Proper way to "clear" value from Text input

[jnickell]

I have a PowerApp connected to a Sharepoint list and I'm encountering an issue where if a user wishes to remove a value for a linked field and then save the form the update is not passed to the Sharepoint list. 

I have a powerautomate task connected to the sharepoint list configured to trigger if an item is added or updated and this is not fired in this situation.

More detail:

We have multiple text input boxes linked to multiple columns in the Sharepoint list.
In Step 1 a user enters a value in the text input box and saves.  This works as expected.

In Step 2 the user opens the item and "removes" the value they had entered (i.e. they erase the value to represent a "0" or no value). In this situation from the user's perspective the the text input field appears to have no value.
If the user saves the form at this point, no action is generated on the Sharepoint list (and powerautomate action is not triggered). The previously entered value remains in the Sharepoint list.

If the user were to come back in and remove this same value and add text to a different text input field and then save. Action is generated against the Sharepoint list, but the value passed to the Sharepoint list for the 'cleared' input field is still the old value.

The only way I've found to remove the value is to have the user set the 'cleared' input field to 0 and then save. This will then overwrite the previously stored value.

Am I missing something, or is this expected. 
I tried using the "Clear Button" on the text field and this did not change the behavior.

A desired state would be that "removing" the value triggers the same action as replacing the value with a 0.

[poweractivate]

@jnickell 

Can you check if this one here helps?

The Reset function in Power Apps:

Reset function in Power Apps - docs.microsoft.com

Try to follow these steps as a test, (the steps are also in the above link) - the steps also happen to be for specifically a Text input, which seems similar to your scenario :

1. Insert a Text input control on a screen. By default, its name will be TextInput1 and its Default property will be set to "Text input".
2. Type a new value in the text box.
3. Insert a Button control on the screen.
4. Set the button's OnSelect property to Reset( TextInput1 ).
5. Select the button. This can be done even when authoring by selecting toward the ends of the control.
6. The contents of the text box will return to the value of the Default property.

In your case @jnickell you should make sure the Default property of your Text Input has nothing in it, so that when Reset is called, it will put the Default - which I suppose you might want to be nothing. The default of the Default property for a newly created Text input control,  is the string "Text input" - whereas in your case, you may want nothing instead, so you may want to make sure your Default property of the Text input has nothing in it for your scenario.

If you are not comfortable with it being empty, you can also try using this value for Default of Text input control:

Blank()

More info: Blank() - docs.microsoft.com

[RandyHayes · Accepted solution]

@jnickell 

Make sure that the Formula Level error management feature is turned on in your app settings.  It is listed under the experimental features.  Even though it is listed as experimental, it has been experimental now for over 3 years...so, it's pretty much here to stay.

Anyway, without that feature turned on, you cannot write a blank value to your data source.

I hope this is helpful for you.

[jnickell]

@RandyHayes That looks like it was the answer. I just tried it and it worked.  Thanks!

[jnickell]

@poweractivate I gave this a shot before enabling the Experimental feature Randy spoke about.  It seemed to run into the same issue as my previous efforts.  Additionally (maybe this is a newbie thing) I am setting the default value to the Sharepoint Field that is 'backing' this text input, so the user can see what was previously specified.

[jhat]

You are correct - I have tried everything to no avail.