A change to co-author permissions for adding table?

[Marc_Dillon]

Seeing a few mentions of this, but not really any info on if it was an intended change, or what. 

It seems in the past couple of weeks there was a change where co-authors are no longer able to add new tables to the app like before. Previously we were able to add tables from the suggestions that showed on the pop-up modal. Those suggestions were other tabs from a GSheet that was already connected to the app. Now the pop-up still shows the suggestions, but after trying to add one, it displays a 403 and "no columns found" error.

I opened a support ticket about this, and was pointed at the documentation here:

https://support.google.com/appsheet/answer/10104983?hl=en#:~:text=Copy%20users.-,Understand%20app%20...

The article mentions "team-shared data sources", but that option is only available for Enterprise plans.

This is a pretty major change which greatly hampers the ability for non-enterprise co-authors to make changes to apps. Where is the documentation or release notes for this change? Was the change even intentional? Why was the change made? Are there any plans to allow non-enterprise plans to utilize team sources to account for this change?

@Arthur_Rallu , I'm pretty sure I talked about this subject with you on another thread, any insights here?

[Rifad]

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@Marc_Dillon wrote:

Are there any plans to allow non-enterprise plans to utilize team sources to account for this change?

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I haven't had the chance to personally verify it, but if it doesn't work, it's a matter of serious concern. This could potentially disrupt a significant number of development issues across various apps, accounts, and clients, which is quite alarming.

[Denzil_Snyman]

This has caused a disruption yes, having to request clients to either add the table for me or even sign an NDA for the clients account login is not a solution.

 I can verify this occurred around the update whereby Appsheet Docs smartchips was announced. I was adding a table perfectly and the next moment this occurred without any changes on my data structure or owners side with permissions. It just occurred suddenly and when I reported or asked support if an update was pushed out recently they remained silent, the very next day I saw the annoucment released about smartchips. 

[Denzil_Snyman]

@Marc_Dillon @Rifad

Support closed my ticket again with this response.

Thank you for your time and patience.

As per the update from the team, co-author is not allowed to add the tables , only in case of team shared data sources you will be allowed to add the tables as a co-author.

You can also refer to the below help article for more information.

https://support.google.com/appsheet/answer/10104983?hl=en#:~:text=A%20co%2Dauthor%20can%20only%20add...

[Rifad]

Alright, what's the next step for us? This decision seems quite harsh. Why is there no communication from the AppSheet team on this? It's surprising and a bit concerning.

[WillowMobileSys]

Hi All! 

It has been pretty clear for a while now that AppSheet was moving in this direction.  I, as well,  have raised concern on this with AppSheet multiple times as well as posted and participated in discussions about this topic in the Community.  It doesn't seem to phase AppSheet at all so I can only assume that there was some major incident(s) between an App Owner and a co-author in past that has prompted these changes.

None of the clients I currently work with agree with this policy.  It is a hassle to them, especially in circumstances where they don't have immediate access to the Editor and want something done quick and look to me, as a person they hired, to get it done.  That is partly why they hired someone.  So far my clients and I have been able to deal with it in various ways.

The obvious solution to have both worlds, which I have raised to AppSheet twice, is to provide co-author permissioning - settings the App Owner can change as needed to allow certain privileges to a co-author.  Maybe these settings are time-based - i.e. access/privilege granted for a period of time in hours or days.

Until then, I guess we are stuck with it!  

[Denzil_Snyman · Accepted solution]

@Marc_Dillon @Rifad  @WillowMobileSys I saw this release today however am unable to verify if is working now, will check when home Tonight

https://www.googlecloudcommunity.com/gc/Release-Notes/December-6-2023/ba-p/678068/jump-to/first-unre...

[Denzil_Snyman]

@Marc_Dillon @WillowMobileSys @Rifad @lizlynch I tested my side and it now works again, thank you for fixing.

[lizlynch]

Fantastic! 😁

[Marc_Dillon]

Testing in one app, upon adding a table via suggestion, I now get a 400 error code (as opposed to 403), with the same "no columns found" screen. However upon reloading, the new table appears to have been added.

On another app, I was able to add new tables the same way, without any errors.

However in both apps, I am now unable to delete any tables. I try to delete, it gives me a 403 error, upon reloading, the table is still there.

[nkadonaga]

> I am now unable to delete any tables

Thank you for this report, Marc! This deletion issue should be fixed as of the Friday release.

> upon adding a table via suggestion, I now get a 400 error code (as opposed to 403), with the same "no columns found" screen. However upon reloading, the new table appears to have been added

To help me debug "no columns found," can you open a support ticket? I'm having trouble reproducing the same behavior on my end and would love to figure out how we ran into the issue in your app. Thanks so much in advance!

[Marc_Dillon]

The ticket I had opened from the beginning is 0-9181000035199

[nkadonaga]

Thanks!

[lizlynch]

@Marc_Dillon Thank you for reporting this issue! A fix is in progress. Apologies for the inconvenience.

[Marc_Dillon]

The 403 error when adding a table from suggestions as a co-author seems to still be lingering around for some accounts. I can add a table to one app-owner's app and it works just fine, but not on another app-owners app.

I updated the above mentioned ticket : 0-9181000035199

[nkadonaga]

I'm sorry you're still running into this. Thank you for updating the ticket!

[Rifad]

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@Rifad wrote:

@lizlynch wrote

ItemDescriptionBugAn issue has been fixed that was blocking co-authors from adding tables from data sources that are already connected to an app.

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I can't find the feature to insert a table in the app. Despite closing and reopening it multiple times, the option doesn't appear. My client is in a timezone 12 hours different from mine, so they're likely asleep now. Due to this issue, our scheduled tasks for today won't be completed.

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December 6, 2023 - Google Cloud Community