Having a auto-increment field with PowerApps and SharePoint Online

[NigelP]

Hi

I have a SharePoint list which, of course, has an ID field which I want to copy into another field, so I can use it.

As we all know using an ID field in a SharePoint List is a no-no.

So I want to replicate the old SharePoint Designer workflow which copies the value of the ID field into another field whioch I can use for other things eg. creating and unique Project ID Concat('PRJ', 005000,MyIDField)

Is there an easy way to do this ?

I can find lots of ways to do this using SQL Server, but not too many for SharePoint Lists.

I have tried the Get Items Flow Action, but the Filter does not want to work.  I keep getting '400' error messages saying the filter is invalid.

So there must be another way eg emulate the old SharePoint Designer workflow to copy the ID field.

Thanks

Nigel

[v-yuazh-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @  NigelP,

Do you want to create a flow to save the ID field of the list in another field "MyIDField"?

I have made a test on my side, please refer to screenshot below to create the flow:

The flow would run successfully as below:

You said that you have tried the Get Items Flow Action, but the Filter does not want to work,and keep getting '400' error messages saying the filter is invalid. what are you want to filter from the items?Error 400 appears if a setting in an action of the flow doesn't function as expected. In this case, the error message contains Bad request or Not found.

You could refer to link below to learn more about troubleshooting the flow:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/flow/fix-flow-failures

Please let me know if your problem could be solved.

Regards,
Alice Zhang

[bhrigu12]

Do we need to fill all the fields in "Sharepoint-Update item" Flow or only the mandatory field i.e. Site address, List Name, Title, ID and MyIDfield...?

Like for example I ve 10 different fields, so do I need to assign all the 10 fields.

[Anonymous]

Along with the mandatory items, only fill out the ones you want changed.

[bhrigu12]

Thnx for input..!!!

[NigelP]

Hi bhrigu12

You only need to fill in the mandatory ones.

The other fields are optional.

In my case I only filled in one field.

I filled in the rest later.

I hope this helps.

Regards

Nigel

[bhrigu12]

Thanx NigelP...!!!

[bhrigu12]

Just an update NigelP n Threetan....

If you have datafield having dropdown den you need to fill the fields even if its not mandatory..!!

Otherwise the sharepoint will get updated with default values...!!

Thnx for the help...!!! 

[Anonymous]

That shouldn’t be intended behavior.

[NigelP]

Hi @v-yuazh-msft

I have conducted some more extensive testing on auto incrementing fields and have found the following :-

If Person A loads a PowerApps, the PowerApp connects to the SharePoint List and caches the list.

If Person B loads the same PowerApps, The PowerApp connects to the same SharePoint list and caches the list.

In both cases Last(SharePointList).ID give the same result.

If Person A then creates a new record and saves it, followed by Person B then Last(SharePointList).ID gives the same result as both instances of the PowerApps has cached the SharePointList..

This Results in the two records in SharePointList having the same Submission ID calculated from (Last(SharePointLIst).ID).

The only way I have found to prevent this double Submission ID is to put Refresh(SharePointList), just before the Last(SharePointList).ID.  Then everything then works.

So I suspect this may be a pitfall/bug  in PowerApps in that the Last(SharePointList) command does not actually get the last record at the time of the command, but the last one when the PowerApps was loaded and the SharePointList was cached..

Regards

Nigel

[Anonymous]

That is because Last() is a non-delegated function.  Which means that, by and large, it uses the cache rather than the source.
However, Sort() is Delegated with sharepoint...so calling, say, a desc sort on the createdon column followed by a First() should do the trick to get the most recent id.

[Anonymous]

Hello, I was able to re-create most of the flow. However when I get to the update item I can seletc the ID field in the Id field, but cannot select the ID to go into the updated field I want to return the ID field (MyIDField) as below.