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Tips for using Project Siena

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In this blog post we'll detail some quick tips for working with Project Siena.

Update: Thank you for all the questions in the comments! We've created a forum for discussion of all things Project Siena (including questions and answers), so please stop on by for more help: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-us/home?forum=projectsiena

Editing Expressions

Project Siena uses Excel-like expressions (or functions) that allow you to add custom logic, behavior and interactivity to your apps.

For a full list of currently available functions, please see Project Siena Function Reference (https://aka.ms/ProjectSienaFunctionReference).

When authoring expressions, it's useful to keep these tips in mind:

  • Intellisense is your friend. As you type, intellisense will suggest properties and values.
    • To accept a suggestion, touch it or hit Tab or Enter.
  • The “!” symbol (exclamation mark, or bang) is how you reference the properties of a visual.
  • When editing an expression, if you’re unsure of which properties you can use, simply type the visual’s name followed by a bang and intellisense will provide suggestions.
    • For example, type: “Button1! ” to see the button’s properties

Getting Data into Apps

Project Siena supports a number of ways to work with your data. For a full list of supported data sources, and instructions on how to connect, please see the Project Siena Release Notes (https://aka.ms/ProjectSienaReleaseNotes) and website (https://aka.ms/ProjectSiena).

Images, Video

You can easily embed images and videos into a Siena app. You can also link to images and videos that come from a remote location or from a web service.

Here is a simple way to bring in a single image or video:

  • Select an Image visual or a Video Player visual.
  • Select Data and then Image or Media.

To bring in your image or video, you can either:

  • Type in the URL of the image or video, in quotes as shown below. 
  • Select Add Image or Add Media, and find the file on your computer.



Multiple Images, Videos

If you want to use multiple images or videos in your app, the easiest way is to use Excel as a data source (another way is a web service that fetches images or videos – for more details, please see our Help Topics [https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/dn518216]).

Here are the steps:

  • Save the spreadsheet and close Excel.
  • In Siena, from the top app bar select File, and then Data Sources, select Excel.
  • Navigate using the Windows dialogs to the spreadsheet you just created.
  • Import your Excel table(s) and start working with your data in Siena.

RSS

The current Project Siena beta works with text-only feeds and does not automatically parse out images or HTML.

To connect to an RSS feed:

  • From the top app bar in Siena select File, then Data Sources, then RSS.
  • Enter the URL to the RSS feed.

Note that RSS feeds only sync on the first load of your app. More refresh capabilities are coming in the weeks and months ahead.

SharePoint

To use SharePoint as a Data Source, simply provide the URL to the root of your SharePoint site. For example, "https://myCompanyPortal/sites/MyTeamData". Siena will find all applicable lists on your SharePoint site.

  • Select the list(s) you want to use and click Import Data.

Note, do not point to a particular list URL or asmx.

SharePoint Online

Project Siena beta currently only supports On Premise SharePoint. SharePoint Online support is coming in the weeks and months ahead.

Azure Mobile Services

For instructions on how to connect to Azure Mobile Service tables, see the Release Notes (https://aka.ms/ProjectSienaReleaseNotes).

Conclusion

These are just a few tips to make working with Project Siena even easier.

Please enjoy, and have a Happy Holidays!

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Thank you for all the questions! We've created a forum for discussion of all things Project Siena (including questions and answers), so please stop on by for more help: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-us/home?forum=projectsiena

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    But If I remove old rows I end up with same id numbers? For example if I will have 10 rows with ID 1,2....10 and I remove rows with ID 1 and 2 so I will have rows with ID 3 to 10 that means 8 rows so by adding new row it will add id 9 what will be already there... No?

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Thank you for your advise on my images. I have placed all images in c:usersmynamepictures. Now I do see the images in the data source view. I also see the images in the galery and in the preview, but.... after publishing the frames remain empty. I also tried with the images in the public pictures folder: no success.What is it that I am missing here?

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    I realy enjoy this lovely tool... :) But one Q, could someone do a walkthrough of Publishing an App to the store? I've triend, but keep getting errors like these: Validation error: Your developer account isn't authorized to publish apps that use the "enterpriseAuthentication" capability. Learn more Validation error: All packages for this app must use the package identity name: 42681Holte.Teslafan Learn more Validation error: The PublisherDisplayName element in the app manifest doesn't match your publisher display name. Learn more Validation error: The Publisher attribute of the Identity element in the app manifest doesn't match your publisher ID, which is: CN=E0496E98.... Is there some settings in Siena I dont see or what? I have 2-3 Apps I would love getting out in the store ASAP... :) Marry Xmas btw :)

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Siena is absolutely great, thank you! Is there a way to include code that you want executed at the app initialization (loading data, preparing collections etc.)? I was trying some workarounds (like a timer with auto-start but I could not get it working). Thank you!

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Thank you very much Anatoly once again. Importing and addColumn works great now. I'm using FunctionReference site however the addColumns is not describe very obvious for me there. I was missing the beginning of the syntax (Collect (NewCollection...). No example says that. Not even that it returns new table what is the key for that syntax. Anyway thank you very much. I love Siena project. PS This is second time I write this post because the post before didn't shows up here.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    my first question would be is there any future plan that support uploading the app created from Siena to the store? thanks

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    First of all, I really like the tool. But I ran into a some issues with rest services, third party services to be more specific. These services rarely return data only 1 level deep. Is there any way to use a datasource that returns something like 'Datasource.value.items', where 'items' is the list of items I need in the gallery. The first level can be accessed through 'Datasource!value'. How can I get to 'items'?

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Could you please write any example of addColums. I still can not figure that out. Please... Thanks

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    doctim77: Steps below should clear input text after each screen navigation: 1. Screen2!OnVisible = UpdateContext({defaultText:" "});UpdateContext({defaultText:""})2. InputText1!Default = defaultTextIt is necessary to call UpdateContext twice to actually change defaultText value and force dependencies update.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Anonymous 31 Dec 2013 11:01 AM: You can use Launch(Url) function which will launch the specified Url in browser. For example, You can set Button!OnSelect = Launch("http://www.microsoft.com").

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    For all working on date calculations: here's the formula I developed for calculating 2014 week numbers.RoundUp((((Today() - DateValue("12/29/2013")) / (246060*1000)) / 7), 0)Every week my users get a new 'tip of the week', by fitering a gallery on the outcome of the formula.Enjoy!

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Demian Adolfo Raschkovan: Office 365 auth is not supported in Beta. Support will be coming as a part of SharePoint Online support.Anonymous: App start-up initialization can be achieved by using OnVisible behavior property on first screen of your app.Anonymous/ptr.chovan: To modify data imported from Excel, it is necessary to add it into the collection first. i.e.:Button!OnSelect = Collect(myCollection, TableFromExcel)Collections can be persistent in Windows 8 application storage using SaveData and LoadData i.e.:SaveButton!OnSelect = SaveData(myCollection, "mySavedCollection")LoadButton!OnSelect = Collection(myCollection, LoadData("mySavedCollection"))Also Import/Export visuals allow to save/load data from any location on your hard drive.Export:1. Add an Export visual.2. Set the property Data = MyCollection3. Click the Export visual to export the collection. Use the file picker to save the collection to a file. Import:1. Add an Import visual.2. Click the Import control. Use the file picker to target a previously exported file.3. Now you can now use the output property of the import visual: Import1!Data. (E.g. CustomGallery1!Items = Import1!Data).

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Wouter_V: Regarding your timer question. Issue is that TimerEnd is incorrectly fired immediately when published app starts. Suggested workaround is to prevent it by adding If condition. When app starts Timer1!Value = Timer1!Start, so If condition will be false and TimerEnd will be ignored.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Thanyou Shantanu !! great work fine!! Another issue:How I can create a small form:name:last name:company:email:phone:message:and where I can save itMuch I appreciate your help! Thank you again for everything.Héctor

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Terje from Norway again: I have a big Table1 With severels colums, and I want to filter it to only show Things in one category. Like the topbar in Excel. Is it an easy way to do that?I've also tried to use filter With a fixed text, or a variable I can Write in a input-text myself. Nothings happens....I've tried like this:Filter(Table1, 'Produktgruppe 1' = "Objektiv")Nothing happens, is something wrong (looks very much like Your "Function Reference") ? Should it be a "navigate" or something like that first, or what?

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Thanks a lot. I tried to do it via collections what obviously didn't work. So now I understand what context is for. Thanks again

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Thank you Vijay for the answers. I just finished my own date picker and it works great. I just got few suggestions or question about it. I have Dropdown list for choosing a month and Dropdown list for choosing day. The value of selected item of each dropdown list are linked to contexts what I'm using for datum format. The question or suggestion is that I can't control the list position of dropdown list. For example to have button what will set today datum and change also the list position in the dropdown list. If the month in dropdown list is on July so it will change on January by pressing that button. I just didn't find any function for that or the way how to do that. Also I can't format the date to full month name. example Text = Text(ThisItem!DatumColumn, "dd,Month,yy,) It works great with dd,mm,yy, but not if you want to format month to full name or just in 3 letters. Another suggestion is to be able to see screen where each collection is being used in collection menu in siena app. I've changed one collection name and I still had the old one in collection menu and it took me some time to find where the old collection is used. Another suggestion is to have menu for contexts to be able to see value of each context used in app and also to be able to see where each context is being used. My app has already 15 screens and growing so it would be really helpful. Thank you very much for project siena. I love it :)

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    ptr.chovan 3 Jan 2014 7:07 AM: You would need to use CountRows function to do that. For example, Collect(MyCollection, {Id:CountRows(MyCollection), Name:InputText1!Text})

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Anatoly, For the timer I have done as suggested: enter the given IF condition into the field for Behaviour of TimerEnd. In Design mode it works the same as without. However with condition, after publishing TimerEnd is fired as soon as Value > Start (i.e. >0). With the value for End set to 4 (for a 4 second delay) I have changed your formula into: If(Timer1!Value > 3, Navigate(Screen2,ScreenTransition!Cover)). This works! Thank you very much.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi everyone. I have a screen with a custom gallery in it, linked to an excel datasource. I now want to add a search capability to the screen, where a search button would get the input from the textbox and update the custom gallery with the results that match. I have the correct filtering expression (tested it already) but I am not able to update the gallery when I click the button. Any ideas? thanks!

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Similar question as my one on filtering by Collection: (how) can I filter a list or Galery by using Radio buttons?Instead of check boxes I created a list with Radio buttons, using data from table1. I then want a second list of Radio buttons by Table2, but this one filterd on column1 by the selection of Radio1. My formula: Filter(Tabel2, Column1 = Radio1!Selected!Value) does not return an error, but still the list remains empty. Thanks for your advise, Wouter

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Anatoly, thank you. Publishing resources locally did the trick. I take it I should always publish resources locally then.Another topic:I have designed an app with tabs. This overcomes the use of any "back button"; more over: you can jump from screen-n to screen-y immediately. If you are interested I will be happy to share. I would have to make a new, generic, file, but I would be glad to do so. Maybe a good idea: create a place where people can share specific design solutions? By the way: my name is Wouter.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    i want to attach youtube videos too...how can i do that ?

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi. Although this actually has nothing to do with this blog post, I still think I'll post my question here: what am I doing wrong? Every time, when I install the Siena app, I start it, but it closes immediately. Why is this? Does it have to do with the region where I live (the Netherlands)? Thanks in advance, and have a happy holidays too!

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    It is possible to mimic a traditional form with buttons using Project Siena, ie a UI in which there is a button press and a corresponding OnSelect behavior to move between states. However, that doesn't take advantage of Project Siena's automatic flowing of data via dependencies. We will soon be putting up more sample apps and how to videos that will show how very fluid and continuously responsive experiences can be built in Project Siena with little effort.Vijay Mital, Microsoft

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hello again. Is it possible to make a menu in Siena what would open multiple screens? Lets say to assign screen name in each items in excel and then just call that data in gallery. I'm trying to make a menu with a pictures and descriptions and each picture would open different page and that menu would be on each page the same. But when I will want to change something in the menu I would only change one data and it would change that on each page. What would be the best and easiest way to do that? Thanks

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    I changed the design with the camera: it is now controlled by a toggle switch. That works. Still would be nice to know why the other way did not work with me (I am still learning). Regards.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Great initiative! I have a question about multiple images.Why can't I see my multiple images?I have created an excel table as described above. I have loaded into Sienna. The image frames remain empty. Also in the data file the image frames are empty.What is it that I need to do?

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    For a service that returns hierarchical data, try the First operator to return a table. For example, First(servicename)!fieldname. For unraveling deeper nesting, try First(First(servicename)!nestedfieldname)!fieldname.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Thank you for the great suggestions, ptr.chovan. We are totally keeping the pedal to the metal here, please expect much more on functions, built-in visuals, and more and more support for both smaller apps (ever easier to get started) and larger apps (more contextual visibility into information usage).

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    ptr.chovan : What you are trying to do is an update based on the lookup operation in a collection. What you need in order to accomplish that is to have an unique identifier in each row so that you can lookup and update the correct row.If you have a unique Id, you can pass it in the navigation context. Lets say you have a collection named 'coll1' with this format {text: "somt text", id: someNumber} which is attached to the gallery in screen1. On the click of the button in the gallery, you navigate to screen2 with this context : Navigate(Screen2, ScreenTransition!Cover, {id: ThisItem!id, selText: ThisItem!text}).Once you do that you easily have all the information you need on the second screen to update the correct row in your collection. in the OnSelect of the button on the second screen you can add this rule to update the correct row:Update(coll1, {text:selText, id:id}, {text: InputText1!Text, id:id}).This will make sure that the correct row is updated in your collection.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    BTW You forgot to mention that I must define all columns in update function to update one or more columns in row. That means if I want to have button for updating one column I have to define all columns even these what I don't want to update with that button. That was the reason why I was having problem with it

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Sorry, to clarify my last question. I know by using Launch(URL) can link to external,website,,BUT it is static,not dynamic (using URL as in excel). Pls help. TQ.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    I managed to solve my Radio button issue on my own. I have placed the filter items in column 2 and the values to be returned in column 1. My formula for the list of Radio2: Filter(Table1, column2 = Radio1!Selected!Value). Finally selection of Radio2 results in a filtered list in Galery1. Great! Regards, Wouter

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hello:I want to create a link to Internet in one of my projects. Can I do it? I can only "navigate" through screens. Thank you!

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    I wish to link to YouTube as in my Excel,file but fail (local mp4 or .mov is ok). Any reason? Btw, I have many files in sky drive (PPT, PDF,word, ..office files) and listed in excel,with appropriate link,but I can trigger from the apps. Any idea or not yet supported? Video player and audio players are good. Pls have other reader. Tq

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    I tried connecting to a php url that returns JSON - WORKED GREAT!Wow I can see this being a huge business tool.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    How can I read and collect the settings of sliders added to a Gallery?I am creating a survey. Users can respond to a statement, e.g. by responding "agree" or "disagree", with 3 variations inbetween as well. I try to solve this with a slider, ranging from 1 to 5. This slider is added to the Gallery showing the statements. I can't find how to read the settings of the different sliders in the Gallery. I can set all sliders to any desired setting, but how to read those settings and then calculate, so I can then respond with a (filtered) result? Thank you in advance. Regards, Wouter

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Say I was building a contacts application with Excel table as a datasource, can the user add new entries (rows) into the excel DataSource? How do we do this? This is pretty fundamental building block of any serious application, being able to store data persistently

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    I have an app almost ready. Currently downloadable from http://digitalmediaphile.com/index.php/2014/01/09/using-ms-project-siena-for-rapid-app-development/ .. but I'm stuck on one thing. Portrait view support does not seem to work as expected as with other apps. What is the trick to get this working right? The Women in Computing sample app in the Windows Store does not have portrait view support either.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    We will soon be posting how to videos and other help material. Topics include using web services that return hierarchical data. We are also creating a Forum where technical questions can be asked and answered in more depth. More soon ...

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Format month to full month name works with mmmm. Not Mon or Month like it says in help site

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Another question... is there any function for date picking. For example I want to have an inputText where I could change date but not typing the date but pick it from calendar or something. Is it possible?

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    I have one more question, if I may. How can I prevent (disable) the camera from the start? I have managed to turn it on and off, by using a contex variable (Kamera), thus controlling Disable false/true. The camera window is on the same screen as the start-trigger, but not on screen1. When the app starts, the camera turns on. I can't find a way to set it to 'Disable = true' upon start. Any suggestions? Kind regards.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Anatoly, thanks for the example file. The solution fot me was to create my png file more appropriate. I now have my image on the app.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Another question. How to add picture into gallery when app will be published? I want to add button "add image" what will open browse window where I could chose image. How can I do that?

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    ptr.chovan: Thanks a lot for pointing a mistake in my previous comment. Yes it should be LoadButton!OnSelect = Collect(myCollection, LoadData("mySavedCollection")). Please build following app to see how Import control works: 1) Add Button, Export and Import visuals. 2) Button1!OnSelect = Collect(myCollection, [1,2,3,4,5]) 3) Button1!Text = CountRows(myCollection) 4) Export1!Data = myCollection 5) Import1!OnSelect = Collect(myCollection, Import1!Data) 6) Click on button, button text should change to "5", click on Export and select filename, click on Import and select saved file, button text should change to "10".

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Anonymous 27 Dec 2013 10:06 AM: Siena has full access only to the files in your Picture, Video or Music libraries. Can you please copy all the image files to either Pictures, Videos or Music libraries folder (For example, c:Users\Pictures or c:Users\Videos or c:Users\Music) and change path in Excel file to this new location?

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Anatoly, thank you for your comment on the timer. I am sorry to say that I don't quite understand your solution. On the other hand I wonder: would it be possible to reset the Timer1!Value? I notice that the timer starts properly, but the value remains. I presume that is why it skips when published: because the end value has already been reached before? I was thinking if I could set the value back to the start value, it would work?

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Is it possible to add the contents of an array from a JSON response? I've added the JSON response (using REST) and get the expected results. The problem is there are 2 fields ("status" and "data"), "data" contains the array of data including things such as the text and images.I've added an image gallery and the items menu can see the data source, but when I change the source to "jsonResponse!data" I can see the fields that contain the data etc, but if I change the image source to something like "ThisItem!data!image" the word "image" is underlined and the image control has a ! symbol. Any suggestions?

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Why does the image for the published app not appear?I have published my app (file, publish).I have selected an image as advised (245x245, transparent .png). Still the image does not show.It does show in the example, when in the process of publishing.After installing however the image does not show. Only the background.I have tried several (jpg, png, transparent or not, different sizes, different resolution), nothing seems to work.Please advise.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Thank you Vijay for answering about there not being a date picker. Can that be candidate for a future iteration? In the meantime, is there a way to calculate the difference between dates entered in different fields even if they are entered as text? My second question of the day is killing me. I've spent quite a bit of time on a particular app POC and last night when I attempted to open the siena file, it presented a white screen with a few black squares and the names of my labels tiled from the top left to the bottom right of the screen. When I look through the other screens within same app, I have the same experience with the labels that correspond to those screens. All formatting, color, and images are gone. Has anyone else seen this? I can open up older versions of the same app and re-apply my changes, but that's not the point. I need to re-apply the changes that are lost and hopefully I won't lose them again. Thanks for a quick response.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    I figured that out. Gallery opens multiple pages with syntax OnSelect = If (table1!screenName="Screen2", Navigate(Screen2, ScreenTransition!Fade)); If (table1!screenName="Screen3", Navigate(Screen3, ScreenTransition!Fade))... I'm ashamed that I didn't figured that out sooner :(

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    ptr.chovan 1 Jan 2014 4:29 AM : We are shortly doing a detailed blog post on the use of context and navigation, which will answer the questions you have raised. In the meantime, here is a brief answer.In the correct usage to Update a collection, you will have to provide the old value and the new value.For example, if your collection is like this:Button1!OnSelect = Collect(Collection1, {Image: “someImage.jpg”, Text:”Old Text”})Then your update for OnSelect of button2 should look like this: Button2!OnSelect = Update(Collection1, {Image: “someImage.jpg”, Text:”Old Text”}, {Image: “someNewImage.jpg”, Text:”New Text”})The above rule will update the first instance of the matching “old value” with the “new value”. You can also optionally include the argument “ALL” in the update function to update all occurances of the matching value, like this: Update(Collection1, {Image: “someImage.jpg”, Text:”Old Text”}, {Image: “someNewImage.jpg”, Text:”New Text”}, All)

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hmm I guess that the only way how to do a menu what will open multiple pages is to make each item in menu separately right? I tried to make gallery with excel data what contains the names of the screens in each items and tried to navigate the item to screens by syntax OnSelect = Navigate(table1!screenName, ScreenTransition!Fade) but it just gave me syntax error. So any idea how to make gallery open multiple pages?

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    I'm sorry I didn't explain that correctly. I have gallery with text and button. The button opens new screen where is inputText and button. By pressing button in new screen it will take text from inputText and change the old text in selected instance in gallery. I found only one way to do that. Remove the old record open the new screen and add new one.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    I made Gallery1 assign with Collection1 what contains pictures and text for that gallery1. I added button and I want that button to update text in Collection1 for example "OldText" with "NewText". But I can't figure out the update function. I tried Button1 OnSelect = Update (Collection1, "OldText", "NewText") but that doesn't work so what is the right way to do that? I guess I can change the pictures in that gallery same way right?

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Anonymous (10:12 AM): Do you see any image (i.e. Siena logo) in your published app tile? Could you try PNG from Wikipedia: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/PNG_transparency_demonstration_1.png?

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Here is an example of date math. (DateValue(InputText2!Text) - DateValue(InputText1!Text)) / (2460601000). This returns the number of days between InputText2 and InputText1. For “2/2/2014” and “1/1/2014” it will return 32. Basically, DateValue(date_string) returns the number of milliseconds since 1 January 1970 00:00:00 UTC (since we need only the time distance, the time zone is irrelevant here), and 2460601000 is the converter from day to milliseconds.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hello again. Does anybody know how to change label text by pressing button. I've done simple code in button1 OnSelect=Label1!Text="blah" and it doesn't work. I want to change also screen background image by pressing button but it doesn't work as well : button1 OnSelect=Screen1!BackgroundImage=image. Is it actually possible to do that? Or what am I doing wrong? Thanks

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Terje: Gallery1!Items = Filter(Table1, 'Produktgruppe 1' = "Objektiv") should show only filtered items in the gallery. Keep in mind that Filter does not change collection or data source, it just returns new collection. Simple example is : 1. Add "Text Gallery". 2. Gallery1!Items = Filter(TextualGallerySample, Subtitle = "Subtitle 3") - it filters sample data to only 1 item.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Anonymous 4:15 PM : Please select checkbox "Publish resources locally" before publishing your app in Siena. It copies all local and remote resources into your published app package.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Wouter_V: You can access values of the sliders using Gallery!AllItems output collection, i.e. Sum(Gallery1!AllItems, Slider1!Value) returns a sum of all slider's values.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Thanks. Actually "Update" function update everything or first match instance in Collection. So is there any function what would change only selected item in gallery? For example I have gallery with text and button and I want the button to change only text in selected instance.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Anonymous: a blog post on how to submit an app created with Project Siena to the Windows Store is coming soon.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Anonymous 27 Dec 2013 10:06 AM: In my last reply, folder paths to picture/video/music library were corrupted. Please copy images to c:UsersYourUserNamePictures folder (Please replace YourUserName with your user name).

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi again everyone. Just to let you know how I figured out search in the galery: I created a Context Variable that is referenced as the Data for the gallery. When I to search, I just use Filter to get the resulting gallery and update the Context Variable. That's cool :)

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    I meant to automatically add unique ID by adding a row in collection

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Anonymous 31 Dec 2013 11:01 AM: You can use Launch(Url) function which will launch the specified Url in browser. For example, You can set Button!OnSelect = Launch("http://www.microsoft.com").

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hello, Thank you for this. It would be great for the community if you could add an example on writing data to a datasource (xlsx). Like for example a small notes application. If anyone has already figured all that out and is wanting to share this with the Siena community that would be great too (that forum mentioned in another post will certainly help). Thanks

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Anonymous: To link to a website use the Launch command like Launch(“http://www.bing.com”). The documentation of all the Project Siena functions is here:http://siena.blob.core.windows.net/beta/ProjectSienaBetaFunctionReference.html#_Toc373745497Anonymous: You cannot publish apps created by Project Siena to the Windows Store. See section 3.9 of the release notes titled: 3.9 APPS PRODUCED BY SIENA CANNOT BE PUBLISHED TO WINDOWS STORE “AS IS”.http://aka.ms/ProjectSienaReleaseNotes

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    ptr.chovan: AddColumns function returns a new table with added column which you can collect or use it directly. It does not modify existing collection. Here is an example of using AddColumns: Collect(NewCollection, AddColumns(OldCollection, "NewColumn", 10)). NewCollection will have newly added column "NewColumn" with value 10 for all rows. For more details please see functional reference document: http://aka.ms/ProjectSienaFunctionReference.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Thanks hemanth. That makes sense. And the last question about it is how to make unique ID in row. Should I use CountRow function or is there something else to do that?

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    ptr.chovan 31 Dec 2013 7:29 PM: You can do this using UpdateContext function. For example, Button1!OnSelect=UpdateContext({MyLabelText:"blah"}).And set Label1!Text = MyLabelTextFor changing screen background, do following.- Select image for screen background. Let's say name of image is SampleImage.Screen1!BackGroundImage = SampleImage- Now set Button1!OnSelect = UpdateContext({MyImage:SampleImage}).- Now set Screen1!BackGroundImage = MyImageYou can initialize default value for context variable using Navigate function. For example, Button1!OnSelect = Navigate(Screen2, ScreenTransition!Cover, {MyLabelText:""})This sets the value of context variable MyLabelText to "" , scoped to Screen2.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi Ben, great solution, i love the idea.I'm trying to connect using Dynamics CRM Online REST endpoint (via Office365 auth) to show some data from there, but i cannot connect. Did you test or you have an example of this scenario?Thank's a lot and keep doing this kind of great work!best regards

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    I also have question how to store data in excel. PLEASE HELP US !!! If this is not possible now will you add that option in next release? Second question is if there will be any possibility to export Siena project to Visual studio in future. Thanks

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Thank you very much Anatoly. Saving and loading works great. You had one mistake in loading LoadButton!OnSelect = Collect ... NOT COLLECTION. The Export works great as well but when I try to import the file it does nothing. I chose the exported file and nothing happened. I also added extra button to assign imported file to gallery and still nothing. And Please how should I use addColumns ??? I tried everything and it just doesn't work. Does it actually works? Thanks

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    As asked before (anonymous): How can I read and collect the settings of sliders added to a Gallery? I am creating a survey. Users can respond to a statement, e.g. by responding "agree" or "disagree", with 3 variations inbetween as well. I try to solve this with a slider, ranging from 1 to 5. This slider is added to the Gallery showing the statements. I can't find how to read the settings of the different sliders in the Gallery. I can set all sliders to any desired independant setting, but how to read those settings and then calculate, so I can then respond with a (filtered) result? Thank you in advance.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hello Friends, I need a link to an external website. how I can do it, it is very important to my! Happy New Year 2014

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    And how can I import pictures. I want to import picture into app when app will be published. How can I do that?

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    I am interested in performing math against two date entries. I am asking the user to input start and end dates using the "input text" visuals. I want to find the difference between the two dates. I have attempted multiple variations of sum(inputtext1!text - inputtext2!text) and I have not been able to get correct answers. I realize it might have something to do with the date being added as text, but even trying to convert the text into a datevalue has not worked for me. How can I calculate the difference of two dates? Maybe a better question is, can Siena ask the user to input a date instead of input Text? Thanks ps I love the potential siena offers me.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi I'm sorry for disturbing you again. I'm looking forward for that new web site you're creating. Unfortunately I going for a vacation this Tuesday for a two weeks with no internet connection so I will not be able to see that soon. I wish to work on my app on vacation so that's why I need this information till the day I will leave. Question1: Will you add a date picker to the Sienna or should I play with my own, or is there already date picker? Question2:Will you add button for importing pictures in collection or should I just forget about it or is there already any option to import picture to collection from published app(I already tried Import data button but that one doesn't see pictures) Question3: Is the CountRow function only way to automatically add unique ID number to database or is there any other option because this option doesn't work reliably (by removing old rows it add the same id number as the newer rows) or is there going to be a new function for that. Thanks again and sorry for disturbing you. You doing great job. Thanks

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    StonyArc: Writing data back to the datasource is not supported. But it is possible to save/load collections using Import/Export visuals or SaveData/LoadData functions.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Wouter_V: I'm glad that timer works for you now! Regarding getting access to specific slider value, it is possible to do it using FirstN and Last functions: Last(FirstN(Gallery1!AllItems,4))!Slider1!Value - returns value of the 4th slider from the gallery. Also Filter function allows to find all sliders which matches some criteria.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Wouter_V: Yes, it is an issue with TimerEnd behavior. Simplest workaround is to add a condition into the TimerEnd behavior:Timer1!TimerEnd = If(Timer1!Value > Timer1!Start, Navigate(Screen2,ScreenTransition!Cover))

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    I have a question on the Timer. I set a timer on screen1, Autostart=true, end = 4, behaviour when end: navigate to screen2. In design mode it works well: after loading the app, the opening screen (screen1) stays for 4 secs, then screen2 appears. After publishing however the time delay seems skipped. Screen2 immediately appears after screen1, even if I set the end value to 100. Should I work with a context variable?

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Anatoly, I understand the Sum of settings. Thank you, that helps a lot. To be more specific. Would it be possible to read the setting of one or more specific sliders too? Or better still: return one or more sliders (related Gallery items, or row numbers in fact) that are above or below a specified value? (e.g. those that deviate > x from the calculated average of the settings)

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    What should I take into account, when publishing my app for distribution to others? I know, when running InstallApp, I should select 'Create an appx file for sharing'. When I do so I also get a button for 'Certificate'. I wonder if I share my published app with others: can they install right away, or do they need aditional actions, or can I pro-actively create the app in such a way, so they can install right away (i.e. without the need for any certificate and alike)? Many thanks.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    How about if I will want to change certain image or text in gallery by pressing on the item?

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Anatoly, please excuse me for my 'anonymous' response on the timer. I did not notice I had restarted my internet session and had been logged off.