SharePoint Form not resetting Form variable OnSave

[DuncanG]

Hi.

I am creating a simple stock control List in SharePoint, and to enhance the User experience, have customised a form with PowerApps.

The Form has two tabs which the user can either edit product details on in tab1 or alters the level of stock on in tab2. 

To adjust the stock levels The user can either type a value into a textbox, or use two buttons which set a variable during OnSelect "UpdateContext({testvalue: testvalue +1})". The Plus button sets the variable 1 above the current value in the list field 'stock level' and the Minus button to 1 below the  value in the list field 'Stock Level'.

testable is then used to populate the text value of the textbox on the form the Stock level is being edited in, which onSave, is written back out to the SharePoint list field 'Stock Level'. 

Up and until this point the form works great. I can chose an item to edit, go to tab 2, enter a value into the text box, or hit the plus or minus buttons and the value adjusts by 1 up or down. I then hit save and the new value is amended to the list.

The issue is when I now chose another item to edit and the form re-opens, As soon as I navigate to tab 2 the value in the text box for the next item's stock level immediately adjusts by the same amount set in the previous edit session. This tells me the variable testvalue has not been reset back to zero during the OnSave event.

I have gone to every property within the PowerApp that I think would be called when the form is either saving, closing hiding opening, or simply changing in any way OnSave, OnEdit, OnSuccess, OnFail etc. All of them and applied function "Set(testvalue, 0)" I even tried "Set(testvalue, Blank())". But nothing seems to reset this variable between edits, Other than forcing the entire SharePoint list to reload via function F5, which does clear out test-value.

Please help I am going mad here!

Kind regards

Duncan

[WarrenBelz]

Hi @DuncanG ,

I can share something with you from my experience with SharePoint Integration forms with multiple screens. This process as I understand it was built with one screen and one form in mind and from what I have done, once you add another screen the built-in events (OnSave, OnEdit, OnNew) do not "play nicely".

My standard solution when I really need more than one screen or form has been to run all functions as I would do in a stand-alone app from buttons/icons on the forms and tell users not to use the top controls. All has worked well so far.

Please click Accept as solution if my post helped you solve your issue. This will help others find it more readily. It also closes the item. If the content was useful in other ways, please consider giving it Thumbs Up.

[DuncanG · Accepted solution]

Hi Warren, and thanks for your idea.

So I tested your theory.

I placed a new icon on the tab2 form, and set it's OnSelect property to 'Set(testvalue,0)' I also place a label on tab2 with it's Text value set to testvalue.

What became immediately apparent is that the Set function does not alter a variable content once it exists within a active form. the UpdateContext function is what is used while a form is running to change a variable's content. So what happened initially in my test, is that when I pressed the "plus" button, is that testvalue increased by 1, and the label show the value of 1. However when I then press of the new icon, nothing happened, and the label showed testvalue was still set to 1.

So I change the OnSelect property of the icon to UpdateContext(testvalue, 0). Now when I pressed the "plus" button testvalue increased by 1, and when I pressed the icon testvalue reset to zero. So that told me using Set(testvalue, 0) during the save OnSave action was not going to do what I needed it to.

Further UpdateContext is a function that can not be run from the OnSave, OnNew and OnEdit properties of a form. So I needed another option.

As testvalue is actually Set during the OnEdit and OnNew function actions. I suspect what Sharepoint is doing, even though the form disappears between user edit items and submits by pressing save, is to actually keep the form active, and simply hides it. Thus in my case, my variable testvalue still exists and is active, which in turn means calling Set is doing nothing. So I looked at the property OnSuccess of the the main form, tab1. This is a call that happens immediately after a form is saved and the writes out to a SharePoint list field in my case report they where successful in committing. So I added to tab1' OnSuccess property the call 'UpdateContext(testvalue, 0)' .

And now the form works as intended, in that once the main SharePoint form save button is pressed, the form disappears, the value in the list updates to the correct value and when the form is reopened via the Edit action testvalue is empty and on zero.

I got there in the end, but this was a real head scratched.

[WarrenBelz]

Hi @DuncanG ,

The missing bit is that a Global variable is just that and has to be set / reset by the Set command. A context Variable is the same.

Two with the same names are actually different variables, so trying to use Set on a Context Variable will not work.

Glad you got it working.