A guide to posting on the Power Apps Community forums

This site is often used as a reference tool for user’s posts on the Power Apps Community Forum.
The below is some guidance of the things that users should consider when engaging with the responders, who are giving their time and best efforts to assist with their Power Apps journey and is designed as general guidance to the facilitation of a quick and accurate solution for your issue. 

This guidance is broken into four important sections

• Before you start
• When you post
• When you receive a response
• When the issue is solved

Before you start

Before you start constructing your post – please consider the following: –

• The responders on this forum are mostly made up of users like you from around the world, who volunteer their time to help solve your Power Apps problems.
• They cannot see your data structure or the names or types of your data source, fields or controls unless you describe these in detail.
• They only understand the logic of your needs as well as you accurately describe them (they cannot read your mind – only your words), so the better the question is framed, the more chance you have of getting a swift resolution.
•  They are not online constantly and time zone if different to yours will often see delays in responding, so please be patient.
• They are there to guide you and correct your code where necessary, not create it for you.
• The more posts you do on the forum, the more reasonable it is for an expectation that you respect and follow this guidance.

When you post

When constructing your post, try to follow these general guidelines

• Keep to the point and describe the problem as briefly as possible but with sufficient detail to enable proper understanding by someone who has not seen it before. Avoid describing things not relevant to the question and re-read it before posting with this thought in mind.
• When you post code, always include where it is posted (Items of a Gallery or Item of a Form, OnVisible of a screen, OnSelect of a Button etc)
• Always describe your data source (Excel, SharePoint, CDS, SQL etc) as this will often affect the response.
• If you are going to post a code sample, post it as TEXT, not an image. Post it in a Text Sample box (the </> icon) and if possible, use Format Text to parse it with correct indents and lines. This is very important if your code needs to be corrected and re-posted in the response.
• Unless you are asking a general question and are seeking a general response, always supply the code you have attempted to solve the problem with as this forms the basis of the response you will receive.
• Ensure the subject of the topic reflects the problem as many responders have different experiences in Power Apps and will generally pick those they can help most in.
• If you have errors, convey the exact error description and the piece of code it relates to, or if you are not getting the correct output, describe both what is current and what is expected.
• Ask about one issue per thread. As well as answering your question, these threads provide future guidance for people with similar problems and separate topics require their own thread.
• Include screen shots if these are helpful in elaborating on the issue, but as noted above, any code contained in them should also be posted as Text.
• It is also useful to convey if you are new to Power Apps or are trying to fix someone else’s code as the response will often be framed accordingly. Understand that often the same response could be stating the obvious to an experienced user while totally confusing a new adopter.
• If you want to change a post before you get a response, use the Edit function rather than another updated post. It is easier to read through the corrected item than to put two (or more) together. This is particularly important on your first post as doing an update removes it from the unanswered topics (hence less people will look at it).

When you receive a response

It is just as important to properly read and apply the responses: –

• You also have ownership of the solution process (this is a partnership) and you need to take some time in understanding the logic of the answer.
• Do not simply paste in responses and immediately post back that “it does not work”. Have a look at the error and see if you can identify the problem as mostly the code provided will be close to the required solution.
• Understand that the response is more about guiding you in the correct syntax. If you receive a structure you have not used before, take some time to study the documentation so you understand it for the future.
• Likewise, realise that responders cannot test the code in your app, so you need to look at the control and field names provided and apply them to your structure.
• A lot of times they have free-typed the code, so the occasional bracket or comma may be incorrect (particularly on large pieces of code).

When the issue is solved

Now it is solved, there is still a couple of things to do: –

• If the thread solves your issue or guides you to a solution, remember to press the “Accept as Solution” as this makes the post far easier to find in the future for users with a similar issue.
• It is very important you take the time to do this both for acknowledging the time and effort (given freely for your benefit by most of the responders) and also telling them and others in the future that the answer was what was required.
• If the response is useful in other ways, give it Kudos. Solutions and Kudos are the small rewards that responders really appreciate to motivate them to answer your next question.
• Remember, this is a Community and you need to consider giving back some of what you receive from it for the benefit of all involved.