Remove From SharePoint If()

[Hack-7]

I have been looking at this for a while and I am once again stumped!  Any suggestions would be great.

My App, loads a collection of Users and displays them in a gallery.  If the user presses a minus button it removes the entry in the gallery.  At this point, it does not Patch() the SP list.  It just removes the entry from the collection and gallery.

The user can also search and 'Add' new names to the collection which shows all details in the gallery.  Again, nothing is Patched to SP list at this point.

When all adding and removing is done, I need to Patch() the details back to SP.  But, I cannot figure out the logic of remove() or patch(defaults()). 

So I was thinking about deleting all records in the collection from the SP list and then doing a ForAll(Patch(()), but the logic of removeif() is messing with me.    I am sure I am not looking at this properly.

ForAll(
    collectionName,
    RemoveIf(
        spListName,
        [@collectionName].teamID = ID
    )
);

Any thoughts?

[WarrenBelz · Accepted solution]

Hi @Hack-7 ,

You have already done the removing, but the conundrum is how do your remove something from the list that is no longer in the collection ? If this is what you are trying to do, then you need to flag the collection item for removal (you can use AddColumns on the Collection at the start) and flag the items as N (New) or R (Remove) then two actions

ForAll(
   Filter(
      collectionName,
      Flag = "R"
   ) As _Items,
   RemoveIf(
      spListName,
      ID = _Items.teamID
   )
)

Then the new ones

Patch(
   spListName,
   ForAll(
      Filter(
         collectionName,
         flag = "N"
      ) As _Items,
      {
         field1: _Items.field1,
         field2: _Items.field2,
         field3: . . . . 
      }
   )
)

Note that there may be a quicker way if all of the columns in your collection are present in the List in both field name and type

Patch(
   spListName,
   Filter(
      collectionName,
      flag = "N"
   )
) 

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[Mtthwlee88]

I would not suggest deleting all records from the SharePoint list only to patch them back to the SharePoint list. That's a lot of data and could really slow down your app. 

I learned a trick from Matthew Devaney using toggles to detect what was updated or changed and only updating those records. Here is a link to the article and you could start on the section 'Detecting Edited Rows':
https://www.matthewdevaney.com/power-apps-excel-style-editable-table-part-1/ 

[cwebb365]

If you are pulling the SharePoint items straight into the collection as is. Then you can just use Patch(collection); and let powerapps handle doing edits and new ones. Works great. 

Then for deletion. I just keep a colRemoveItems and add anything that gets removed gets added to that collection, then you can call the removeif or for all and remove in it from the items in remove collection. 

Assuming you need this, otherwise ditch the collection and work straight in the datasource. But I'm guessing your designing around a "Save" button to commit changes. 

[Hack-7]

@Mtthwlee88 Thanks for the note.  I will go review the article today.  Cheers

[Hack-7]

@cwebb365 Thanks for the suggestions, question for you.  Patch(collection) does that handle both adding new items to the list as well as modifying existing ones?

The reason I went towards a collection was for the reason that we want the user to build a 'team' list before committing the changes back to the SharePoint list.

Hence the reason why I thought removing all items from SP based on filters and then Patching all current collection items back.

[Hack-7]

@WarrenBelz my thought process (and it could be all wrong) was to remove all items in the collection from the SP list, then do a  ForAll(Patch(()) for the items in the list.

Is my theory on this the wrong way to proceed?

[cwebb365]

Yes, if you pull the whole records from the SharePoint list to build you're collection, you can simply call Patch(collection) and it will handle adding and editing items from the collection assuming "Required" fields are filled into the collection. Obviously ID will be blank and that lets it know to create a new one. 

So usuaully I would use Patch(Collection) then have a collectionItemstodelete where I just collect the item I'm deleting before removing it form the collection. Then when I save I do a forall(collectionitemstodelete), Remove('list', ID = ThisRecord.ID))  

Syntax might not be exact but that's how I handle this. 

[WarrenBelz]

@Hack-7 ,

That would work also but is an extra step to simply filtering the collection for the new items.