Scenario: Field service app, where the user can see a list of work orders assigned to him and select anyone to load its corresponding Spreadsheet as a new View (to check tasks, add notes, etc.)
First part easy, user can see the list already. The second part however requires the dynamic creation of a new source (table) for the App. Is that possible?
Nope.
I think you’re going about this the wrong way. In 6 years of using Appsheet I’ve never needed to do this. So please give us some more info about what you want the App to actually do.
Thank you @1minManager. I am just starting with Appsheet, so I will really appreciate an experienced insight and perspective.
We have been running this process fine just using spreadsheets with Apps Script:
A service work order can be created from the Project Management or from the Tech Support departments. To do that, in both cases they can use either their Google Calendars or the general Work Orders Spreadsheet. An Apps Script on that spreadsheet listens to both: changes in the document or events creation on the editor’s calendar, in order to automatically create a new Customer Work Order Spreadsheet (from a template) and invite the technician and the client, with different calendar descriptions.
On the scheduled date, the technician on-site checks his calendar, finds the event with the link to that new Customer Work Order Spreadsheet, opens it on his computer, and goes through his job adding notes and checking the list of tasks to complete. In the end, the technician uses a final checkbox on that document to trigger a second Apps Script, that updates the WO status on the general Work Orders Spreadsheet and sends different notifications to the PM, and to the customer.
It is working, but it will work so much better as an App on a phone because, as you can imagine, having to open a laptop on-site is already an extra burden and, browsing and editing a (Work Order) Spreadsheet on a mobile device is a nightmare.
On the Appsheet end, I can add the general Work Orders Spreadsheet as a (table) source, but not every new Work Order Spreadsheet because those don’t exist yet.
Esteban:
To do that, in both cases they can use either their Google Calendars or the general Work Orders Spreadsheet. An Apps Script on that spreadsheet listens to both: changes in the document or events creation on the editor’s calendar, in order to automatically create a new Customer Work Order Spreadsheet (from a template) and invite the technician and the client, with different calendar descriptions.
Seems to me your quite clued up on techincal stuff. What you have here is far more complex that what Appsheet requires. The ‘simple’ way would be to have 1 table for all the Work Orders which are both created and updated using just Appsheet.
Esteban:
use either their Google Calendars or the general Work Orders Spreadsheet
Then thats ok, but they’ll need to write this as a row in the spreadsheet.
Esteban:
On the scheduled date, the technician on-site checks his calendar, finds the event with the link to that new Customer Work Order Spreadsheet, opens it on his computer, and goes through his job adding notes and checking the list of tasks to complete. In the end, the technician uses a final checkbox on that document to trigger a second Apps Script, that updates the WO status on the general Work Orders Spreadsheet and sends different notifications to the PM, and to the customer.
This is all fairly easy to do in Appsheet -
Esteban:
the technician on-site checks his calendar
If the Work Orders sheet contains both the diary booking info and who its allocated to then you cna create a slice using UserName() to show only records allocated to the logged in user
Esteban:
and goes through his job adding notes and checking the list of tasks to complete
This is better in Appsheet than a spreadsheet because you have so much more control about what they can or can’t do/see/edit etc.
Esteban:
n the end, the technician uses a final checkbox on that document to trigger a second Apps Script, that updates the WO status on the general Work Orders Spreadsheet and sends different notifications to the PM, and to the customer.
You can automate all this with a Bot. The email body and PDF attachment can be fully controlled using templates
Esteban:
It is working, but it will work so much better as an App on a phone because, as you can imagine, having to open a laptop on-site is already an extra burden and, browsing and editing a (Work Order) Spreadsheet on a mobile device is a nightmare.
Thats the good bit of using Appsheet - everyone has a smartphone in their pocket. So no one can compain they can do a simple task
Esteban:
On the Appsheet end, I can add the general Work Orders Spreadsheet as a (table) source, but not every new Work Order Spreadsheet because those don’t exist yet.
As I said, you (or the App users) would simply add these as they were required
Hope this helps