Power Apps Gallery Design & UX Guidelines

Table Of Contents:
• Design Empty States
• Refresh Gallery To Show Current Data
• Reset The Gallery Scroll Position
• Filter Large Datasets In A Gallery
• Define The Gallery Sort Order
• Require A Button Press To Update Search Results
• Avoid Nested Galleries
• Use Flexible Height Galleries

Design Empty States

Include an empty state that appears when a gallery has no data.  The empty state should tell the user why the gallery is empty and/or give directions on what actions to take next.

Refresh Gallery To Show Current Data

Users expect a gallery to include all recent updates to a datasource.  Many times this happens automatically with no extra effort required by the developer. But sometimes a manual refresh of the datasource is needed.

Gallery data will refresh automatically:

• When using a local datasource (i.e. collections)
• During the initial load of a cloud datasource
• After using the app to perform CRUD operations on cloud datasource that the gallery is connected to
  
  

Gallery data does not automatically refresh when connected to a cloud datasource (SharePoint List, Dataverse, etc.) but no CRUD operations were performed before entering the screen.  In this scenario update, the gallery before the screen is loaded using the Refresh function.

Consider giving users the ability to manually refresh a cloud datasource by pressing a refresh button/icon.

Reset The Gallery Scroll Position

A gallery should show its first item at the top position when a screen is opened.  If gallery was previously scrolled and was not reset it will remain in the same position when the screen is opened.  To reset the gallery to the top position use this code in the OnHidden property of the gallery’s screen.

// OnHidden property of a screen
Reset(GalleryName);

Filter Large Datasets In A Gallery

Allow users to filter large datasets and get the results they want. Users should be able to filter on multiple fields at once. 

Use this coding pattern in the items property of a gallery to support multiple dropdown filters.  The code can also be adapted for other control types (combobox, datepicker, etc).

// ITEMS property of a gallery with three dropdowns filters
Filter(
    'Paid Time Off',
    drp_Type.Selected.Value=Blank() Or TimeOffType=drp_Type.Selected.Value,
    drp_Status.Selected.Value=Blank() Or Status=drp_Status.Selected.Value,
    drp_Employee.Selected.Value=Blank() Or Employee=drp_Employee.Selected.Value
)

Define The Gallery Sort Order

Data displayed in a gallery must be sorted.  Galleries should be sorted by the gallery item’s title (ascending) or a date (descending) displayed in the gallery.  If not sorting by another column clearly indicate the sort order on the screen. 

Giving a user the ability to select the sort column and order is recommended but not required.

Require A Button Press To Update Search Results

Do not update the gallery with new search results as the user types into a text box. This causes poor performance. Each keypress triggers a new query to the cloud datasource and renders the output on the screen. The consequence of multiple queries being executed at once will be slowness in the app.

// Items property of a searchable gallery connected to a text input
Search(Locations, txt_SearchLocation.Text, "Address", "City", "Province")

Instead, require the user to type their search terms into a text input and press a button to search once finished.  Set a variable in the button’s OnSelect property and use it as the search string.

// OnSelect property of a search button
Set(gblSearchLocation, txt_SearchLocation.Text)

// Items property of a searchable gallery using a global varible
Search(Locations, gblSearchLocation, "Address", "City", "Province")

Avoid Nested Galleries

Nested galleries are known to cause poor app performance.  They are slow to load and consume a lot of memory.  In some cases they have been known to cause crashes in apps with large memory usage.  Use collections to create a grouped gallery instead of nesting.

Use Flexible Height Galleries

Always use a flexible height gallery instead of a blank vertical gallery.  Flexible galleries have all of the same properties as a normal gallery plus they will expand to fit a row’s contents.  If an app’s design changes to require flexibility during the development process it will be necessary to start over and completely redo the gallery.

Questions?

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