Import CSV to Nested Table

[DMiles]

I'm trying to build a Purchase Order system. I have an Orders and an OrderDetails table.

The OrderDetails is setup as a Nested form, so you create an Order, choose your supplier, then start adding order details, i.e. the various items you want to purchase. All well and good if you have one or two items, but our Science Department will lynch me if I require them to submit their chemicals orders one by one, for example. I'd like to enable CSV import.

I've tried following these instructions Import a CSV file for this view, however it only works when I create an OrderDetails view directly.

Is there a way to enable this on a nested table?

[TeeSee1 · Accepted solution]

AFIK, you cannot do it.

You need to instruct your Sci Dept. users to create an order header, use the order id generated to complete their order details CSV (copying and pasting the id into each detail row should not be so tedious compared to populating all the different items) and import it in the detail view.

This is another thought..

When creating a CSV I assume your users copy and paste order items unless you provide a mechanism to allow them 'pick' the correct items to order.

If so, there are things that you can do within AppSheet to help users input details such as shown in the attached gif. (this provides a tabular details entry view for more continuous data entry)

You can even allow users to make and maintain pre-configured item lists if you want to or copy an existing order and edit it.

Something that you might want to consider. 

[DMiles]

Thank you, that's really helpful. Further discussion here has suggested that our POs don't really need to include the details, that could be available via an additional link, it's the total amount that's really of interest - so I might be able to avoid needing to solve this problem, but I do really like both of your proposals and have some other use cases where this might be helpful.