Bug: Valid If ignored in "Edit in place" desktop behavior for columns with an App Formula

AppSheet AppSheet Q&A
,
1

Hi everyone,

Found a bug with desktop behavior of the Edit action. Field validation Valid If is completely ignored in the “Edit in place” view on columns that also contain an App Formula.

If a column does not have an App Formula, validation works perfectly across both views. But if it has both, the inline edit behavior completely bypasses the rule.

“Open a form” desktop behavior: The validation rule triggers perfectly, displaying the red error message (“must be unique per account”) for the column with the App Formula.

Open a form - app formula-compressed

“Edit in place” desktop behavior: The validation rule completely fails to trigger for that same App Formula column, letting invalid data slide through.

Edit in place - app formula-compressed

“Edit in place” desktop behavior on a column without an App Formula: In this scenario, the Valid If constraint works exactly as intended.

Edit in place - without app formula-compressed

2

@Jose_Arteaga @Shourya_Tomar

Could you please acknowledge or confirm if this is a known, inherent bug specifically tied to the “Edit in place” desktop behavior when paired with an App Formula?

An official confirmation on whether this is an inherent platform limitation or a bug currently slated for a fix would be greatly appreciated, as it directly impacts data integrity for desktop users.

3

Assume it will not be fixed and code around it. Your App formula expression should not be generating invalid values anyway.

4

Hi @Steve,

You’re absolutely right, and I acknowledge that columns with an App Formula fundamentally shouldn’t require Valid If expressions.

However, I’m using it here as a workaround for a special edge case. The column containing the App Formula acts as the Label field for the table, and its value is generated using CONCATENATE() to join multiple optional fields together.

App Formula:

TRIM(
CONCATENATE(
[Brand Name],
IF(ISNOTBLANK([Category Tags]), " " & [Category Tags], ""),
IF(ISNOTBLANK([Measurement Tags]), " " & [Measurement Tags], ""),
IF(ISNOTBLANK([Colour Tags]), " " & [Colour Tags], ""),
IF(ISNOTBLANK([Quality Tags]), " " & [Quality Tags], ""),
IF(ISNOTBLANK([Inventory Group Name]), " " & [Inventory Group Name], "")
)
)

Because none of these individual component fields are required by nature, placing a uniqueness Valid If constraint on them individually won’t work effectively (especially since empty values wouldn’t trigger the check in the way I need).

Therefore, I have to apply the Valid If directly to the concatenated Label column to ensure that the final combination of all these attributes remains strictly unique within the account.

Valid If:



NOT(
IN(
[Inventory Name],
SELECT(
INVENTORY[Inventory Name],
AND([Account ID] = [_THISROW].[Account ID], [ID] <> [_THISROW].[ID])
)
)
)

Another workaround to keep using “Edit in place” could be to place the Valid If constraint on the [Inventory Group ID] column instead, since that is a required field.

However, for now, I would prefer to just switch back to “Open a form” behavior if this isn’t something that’s going to be fixed!

Let me know your thoughts.

5

I think opening a form is the simplest option.