Updating a SP list with text inputs based on dropdown selection

[remyrat]

Hello,

I am building what is essentially a survey app. Employees will select their name from a dropdown list and then answer several questions in text boxes. When they click 'submit' I would like their responses to be updated in the Sharepoint list that already contains the list of employee names. In fact, this is where the dropdown selections are pulling from. However, I'm new to all things Power Apps and I'm not sure how to tie the text field responses to the name selection in the drop down. So far, I've used the Patch function to push the text inputs into the SP list, but they aren't being recorded on the row for that employee. Here's the Patch function I'm using, and there will be more columns to be updated in the future.

Patch('Professional Development Responses',Defaults('Professional Development Responses'),
{PersonalPurpose:PersonalPurpose.Text}, {Strengths:Strengths.Text})

So, when Bob selects his name in the dropdown, when he clicks submit, Bob's row should be updated rather than a new row being created.

I know I could make the dropdown a text field, but I want to be able to control the names that are available.

Any suggestions?

Thank you!

[TheRobRush]

Is the source of this dropdown the list? Like it is pulling the names from there that are on the dropdown? If not, you should start with that. then make your patch something like this (syntax may be slightly off don't knwo exact layout of your info but should get you started in right direction at the least)

Patch('Professional Development Responses',
ID=yourdropdownsname.selected.ID,
Defaults('Professional Development Responses'),
{PersonalPurpose:PersonalPurpose.Text, Strengths:Strengths.Text})

[remyrat]

Hello,

Yes, the dropdown is pulling the names from the Sharepoint list. 

So here is what I put:

Patch('Professional Development Responses',
ID=NameSelect.selected.ID,
Defaults('Professional Development Responses'),
{PersonalPurpose:PersonalPurpose.Text, Strengths:Strengths.Text})

Where NameSelect is the name of my dropdown. However, this still is not working. The error says it does not recognize ID or .selected.ID

Some more information:

The EmployeeName column that the dropdown pulls from is a text data type. I hid the mandatory 'Title' Column. 

Thanks for your help!

[TheRobRush]

Apologies, try this

Patch(
     'Professional Development Responses',
          {
            ID:NameSelect.Selected.ID, 
            PersonalPurpose:PersonalPurpose.Text, 
            Strengths:Strengths.Text
          }
)

I don't use dropdowns much anymore and made a mistake on first one haha

[remyrat]

Hi, 

Thanks for your help. I tried as written and it didn't work. Then I updated it to this:

Patch(
'Professional Development Responses',
{
EmployeeName:NameSelect.Selected.EmployeeName,
PersonalPurpose:PersonalPurpose.Text,
Strengths:Strengths.Text
}
)

But this just creates a new item in the list rather than updating the existing row. I am wondering if I need to use a filter function somehow, but can't quite figure this out.

[TheRobRush]

The ID part is required to update it instead of just write a new one. ID is a default column and is always there in sharepoint so you must be doing soemthing incorrect if its giving you an error. I set the last code i shared with you up in an app before sending you it so i know for sure it works. Send a picture of the

Patch(
     'Professional Development Responses',
          {
            ID:NameSelect.Selected.ID, 
            PersonalPurpose:PersonalPurpose.Text, 
            Strengths:Strengths.Text
          }
)

put that in your button, then send a screenshot while hovering over your error so we can see what it is doing, and also of your datasource that the dropdown is pulling from, and the properties of your dropdown list, so we can see what your situation is

[remyrat]

First, here is the dropdown list:

And here is the error:

The Sharepoint list is very simple right now, and just looks like this:

The NamePerson field is for the Person datatype; for some reason I can't use it as a source for the dropdown.

Thanks for your help! 

[TheRobRush]

put a label on your screen and set it to NameSelected.Selected.ID and see what it returns

[remyrat]

This also returns an error; it says 'ID isn't recognized'.

[TheRobRush · Accepted solution]

I thought that might be the case.  Since ID is always available in a sharepoint list your dropdown must be set up incorrectly.  put a new dropdown in, set its items to whatever the SharePoint lists name is (one shown in picture with employee1 as a name) then on the right

for value look on your list of options and select     Name    (The column in your image that contains Employee1). if Name is not there, go to your list, in top right click gear, thenm list settings, then look for the Name column click on it, and see what the last word in your browsers web address is, because your column might be named one thing and referencing another like so

then drop a new label down and make its text the name of the new dropdown.Selected.ID