I need a field that is populated with the person who submitted a form

AppSheet AppSheet Q&A
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1

Is there a createdby? or author field? for each record?

2

See ā€œLimiting Users to Their Own Dataā€ in this article https://help.appsheet.com/en/articles/1128148-limiting-users-to-their-own-data

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Hi Laurie,
there is no specific field that lets you have that. However, you can add a column in your spreadsheet to record who makes a change. Then you can set an initial value for that column with ā€œUSEREMAIL()ā€. Then whenever someone creates a new record, the field will be auto-populated with that userā€™s email.
Note that the app must require people to sign-in for that function to work.

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yes I only want the Username on the create not the edits. I want it to hold the name of the author

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The challenge is that some datasource provider donā€™t return username value when we invoke the function. Useremail has proven to be more reliable function instead if that is an option for you.

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As Thierry was saying, the user email will be more reliable.

If you use the USEREMAIL() in ā€˜INITIAL VALUEā€™ field for a column, itā€™ll only add that when you create it. When another user edits that record, the email wonā€™t be modified unless they do it on purpose.

However, if you use USEREMAIL() in the FORMULA field for a column, itā€™ll be updated everytime a user creates or edits the record. Thatā€™s not what you want.

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7

Hi,
This workaround may be a little complex or cumbersome to implement depending on how your app and users work butā€¦

You can capture the users name once, such as at login ā€œwelcome, enter your nameā€.
Then set this into a new table with a unique ā€˜login instance idā€™
Now as your user moves through your app, you can carry that id as forward as a variable set as the default value on new records generated.
In context this looks like after they login in, the navigation to the next screen includes to write the login id to a new potential record.

I donā€™t know exactly how your app works so I canā€™t give any further specifics.
Hope it helps
Edit: youā€™d make the ā€˜enter your nameā€™ as required, then compare the email for better accuracy.