Hello. Thanks for your reply. Answering to your questions:
What are your goal of writing this formula ? Please explain and lets see we can help you with this.
I work in a paint selling and mixing facility in Northern Venezuela (new socialist Mexico). My supplier sells us 12-14 basic or “most common” colors which “when combined, produce a wide range of colors”. More or less is what it says on their datasheet. So, in my app so far I have 6 tables I plan to keep:
- Table 1: The basic colors catalog. I named it Colbas for “colores básicos”
- Table 2: “Pedidos” (Purchase /work orders I receive from costumers)
- Table 3 “Cubetas”. (Spanish for buckets. Every PO/WO might have from 1 quart up to 50 buckets of 5 gallons). Every bucket / gallon or quart will have its separate file.
- Table 4: “Detalle_Cubetas” - the details table for #4. Here I want to keep registry of every bit of paint I add to all the buckets of a PO. Say, if a formulas calls for 4 diferent paints to be mixed, here I will have 4 rows.
- Tables 5 and 6: “Igualado”, header and details: roughly translation “Matching”. It is here that I need the Action to happen. If a customer comes to me with a sample of a paint he wants to have matched, I take a cup and a a stick and start with the most obvious 2-3 colors. At first only 1 to 5 grams of each basic color. Now, I have to keep record scrupuosly. Every bit of paint is weighed on a scale that measures up to a mg. After a first visual examination I might find that I still have to add more of one of the first, or add a new color. Eventually I will take a sample out of the cup and put it on a piece of paper or the sample surface I got from the costumer. If the sample is good enough, I will be happy and sum the grams and mgs of every color and make a new formula. If not, I have to correct the formula by adding more or other basic colors. But, since I lost some of the previous mix, I have to keep record of the new diminished total to be able to subtract a percentage of every color used so far. If i had 10 grams of mix before taking half a gram to make the sample, now I will have 5% less of every color.
In the app, as much as I understand, I will need an input (in table 5?) where I put in the grams I lost or the diminished total so the app calculates the amount lost, and then a loop that adds a row of each of the color I put in before (in table 6); but this time a negative number. There might be a second or even a third sampling process, but an app should be able to do this over and over again.
When I finally hit the desired goal, I wil need another action that adds a new row to the table “Formulas” (#2), where the little formula is magnified to 5 gallon / 19 liter bucket. But this process should be easy, except for another Appsheet surprise.
. If you’re familiar with basic spreadsheet formulas and have some database knowledge, you’ll find it quite easy to grasp and implement. Understanding how spreadsheet formulas function shouldn’t be too challenging for you. The process is similarly straightforward with AppSheet.
Well, I consider myself a well over average PC layman. Do-it-yourself all the way. Raised in an Amish-like environment, college or even High School was no option. After freeing myself from that environment at an adult age, I developed a passion for computers, databases or well done softwares. And MIcrosoft Excel. I am one of those who thinks that software should work for you, not the other way around. In my previous job I got nicknamed “Mr. Excel”. College degreed co-workers frequently came to me when they need advise for Excel matters. Years ago, I was able to create modest databases with Microsoft Access. I understand the basic concepts of tables, queries, keys, relations, etc. even though I lost praxis and interest in Access when I discovered Excel’s pivot tables and Power Pivot years ago.
But Appsheet is quiete a different thing. It is anything but logic or easy. No code? Come’an! Since Google sheets copies Excel in every bit and Appsheet is based on Google sheets, I dont understand why Appsheets cannot run with exactly the same expressions as Excel / Google Sheets do. Or have more helpscreens. I still struggle to understand why Appsheet cannot even close a missing parenthesis. Excel does that since ever! Why I have to enclose columns sometimes in square brackets, but 10 seconds later in double quotes. And so on and on. There is no logic. Appsheet has, as we say in Spanish, no feet nor head. You stop using Appsheet for a week and you have to learn from the start all over again! Your brain just does not adjust to many different rules and so many exceptions.
Here the most clear evidence of Appsheet’s complexity: Last friday close to midnight, after about 10 hours of breaking my head, I decided to contact Appsheet’s chat support. After explaining that I wanted a dropdown list that would narrow down my list of basic colors after I used them one by one, the person on the chat (I could not tell from the name if it was he or she) asked for 10 minutes and access to my to-be-app. After about 15 minutes, the person was back and asked again what I needed and why I needed it. After explaining again, and another 15 minutes of access to my app, the person appologized for not being able to help me, but promised to upgrade my case to a supervisor via e-mail. Of course I have nor received an answer yet since the weekend came across. As a last ressource, I posted the inquiry on this forum, and @Suvrutt_Gurjar resolved the case I dare to say very easily. My point: It seems that not even the people of Google understand their “non code App development platform”.
I am currently exploring alternatives;, Power Apps is supposed to be “low code” instead of Appsheet´s “no code”, so I suspect it to be even more complicated, and there is no free version. Obviously I am not willing to pay for something I might never be able to use or learn to manage. And so far I have not seen any decent replacement option, but I am still searching while hoping that one day I might find the secret clue to understand what the people from Mountain View where consuming when they thought that Appsheet was “no code for everyone”.
Thanks for your interest
Cornelius
