Unleashing the Power of Nested Galleries: A New Frontier in Canvas Apps

 

Unleashing the Power of Nested Galleries

A New Frontier in Canvas Apps

Introduction: 

Canvas apps have long been a powerful tool for building custom applications in Microsoft Power Apps. With their intuitive interface and extensive functionality, canvas apps allow users to create tailored solutions to meet their unique business needs. In this blog post, we will explore a groundbreaking feature recently uncovered: the ability to add a gallery inside a gallery, also known as a nested gallery. We will discuss how this feature opens up new possibilities for data representation and organization within canvas apps and provide step-by-step instructions to create a nested gallery using accounts and contacts as an example.

Understanding Nested Galleries: 

Traditionally, a gallery in a canvas app allows you to display a collection of items in a single container, such as a list of records or images. However, the introduction of nested galleries takes this functionality to a whole new level. It enables you to embed one gallery inside another, creating a hierarchical structure for data presentation. This feature enhances the app's flexibility, making it easier to visualize relationships between different entities and display complex data structures.

Creating a Gallery of Accounts with a Nested Gallery of Contacts: 

To demonstrate the power of nested galleries, let's walk through the process of creating a gallery of accounts and inserting a gallery of contacts within it:

Step 1: 

Launch Power Apps: Open Power Apps and navigate to the canvas app you want to work on. If you don't have one yet, you can create a new canvas app from scratch.

Step 2: 

Add a Gallery Control: Drag and drop a Gallery control onto the canvas. This will serve as the primary container for displaying the accounts.

Step 3: 

Connect to Data Source: 

Connect the Gallery control to a the Accounts OOB Table

Step 4: 

Customize the Gallery Control: 

Customize the appearance of the Gallery control to match your desired layout. Adjust the columns, font styles, and other properties to suit your needs.

Step 5: 

Add a Nested Gallery: 

Inside the primary Gallery control, insert another Gallery control. This will become the nested gallery responsible for displaying the contacts associated with each account.

Step 6: 

Define the Nested Gallery's Data Source: 

ThisItem.'Contacts (contact_customer_accounts)'

Establish the Relationship: 

In the nested Gallery control, configure the relationship with the primary Gallery control. Specify the field or column that associates contacts with their respective accounts. This allows Power Apps to display the contacts belonging to each account.

Step 7: 

Configure the Nested Gallery: 

Customize the appearance of the nested Gallery control according to your requirements. Choose the columns to display, set up sorting and filtering options, and apply formatting as needed.

Step 8: 

Refine and Optimize: 

Fine-tune the layout, design, and behavior of both the primary and nested galleries to ensure a seamless user experience. Experiment with different data visualization techniques, such as conditional formatting or dynamic filtering, to enhance the overall presentation.

Step 9: 

Test and Publish: 

Preview your canvas app to verify that the nested gallery is working as expected. Once satisfied with the results, publish the app to make it accessible to users.

Conclusion:

The discovery of nested galleries as a feature within canvas apps marks a significant milestone in data visualization and organization. With this powerful capability, developers and app creators can represent complex data structures more effectively, providing users with a comprehensive view of related entities. By following the steps outlined in this blog post, you can harness the potential of nested galleries to create engaging and dynamic canvas apps that showcase data hierarchies. Take advantage of this newfound capability and unlock a world of possibilities within Microsoft Power Apps.