Power Apps - Creating a Two-Level Menu Component: Comprehensive Guide

Author Craig White shares a method for building a two-level menu in canvas apps using a single gallery to improve performance. He warns about the potential performance issues that could arise when nested galleries are used, particularly in large-scale applications.

He illustrates the method using a Star Wars-themed app. The data that feeds the menu component is organized in specific ways to drive gallery behaviour. The data in the parent categories—referenced as MasterNav—let's us locate specific child entries. Parent entries have MasterNavID=1, and child entries have MasterNavID=0.

White further explains how to build the menu component, starting by creating a new app within a solution. It's followed by setting attributes like component width and height and data source for the gallery.

• Once the basic structure is laid out, Craig shares ways to tweak the menu's appearance and function.
• He explains how to designate navigation rules & set a variable when a menu option is selected.
• Visual tweaks, including indentation for child items and Colour & FontWeight choices, are made to enhance user experience.
• While setting up the filtering logic, he brings into play the variable and MasterNav column.

A finished component should look like what he shows in the example, he states. He wraps up by providing links to his GitHub and the Power Apps Community App Samples for readers to access an unmanaged solution of the component build. White also encourages readers to share their personal tips for building menus in canvas apps.

Deep Dive - Simplifying Canvas App Menus

White's method offers a clever solution to harness the potential of large-scale applications. By opting for a single gallery rather than nested ones, we can prevent major performance snags while developing intricate menu designs. The single gallery setup, facilitated by the strategic arrangement of parent-child data, demonstrates the app’s efficiency in displaying large data sets. White's walkthrough serves as a good reference, whether you’re developing a small-scaled or large-scaled app. His contributions to the community through links to his GitHub and Power Apps Community Samples further provide helpful resources for developers at various experience levels.

Read the full article Building a Two-Level Menu Component

Learn about Building a Two-Level Menu Component

This blog post discusses building an efficient two-level menu in canvas apps using a single gallery to optimize performance. The author emphasizes the significance of data and outlines how to structure it to properly feed the menu component. The example in the post uses Star Wars-related data, making the subject matter more engaging.

The author begins with a scenario where hosting a large app with several screens, demanding optimal performance, gives rise to the necessity of a two-level menu built with a solitary gallery. The author draws attention to often overlooked concerns regarding the performance impact of using nested galleries.

• MasterNav: This column is for parent reference, helping establish which child entry is associated to which parent category.
• MasterNavID: This column is set to 1 for parent entries and 0 for child entries.
• SubNav: This column is for child entry options where required.
• SubNavID: This is a unique ID for each entry to sort the collection in a specific order.
• NavScreen: This column determines what screen will be displayed when the menu option is clicked.
• Icon: This column is reserved for icons, only utilized for parent options in this example.

The author lays down the reasoning for each column in their data structure, focusing on controlling specific gallery behavior through integer values. The outcome is an array of parent rows with their MasterNavID of 1 and specific child entries.

This blog post constitutes a useful resource for developers seeking to optimize the efficiency of their app designs, especially regarding menu structure. To extract more value from this content, readers are recommended to apply these methods in their own application development practices.

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