6 Use-Cases For The Power Apps App Formulas Property (Named Formulas)

Power Apps named formulas enable us to use the same app logic in several different places. Unlike a variable, named formulas do not store values in memory. They recalculate each time they are referenced. Named formulas ensure the most current value is always available and up-to-date and their definition can only be managed in one-central location. In this article, I will explain the benefits of using Power Apps named formulas and show you the best ways to use them.

Table of Contents
1. Pre-Filtering SharePoint Lists
2. Gathering Extended User Profile Data
3. Checking Security Roles For The Current User
4. Obtaining URL Parameters And Setting Default Values
5. Making Simpler References To Environment Variables
6. App Theming Values (Colors & Fonts)

1. Pre-Filtering SharePoint Lists

Create a Power Apps named formula when a SharePoint list has a common set of filters used in many places. In the example below, the Service Vehicles SharePoint list has several trucks which are either active (in service) or inactive (not in service).

Service Vehicles SharePoint List:

Suppose we only the active vehicles to show in Power Apps. Therefore, we write a named formula in the App Formulas property like this:

// FILTER ACTIVE SERVICE VEHICLES
fxServiceVehiclesActive = Filter(
    'Service Vehicles',
    Active.Value = "Yes"
)

Now we can use our named formula in the app. Write fxServiceVehiclesActive in the Items property of a gallery and only these rows will appear.

2. Gathering Extended User Profile Data

Named formulas may be used to hold constants – a value that cannot be changed when the app is in play mode. User profile data for the current app user is an example of a constant.

We can use the Office365Users connector to get the full account details for an app user and reference it in a named formula. Whereas the User function only retrieves the account’s full name, email and image.

To do this, add the Office365Users connector to the app.

Then use these named formulas in the App Formulas property to prevent multiple calls to the Office365Users API. Once the function executes its result will be cached.

// USER PROFILE INFO
fxCurrentUser = Office365Users.MyProfile();
fxCurrentUserPhoto = If(
    Office365Users.UserPhotoMetadata(fxCurrentUser.UserPrincipalName).HasPhoto,
    Office365Users.UserPhotoV2(fxCurrentUser.UserPrincipalName)
);

3. Checking Security Roles For The Current User

An app design might have require us to give a user with the custom security role ” Contoso Manager “security role access to a hidden screen. To get the security roles applied add these Dataverse Users and Security Roles tables to the app.

The write this code in the app Formulas property.

// SECURITY ROLES
fxSecurityRoles = LookUp(
    Users,
    domainname = User().Email
).'Security Roles (systemuserroles_association)'.Name;
fxIsUserManager = "Contoso Manager" in fxSecurityRoles.Name;

Let’s supposed the named formula fxSecurityRoles returns these values.

We can use the subsequent named formula fxIsUserManager to check if the current user is a manager. Since “Contoso Manager” was found in the user’s security roles the named formula returns true.

true

4. Obtaining URL Parameters And Setting Default Values

URL parameters can be passed into PowerApps and captured using the Param function. It is useful to store them in named formulas as constants because we can provide default values for when the parameter is missing.

Assume we wrote the following code in the Power Apps app Formulas property.

// URL PARAMETERS
fxUrlParameter = {
    RecordId: Param("recordid"),
    LaunchSource: Coalesce(Param("launchsource"), "Unknown"),
    DebugMode: And(
        Not(IsBlank(Param("debugmode"))),
        Lower(Param("DebugMode"))="true"
    )
}

Then we used this URL to access the app:

https://apps.powerapps.com/play/e/89c16fac-7c8a-e73a-bdad-f06eda01df1b/a/407a9220-3548-4b2d-9a1c-e3fda1c6b3cc?tenantId=f1b8b509-50a4-4a5c-8e48-bf3d3e7c10ed&sourcetime=2023-08-13%2001%3A28%3A13Z&recordid=1

The named formula fxUrlParameter would return these values:

• fxUrlParameters.RecordId =1
• fxUrlParameters.LaunchSource = “Unknown”
• fxUrlParameters.DebugMode = false

5. Making Simpler References To Environment Variables

Retrieving environment variables values is absurdly obtuse. We can use named formulas to abstract away the lengthy code needed to do it and use a much shorter reference instead.

Add the Dataverse tables called Environment Variable Definitions and Environment Variable Values to the app.

Then write this code in the App Formulas property.

// ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
fxEnvironmentVariable = {
    AdminEmail: LookUp(
        'Environment Variable Values',
        'Environment Variable Definition'.'Display Name' = "Admin Email"
    ).Value,
    CompanyName: LookUp(
        'Environment Variable Values',
        'Environment Variable Definition'.'Display Name' = "Company Name"
    ).Value,
    EnvironmentName: LookUp(
        'Environment Variable Values',
        'Environment Variable Definition'.'Display Name' = "Environment Name"
    ).Value
};

Now we are able to get the AdminEmail environment variable by simply typing

fxEnvironmentVariable.AdminEmail

6. Configuring App Theming Values (Colors & Fonts)

Named formulas make referencing theming values more convenient because we can type a friendly-text name as opposed to a color code. The fxColor formula holds a set of colors to be used in the app while fxFont formula defines fonts and text sizes.

// COLORS
fxColor = {
    // Named Color Values
    Danger: ColorValue("#dc3545"),
    Info: ColorValue("#0dcaf0"),
    Primary: ColorValue("#0d6efd"),
    Secondary: ColorValue("#6c757d"),
    Success: ColorValue("#198754"),
    Warning: ColorValue("#ffc107"),

    // Default Colors Values
    Blue: ColorValue("#0d6efd"),
    Indigo: ColorValue("#6610f2"),
    Purple: ColorValue("#6f42c1"),
    Pink: ColorValue("#d63384"),
    Red: ColorValue("#dc3545"),
    Orange: ColorValue("#fd7e14"),
    Yellow: ColorValue("#ffc107"),
    Green: ColorValue("#198754"),
    Teal: ColorValue("#20c997"),
    Cyan: ColorValue("#0dcaf0"),
    White: ColorValue("#ffffff"),
    Grey: ColorValue("#6c757d"),
    GreyDark: ColorValue("#343a40"),

    // Grey-Shade Color Values
    Grey100: ColorValue("#f8f9fa"),
    Grey200: ColorValue("#e9ecef"),
    Grey300: ColorValue("#dee2e6"),
    Grey400: ColorValue("#ced4da"),
    Grey500: ColorValue("#adb5bd"),
    Grey600: ColorValue("#6c757d"),
    Grey700: ColorValue("495057"),
    Grey800: ColorValue("#343a40"),
    Grey900: ColorValue("#212529")
};

// FONTS
fxFont = {
    Heading: Font.'Lato Black',
    Body: Font.Lato,
    Size: {
        Body: 12,
        Subtitle: 14,
        Title: 16
    },
    LineHeight: 1.5
}

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