New Power FX formula bar

[LuizVicente]

Hey guys.
I've been testing the new formula bar and it looks great.
However, I noticed that when we define formulas in the Formulas property, the app automatically removes them when selecting a screen or selecting another App property.
Following information:

- version:

Steps to recreate:
1 - Enable Named Formulas;

2 - Enable new Power FX formula bar
3 - Add formula in Formula property
3 - Select screen or other property

[akshar24MSFT]

We have improved syntax highlighting and made it consistent with the old formula bar. I would bring up about ctrl + f with the team and we would take care of it. Note that find + replace is there but not accessible through ctrl + f. However, you can use F3 to access the find and replace widget. Give it a try and let me know if it doesn't work

[wtrester1]

So I gave the new FX Formula Bar a go and after a day of struggling I had to switch it back.

I loved the IntelliSense and error visibility.

My biggest struggle and frustration are with expand/collapse.  I like the button at the bottom that would expand/collapse the bar.  But I hated that I had to constantly mouse right to click the arrow/caret to trigger the expand to make it the area workable to begin with.  In the past I would hover arrow to drag the bar down enough to work within.  A single line (IMO) in most cases is not enough room.  The arrow/caret location is not efficient in the workflow.  This could be specific to me with the widescreen monitor.  I'm still waiting for the ability to dock/undock and place the formula bar where we want it.  But in the mean time I would like to see the formula bar default when clicked (on focus) into a few more visible lines (4 or 5) - the state when I click the arrow/caret works.  Then if I need more, click the Expand button if more is required.  And when clicked out of the formula bar it falls back to the single line in its default state.  This makes the developer more efficient with less travel to the outer edge of the screen only to return back to the center.

Thanks for reading my rant - keep up the great work!

[akshar24MSFT]

Hi @wtrester1 

Thank you for trying out the new formula bar and sorry to hear about the bad experience you had and happy to hear about that you liked new intellisense and error highlighting. We are aware of this pain point around resizing/expanding/collapsing formula bar and we have it in our plans to add this back. We have also showcased full screen editor a couple of times which is also in our plans. Let me know of any other pain points that made you switch back and I'd be happy to bring up this with the right team.

[ngohw]

This works better, thanks - another suggestion I have is in the present formula bar, when you click on a property it opens that property in the formula bar and you can start typing immediately. In the experimental formula bar, you have to manually click on the formula bar first to start typing, rather than it happening automatically.

While this is only an additional click it can disrupt workflows especially when going back and forth between properties.

Is it possible to bring this back as well? Thanks again 🙂

[akshar24MSFT]

We have fixed ctrl + f and ctrl + h key bindings and it would soon roll out. Find and replace widgets should soon be accessible through ctrl + h and ctrl + f. 

@ngohw Thank you for the feedback. We are aware of this issue and we would take care of this. Let me know if you have any other feedback

[ngohw]

Another suggestion of improvement, doing line breaks with enter selects the first IntelliSense option rather than doing a line break - this is especially annoying when you're declaring multiple context variables within the same function call. Is it possible to change the hotkey for quick selecting to Tab as is the case in other IDEs, and keeping enter to be exclusively line breaks? It's another functionality that actually impacts workflows rather than improves it. Thanks 🙂

[akshar24MSFT]

Hi @ngohw ,

Can you record the behavior and reply back here? A gif also works. Hard to visualize the problem you are facing.

Also thanks for bringing up the point around formula bar automatically going into editable mode. We have fixed that and the fix would roll out in a normal roll out cycle. Feel free to send any additional feedback you might have my way. 

[ngohw]

Hi, it's difficult for me to record as the projects I'm currently on all feature confidential data -- essentially if you're working inside a function that has multiple parameters, such as Filter or LookUp, after writing one parameter e.g. data source I typically like to do a line break with ENTER as that helps with code visibility and aligns with code formatting guidelines.

But if I'm typing inside a function, IntelliSense will always suggest parameters I may want; while this feature is useful, if I press ENTER to do a line break it'll instead select the first suggested parameter inside IntelliSense. This is vastly different from Visual Studio Code, where you use TAB to select the suggested IntelliSense parameter instead.

So more often or not, due to muscle memory, I have to go back and delete the wrongly selected parameter, since I just wanted a line break rather than an IntelliSense parameter. This disrupts my workflow significantly, and I'm sure anyone else who usually works inside an IDE or text editor like Visual Studio Code.

My suggested fix is to make it similar to VS Code where IntelliSense suggestions are only selectable by using TAB key as that is intentional and not used by other frequently used functionality.

[ngohw]

As for the auto editable change, that fix has not rolled out to me just yet, but I'll let you know when it happens 🙂

EDIT: Never mind, just got it -- seems like I need to click on the formula bar once and then it'll happen from then onwards in the Studio session. If this is a compromise required, I've got no issue with it!

[LuizVicente]

I agree with you.
Just to add my suggestion on this subject, they could make both options configurable (like in VS Code), so those who like these features wouldn't be left without.