Unsaved Text Field Warning Doesn't Disappear When You Delete Changes

[PowerAppsHori]

For each field a user can edit, I have added a yellow triangle to signify that field has been changed and needs to be saved. At the top of the form, I have a warning text label that says to "Please Save Changes" if it sees that any of my forms are Unsaved. For dropdowns, date fields and checkboxes, the warning at the top of the form and the yellow triangles works flawlessly. If I change them, the warnings appear. If I remove my changes, the warnings disappear.

However, for Text fields it's a different story. In the card of a Text field, I've added a yellow triangle with the Fill property showing this:

If (Parent.Default = DataCardValue1.Text,

RGBA(0,0,0,0),

RGBA(212,175, 55,1)

)

Where the other fields work as expected, the Text fields are not. 

• If the Text field starts blank, and I add text in it, the triangle and the warning appear. If I delete the text, the triangle and warning remain.
• If a text field had already contained text, and I make a change, the triangle and warning appear. If I remove those changes to the original text in the field, the triangle and warning disappear.

This only seems to affect text fields that are originally blank, added to, then made blank again. I've tried adding additional code to the Fill property comparing if the fields are blank. That seems to work but only on a visual level. The warning at the top of the page still remains since for some reason something behind the scenes thinks the form is Unsaved. 

Can someone help me here? 

[RusselThomas]

Hi @PowerAppsHori ,

I think the behaviour you're experiencing is related to the difference between null or Blank() and an empty string.

A "not yet populated" field in the source would be null, reflected as Blank().

Blank() is an oddity in that it doesn't have a data type - it's just Blank().

With the text input, if the source is Blank() the text input starts out as Blank() - but as soon as you enter something into the text field the changed value becomes a non-blank text type with whatever you've entered.  If you backspace or delete what you've entered then it's an empty string, which is still a non-blank text type.  The reason your condition fails after something has been entered and removed is that you're testing for a Blank(), when in fact it's an empty string.

Sounds confusing, but hopefully this will help explain it;

Blank() = null
"" = empty string
null <> empty string
Blank() <> ""

So the question really is - do you want people to be able to save empty values back to your source - and if so, do you want them to be nulls or empty strings?

For now, because it's easier, let's assume that if the source is null/Blank() and if I enter and then remove text in the input, then we just reset the input back to it's default, which is Blank().  We do this to avoid saving empty strings back to the source when they're already Blank() in the source - it's just more efficient.

In terms of logic, instead of trying to test whether "" = Blank(), (which is false), we test the length of both.  The Blank() source will be 0, and if the text input length is 0 then we know the user has entered and then cleared text in the text input. We know this because the text input is Blank() until someone types something in there.

If it's Blank() like the source, then the condition hasn't changed and your warning won't appear.

Try this - on the text input OnChange: property, add the following;

If (Len(Parent.Default)=0 && Len(DataCardValue1.Text)=0, Reset(Self))

Hope this helps,

RT

[PowerAppsHori]

Thank you for the response! I added that code to the OnChange property of the text field, and both the icon and the warning message remain even after I delete the text I input. 

But that feels SO close to the solution!! Is there something else we can explore?

[PowerAppsHori]

Ok upon further testing, I feel like we're so close! So this is what's happening. If I enter the code in the OnChange property, it works partially. Here are the two scenarios where the code works and where it doesn't:

• Code Works: If I enter text in the field, click out of it, click back into it and then delete the text IT WORKS. But I have to exit the text field and return.
• Code Doesn't Work: If I enter text, but backspace all the way before exiting the text field, it DOESN'T WORK. This will remove the yellow triangle but not the warning at the top of the screen.

Anything else I can do here to finalize this? Again this feels so close. Thanks so much!!

[RusselThomas]

Hi @PowerAppsHori ,

Ok, so you also need to update your icon color properties to use the same logic.

Normally I'd use the Visible: property to show and hide them, as this ensures you don't have interactions with icons that you can't see but are still actually "there" - but if you're happy with using the color to hide them that's fine too. 

Color: property might then look something like this;

If(DataCardValue1.Text = Parent.Default, Transparent, 
   //values are the same, don't show
   
   Len(DataCardValue1.Text)=0 && Len(Parent.Default)=0, Transparent, 
   //original is Blank() and input has been edited and cleared so is now empty string, 
   //so don't show
   
   RGBA(212,175, 55,1)) 
   //otherwise they're different, so show

If you want to use to the Visible: property instead, you can add set it to this;

If(DataCardValue1.Text = Parent.Default, false, 
   //values are the same, don't show
   
   Len(DataCardValue1.Text)=0 && Len(Parent.Default)=0, false, 
   //original is Blank() and input has been edited and cleared so is now empty string, 
   //so don't show
   
   true) 
   //otherwise they're different, so show

That should work for your icons, but if you have a single warning message for the whole form that is based on something else like Updates or Unsaved, it might be a little trickier....what is the warning message formula and is it on the Color: property or the Visible: property of the label?

Kind regards,

RT

[PowerAppsHori]

---

That should work for your icons, but if you have a single warning message for the whole form that is based on something else like Updates or Unsaved, it might be a little trickier....what is the warning message formula and is it on the Color: property or the Visible: property of the label?

---

Ya the icon works fine now (thanks to you!), it's the overall warning at the top of the app I'm struggling with now. I check if Form1.Unsaved in the visible property of the text field. Basically just: If(Form1.Unsaved, true, false). If it feels the form has anything unsaved, it shows the warning message that something that been changed and unsaved. 

So with your method, I can get the icon to disappear just fine. I can even get the message to disappear if I click out of the text field, then click back in and delete the text at that point. However, if I enter text and delete it without exiting the text field first or at all, the warning message never disappears.

Any ideas?

[RusselThomas]

Hi @PowerAppsHori ,

Unfortunately, you can only evaluate the text field using the OnChange: event, which only fires after you've moved off the control.  Because Unsaved is linked to the Update: property of the card, and that in turn is linked to the default control in the card, changing this might be difficult.

It might be possible to create other controls that can be referenced as data is entered, but I'm not convinced the benefit will outweigh the effort...

Kind regards,

RT

[PowerAppsHori]

Do you have any recommendations? 

May app is meant to track large multi-year projects. So over 10 forms there's maybe 200+ fields of information. Being able to help the user know they've made changes and where they made changes as they hop and scroll around the app would be extremely valuable from a user experience standpoint. But having the potential for false positives would be confusing and a bad user experience.

If you have any recommendations on how I can go about this any other way, I'm all ears. Thanks so much for your help so far!

[RusselThomas]

Hi @PowerAppsHori ,

Maybe if you can share some of the user experience in screenshots it might help?

On the face of it though, how big a problem is this? (Not showing changes unless they've moved off an input field that is?)

In theory, navigating from page to page automatically moves focus, so that shouldn't be too much of an issue.

It might help to have a summary page of items that need saving - or make sure they can't move off the page unless they've saved changes - but I'm guessing, only you know how big a deal it is or how best to support the user experience, so perhaps if you can share some it we can explore some options...?

Kind regards,

RT

[PowerAppsHori]

I can't share screenshots since it contains sensitive work information. That said, here's how the app works:

• It contains 9 forms each representing a phase in a project that spans 3-5 years
• Each form contains a dozen to 80+ fields
• The gallery lists each project

The user experience is straight forward:

• There's a gallery on the left side of the screen listing each project
• There's a dropdown at the top where you select a phase of a project and will make that corresponding form appear
• A user selects the project, the phase and enter their information
• Once done, they click save to finish

Since PowerApps doesn't block someone from selecting another project without losing progress, I'm trying to put those in place myself. To make sure a user knows there's unsaved information and to make sure they don't lose their progress, I've implemented the following:

• I disable the gallery until Unsaved changes are saved
• I have a list of which forms have been affected. So if you made a change in form 3, 5 and 7, the list will say there are unsaved changes in form 3, 5 and 7
• I disable all other buttons that may confuse a user or potentially trigger the selection of another project
• I enable and highlight the save button
• I enable and highlight a Reset Fields button which resets all the forms if they want to undo what they did
• I change the color of each field affected so the user know which fields they altered in case they want to delete their changes (which is the main issue in this thread)

That last bullet point is where I'm struggling to make sure the user experience isn't confusing. The dropdown, calendar and checkbox fields work as expected. It's the text input fields that do not.

Considering how many text fields are in the form, it would be a weird experience if someone clicked into a text field, typed in it, realized they were filling in the wrong one halfway through, deleted it but the application is still saying they have unsaved changes. They'd wonder where the information they entered was but there'd be no fields signifying they've been changed. So this is what I'm trying to avoid if I can help it. The setup is like 95% there, I just would like to plug this last 5% to make sure I don't get emails and questions wondering why it keeps telling them they've made a change they already deleted.