November 7, 2024

AppSheet Release Notes
1

Deployment Time: 3:30 PM PST

Features & enhancements

Item Description
Enhancement User settings are now available in the Data Explorer tab of the Expression Assistant.



![lizlynch_1-1731076998549.png

Bug fixes

Item Description
Bug Fixed a bug where emulator preview kept reloading when navigating through the Automation page.

Rollout changes

NonePreview announcements

Preview feature releases enable you to try out new app features that are not yet fully supported. See Product launch stages.

  • No new preview features were released today.

In addition, the AppSheet preview program lets app creators try out new app features that are not yet fully supported. For more details and to opt-in, see AppSheet preview program.

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Thanks @lizlynch

Also, about the expression assistant, is there a roadmap for adding expressions such as [_THISROW_BEFORE], [_THISROW_AFTER], and [_THISUSER] (which would replace efficiently using USERSETTINGS() in some cases)

Thanks

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  • We are planning to support _THISROW_BEFORE in the Data Explorer and with autocompletions this year
  • I have mixed opinions on _THISROW_AFTER, because in most situations, [_THISROW_AFTER].[C] is the same as [C]. But will consider adding autocompletion support when we add for _THISROW_BEFORE.
  • We recommend using USERSETTINGS, not _THISUSER.
    Function completions are being released imminently. This will make it so you don’t have to type all of USERSETTINGS. Autocompletions for the available columns within USERSETTINGS will be available within the next few days
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Thanks @wabrian

  1. [_THISROW_BEFORE] to be released: super great :slightly_smiling_face:

  2. I agree with the redundancy of [_THISROW_AFTER], but similarly to yes/no type, it’s the same as comparing [yesno_column]=TRUE or just using [yesno_column] only which also renders TRUE or FALSE.

  3. About [_THISUSER]: when it comes to using a Ref type, we can use a deref expression. While with USERSETTINGS(), we need to use a LOOKUP(USERSETTING([mycolumn]), …) which is less efficient.

I would really appreciate if you consider keeping it live :slightly_smiling_face:

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In which situations is it not the same?

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I have the same issue as @Aurelien on point 3.

Is much easier (And short) to use a deref with _THISUSER than Lookup with userssetings

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I also add my vote for standardizing [_THISUER] over USERSETTINGS().

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@Aurelien I had not considered [_THISUSER].[Ref].[C]. That is a clear place where _THISUSER is preferrable.

@Steve There are some cases where it differs, see https://support.google.com/appsheet/answer/10107945?hl=en#:~:text=Column%20value%20expressions%20return%20the,the%20context%20of%20the%20expression.&text=Value%20of%20a%20column%20in%20the%20current%20table

@Marc_Dillon My intuition is that spreadsheet users are more comfortable with FUNC(C) than [Ref].[C] notation. There’s also the downside that [_THISUSER] itself doesn’t return anything useful.
We have no intention of killing _THISUSER, it’s only a matter of whether we promote it via autocompetions. I suspect we will in due time

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And those conditions are obscure! Whew! Thanks for pointing me to that!

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Hi @wabrian

Thanks for the improvement of Expression assistant.

It seems that the insert UI does not appear in the data explorer for long column names.

2024-11-13_04h54_52.gif

Thanks!

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@takuya_miyai Thanks for catching that (it’s because we recently allowed inserting as List, making the insert button bigger). Will try to get a fix out shortly!

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