Re: Mention and topics with @ and #

HCF · 01-07-2021 05:30 AM

Any plans on having the @ and # operators implemented into the AppSheet so that we can refer to rows in other tables via those operators?

Steve

Why?

HCF

It’s more modern and easier for the users to interact that way I believe.
Also, it may give more flexibility in building relationships.
Just like when I use @Steve and #requests

Steve

I’m having trouble imagining how this would be used. Could you describe what you envision? Would it be something you’d use in expressions in the app configuration? Or something users of the app would use?

HCF

I am looking for something the users could use.
For instance, while typing a note you may want to refer to a customer and then it’s convenient to just type @ and the customer name.

Rafael_ANEIC-PY

Hello Hans, let’s say you could refer a table like “Users”, so you would type @Users, but then you would have to tell appsheet what column you would like to refer to, so that could be @Users[Name], but then you have to tell appsheet which row(s) are you interested in, at that point you would have something straight up like select() or lookup() i believe.

HCF

Yes @Rafael_ANEIC-PY , you probably need a Select() or Lookup() to shows the records to select from.
You already have the Find function in the top of the screen. Maybe, that’s reusable somehow for this purpose.

Rafael_ANEIC-PY

Aaaah i think i got it, you want users to be able to see lists or rows by mentioning the tables with the @ or # operators while typing on text or longtext fields? sort of like when you mention someone on a facebook comment i believe?

MultiTech

So something like this?

But you would still have to build something like Raf mentioned:

in(INDEX(Current_User[User_Mention_Tag], 1), [Extracted_Mentions])

The full setup I would use for this would be as follows:

Inside the table where people can type their text and include their mentions
- I would include an ExtractMentions() column to pull out the mentions used in that record and store it as a static value (since it doesn’t change unless the text changes).
I would create a slice of that table, utilizing the formula I shared above, to hold all the records that have a mention for the current user.
I would then show that slices data wherever
- create a view for the current user to see
- List them inside the user record
- etc.

HCF

You would have to detect the typing of @ and #, so that you can show a list to select a name like @MultiTech_Visions . Then obviously, there must be some logic behind to bind the records together in a relation.

Steve

This is not a feature request for AppSheet itself, but for apps. AppSheet already provides support for mentions and hash tags in the form of EXTRACTMENTIONS() and EXTRACTHASHTAGS().

See also:

WillowMobileSys

Can you elaborate what you mean by this?

HCF

OK, you can extract, but that is not my point.
I want to insert the reference like this @Steve

MultiTech

Back where it all began…

Grant_Stead

I’ve wanted the same thing… it’s basically “on the fly” enumlist basetype ref built into text/long text fields…
So, the way I think AppSheet could help implement it would be a configuration of text column definitions… where you could designate one or many special characters fields and their associated referenced table.

So, on a long text column, the app developer could designate “@” references the USER table, further maybe even a dynamic valid list expression spot beneath that. Then you could also designate “#” references the ENUM table with a list expression.

Then the user of the app could start typing “I wish we could go to the store @usertablelabel and we need to get #enumtablelabel”

I would imagine that in the backend data we would be storing #key and @key (Which then we could extract and utilize, or create Virtual Ref_Row columns for.) The front end of Appsheet would be emphasizing and bringing in the label for these for user viewing. (The same way they do in the REF dropdowns.)

I would think that in order for appsheet to pull this off, they would first need text field formatting…

HCF

Yes, that’s exactly what I think @Grant_Stead
All the modern platforms are using this LinkedIn, FB, Twitter and many more.

Grant_Stead

For now I just carry separate enumlist fields after the text field, just like how Facebook old school tagging friends images used to be a separate exercise.

MultiTech

This plays into similar requests from ages ago: