Development Of An Information System Using Microsoft PowerApps - Part Three

Introduction

 

This is an article about the development of any type of Information System using Microsoft PowerApps. In this article, I am going to create an Information System. This concept can be used to create various Information systems like Employee Information, Student Information, Vendor Information, Seller Information, etc. For developing the Information System, it is required to design a form that will be filled by the end User in Microsoft PowerApps. The data will be saved in a Share Point List.

 

Requirements

1. Microsoft PowerApps
2. Share Point Online
3. Automate Flow

Developing this Information System requires the following steps to work out. I will segregate the steps into small parts in different articles which will make you understand every concept and will give steps to work upon.

1. Creating a Share Point List (Part 1)
2. Design a Form using Microsoft Power Apps Designer (Part 2)
3. Connect the data of the designed Form with its corresponding Sharepoint List using Microsoft PowerApps Forumale and functions (Part 3)

Connect the Data of the Designed Form with the Corresponding Sharepoint List using Microsoft

 

PowerApps Forumale and Functions

 

Step 1 - Adding Share Point List as the Data source of the Microsoft Power Apps

 

The below images will show how to connect with data sources from Microsoft Power Apps. From the Control Panel, Click on View and select Data Sources

 

 

Select Connectors

 

 

Select Share Point for the Share Point List

 

 

Choose your Share Point list

 

 

Here, it shows your data source is added.

 

 

Step 2 - Use of Power Apps functions and formulae

 

Overview of the User Information Form designed by Microsoft Power Apps Designer

 

 

In this designed form, as per the User's requirement “First Name” & “Last Name” is given in two Text Inputs and Full Name will be the combination of "First Name" & "Last Name"

 

For the below function, you can use the below function in Power Apps

 

Concatenate Function

 

The Concatenate function concatenates a mix of individual strings and it's equivalent to using the & operator Syntax

 

Syntax

 

FirstName & " " & LastName

or

Concatenate( FirstName, " ", LastName )

 

Set the "Text" property of the Label Full Name Concatenate( FirstName.Text, " ", LastName.Text)

 

 

After applying the formula of concatenate, preview the app and the result will be like the image shown below:

 

 

Formula to add data of Radio button

 

In the given Form, Gender is the Radio button

 

Syntax

 

Choices('datasource'.Radioname)

 

Set the "Item" property of the Radio (Gender) Choices('User Information Form'.Gender)

 

 

Formula to add data of Combo Box

 

In the given form, State is the Combobox

 

Syntax

 

Choices('datasource'Comboboxname)

 

Set the "Item" property of the Dropdown(State) Choices('User Information Form'.State)

 

 

To add the value of Text Input, data will be filled by the End-user and can be updated by Share Point List using Patch Function

 

Use the Patch Function in Microsoft PowerApps to Save and Update the Value

 

Patch

 

Modifies or creates one or more records in a data source, or merges records outside of a data source.

 

Syntax

 

Patch( DataSource, BaseRecord, ChangeRecord1 [, ChangeRecord2, … ])

• DataSource – Required. The data source that contains the record that you want to modify or will contain the record that you want to create.
• BaseRecord – Required. The record to modify or create. If the record came from a data source, the record is found and modified. If the result of Defaults is used, a record is created.
• ChangeRecord(s) – Required. One or more records that contain properties to modify in the BaseRecord. Change records are processed in order from the beginning of the argument list to the end, with later property values overriding earlier ones.

Set the "On Selct " property of the Submit Button and add the below formulae to update the user Input in the Share Point List.

Patch('User Information Form', Defaults('User Information Form'), {
    Title: Now(),
    FirstName: FirstName.Text,
    LastName: LastName.Text,
    FullName: Full_Name.Text,
    Gender: {
        '@odata.type': "#Microsoft.Azure.Connectors.SharePoint.SPListExpandedReference",
        Id: 0,
        Value: Gender_Radio.Selected.Value
    },
    Adress: Address_Input.Text,
    State: State_Input.Selected,
    Country: Country_Input.Text,
    'Phone Number': 'Mobile no'.Text,
    Email: email.Text,
    Password: password.Text,
    Date: DatePicker1.SelectedDate
})

The below image shows Patch Function used to update the record or data source:

 

 

Preview the app on the top right corner of the screen, fill the form.

 

 

Click the submit button to save the data in the Share Point List.

 

 

Conclusion

 

In this article, we learned how to connect the data source in Microsoft Power Apps. We understood the use of the Concatenate function and Formulae to save and update the data in a Share Point List using the Patch Function. 

 

Thank you. I hope you will enjoy the series...