Selecting Position in Browse Gallery

[Anonymous]

We have an App that lists many (approx 50-100) construction properties in a Browse Gallery. The user scrolls down this list, selects and edits a property and returns to the Browse Gallery to select another.   The problem is that when the user returns to the Browse Gallery, it intermittently repositions its-self on the first item in the gallery. Again, this is an intermittant problem. It often causes the users to have to scroll a long way back down to where they previously were in the Gallery. The users are very unhappy with this issue.

Please suggest a solution for positioning in the browse gallery on a specific record when the user goes back to the gallery. Thanks!

[v-micsh-msft]

Hi @Anonymous,

Thanks for the feedback.

I think this is the default bahavior of the Gallery control.

For a workaround, please consider enable the following property:

NavigationStep – How far a gallery scrolls if its ShowNavigation property is set to true and the user selects a navigation arrow at either end of that gallery.

ShowNavigation – Whether an arrow appears at each end of a gallery so that a user can scroll through the items in the gallery by clicking or tapping an arrow.

Or 

ShowScrollbar – Whether a scrollbar appears when the user hovers over a gallery.

Reference

If you would like to have a property to be available to ReSet Gallery selection or the order, then please consider rise it as an idea:

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

Regards,

Michael

[Anonymous]

Hello Michael -

Thank-you for responding. 

Unfortunately, enabling ShowScrollbar, ShowNavigation or adjusting NavigationStep did not correct the issue and enable me to control the position of the cursor (record position)  in the BrowseGallery upon return to it after editing a specific record. It still defaults to the top of the list.

I have also tried setting the Default property, using First or Last functions with Filters, without success.

I gather that a gallery Reset function you mentioned, that is not currently available but might be in the future, might provide a solution.

In development I have found setting position on a long list to be a very common client requirement.

Thank-you

CJC

[v-micsh-msft]

Thanks for sharing the opinion, I will collect this as a feature request.

If you have any further questions, please post back.

Regards,

Michael

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Here's a solution while we wait for the behavior to be added to the control...

Capture the unique identifier of the record in the Gallery. Let's call it ID. In the OnSelect event of the Gallery, write it to a ContextVariable before any other commands:

UpdateContext({myGalPos: ThisItem.ID})

Doing it as a Context Variable means you can pass the value into the screen if you are returning to the screen after having gone to another (for instance, a Detail screen).

Next, have the Default property of the Gallery set to the record that bears that unique piece of data:

First(Filter(myDataSource, ID = myGalPos))

Now, whenever you need to reposition on the record, you can call a Reset() on the Gallery and it will locate on that record, scrolling to it as necessary.

[jbirkenhead]

Hi,

I kind of understand what you are trying to say on this, would you have some screenshots at all to show what you've done?

I have an issue where I have a list of items in screen one, where you can click into screen two to view/amend data for the item selected in screen one. However as son as a data field is amended, the position of the highlighted item in screen one moves to the top of the screen while the user is still in screen two. The user sees the details changing in screen two and it appears to them that they have saved data against the wrong item in screen one.

I think what you have suggested may be a fix I could use but can't quite get my head around it.

Appreciate any help you can throw my way on this.

Thanks.

Jason.

[Anonymous]

Hi, @jbirkenhead...

I can't find the initial project where I had to use this workaround, but I have mocked something up that hopefully has the important points.

Imagine a gallery of employees drawing from a datasource 'HR Employees'...

Each one links out to, in this case, a Detail screen, and from there to an Edit screen... but your screens could be different. What is important is how/where you put your code to make sure you find your way back to the proper item in the gallery when  you return to this screen.

Here is the OnSelect property of the gallery:

This says to first get the unique field identifying the record (in this case, 'HR Employee') and put it in a context variable, then navigate to the other screen.

(Note: I am passing the same context variable to the destination screen because there are various ways to get to the Employee Detail screen, and each path will potentially provide a different Employee... therefore I can't just point the form on the destination screen to be Employee_BrowseGallery.Selected, because that represents only one path. Instead, I have every path provide the EmployeeID context variable, and my one Employee Detail screen can serve all of the various Galleries/paths that could get the user to that screen.)

Before you leave the gallery, though, set the Default property using that same context variable you just created...

This formula uses Filter() to get the set of records from the 'HR Employees' datasource where 'HR Employee' matches the EmployeeID variable. That will only be one record, but the result of the Filter() statement is a table, so we wrap that in a First() statement to return the first record.

On my edit screen...

...I put the following code in the checkmark's "OnSelect" property:

Then, when I get back to the original screen, I use the OnVisible property to check the value of that variable. If it is true, I perform a Reset() on the Gallery:

Because I have the Default property set on the Gallery, it should end up keeping the proper entry selected and in the view.

Like I said, I think this captures the highlights. Let me know if this helps, or if you need something else clarified.

[jbirkenhead]

Hi Tim,

Excellent, thanks very much for your repsonse, much appreciated.

[jvanrossum]

You could also find out which row is selected in the gallery and then automatically go to the next row when clicking the save/next button. This saves the user some extra clicks and going back to the gallery after each action.

[RKS1]

Thanks, I was wondering in the same problem, reached here after lot of googling, this solved my problem, Thanks a lot Sir