Mastering Pagination in Power Apps: Boosting Performance and User Experience

[gcmfaizan]

Benefits of Pagination:

1. Enhanced User Experience: Describe how pagination prevents overwhelming users with a large amount of data at once, making it easier for them to navigate and find the information they need.

2. Faster Load Times: Explain how loading a limited number of records at a time reduces initial load times, ensuring a smoother and quicker app experience.

3. Reduced Resource Consumption: Discuss how pagination conserves device resources and network bandwidth by fetching only the necessary data, leading to efficient app performance.

4. Scalability: Highlight how pagination allows apps to scale efficiently, accommodating even larger datasets without compromising performance.

5. Consistency: Mention how pagination maintains a consistent user interface, making it easier for users to understand and interact with the app.

Introducing the Pagination Component Library

To make pagination implementation even more convenient, I've developed a Pagination Component Library. Follow these steps to import and use the library in your Power Apps environment.

Step 1: Import the Pagination Component Library

1. Download the Component: Download the Pagination Component Library package from the provided source.

2. Import Solution:

   • In the "Solutions" tab, you'll see a button labeled "Import."
   • Click on the "Import" button to initiate the solution import process.
   • Click "Browse" or "Choose File" to select the solution file from your local storage.
   • Click the "Next" or "Import" button to begin the import process.

3. Import the Component:

   • In Power Apps, open the app you're working on or create a new app.
   • Go to the "Insert" tab on the left navigation menu.
   • Click the "+" icon to expand the options, and select "Get more components."
   • Select ComponentPagination from all listed components.
   • Click the "Import" button.

Step 2: Configure the Pagination Component

1. Place the Component on the Screen:

   • Edit the app or create a new screen.
   • Add the Pagination Component to the screen by selecting it from the "Library Components" tab.

2. Set Inputs:

   • With the component selected, navigate to the "Properties" pane on the right.
   • Locate the input fields, such as "FilterQuery."
   • Enter your desired filter query in the "FilterQuery" property to specify the data you want to paginate.

Step 3: Implement Pagination in Your Gallery

1. Add a Gallery:

   • On the same screen, add a gallery to display paginated data. This could be a list or table.

2. Configure Gallery Height:

   • In the "Properties" pane, find the "Height" property of the gallery.
   • Enter a formula to calculate the number of lines that fit within the gallery's height. For example:

RoundDown(YourGalleryName.Height / YourGalleryName.TemplateHeight, 0)​

• Set Gallery Item Property:

  • In the "Item" property of the gallery, use the formula:

PaginationComponent.ReturnFilterQuery​

Conclusion

With the Pagination Component Library, implementing pagination in your Power Apps becomes a breeze. This enhances your app's performance, user experience, and scalability. Now, users can navigate through large datasets seamlessly without compromising app speed.

By following these steps, you'll be able to utilize the power of pagination in Power Apps, delivering a smoother and more efficient experience for your app users.

Regards,
Muhammad Faizan

PaginationComponent_1_0_0_1.zip

[Bluenose]

@gcmfaizan I'm a little confused about how to configure this component, particularly with thr FilterQuery property. Can you please provide me with an example of how I could configure it?

Also, is there a way that I could use differnet colors for the buttons and text?

Many thanks.

Paddy

[gcmfaizan]

@Bluenose for example you want to filter the records from the Product table where the Product name is Pen, so your filter query looks like:

Filter(Products, 'Product Name' = "Pen")

just right this filter query in FilterQuery Property. If you don't want to filter anything then Just write your table name there. 
As this component allows you to edit, so you can change the colors directly.

Kind Regards,

[Bluenose]

@gcmfaizan Thanks for your response.

Can you only filter Tables and not SharePoint Lists or Collections?

Best regards,

Paddy

[gcmfaizan]

@Bluenose you can do with any data source.

Kind Regards,
Muhammad

[oladimejishodip]

Hi, 

I have a little challenge similar to pagination. I have two tables that I am trying to link together in power app, there is a parent table which has roughly 10K rows, and the child table which has roughly 300K. I want to summarize the child table based on distinct rows in the parent table. I got this right but it slows down the performance. I thought pagination may be helpful, but alongside  we have three controls at the top of gallery to filter the entire parent table.

[gcmfaizan]

Hi @oladimejishodip,

Defiantly pagination is a way to overcome this type of problem, but after all we have to keep in mind the limitation of PowerApps, as Power Apps has a delegation limit for data sources. If your data source supports delegation (like SharePoint or Dataverse), make sure your queries are delegable. Filtering and summarizing data in a way that is delegable will significantly improve performance. Try to push as much processing as possible to the data source rather than processing in-memory in Power Apps.

Please give a 👍 ThumbUp

Kind Regards,
Muhammad Faizan

[oladimejishodip]

Thank you, Muhammad

[adedapo]

Hi @gcmfaizan,

I'm glad you are working on a component for pagination because it will help many developers solve delegation/performance issues, especially with SharePoint.

But I have a couple of notes on this guide and the component itself.

1. With how the component is built, you have to edit it in the app and provide a table that matches the schema of the list/table the user would like to test with. For example, if I want to test with an SP list named Products, I have to edit the component and update the FilterQuery property... 

Table(First(Products))​

This is not clearly explained in the guide. 

• Also, the "Configure Gallery Height section" should refer to the NumberOfLinesInGallery property of the component. As it is, the guide makes it seem like the formula should be applied to the gallery's height property, which is confusing.
• The component itself, does not really have the benefits 2,3 and 4. Since custom pagination is supposed to help solve issues where a lack of delegation support and other factors mean that the default pagination functionality is lost. The way the component currently works now, the user is limited to the data row limit, of which the maximum is 2000. So how does the user get the next 2000+ records? Also, the user is now forced to download 2000 records at a time, as opposed to the default 100 items per page, which directly goes against benefits 2 and 3. Note that your component is only "navigating" through the items that has already been downloaded and in memory. True pagination should be able to download items in pages of 100 items or any custom page size. The user can then continue to page through the data and go beyond the 2000 limit page by page.

[pradiptanayak1]

I am getting error when try set the Height of the Galley to 

RoundDown(YourGalleryName.Height / YourGalleryName.TemplateHeight, 0)​

I am also confused how we can set the height of the Galley by self-height ?