Easy Power Platform - PowerApps Galleries Part 1

Get More Bang for the Gallery

PowerApps has the ability to place app development in the hands of workers that are closest to the problems at hand.

This is an exciting opportunity for any organization. Unfortunately, this opportunity does have a few limitations. Citizen apps tend to lack functionality and polish or as some clients put it, “…[their citizen apps] just aren’t ready for prime time.”

That does not have to be true, however. A PowerApps app can be just as beautifully designed and functional as any other app.

The Ordinary App

Let’s start with the default gallery in a PowerApps app. By default, Microsoft starts your app with this gallery list type or a similar one.

Sure you could change the type of gallery to some other type but if the list gallery makes sense for the data displayed, it is best to leave the gallery type as is. What can you do?

Add more data

The typical three pieces of information, title, subtitle, and body, of each gallery item are like guidelines. You can show less information in a gallery. You can also show more information.

Insert a new control in a gallery

First, click your gallery’s name in the Tree View.

Next, click the gallery editor button in the corner of the first item.

Now, click Insert and select Label to insert a Label control. In the Tree View, rename the label to something more relevant. Position the label so that it fits in the gallery item.

The new label will appear in the editable fields in the gallery. Click the drop-down to select the field the new label should display.

BrowseGallery fields with a new label named lblClaim

To resize the gallery item, click the gallery editor and drag the bottom sizing handle down to re-size the gallery. Notice how each gallery item also gets larger.

With just a few clicks, the gallery has increased in usability. There is no need to navigate to individual records to see which employee has claimed each support incident. The employee’s name appears right in the gallery.