Can't seem to figure out REF result. I must ...

AppSheet AppSheet Q&A
1

Can’t seem to figure out REF result.

I must be missing something.

I have two tables I am trying to relate.

A parent ACTIVITIES table and a child ACTION ITEMS table.

They are related through a RecordID (same column name in both tables).

The REF definition in the ACTION ITEMS table looks like this: {

“ReferencedTableName”: “Activities”,

“ReferencedType”: “Text”,

“ReferencedTypeQualifier”: "{

“MaxLength”: null,

“MinLength”: null,

“IsMulticolumnKey”: false,

“Valid_If”: “”,

“Error_Message_If_Invalid”: null,

“Show_If”: “”,

“Required_If”: “”,

“Editable_If”: “”,

“Suggested_Values”: null}",

“ReferencedKeyColumn”: “RecordID”,

“IsAPartOf”: true,

“RelationshipName”: “”,

“InputMode”: “Auto”,

“Valid_If”: “”,

“Error_Message_If_Invalid”: “”,

“Show_If”: “”,

“Required_If”: “”,

“Editable_If”: “”,

“Suggested_Values”: “” }

This shows the correct child ACTION ITEMS for the parent ACTIVITIES table, but when I click on an ACTION ITEM in the inline table, I get the proper record, but the RecordID in the child shows a value of “Task”, which is actually the value of the “Activity Type” column in the ACTIVITIES table.

I was expecting to see the shared key RecordID displayed (not the Activity Type).

Any suggestions why this is happening and how to fix?

2

Hi Is activity type col marked as label

3

@Lynn - OMG… I was so focused on the RecordID columns, I forgot to check the Activity Type column!

Yes… it’s a label.

I still cannot really follow the right ways to use labels - so thanks!

4

Hmmm… I uncheck the Label property in the ACTIVITY table for the Activity Type column, save it, and it automatically re-checks it as label.

Any advice how Labels get auto defined?

5

@Mike_Adler There has to be some column that serves as the row label for every table. So if you uncheck them all, it will use some heuristics to pick one for you.

6

@tony - so… every table must have at least 1 label defined?

Is is typically that this is the key field as well?

7

@Mike_Adler That’s right. It’s not necessarily the key field. In fact, a common case is to have a unique id as the key (e.g. some randomly generated value like UNIQUEID()) and then have a human-understandable row label (e.g. a person’s name).

8

@tony - thanks for the quick response.

You guys rock.

for some reason this table won’t let me define any other columns as labels.

It just clears the other columns selected and assigns the Activity Type column as the label.

Odd…

9

@Mike_Adler That is odd. Are the other columns hidden? Are you un-checking the columns that you don’t want to be row labels? Note that one image column and one non-image column can be used as labels.

10

@tony- I am obviously missing something.

The columns I am trying to switch to labels are not hidden.

I try to select one and deselect the Activity Type, but it just defaults back.

here is a screen shot of some of the columns…

11

@tony - well… here’s an odd update…

I just deselected Activity Type, selected Title, and clicked Save & verfy data, and this time it seems to hold.

Thanks to you and @Lynn for all the help.

This forum is awesome, and I have not seen a team as supportive as the Appsheet team.

Other companies could learn a thing or two from you guys…