Featured
Featured
Choose an appropriate record source for gallery items
For this video, I compared speed and usability for three options.
Using a collection for the items in a gallery.
Using a named formula for the items in a gallery.
Using the source table directly for the items in a gallery.
I came to a somewhat unexpected conclusion. In this video I offer some guidelines to help you choose between Collections, Named Formulas and Tables for Gallery Items.
Let me know in the comments if you agree or disagree.
This is a companion video to "Load 300,000 Records into a PowerApps Application?"
Links to downloads:
https://www.gpcdata.com/downloads/Employees2K7.zip
https://www.gpcdata.com/downloads/Employeesbacpac.zip
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Immediate or Deferred Search Execution -- It's Your Application, Your Choice
Should you kick off searches as soon as a user selects one search parameter, or should you defer searches until all search parameters have been selected?
Should the search be automatic or under the control of the user?
I show you how to implement each strategy. You choose the right one for your application.
If you can't connect to the internet, how do you create an online, searchable database for a research library?
The LTF Searchable Catalog is a full-featured app which can be supplemented with an Access desktop interface. Because of the unique environment and restrictions in the LTF museum, the interface must run on a cellular-enabled device, i.e. a tablet or smart phone.
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The Importance of Classic Client Server Design for PowerApps application
PowerApps offers a lot of tools to filter, search and sort records, some of which are not natively available in Access. It turns out, however, that good design is the same in both environments. Ignore that at your own peril.
Let my experience be a lesson.
Some of the code used is available as a PDF at:
https://www.gpcdata.com/downloads/ParameterizedCollection.pdf
The code is too long to paste here in the description.
If you can't connect to the internet, how do you create an online, searchable database for a research library?
The LTF Searchable Catalog is a full-featured app which can be supplemented with an Access desktop interface. Because of the unique environment and restrictions in the LTF museum, the interface must run on a cellular-enabled device, i.e. a tablet or smart phone.
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Create Named Formulas to Improve PowerApps Performance
Named Formulas are a nod in the direction of reusable code as well as offering performance improvements. Let's see how to create and use them.
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PowerApps application Load Speed Formulas over Collections
A short demo of load time achieved by using Named Formulas
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300,000 Records in a PowerApps Collection? Sure, but it's not a great idea.
PowerApps has a delegation limit of 500 to 2000 records at a time. What happens, then, if your record source contains 10s of thousands or even 100s of thousands of records? Can you put them in a collection and avoid that limit?
Let's find out.
Links to downloads:
https://www.gpcdata.com/downloads/Employees2K7.zip
https://www.gpcdata.com/downloads/Employeesbacpac.zip
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How to Create and Run Reusable PowerApps Code
As Access developers, we're used to calling Procedures from multiple places in our code. PowerApps, on the other hand, doesn't directly support code reuse. Here's a work-around to overcome that limitation.
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Let Users Know How Many Records are in a Gallery's full recordset
PowerApps galleries load records in chunks of 100, so a user is left wondering, "Is that everything?"
When Delegation Limits also come into play, the problem can be even more difficult. If the gallery contains exactly 500, or 2,000 records, is that all there are, or is that a result of delegation?
I solved the dilemma with a PowerApps flow and a Stored Procedure in SQL Server.
Here's the SQL from the Stored Proc. The rest of the code is revealed in the video.
USE [NameOfYourDatabaseGoesHere]
GO
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
CREATE OR ALTER PROCEDURE [dbo].[RecordCount]
@SearchTerm varchar(10) = ''
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @Recordcount int
SELECT @Recordcount = count(*) FROM dbo.Employees
WHERE LastName like '%' + @SearchTerm + '%'
OR FirstName like '%' + @SearchTerm + '%'
RETURN @Recordcount
END
GO
Links to downloads:
https://www.gpcdata.com/downloads/Employees2K7.zip
https://www.gpcdata.com/downloads/Employeesbacpac.zip
4
views
Choose an appropriate record source for gallery items
For this video, I compared speed and usability for three options.
Using a collection for the items in a gallery.
Using a named formula for the items in a gallery.
Using the source table directly for the items in a gallery.
I came to a somewhat unexpected conclusion. In this video I offer some guidelines to help you choose between Collections, Named Formulas and Tables for Gallery Items.
Let me know in the comments if you agree or disagree.
This is a companion video to "Load 300,000 Records into a PowerApps Application?"
Links to downloads:
https://www.gpcdata.com/downloads/Employees2K7.zip
https://www.gpcdata.com/downloads/Employeesbacpac.zip
11
views
PowerApps Named Formulas, Public Constant
Access developers can use Public Constants and Public Enums to enrich their functions and procedures. There are several advantages, including readability and consistency and consolidating definitions in a single location.
In PowerApps, app level Formulas perform most of those same roles and enhance a PowerApps application in the same ways.
I show you how.
Link to a video demonstrating user controlled defaults. https://youtu.be/OnUKMRFurgA
If you can't connect to the internet, how do you create an online, searchable database for a research library?
The LTF Searchable Catalog is a full-featured app which can be supplemented with an Access desktop interface. Because of the unique environment and restrictions in the LTF museum, the interface must run on a cellular-enabled device, i.e. a tablet or smart phone.
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Functional Roles for List and Detail Views in PowerAppss
Deploy a smart interface: separate roles for List and Detail views.
In Part 5 you review the most effective and performant way to display data to users and also offer them a way to edit that data as required.
The initial list of records, or items, is read-only and formatted for presentation. To modify one of those items, a good interface also provides a detail screen in which all data points are open for edits. Compare this interface in a browser-based app to those you've created in Access.
List views are read-only for quicker display. Detail views are editable.
If you can't connect to the internet, how do you create an online, searchable database for a research library?
The LTF Searchable Catalog is a full-featured app which can be supplemented with an Access desktop interface. Because of the unique environment and restrictions in the LTF museum, the interface must run on a cellular-enabled device, i.e. a tablet or smart phone.
4
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Leverage SQL Server Views in PowerApps
Leveraging the greater power of the SQL Server database engine
In Part 4 you learn how to use the greater data logic and data manipulation power of the SQL Server engine to shape data for display in an interface. Although this example is relatively simple, it illustrates the principle that you should try to use the SQL Server (or other database engine) to perform data logic tasks whenever possible. Save the interface resources for tasks related to displaying the information.
I explain the design of the view which is used to populate a collection in the PowerApps application and explain why it's a better solution than doing the data lookup and concatenation directly in the interface.
If you can't connect to the internet, how do you create an online, searchable database for a research library?
The LTF Searchable Catalog is a full-featured app which can be supplemented with an Access desktop interface. Because of the unique environment and restrictions in the LTF museum, the interface must run on a cellular-enabled device, i.e. a tablet or smart phone.
16
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Display Many-to-Many Relationships in a PowerApps Screen
Displaying related records in a gallery and sub-galleries
In Part 3, you learn how to recognize many-to-many relationships in a relational database. You also learn how to display the related records in the PowerApps interface. The records in one table populate a gallery. The records in the related table populate embedded sub-galleries in that main gallery. I show you how to set up the sub-galleries and return the records needed to populate them.
I also show you how to create in-memory, temporary tables, or Collections, in PowerApps to minimize the number of times your application has to ask the database for those records. This technique is especially valuable for recordsets larger than the delegation limit in PowerApps.
If you can't connect to the internet, how do you create an online, searchable database for a research library?
The LTF Searchable Catalog is a full-featured app which can be supplemented with an Access desktop interface. Because of the unique environment and restrictions in the LTF museum, the interface must run on a cellular-enabled device, i.e. a tablet or smart phone.
Other Videos on Sub-galleries and retrieving large recordsets into collections.
Retrieving 10,000 records in PowerApps: https://studio.youtube.com/video/qlJAJeo7yDM/analytics/tab-overview/period-default
Mike's Mobile Library -- One-to-Many Records Using Nested Gallaries:
https://youtu.be/0I7LllbROT0
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One Record at a Time, Basic PowerApps Filtering and Searching
Searching and Filtering items in a gallery. Load one record at a time.
In Part 2, you get to look at the techniques I used to filter nearly 2,000 records to load and display the minimum number of records possible.
If you can't connect to the internet, how do you create an online, searchable database for a research library?
The LTF Searchable Catalog is a full-featured app which can be supplemented with an Access desktop interface. Because of the unique environment and restrictions in the LTF museum, the interface must run on a cellular-enabled device, i.e. a tablet or smart phone.
Other Videos on Filtering and Searching:
Mike's Mobile Library -- Filter Items in the Publications Gallery -- https://youtu.be/cxevCxStJPs
Mike's Mobile Library -- Setting Up Filters for A Gallery - Layout -- https://studio.youtube.com/video/XQWsw7xgZA8/edit
My Hybrid Shopping List -- Filtering, Searching and Sorting PowerApps Collections -- https://studio.youtube.com/video/da_a_VlZOOY/edit
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Helping the Lander Trail Foundation Catalog Create their Online Searchable Database in PowerApps
What the the Lander Trail Foundation is and why I helped them create on-line searchable catalog of books.
If you can't connect to the internet, how do you create an online, searchable database for a research library? This video is the kick-off for a series explaining the why, what and how of the LTF Catalog in PowerApps.
I explain the goal of the Lander Trail Foundation Searchable Database project and the limitations imposed by the environment which made PowerApps with a hosted SQL Server database the right choice. (Hint, "online" means a connection to the internet.)
The LTF Searchable Catalog is a full-featured application which is supplemented with an Access desktop interface for back end reporting and analysis.
Because of the unique environment and certain restrictions in the LTF museum, the interface must run on a cellular-enabled device, i.e. a tablet or smart phone.
In Part 2, I'll demo elements of the application in action, and start previewing the methods and techniques required to make it work effectively. Many of the design principles and techniques are based on lessons I've learned over a 20+ year career creating Access desktop database applications.
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Click, Point, Count, Save -- A More Detailed Review of Scanning SKU Codes for Northwind Stock Take
The Northwind 2.0 Developer Edition template showcases major features of Access; it is not designed to run a company nor show you how to build such an application.
Northwind is a fictitious trading company whose customers are independent grocery stores.
Managing Inventory is critical. Regular Stock Take events ensure Northwind always knows how much inventory they have available to sell.
Bar codes scanners allow Stock Takers to scan SKU codes on Products and count inventory on hand in a warehouse or other location, with or without an internet connection.
Both Model-Driven and Canvas Apps now support offline mode, but Canvas Apps must be in a solution in order to be configured to do so. The PowerApps app in this video is a Model-Driven app.
This presentation walks through Stock Take Initialization in the Access interface. Then it drills in on three features in the PowerApps interface for more detailed review.
Northwind Developer Edition Documentation:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/northwind-2-0-developer-edition-32eb79d2-bede-4ea4-b575-0714ca8dc1e2
Table of Contents:
00:00 - Scanning SKU Codes for Northwind stock take
00:36 - This will be a deeper look at the functions and code
00:49 - Three Features called out for special attention
00:56 - StockTakeScan - The Dataverse "bridge" table
01:02 - Denormalized version of StockTake table
01:09 - Temporary "Bridge" Table transfers data between two interfaces
01:27 - Initialize stock take in the Access interface
02:03 - Containers for flexible layout of PowerApps interfaces
02:30 - The barcode scanner is the "Star of the Show"
02:44 - Stock take is a System Admin Function
03:05 - Prevent Orders and Purchase Orders during stock take
03:25 - Close Orders for Stock Take command button code
04:10 - Live Data from Dataverse displayed in subform
04:30 - Step through Procedure
05:05 - Run a query to add new products to StockTakeScan
05:18 - Also calculate Expected Quantity
05:55 - PowerApps Development environment Dataverse table
06:46 - In the application, the Options Screen
06:52 - Keypad Left or Right
07:17 - Layout relies on Container Controls
08:34 - Specify "X" position for containers with variables
11:23 - Allow users to Customize the interface
12:16 - Using the Barcode Reader Control
13:05 - Properties of the Barcode Reader Control
13:53 - The Barcode Reader OnScan event
14:17 - Context, or local, variable vs Global variable
15:27 - Parse Unique Identifier from SKU Code
16:19 - Code Stub for Alternate Method of scanning
17:28 - The Products gallery
17:37 - Gallery Items are the functional equivalent of a form's recordsource
17:55 - The Stock Take Collection; what it is and how it is created
20:12 - Initialize the collection in App OnStart
20:22 - App OnStart Action; the functional equivalent of AutoExec Macro
21:59 - Filter the items in a gallery by the SKU code
23:51 - Live Demo on a Smart Phone
24:02 - Connected to the datasource -- Working Online
26:52 - Thank You. Like and Subscribe
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My Hybrid Shopping List - AI Powered!
Riding the wave of AI excitement, I decided to give it a try in My Hybrid Shopping List App. The result was awesome, but the learning curve was pretty steep.
Scan receipts from a shopping trip into the AI Model and let it capture details about the store, the items purchased, the price of each item and the total. Storing that data into a temporary table in the SQL Azure database provides a validation check for manually entered data typed in through the phone.
In Part 1 I walk through the initial setup of the AI Model itself and demo its beauty in the PowerApps Shopping List app.
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My Hybrid Shopping List -- "Interim" Collections and Persisted Tables- Revised
During final prepping of the previous version, I botched part of the video. Corrected in this version.
====
This video is Part Four of a four-part series:
Part Four explores two functions needed to make the Shopping List work:
-- Persisted tables in the SQL Azure database to retain the current shopping cart between sessions
and
-- The Patch() command for both data insertion and data update.
We wrap up with a look at the final step: moving purchased items from the shopping cart to the permanent database tables in Access.
Part One introduces the concept of Hybrid Access/PowerApps applications and explains why Access developers need to learn more about this approach.
Part Two lets you experience the PowerApps interface, running in a browser. It explains the concept of PowerApps collections -- which can be compared to temporary, in-memory tables.
In Part Two, the emphasis is on using a collection to retrieve a mirror image of a table in the SQL Azure database to improve performance with large recordsets and minimize calls to the server for data.
Part Three explores Filtering and Searching a Collection to return the minimum number of records from that collection to the Items in a Gallery. The final step is Sorting the remaining, filtered set of records for the Gallery. Two approaches to filtering are shown and compared for verbosity and performance.
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My Hybrid Shopping List -- Intro to Hybrid Access/PowerApps Application concepts
What is a Hybrid Application? Why would you want one?
This video is Part One of a three-part series in which I will:
-Introduce the concept of Hybrid Access/PowerApps applications.
-Explain why Access developers need to learn more about this approach.
-Introduce the Access interface, running on a Windows Desktop.
In Part Two I'll let you experience the PowerApps interface, running in a browser. I'll also introduce and explain the concept of PowerApps collections and why I think they can be a powerful, flexible tool in a Low-Code interface.
In Part Three, we'll explore more of the functions needed to make the Shopping List work, including the use of persisted tables and the Patch() command.
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Linking Images in Azure Storage to SharePoint Lists via Hyperlinks
Capture images, upload them to an Azure Storage Account and link them to a record in a SharePoint List via a hyperlink
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Storing Book Cover Images In Azure Blob Storage For PowerApps
Create a PowerApps application which uses your Smart Phone Camera to capture and upload images to an Azure Blob Storage Account.
Simulating Pop Up Dialogs for PowerApps
Learn how to create the experience of a pop up to interact with your users. Provide feedback and confirm actions such as deletions.
The technique I used is based on this article:
https://www.spguides.com/powerapps-popup-message-box/
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Paired Galleries to Add Records in a Junction Table in PowerApps
Learn how to use paired Galleries to select and add new records to a Junction Table in a PowerApps Application.
In an Access relational database application, we would use a main form/sub form design to accomplish this.
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