THE PATCH FUNCTION KEEPS GIVING ME DIFFERENT ERRORS

[snowboi]

I am trying to use the patch function to update a column "Shelter status" from my "Animal Tables" table upon submitting a form. I keep getting the error in the image. please help.

[ZeeScience]

Hey there,

So I tried and experimented for almost 2 days on using the patch function with a form and I discovered that they are not "friends". I also noticed that Patch function works with normal labels like a Text Input label. It is able to get the .Text from the label for example if you named your text input label SnowBoi, patch works with "SnowBoi.Text". It takes that and then adds it to the record you need it to be added to. See the screenshot below, you will see that the things I circled in red are text input labels. I made it look like a form instead of using a form.

In the picture below (Patch issue solved pt 2), you can see the app screen has 2 columns. The first column is indeed an editable form that I have made some parts of it view only. On the second column is the foster information that looks like a form but it is not a form. I just arranged it to look like that and then I used patch on the text labels as you can see in the other picture of where I circled things red (Patch issue solved).

I may be wrong too on the patch not working with forms but based on all I tried for the past almost 2 days, nothing worked with the form. Hopefully a better expert than myself can add more information on how to use patch with forms.

[Rebecca-MSFT]

Patch('Animal Tables', {'Shelter Status': 'Shelter Status'.Form2.LastSubmit.(This should be the name of the column for option set i.e. the combobox)

[ZeeScience]

I see what you did there. Thank you for providing this update. I had a hard time trying to use patch on  a form and then I decided to take another approach but thank you for sending this solution

[snowboi]

@ZeeScience Looking at the part2 patch solve solution you sent, How did you get both animal information and foster family information to show up on the same edit form?

Are they separate? If so, How did you apply the patch to them?

[snowboi]

@Rebecca-MSFT 

The combobox doesn't have an "On Success" parameter. What parameter should this patch be applied to if the combobox forms part of the reference?

[Rebecca-MSFT]

Patch can go on the Form's OnSuccess property. You could also just add the combobox to your form and just use SubmitForm on the onselect property of the button.

[snowboi]

@Rebecca-MSFT 

I tried the methods above and it seems to present some issue.

I tried patching the combo box but it does not show "Last submit" as an option.

Please not that Form2 was renamed to FosterfamilyAppform which has details for the foster family information from the foster table.

When I tried to patch the foster family form it did not I could not bring up anything related to the Animals Table so that the patch could update the shelter status on the Animals Table.

What do you think I may be doing wrong?

[Corry]

Hi @snowboi,

I have setup a testing scenario to facilitate the updating of the Shelter Status.

My test scenario is as follows:

Data sources

Animal Table with 2 columns, 1 for Animal Name and another for Shelter Status.

Animal Name is the primary column and Shelter Status is a choice column with is getting the choices from a global choice set.

Model-driven app

I have a simple form with the animal name and status.

Canvas app

I have a gallery with the animal table as the data source with the animal name and status as displayed fields.

Next to the gallery is an edit form with the animal table as the data source with the animal name and status as displayed fields.

Below the edit form is a button, the OnSelect property of this button is set to SubmitForm(AnimalTableForm).

Testing 1

In my test, I change the dropdown (ComboBox) for the shelter status and the change is reflected in the gallery. This tells us that the 'Patch' method is not required to update a choice when used in this way.

Testing 2

Let's assume the Shelter Status column is not part of your canvas app edit form, but you still need to update this to "Claimed for Foster".

In my testing, I added this patch formula to the OnSelect property of the button.

Patch(
    'Animal Tables',
    LookUp(
        'Animal Tables',
        'Animal Table' = AnimalTableForm.LastSubmit.'Animal Table'
    ),
    {'Shelter Status': 'Shelter Status'.'Claimed for Foster'}
);
SubmitForm(AnimalTableForm)

This resulted in a successful patch of the Shelter Status.

Explanation
When patching in this way, it is really imported to use the correct references in the formula.

Here is how Copilot explains the formula

This expression updates the 'Shelter Status' field of a record in the 'Animal Tables' table with the value 'Claimed for Foster' for the record that matches the 'Animal Table' value of the last submitted record in the 'AnimalTableForm'. After that, it submits the changes made in the form.

Because this patch method is working with records, we need the Unique Identifier in our table as this holds the GUID specific to the last record submitted.

I will breakdown the formula.

1. Patch('Animal Tables', - This is your table where the patch method is going to occur.
2. Patch('Animal Tables',LookUp('Animal Tables', - Because we are patching to a record, we need to do a lookup within our table that we are patching to.
3. Patch('Animal Tables',LookUp('Animal Tables','Animal Table' - 'Animal Table' at the end of this part of the formula is the 'Display Name' of the 'Unique Identifier' column in the table. This is the first part of looking for the record that was last submitted.
4. Patch('Animal Tables',LookUp('Animal Tables','Animal Table' = AnimalTableForm.LastSubmit.'Animal Table'), - Now that we have the 'Display Name' of our 'Unique Identifier' column, we need to tell the 'LastSubmit' method the GUID that matches the last submitted record from the form. In this formula, I have used the Display Name of the Unique Identifier. When I place my cursor on this display name within my formula, I can see the GUID at the bottom as shown in the below image. This confirms to me that the lookup function has found the record.
5. 
6. Navigating to the table in our solution, we can also see the GUID.
7. 
8. Patch('Animal Tables',LookUp('Animal Tables','Animal Table' = AnimalTableForm.LastSubmit.'Animal Table'),{'Shelter Status': 'Shelter Status'.'Claimed for Foster'}); - Now that we have established, we can look up the record of the last submitted form, we need to set the parameters to update the Shelter Status column associated to that record. We simply define the column we are looking for, then call the column and its value.
9. Patch('Animal Tables',LookUp('Animal Tables','Animal Table' = AnimalTableForm.LastSubmit.'Animal Table'),{'Shelter Status': 'Shelter Status'.'Claimed for Foster'});SubmitForm(AnimalTableForm) - We close out the OnSelect formula with the 'SubmitForm' method to ensure the columns that are present in the canvas app edit form are updated.

I hope this was helpful in providing a little more understanding around using patch, specifically for choice columns. I think it is also time well invested in setting up simple test scenarios to see how things work.

[ZeeScience]

It is actually 2 different forms. I just edited it in such a way that it presents itself as one form