Selected Gallery Item Changes on Patch Function

[Anonymous]

I have two screens within my app, browseScreen and detailScreen. The first contains a gallery named requestGallery, which references a SharePoint list data source, and the other contains a detail form and several text labels, all referencing the selected item of the requestGallery. The OnSelect property of requestGallery is set to navigate to detailScreen with the selected item.

The detail screen also has a couple of buttons which change the value of a column in the selected record of the data source through a Patch function. All of the buttons change the same value, the Status column.

The first set of buttons have this set to their OnSelect property:

Patch(
    'Rework Data Header',
    First(
        Filter(
            'Rework Data Header',
            ID = requestGallery.Selected.ID
        )
    ),
    {
        Status: "Approved",
        AppRejTime: Now(),
        AppRejBy: userName_
    }
)

This works perfectly, and all objects on the screen update accordingly with no issues. However, the second button has this set to it's OnSelect property:

Patch(
    'Rework Data Header',
    First(
        Filter(
            'Rework Data Header',
            ID = requestGallery.Selected.ID
        )
    ),
    {
        Status: "Closed",
        ClosedTime: Now(),
        ClosedBy: userName_,
        ActCost: actCost_input.Text,
        ActTime: actTime_input.Text
    }
)

Upon selecting this button, the correct values are patched to the data source, but it also selects the first item in the requestGallery and all objects switch to reference that. There is no difference in the codes, though, other than the values that are patched to the datasource.

Is this a bug, or am I just missing something obvious in my code?

[Anonymous]

To add more information, I just tested out setting a Global Variable (selID_) equal to the selected item's ID in the gallery in the OnSelect property of the gallery. I also changed the reference on the Patch function to selID_ instead of the requestGallery.Selected.ID, but the issue remains.

It seems as though the Patch function is somehow changing the selected item of the gallery without being told to do so.

[v-xida-msft]

Hi @Anonymous ，

Could you please share a bit more about the issue within your app?

Do you mean that the Selected Item within your Gallery would be changed after your Patch formula is executed?

Based on the issue that you mentioned, I have made a test on my side, and don't have the issue that you mentioned. In order to check if the selected item in your Gallery is changed, you could take a try with the following solution:

Set the TemplateFill property of the Gallery to following:

If(ThisItem.IsSelected, RGBA( 250, 235, 215, 1 ), RGBA(0, 0, 0, 0))

Above formula would highlight the selected item within your Gallery, if the selected item is changed in your Gallery, the Gallery Item color render would also be changed:

As an alternative solution, you could consider save the selected item from your Gallery into a variable, then use the variable within your Patch function.

Set the OnSelect property of the Gallery to following:

Set(CurrentSelectedItem, Gallery1.Selected)

Then modify your formula as below:

Patch(
    'Rework Data Header',
     CurrentSelectedItem,
    {
        Status: "Approved",
        AppRejTime: Now(),
        AppRejBy: userName_
    }
)

If the issue still exists, please consider re-create a new app based on your SP List data source, then try above solution I provided, check if the issue is solved.

Best regards,

[Anonymous]

@v-xida-msft Thank you for your reply! I tried your test and confirmed that the Patch function is actually selecting a different entry in the gallery, but just figured out what's causing the problem. I'll start by highlighting the workflow:

1. User selects an item from the requestGallery, which navigates to the detailScreen with a form displaying several fields from the selected item. The screen also has a few labels with Text fields referencing requestGallery.Selected.[x] to highlight important information.
2. When the status of the request is "New", two buttons are visible to either Patch "Approved" or "Denied" to the status field of the selected entry. Selecting either of these buttons works just fine, and the selected item from the gallery remains selected.
3. After the request is approved, another button appears to close out the request (patches the status "Closed" to the status field of the selected entry). Upon selection of this button, the correct values are patched to the data source, but all fields on the detailScreen revert to reference the first item in the requestGallery. Using your test, the background color also switches to indicate the selection has changed.

The issue goes away if I remove the SortByColumns function from the items in the requestGallery. Currently, the items in the data source are assigned a value based on their status from 1-4 (New, Approved, Denied, Closed), and that status changes when the button is pressed. If I had to guess, it looks like the gallery selection function in PA has some sort of numerical reference to the item that gets refreshed on Patch. It's strange, though, that this only occurs on the second patch inside the ticket. The first button also changes the status, which would change the sort order in the requestGallery, and there is no issue. I believe this is a bug.

[v-xida-msft]

Hi @Anonymous ,

Actually, when the Patch function is executed successfully within your app, your data source would be refreshed automatically, so the Gallery control would also be refreshed.

Have you taken a try to save the selected item in your Gallery into a variable? Based on the issue that you mentioned, I think a global variable could fix this issue. Even though, the Gallery is refreshed, the global variable would not be changed.

Currently, as an fixed solution, you could remove the SortByColumns function from the Items proeprty of the Gallery. Or you could use the ID column as the Sort column instead of other columns in your SP List data source. Set the Items property of your requestGallery as below:

SortByColumns(
               Filter('Rework Data Header', StartsWith(Title, TextSearchBox1.Text)), 
               "ID", 
               If(SortDescending1, Descending, Ascending)
)

Please take a try with above solution, then check if the issue is solved.

Best regards,

[Anonymous]

@v-xida-msft  Thanks for your help, but I need the items in the gallery to be sorted by their status, not their ID. The idea is to have the "New" items (which need immediate attention) at the top so they are more visible. I also wouldn't want to save the item as a global variable, because I'd like to be able to change the information. It's alright that the data source refreshes upon a patch, but I still think it's a bug that the reference to the gallery changes.

The solution here will be to set the ID of the selected item to a global variable and then change all of the references in the detailScreen to reference an entry of the data source filtered based off that ID variable, but that seems pretty cumbersome to set every time you need another screen referencing the selected items of a gallery.

[AaronAER]

Agreed, @Anonymous, but I had to do the same. I had a detail screen with multiple dependent and nested forms and galleries, and when I `Patch`ed the main data source, everything would go stupid. So `OnVisible` I store the ID of the selected record, `OnHidden` I set it to blank, and all the lookups on that page are based on the global variable.

I agree that it feels like a bug. It's not natural, expected behaviour. It seems like something that could be worked around on the MS side. Maybe even a setting `KeepSelectedOnRefresh` or something like that so it's optional.