I have an app that i need to have an extensive tree layout for the send email view. Im unable to expand it to see the tree to add more options. it wont slide sideways. Ill have 13 more trailer options and 5 more tractor options.
It is not exactly clear your requirement based on the screenshot shared.
But it sounds that you have around 18 report templates and each Y/N step takes eliminates an option and evaluates the next one.
If so, please consider following
You could have multiple bots (18) with event condition something like
AND(
[_THISROW_BEFORE].[Inspection_Level] <> [_THISROW_AFTER].[Inspection_Level],
[_THISROW_AFTER].[Inspection_Level] = “Level 1 Inspection’“
)
for inspection level 1 bot and so on.
It may sound like extra work to create so many bots but indirectly you are doing almost same thing in creating that long Y/N logic and email template step is anyway unavoidable in a single or multiple bots.
Of course , with little more imagination you may have say 4 bots instead of 18. For example , inspection levels 1 to 4 in bot 1 , inspection levels 5 to 8 in bot 2 and so on. These bots will be a mix of a few Y/N logic steps and some changes to event condition logic.
The event condition in that case for level 1 to 4 inspections combined bot would be something like
AND(
[_THISROW_BEFORE].[Inspection_Level] <> [_THISROW_AFTER].[Inspection_Level],
IN([_THISROW_AFTER].[Inspection_Level] , LIST(“Level 1 Inspection“ , “Level 2 Inspection“ , “Level 3 Inspection“ , “Level 4 Inspection“ ))
)
Also I could not test the bot steps linking for such a large number of steps. If you are not able to expand screen for more number of steps, please raise it as the editor’s possible UI bug.
Till the time AppSheet team fixes that bug or if there is no other way to expand the screen, please consider workarounds I suggested.
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If I understand correctly, you are asking for VISUAL space to see more of the processing tree OR the ability to scroll sideways. The only way really is to have a larger screen or higher resolution or BOTH so more can be displayed by the webpage at once. Not having left-to-right scrolling for these Bots is a design flaw and should be submitted to AppSheet Support.
However, I agree with @Suvrutt_Gurjar . It is MUCH better to break up your processing amongst several Bots, rather than attempting to create a huge decision tree.
Performance is one factor. But more importantly, if your Bot has an issue it will be a nightmare to try to trace the Bot execution to identify where the problem occurred. When the processing is broken into multiple smaller Bots, you will know exactly which Bot to look at based on execution criteria and it will be easier to trace through the minimal Bot execution steps.
There are a couple of other advantages. If a row meets criteria of two or more Bots, they will process in parallel. If a Bot makes changes that then needs to trigger another Bot, you can configure your Bots to make that happen. Incorporating that same logic in a single decision tree would be messy!
I hope this helps!
4 Likes
Well articulated @WillowMobileSys. You have mentioned some important points that make the case stronger for multiple individual bots.
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I understand ok yes that makes sense. I can create a Bot and tree for each equipment type That way I can trigger it based on what type of equipment the app user has
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Thank you for explaining the process throughly I understand now My trees still may be large but less then 6
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I have 3 Inspection levels for each piece of equipment
level 1
level 2
level 3
So the user first ads their equipment “TYPE”
So if i understand correctly i need to create a BOT for each equipment “type” and a tree that points to the attachment for each Inspection level.
So something like this?
[_THISROW_BEFORE].[Equipment_Type] <> [_THISROW_AFTER].[Equipment_Type]= “Tractor”
It is not clear what the role , inspection level plays in templates. Are there different templates for different inspection levels? In that case inspection levels will need to be included in the event trigger condition expression.
Just for type, you can try the following expression
AND(
[_THISROW_BEFORE].[Equipment_Type] <> [_THISROW_AFTER].[Equipment_Type],
[_THISROW_AFTER].[Equipment_Type]
= “Tractor”
)
for Tractor type template and so on.
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From my point of view, it depends on what actions need to happen inside the Bot for each of the 3 Inspection levels. If there is very few actions in common between each level, then I would recommend separating into individual Bots. If the actions are mostly the same, then I would have a single Bot and insert the variation where needed in the Bot steps.
By the way, I would apply the same logic to the equipment. Only separate them into separate Bots IF the actions needed are mostly unique. For example, a tractor and a combine may have mostly the same actions required as far as inspection levels go but a couple extra for a combine. So place them together into the same Bot. But a baler likely requires a completely different set of inspection activities so it would go into a separate Bot altogether.
To back up for a moment, you want to create the Bot inspection processes as generic as possible and fit the equipment into the proper process. I might suggest that you “white board” the inspection actions - maybe in a worksheet or scratch paper. Identify all the inspection actions/steps needed for EVERYTHING and then assign equipment to each process and tweak as needed. This will allow you to see the similarities and combine and condense the processes into fewer Bots.
I hope this helps!
2 Likes
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