Power apps Form Dev

We need a design layer that captures the screen before Power Apps turns it into controls and properties.

For this POC, let's keep three note layers:

1. Design notes
   What the user sees and how the page flows.

Centre Summary Screen

[ Centre dropdown ]

CENTRE / INFO
- Centre Name
- Address
- Phone
- Hours
- Notes
- Edit button

CONTACTS
- Contact Name
- Role
- Phone
- Email
- Repeat for each matching contact

REGION
- Region Name
- Region Contact
- Regional Hours

Forms for multiline

A form gives you three conveniences at once: field layout, edit state, and record submission. Instead of wiring ten separate text inputs by hand, you let the form manage the data cards and then your buttons become very simple.

For example:

SubmitForm(frmCentreInfo)

for Save, and:

ResetForm(frmCentreInfo)

for Cancel.

If you want a Back button after saving:

SubmitForm(frmCentreInfo);
Back()

Although a slightly safer pattern is to put the navigation in the form’s OnSuccess property:

Back()

Then the Save button is only:

SubmitForm(frmCentreInfo)

That way you only leave the screen if the save actually succeeds.

Switch to edit mode:

EditForm(frmCentreInfo)

So the whole interaction becomes much cleaner:

View record
   ↓
Edit button
   ↓
EditForm(frmCentreInfo)
   ↓
Save
   ↓
SubmitForm(frmCentreInfo)
   ↓
OnSuccess → Back()

Centre/Info section:

Single-record Form: View → Edit → Save/Cancel

and the Contacts section as:

Related-record Gallery: one-to-many

2. Data notes
   What table supplies each section and how they relate.

CentreInfo
- one record selected by dropdown
- displayed in Form

Contacts
- separate table
- many records per Centre
- relationship: Centre Name

Regions
- separate table
- relationship still to be defined

3. Implementation notes
   The actual Power Apps controls and formulas.

ddCentre
Items = CentreInfo

frmCentreInfo
DataSource = CentreInfo
Item = ddCentre.Selected

galContacts
DataSource = Contacts
Items =
    Filter(
        Contacts,
        'Centre Name' = ddCentre.Selected.'Centre Name'
    )

what it should look like → what data supports it → how Power Apps implements it.

DATA SOURCES

CentreInfo
- one table
- contains Centre + Info fields
- one selected record drives the top part of the screen

Contacts
- separate table
- many rows can match one Centre
- relationship key = Centre Name

Regions
- separate table 
- list of regions TBD 

And yes, all of that can live on one screen.

A clean screen structure would be:

Screen: Centre Summary

Vertical container
├── Centre dropdown
│   Items = CentreInfo
│
├── Centre / Info form
│   Data source = CentreInfo
│   Item = selected Centre record
│
├── Contacts gallery
│   Data source = Contacts
│   Items =
│       Filter(
│           Contacts,
│           'Centre Name' = ddCentre.Selected.'Centre Name'
│       )
│
└── Region section
    Data source = Regions
    Item / Items = relationship to selected Centre

If the dropdown is already selecting the actual CentreInfo record, we may not even need a LookUp() for the Centre/Info block. We can simply use:

CentreInfoForm.Item = ddCentre.Selected

That is cleaner.

Then Contacts becomes the one-to-many relationship:

ContactsGallery.Items =
    Filter(
        Contacts,
        'Centre Name' = ddCentre.Selected.'Centre Name'
    )

So the core model is now:

CentreInfo
    1
    │
    │ Centre Name
    │
    ∞
Contacts

and later:

CentreInfo
    1
    │
    │ Centre Name / Region key
    │
    1 or ∞
Regions

Use one vertical container and put the Centre/Info form, Contacts gallery, and Region section inside it. (Single record Form, multi line Gallery). 

📝 Note: No separate screens required unless the app grows much larger

We get exactly what we need: one selected Centre, one screen, several related data sources.

And that is the basis for the template.