Canvas application switching between technical and display name

[HFG]

Hi all, 

Does anyone know why when using Dataverse in a canvas application sometimes the code requests the technical name and sometimes the display name ?

I just spent 20 mins changing code in 101 errors because half way through development of a canvas application PowerApps decided it wanted the technical name rather than the display name which it had been suggested up until now. I work in France and it also decided that the system columns "CreatedOn", "ModifiedOn" etc should now be in English rather than the French it originally wanted. This seems to happen to me everytime I work with Dataverse in a Canvas app and I was wondering if there is something I'm doing that is triggering this change? 

Thanks

[v-qiaqi-msft]

Hi @HFG,

Actually, it is a known issue.

More precisely, this is by design.

Display names could be in other languages (French on your side, German, whatever) whereas technical names can be always and nicely kept in English in order to make working with them easier.

Display Names can't be unique. I can very well make 2 "Description" fields in the Dataverse which are named:

Display Name: Description
Logical Name: abc123_description1

Display Name: Description
Logical Name: abc123_description2

Further, for bigger apps with many fields out of many tables, however, I really do prefer the logical names out of the above-mentioned reasons.

[HFG]

Hi @v-qiaqi-msft 

Thanks for your reply. I understand the need for the technical and display names, but why does PowerApps switch between which one it requires during development ? I have been developing a canvas application for a few weeks, until now the suggested column names in the formula bar drop down (and the only ones PowerApps would accept) were the display names. Yesterday, for no apparent reason, PowerApps decided it would now only accept the technical names and all of my code, which up until now was working fine, gave errors. Is there a reason that it would suddenly decide it wants the technical names? I duplicated a screen and it was at this point that the code stopped working. 

I have also had it in other projects where is some parts of the code - ShowColumns for example - it requests the technical name and in other parts it requests the display name. It would be great to understand why or to have a standard version where it only accepts the technical name so that we don't face this issue.

This was working until yesterday when it started to throw an error : 

PowerApps now only accepts the technical version :

[v-qiaqi-msft]

Hi @HFG,

It's weird, however, as I know, Power Apps has been on updating for 2023 release Wave 2 for a period of time.

I would suggest you modify it after this update is completed.

Further, I have a test on my side and the display name works as expected, so I think Power Apps from some regions is unstable because of the 2023 release Wave 2.

[HFG]

Hi @v-qiaqi-msft 

This is something I have seen in every Dataverse project I have done since 2020...so there is no known reason why it switches between the two ?

[v-qiaqi-msft]

Hi @HFG,

Sorry, as I know, there is no official known issue like this released.

I would suggest you use the logical name instead.

[HFG]

Hi @v-qiaqi-msft , 

Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately, it's not me who decides which one to use, PowerApps suggests and will only accept one or the other. This is why my code all failed when it "changed its mind" halfway through development. 

[v-qiaqi-msft]

Hi @HFG,

I fully understand and empathize, sometimes I feel calm enough to put up with whatever happens with power apps.

However, the reality is cruel😂.

Here is another way that you could confirm this issue, you could contact our product team:

Support | Microsoft Power Apps

Contact our support team and check if it has something release but we don't know.

Good luck.

[HFG · Accepted solution]

I wanted to come back to this post and say that I have since tried using the technical names of columns in my code even when they are not proposed by PowerApps and it works. From now on I will make sure to only use the technical names to avoid any issues.