Blog - Recent Posts

Performance - Why is LookUp better than First/Filter?

Two popular ways to retrieve a single record are to call LookUp, or First(Filter. From a performance perspective, it's better practice to call the LookUp function to return a single record. This to post describes the reason why it's better to call LookUp, compared to First/Filter.

Troubleshooting - How to recover corrupted screens

On rare occasions, screens can come corrupt. On these occasions, we can sometimes recover our work by using the duplicate screen option, and this post describes this technique in more detail.

Forms - How to set the data source of a form to a collection

It can be difficult to build edit forms that are based on collections, because the designer disables the button to add fields to the form. This post describes this behaviour, and explains how we can configure an edit form to save and update rows in a collection.

Forms - The best practice for setting the data item on a form

When building apps, a 'best practice' is to minimise dependencies between screens. Therefore, it's best not to set the item property of a form to a value that's defined on a gallery (or some other control) outside of the screen. This post describes this topic in greater detail.

Data - How to make a copy of a record

A common requirement is to make a copy of a record, based on an existing record. This post describes some examples of how to carry out this task, including how to copy an existing record from a form, a gallery control, and how to write formula that copies the last created record.

SharePoint - How to export and import lists and maintain lookup relationships

A common requirement is to export and import sets of SharePoint lists, and to maintain the lookup data. This post describes how to carry out this task.

Search - How to filter by multiple fields and return all records when no search term is entered

When adding search capabilities to an app, a very common requirement is to enable users to search by multiple fields and to return all records if no search criteria is entered. This post describes how to carry out this task.

SharePoint - how to fix list threshold errors when working with very large lists

When we attempt to filter large SharePoint lists, the operation may fail with the error "The attempted operation is prohibited because it exceeds the list view threshold". This post describes this error, including how to fix this problem.

Data - How to update a record if it exists, or insert a new record if it doesn't exist

There's sometimes the requirement to create a data entry screen that either updates a record if it exists, or to insert a new record it doesn't exist. This post walks through how we can carry out this task.

Email - Sending email attachments with the Office 365 Outlook connector

The syntax to attach files to an email message can be complex. This post describes how to use the Office 365 Outlook connector to send emails with attachments. It covers how to attach files from a SharePoint record, files that a user selects using an attachments control, images, audio recordings, and multiple combinations of files.

Screen Design - Show or hide controls based on other controls or on a button click

There is often the requirement to show or hide controls depending on other control values, or on a button click. This post describes how to carry out this task.

Data - How much mobile data does Power Apps consume? What ways can we minimise this?

In general, mobile/4G data is more limited and expensive compared to Wifi. Therefore, a question that some app builders want to know, particularly in cases when they start exploring Power Apps is, how much data does a typical Power Apps use?

Formulas - how to return all days or working days in a month

They can often be the requirement to return all working days in a month, particularly in cases where we develop timesheet or reporting type apps. This post describes the formula to carry out this task.

Licensing - What are Dataverse Restricted tables?

When we build Power Apps to extend Dynamics 365, it's important to be aware of 'restricted tables'. These are tables that are fully accessible with a Dynamics 365 license only. This post provides an introduction to this topic.

What to do when we see the error - "Sorry, there's been a disconnect"

On some rare occasions, we may encounter an error page that contains the message "sorry, there's been a disconnect". This post highlights possible causes of this error, and how to fix it.