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

[ChrisBal-MSFT]

Hi @LuizVicente - this type of feedback is super helpful!  Thanks for reporting this!

We actually submitted a code fix for this today.  Based on current schedules as of today, I expect that this fix will hit all production tenants by April 10.

Please keep the feedback coming!

[LuizVicente]

What good news. I look forward to it becoming a stable feature. Thanks.

[LuizVicente]

@ChrisBal-MSFT ,

Sorry to be posting here again, but I think this is the best place.
I noticed that when using the shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+R in the new formula bar, this code refactoring message appears.

Since I didn't find this information in the documentation (and shortcuts), I wanted to know more about it.
Is this option for refactoring the code like in traditional development?

[ChrisBal-MSFT]

Hi @LuizVicente - thanks for your question.  Definitely don't hesitate to post whatever questions or comments you have here.  You're right, this isn't something that is supported today.  I've added a feature to our backlog to track  future work to supporting refactoring for Power Fx code.  In you opinion, what types of refactoring would be most useful to you?  I'm curious to understand how you would like to use this in Studio.

[LuizVicente]

Yessss!
This feature would be extremely valuable.
My suggestions:
- reduce duplication of variables, collections and formulas;
- standardize the nomenclature of variables (rename symbol and extract);
- simplify conditional logics;
- convert if to switch and vice versa;
- split and merge if statements;
- remove dead code

Thank you!

[leonsig93]

Commenting to keep track of this. I am excited to test this out, but Named Formulas hold more value for me for now. Looking forward to the two features working together!

[Bader]

Hi All

More issues that I think need to fix:

1. I cannot use my arrows in the keyboard to navigate through the bar, easily. I need to use the mouse pointer, instead.
2. In the Right-side properties, Pressing the title of the property does not shift my cursor to the command bar, as used before.
3. Choosing a function does not include a bracket, as used-to before. This makes writing a code more time-consuming.
4. To expand the bar, I need to press the Right Arrow; I cannot expand it by dragging, as used to.

[ngohw]

Hi,

It's really nice that the new formula bar is similar to popular text editors/IDEs like Visual Studio, especially with the new IntelliSense. I think the two biggest issues for me that I have now is:

1. Syntax highlighting is entirely inconsistent/different from the current formula bar -- is there no way to keep it the exact same?

2. I can't use CTRL+F to quickly find a property or variable that I've used in a formula. Some of my formula are hundreds of lines of code (not ideal, I know) -- I can use CTRL+F in the current formula bar. Any chance of adding this back in too?

Named formulas are of course another thing I'd like, but I'm sure you're well aware of this 🙂

Keep up the good work!

[robertjl]

I'll second this.  🙂 I used the new formula bar for a while this week (some cool features) but ended up switching back because I rely on 'Find and replace' a lot.