New User: Field disappears from the Form view

[Jeff_Gordon]

I’m a new user to AppSheet so I’m still learning. This looks like a bug to me, but I suspect it’s user-error (mine) …

I’ve got an app and I just noticed that in my Form View when I put in any values in certain fields, other fields that follow it are reset to blanks and the field actually disappears from the form view.

It should be noted that I had been experimenting with workflows and behaviors prior to this, but I’ve deleted those behaviors and workflows and the problem still exists. The possible bug would be that deleting a behavior or workflow doesn’t fully delete it. But more likely, I’m just missing something.

Here are the fields involved and the order that are in the form:

• When
• Prty
• List

Here are some examples of what happens in different scenarios:

• If I put in a value in When , both Prty and List completely disappear from the form.
• If I cancel the update and put a value into the Prty field, the List field disappears but When still shows.
• If I cancel the update and put a value into the List field, When and Prty still show.
• If I cancel the update and put a value into the List field and then put something into the Prty field, the List field disappears. If I look at the spreadsheet, the correct value is in the Prty field and List is blank.

I do not have any Show If specifications (they are all set to show) . I also do not have any Reset On Edits .

Any ideas on what’s happening and how I can debug this?

[Steve]

Are you using Valid If expressions?

If a Valid If expression is used to produce a dropdown menu, …

… but the expression itself produces an empty list, …

… any value already in that column will/may be removed. (I haven’t yet figured when it gets removed and when it doesn’t.)

If Valid If indicates there are no valid choices (that empty list) …

… and the column value is (or has become) blank, …

… AppSheet automatically hides the column, because why show a column the user can’t enter a valid value into?

[Jeff_Gordon]

Thanks @Steve … I’ve checked my Valid If statements and they all have a valid expression that’s returning valid values.

[Steve]

Please contact support@appsheet.com for help with this, then.

[Jeff_Gordon]

@Steve … I finally figured out what was happening … the fields in question are defined like this:

• When … Valid If = Lookups [When Lookup]
• Prty … Valid If = Lookups [Prty Lookup]
• List … Valid If = Lookups [List Lookup]

Here is the relevant fields from the Lookups table

• Key … Initial Value = UniqueID()
• Lookup Type … Type = text
• Lookup Value … Type = text
• List Lookup … Virtual Column … Type = text … App Formula = If ([Lookup Type] = “List”, [Lookup Value], “”)
• When Lookup … Virtual Column … Type = text … App Formula = If ([Lookup Type] = “When”, [Lookup Value], “”)
• Prty Lookup … Virtual Column … Type = text … App Formula = If ([Lookup Type] = “Priority”, [Lookup Value], “”)

It turns out it thinks they are supposed to be a dependent dropdown when I don’t want a dependent dropdown. I wonder if there is a way to tell it not to make it a dependent dropdown.

[Steve]

Jeff_Gordon:

I wonder if there is a way to tell it not to make it a dependent dropdown.

A dependent dropdown can be avoided by using a SELECT() or FILTER() expression rather than a table-column reference.

[Jeff_Gordon]

@Steve … The Select worked perfectly. THANK YOU!!