Allowing editing of only part of the form: ho...

AppSheet AppSheet Q&A
1

Allowing editing of only part of the form: how to?

So I have this app still on the making, which engineers will use in order to verify works.

So, first time engineer will add a new verification, it adds the timestamp of that verification (if he saves the form, of course).

But sometimes the verification will result in a non approved status, whereupon the engineer should decide some course of action to correct the non-conformity and re-verify the same item on a later date.

Now, I noticed that so far my app allows users to edit any previously saved form.

I allowed edits exactly because I need the engineer to add a re-verification of the non-conform items.

But I want the first part of the form (1st verification) to be non editable. When doing a re-verification, only the Re-verification part of the form should be editable.

Maybe a better option than to have a part of the form non-editable and the other part editable would be to have the re-verification in a new form?

So I make the table non editable and that’s it. If an work item is approved and the form is saved, the option for a new form is added.

If an work item has a non conformity, instead of saving the incomplete form to fill it later, maybe the form should be saved completed and a new one opened for the re-verification?

BUT that adds a problem… because then I will not be able to filter only work items that STILL have non-conformities, as any item with a non-conformity would stay that way forever…

Any insight in what method is better (if someone faced a similar problem) and how to deal with method 1 (if that is the better method), that is, allowing only 2nd part of form to be edited.

2

I would prefer the first method because then you would not need to have an extra form. You just need to control the field is it a new record or not.

3

Using “Editable_if” Column constraint set to “is_blank” has a problem. The moment the user changes the value of the column the field already freezes. That would be very problematic as it’s easy to make accidental errors when choosing an item from a list, etc.

My wish is to ONLY freeze items to editing after the form is saved, not while filling the form the first time.

4

You can do that with the suitable Editable_If formula. For example…

NOT(IN([KeyColumn],TableName[KeyColumn])) or like

NOW()-[CREATED]<“000:02:00”.

5

@Aleksi_Alkio Thanks for trying to answer Aleksi.

So, the second formula is a time constraint, allowing info to be edited up to X minutes or hours after inserted.

I am however trying to decipher how the first formula works…

6

@Aleksi_Alkio

Using the 2nd formula… set for 30 minutes.

It just seems a pain in the ass as I have some 30 columns and I have to insert the formula in each column

7

Sometimes it’s better to add a virtual column with the evaluation formula and then read the TRUE/FALSE value with very simple formula. If you need to change it a little, you need to do it only once.

8

@Aleksi_Alkio I see. Write the same formula in all columns, just checking true or false. The formula generating true or false is what needs to be changed…

9

When the virtual column is a Y/N column, you can write just [VirtualColumnName] in Editable_If field.