{"id":195,"date":"2017-06-14T11:30:02","date_gmt":"2017-06-14T18:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/power-platform\/blog\/power-apps\/intelligent-initial-selection-of-fields-and-prepopulated-gallery-layouts\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T08:13:22","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T15:13:22","slug":"intelligent-initial-selection-of-fields-and-prepopulated-gallery-layouts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/power-platform\/blog\/power-apps\/intelligent-initial-selection-of-fields-and-prepopulated-gallery-layouts\/","title":{"rendered":"Intelligent initial selection of fields and prepopulated gallery layouts (Previous Version)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Based on the great feedback that we have received from you, the Microsoft PowerApps and Common Data Service teams continue to add features to help app authors quickly create business apps. We are happy to announce the availability of some new features that we hope will further empower app authors to deliver rich end-user experiences with less effort.<\/p>\n

Intelligent initial selection of fields for the Gallery, Form and Data table controls<\/h2>\n

When an app author connects a Gallery<\/b>, Form<\/b>, or Data table<\/b> control to a data source for a Common Data Service entity, the framework now intelligently selects the fields to connect the child controls to. A control, such as Gallery<\/b>, Form<\/b>, or Data table<\/b>, uses the most suitable ordered list of fields using metadata from the Common Data Service. The control then intelligently connects its child controls to fields in that list by using various factors, such as the order of the fields in the list, the type of the fields, and the type of the child controls. Under the hood, we extended the PowerApps connectors in order to provide multiple ordered lists of fields to enable this feature.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at this feature in action!<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Create a blank tablet or phone app.<\/li>\n
  2. On the Insert<\/b> tab, click or tap Gallery<\/b>, and then click or tap Vertical<\/b>.
    \n\tA Gallery<\/b> control is added to the screen. By default, the layout is set to Image, title and subtitle<\/b>.<\/li>\n
  3. Use the layout picker to change the layout of the gallery to Title, subtitle and body<\/b>.<\/li>\n
  4. In the right pane, click or tap CustomGallerySample<\/b>, and then click or tap Add a data source<\/b>.<\/li>\n
  5. In the list of connections, click or tap the connection for your database.<\/li>\n
  6. In the list of entities, click or tap Case<\/b>, and then click or tap Connect<\/b>.<\/li>\n
  7. A data source for the Case<\/b> entity is created, and the DataSource<\/b> property of the gallery is set to that data source.
    \n\tThe Title <\/b>control is connected to the CaseId<\/b> field, the Subtitle<\/b> control is connected to the Name<\/b> field, and the Body <\/b>control is connected to the Status<\/b> field.
    \n\tThis configuration provides app authors with a great initial gallery for the Case <\/b>entity and hopefully reduces the time they spend updating the control-to-field mapping.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"Intelligent<\/p>\n

    App authors will have a similar experience for the Form<\/b> and Data table<\/b> controls. If they add a Display <\/b>or Edit Form<\/b> control, and connect it to the Case<\/b> entity, they will see an ordered list of data cards for some fields that are automatically added for them.<\/p>\n

    \"Intelligent<\/p>\n

    To learn more about form layout, please read: Understand data form layout in Microsoft PowerApps<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    For a Data table<\/b> control, app authors will see that the columns are automatically added for some fields.<\/p>\n

    \"Intelligent<\/p>\n

    To learn more about the Data table<\/strong> control, please read: Data table control in PowerApps<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    The Common Data Service provides this ordered list of fields based on the field groups <\/strong>that are defined on entities. In the preceding example, the Gallery<\/b> control gets its ordered list of fields from the DefaultCard<\/b> field group of the Case<\/b> entity. The Display<\/b> and Edit Form<\/b> controls get their ordered list of fields from the DefaultDetails<\/b> field group of the Case<\/b> entity. The Data table<\/b> control gets its ordered list of fields from the DefaultList<\/b> field group of the Case<\/b> entity. To take advantage of this feature for a custom entity, app authors should add the appropriate fields to these same field groups <\/strong>for their custom entity. This will enable the same great behavior in the PowerApps controls when used with that custom entity.<\/p>\n

    It\u2019s important to note that even though the controls (Gallery<\/b>, Form<\/b>, and Data table<\/b>) use the fields from the field group, there is no on-going dependency between the controls and the field groups. The controls rely on the ordered list of fields that the connector provides to them. The connector (the Common Data Service connector in this case) just happens to use the field groups to provide that ordered list of fields. The controls themselves are not aware of the existence of field groups. Additionally once the initial field selection is done any changes to the field group do not automatically propagate to the controls.<\/p>\n

    Great news! This feature isn\u2019t limited to Common Data Service. Any PowerApps connector can provide an ordered list of fields that the controls look for. To create the ordered list, a connector can use its own internal concepts and logic.<\/p>\n

    Currently, only the Common Data Service connector provides the ordered list of fields but we hope that in the future more connectors will light up this feature.<\/p>\n

    We’re just getting started with this feature, so there are a few known issues that we are working to quickly fix in subsequent releases. Here are some of these issues:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Some field types, such as lookups, are currently skipped when fields are connected to child controls.<\/li>\n
    2. Intelligent initial selection isn\u2019t used for Gallery<\/b> controls when an app is created from data for a Common Data Service entity.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Prepopulated gallery layouts<\/h2>\n

      Standard layouts and intelligent initial selection of fields help app authors get a jump start to create forms for their business apps. However, customizing galleries to make them business-ready often takes more time and effort. To help reduce authoring time, we now provide rich prepopulated gallery layouts for some of our most frequently used Common Data Service entities!<\/p>\n

      Follow these steps to understand how you can add them in your app.<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Create a blank tablet or phone app.<\/li>\n
      2. On the Insert<\/b> tab, click or tap Gallery<\/b>, and then click or tap Vertical<\/b>.
        \n\tA Gallery<\/b> control is added to the screen. By default, the layout is set to Image, title and subtitle<\/b>.<\/li>\n
      3. In the right pane, click or tap CustomGallerySample<\/b>, and then click or tap Add a data source<\/b>.<\/li>\n
      4. In the list of connections, click or tap the connection for your database.<\/li>\n
      5. In the list of entities, click or tap Worker<\/b>, and then click or tap Connect<\/b>.<\/li>\n
      6. A data source for the Worker <\/b>entity is created, and the DataSource<\/b> property of the gallery is set to that data source.<\/li>\n
      7. In the layout picker, click or tap Image, title and subtitle<\/b>, and then, in the Prepopulated<\/b> section, click or tap Worker list<\/b>.
        \n\tThe Gallery<\/b> control is updated to a rich prepopulated layout for the Worker<\/b> entity.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        \u00a0\"Prepopulated<\/p>\n

        These prepopulated layouts are authored by the Common Data Service team. Their design incorporates the team\u2019s knowledge of the entity\u2019s metadata and fields.<\/p>\n

        As of today, prepopulated gallery layouts are available for the following Common Data Service entities.<\/p>\n