Renaming controls after duplicating a screen

[Anonymous]

Hello, 

When I have been testing I have been duplicating my existing screen, then testing to see if my idea works. 

I notice that the controls all have new names ..._1,_2 depending on the number of times I have duplicated. 

My screens are messy, with maybe 50+ different label, buttons, icons, controls, circles. When I am done testing I want to revert to my general naming convention so that I can find things for the future. Currently I am manually updating each item on the page. Is there a way to rename many different controls in an efficient manner? 

Thank you, 

[mdevaney]

@Anonymous 

Another idea might be to do another quick "Save As" and called the app "App Name TEST".  Then you can work with the exact same screens and controls in the app.  If you are satisfied with the changes do another "Save As" to commit the changes.  Or, you can simply copy + paste any controls or code over from the TEST app then delete said TEST app.

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[Anonymous]

I am already creating test version of my apps and attempting to transfer the changes to the current app afterwards. 

But I find that to be equally messy since I end up with many different apps. 

You mentioned that I could do another Save As to commit my changes.  If I save over the "live" version of my app will the "new" app already be shared with the current users?

I am trying to understand what the easiest way to edit my existing apps, test the changes, and then bring it back to the users. 

[mdevaney]

@Anonymous 

When you SAVE AS over the Live version the app does not get shared out.  You still have to click Publish before users see the current version.  There is also still the ability roll-back to a previous version if you commit changes from your TEST into the main app.

I believe this is the easiest way to test changes.  Just don't make more than one TEST copy for app and make sure to delete the TEST after you've committed your changes 🙂

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[KennethNicasens]

Hello,

I proper way to do this would be to create a different environment for dev/test .

This may seem like overkill for Power Apps but in my experience where we use Power Apps to extend D365 for customers this is a must.

My basic setup at a customer would be a DEV environment, Test environment and PROD Environment. I start by creating a solution, than add all the components ( Apps, Flows, Entities,...) in this solution.

After this I have a build pipeline in Azure DevOps that will export the solution into DevOps ( its a standard zip file), than extract this. and at last extract the msapp files as it would be a zip file. At this point I have all the code of all my apps into source control.

This zip file can then be imported into other environments or if its a patch you can only push the changes.

[mdevaney]

@KennethNicasens 

Agreed 100%.  I don't take it to quite this level but many of the things you mention here are good practices and many I do 🙂

[GarethPrisk]

As of this writing, there are no supported mechanisms for bulk renaming controls.

That being said, I do recommend that you take a look at the MSFT White Paper on best practices for naming controls.

That way, you can at least baseline your 'main' set of controls with appropriate names (type prefixes, intuitive names).

Copying the screens/controls then will suffix those 'main' controls with numbers but still give you context for what they were originally.

[v-xida-msft]

Hi @Anonymous ,

Do you want to bulk-rename controls in PowerApps app?

If you want to bulk-rename controls in PowerApps app, I afraid that there is no way to achieve your needs in PowerApps currently.

If you would like this feature to be added in PowerApps, please consider submit an idea to PowerApps Ideas Forum:

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Power-Apps-Ideas/idb-p/PowerAppsIdeas

Best regards,