Updateif button for all gallery items

[RMDNA]

Hi all, just a couple questions about gallery interactions.

Question 1:

I have a bunch of items in a gallery from one of my collections. Each item has a button with an updateif OnSelect to update that record's status. What I'd like to do is add another button, outside the gallery, that runs the same operation for all items currently in the gallery. 

Data source is Dataverse, Gallery is galWeeklyTimeEntries, Collection is ColWeeklyTimeEntries, button OnSelect is:

UpdateIf('Project Approval', 'Time Entry'.'GUID' in ThisItem.AllGUIDs, {'Record Stage': 'Record Stage (Project Approval)'.Approved});

The gallery items are aggregations of individual entries, so the button is taking all the GUIDs for all those entries and changing their status. I thought about changing ThisItem.AllGUID to galWeeklyTimeEntries.AllGUID, but that apparently doesn't reference the individual items.

Question 2:

If that's possible, I'd also like the option to "Approve All", but only for items that have been checked via a checkbox in the gallery. Also doable?

Thanks!

[RandyHayes]

@RMDNA 

Your formula outside of the Gallery should refer to the gallery.

So:

Patch('Project Approval', 
    ForAll(galWeeklyTimeEntries.AllItems As _item,
        {'Time Entry'.'GUID':  _item.'Time Entry'.'GUID', 
         'Record Stage': 'Record Stage (Project Approval)'.Approved
        }
    )
)

If you want to do this from CheckBoxes, then the formula would be:

Patch('Project Approval', 
    ForAll(
        Filter(galWeeklyTimeEntries.AllItems, theChekbox.Value) As _item,
        {'Time Entry'.'GUID':  _item.'Time Entry'.'GUID', 
         'Record Stage': 'Record Stage (Project Approval)'.Approved
        }
    )
)

I hope this is helpful for you.

[RMDNA]

Hi @RandyHayes,

I get a few errors when trying to implement your formula:

If it helps to clarify, each gallery entry contains the (hidden) column AllGUIDs, which is a comma-separated concat of each underlying entry's GUID, so I can approve them in bulk. Let me know what other info I could provide to assist.

Gallery data (GroupBy collection):

Name	Project	AllGUIDs	Hours
Jane	Time Entry Test 1	"abcde","fghij"	20

Underlying unaggregated data:

Name	Project	GUID	Hours
Jane	Time Entry Test 1	abcde	10
Jane	Time Entry Test 1	fghij	10

[RandyHayes]

@RMDNA 

So this is vastly different...you have a Gallery that is showing grouped data and that grouped data has record you want to update.

Is this correct?  I missed that subtle point in your original post.

So what you need to do then is to ungroup the items in your formula.

This is going to take a few answers to some questions.

1) What is the items property of your Gallery?  If for some reason you have this based on a collection, what is the definition (how do you set) the collection.

2) What are the real names of your columns (specifically - Name and Record Stage)

[RMDNA]

Hi @RandyHayes, - sorry for the confusion. I don't expect you to troubleshoot my mess of code, so let me know if this requires too much of an overhaul.

I already have a button for each entry in my gallery that will update multiple underlying records at once by comparing its list of aggregated GUIDs to the individual GUIDs in my data source. That part works fine. My goal (which I suppose is more complicated than I expected) is essentially just to trigger all those buttons at once ("Approve All"), without needing to click on each of them individually. 

I'm still new to PowerApps, so I'll try to answer your questions the best I can.

1. I'm using a collection to power the gallery in an attempt to avoid the giant pile of delegation errors I was getting trying to achieve the same results using a view or the source table. I'd much rather handle the necessary aggregation upstream, but for a variety of reasons, let's assume that's off the table.

The formula is below. It takes my unaggregated time entry data (date, user name, project, task, hours, GUID) and rolls it up by day, project, total hours, and concatenated GUIDs. Almost every field in the table is a lookup (since we're dealing with Dynamics 365 data).

Spoiler

ClearCollect(
    ColWeeklyTimeEntries,
    AddColumns(
        GroupBy(
            AddColumns(
                GroupBy(
                    ShowColumns(
                        AddColumns(
                            Filter(
                                'Project Approval','Project Approval (Views)'.'Time Entries for Approval',
                                msdyn_date >= VarSelectedStartDate && msdyn_date <= VarSelectedEndDate),
                            "DateString",Text(msdyn_date,ShortDate),
                            "ResourceName",msdyn_bookableresource.Name,
                            "ProjectName",Project.'Project Name',
                            "GUID",'Time Entry'.'Time Entry'
                        ),
                        "DateString","ResourceName","ProjectName","msdyn_ProjectTask","GUID","msdyn_costquantity"
                    ),
                    "DateString","ResourceName","ProjectName","GUID","Other"
                ),
                "DayHours",Sum(Other,msdyn_costquantity),
                "ComboGUID",Concat(Other,GUID & ", ")
            ),
            "ResourceName","ProjectName","Other"
        ),
        "WeekHours",Sum(Other,DayHours),
        "AllGUID",Concat(Other,ComboGUID)
    ))

I'm curious about your wording of "If for some reason" - are using collections with galleries bad practice?

2. In the backend, 'Record Stage" is actually msdyn_recordstage, "Name" is msdyn_name (surfaced as msdyn_bookableresource.Name), and "GUID" is 'msdyn_timeentry' (surfaced as 'Time Entry'.'Time Entry'). The tables in the dataverse are system-created.

[RandyHayes · Accepted solution]

@RMDNA 

So in general, you've essentially over complicated the process.  You really don't need a collection for anything except in a scenario where you are going to need the ability to add or remove rows (an in-app database).  So your Items property can just be the formula that you are otherwise having to collect through a behavioral action.

If you use a collection, your Gallery will not be dynamic - in other words, you would need to recollect the collection in order for your Gallery to show the changes.  If you skip the collections and just use the formula straight on the Items property, your Gallery will be dynamic and reflect the changes immediately without a performance-costly recollection of all the data.  

You stated you did this to avoid delegation issues, but the reality is, your collection formula will have all the same delegation issues.  AddColumns, GroupBy and ShowColumns are not delegable no matter where you use them. The formula can be made to be delegable - but let's table that as a separate topic for the moment.

What I am seeing is that you are not embracing the records you are grouping by in "Other".  Other (as you defined it) is going to have all the records in it for the group.  So, there is no need to concat ID's together to keep track of them...they are already there.

I am not entirely clear in your formula why you are double grouping and what your real grouping needed is supposed to be.

But at any rate, your button IN the gallery for updating should be something along this line:

Patch('Project Approval',
    ForAll(ThisItem.Other As _item,
        {'Project Approval': _item.mydyn_timeentry,
         'Record Stage': 'Record Stage (Project Approval)'.Approved
        }
    )
)

Outside of the Gallery for the all items in the Gallery with a check box checked.

Patch('Project Approval',
    ForAll(Ungroup(Filter(yourGallery.AllItems, theCheckBox.Value), "Other") As _item,
        {'Project Approval': _item.mydyn_timeentry,
         'Record Stage': 'Record Stage (Project Approval)'.Approved
        }
    )
)

You will notice in the above formulas that you are actually utilizing the underlying grouped records, because those are the ones you want.  Trying to keep track of their GUID's is not relevant because they are already there.

Hopefully that makes some sense.

Keep in mind, that some of the above is theoretical because we'd really need to address that items/collection formula to make sure that you are getting what you need in the records.  I am concerned that you used "Other" in both groupby functions and that you are double grouping.  I don't believe you need to do any of that.  And certainly not dropping the columns (as you are with the ShowColumns).

[RMDNA]

@RandyHayes - to be honest, I'm not entirely clear on what I'm doing either. I'm on my second week of learning PowerApps, and I've been able to get most things to work through experimentation (and certainly luck). I'll keep working my way through the documentation and your answers. Thanks for the help! 

[RMDNA]

Hi @RandyHayes,

Taking your advice, I completely rewrote the gallery code to avoid collections and pull data directly from the table. It's much simpler now - there's no more double-grouping or column dropping, so thanks for the insights there.

The only issue I'm running into now is the Patch() formula for the Approve Selected button. I'm getting an "Invalid argument type (Table). Expecting a Record value instead" error.

Patch('Project Approval',
    ForAll(Ungroup(Filter(galWeeklyTimeEntries.AllItems, cbCheckbox.Value), "Other") As _item,
        {'Project Approval': _item.GUID,
         'Record Stage': 'Record Stage (Project Approval)'.Approved
        }
    )
)

I confirmed that the ungrouping and checkboxes are working properly - I can select boxes and have the appropriate GUIDs appear in a data table. Any ideas what the issue is?

[RandyHayes]

@RMDNA 

Which part of the formula are you seeing that on?

[RMDNA]

Somewhere in Patch, not able to tell specifically - regardless of where I hover over the formula, I get that same message.