Are User Settings ignored in references?

AppSheet AppSheet Q&A
1

I have three tables. Item and Faves, which are both read-only, and Save, which can be edited.
I also have a user setting called Preview Mode, which is of type Yes/No and has an initial value of true.

Item has a virtual column SID with the formula IF(USERSETTINGS("Preview Mode"), "zzz", [ID])
ID is a real column which contains the keys for the table.
SID is a reference to the Save table.

Item also has a virtual column Item Value with the formula [SID].[Value]
Value is a real column in the Save table.
Item Value will never be 0 unless SID is “zzz” or the value of ID does not exist in the Save table.

Faves has a virtual column Valuef with the formula [Itemf].[Item Value]
Itemf is a virtual column with a reference to the Item table.

Assuming that the item being referenced exists in the Save table…
No matter the value of Preview Mode, Valuef is always greater than 0, meaning that within the Faves table the value of Preview Mode is always false.

Am I doing something wrong? or is there a problem with references? My only solution at this point is to add multiple Preview Mode checks within other virtual columns, but I was hoping changing SID, which all other calculated values in my app are derived from, would be enough.

2

Are you columns that you referred to Real or Virtual? Are you aware of the difference between when expression in Real columns evaluate (only when the record is edited), vs in expressions in Virtual columns (on every sync)?

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3

I apologize for not clarifying that all the columns are virtual with the exception of the ID column in the Item table, and the Value column in the Save table. I was also not aware of when real columns were evaluated, but none of the real columns in my problem use expressions.

4

I’m sorry I don’t see anything wrong. That could be because your description of your setup is incredibly hard to follow, screenshots always help. Surely there is an easier way for you to setup your required functionality. What are you even trying to do?

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