unblock you for now.

https://medium.com/@melzoghbi/startscreen-a-new-declarative-way-to-set-the-first-screen-in-power-app...

[timl]

Thanks @Mostafa for pointing out that new setting. That's very useful.

[timl · Accepted solution]

For anyone reading this, Greg Lindhorst posted a great article today on the Power Apps blog that describes App.StartScreen.

https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/app-startscreen-a-new-declarative-alternative-to-navigate...

The official documentation beneath has also been updated.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/canvas-apps/functions/object-app#startscreen-proper...

[poweractivate]

@timl Wow thanks for this one. I found especially the declarative part interesting about the speculative future plans (not implemented yet now) such as the idea to perhaps one day be able to refer to Data Source directly instead of using Collect formula to return something that is limited to the Delegation limit and using workarounds of the Collection related to this. It would be like being able to leverage advantages of using a direct Gallery right now but all the time. Thanks for sharing this one.

Regarding the App.StartScreen as implemented now it looks like it has the goal of being able to show the Screen as fast as possible not just at the end of App.OnStart and for this to be somewhat separate. This is a good idea and it is nice to see from your links some pretty good documentation and explanation of this and quite fast as well, so thanks for sharing those links.

[timl]

@poweractivate - I completely agree with you about the speculative future plans. This will be a massive change which will save a lot of us from having to make various horrible delegation hacks. This is great news!!