Data Validation

Hi there!
My app has data validation on each column for each of the tables I have ( total of 1000+ columns) I applied data validation to the original Google sheet but when I regenerate the structure the data validation doesnโ€™t transfer (I followed the documentation on how to do this- mind you, it is not Dropdown data validation)
I found that in order for me to make sure the data validation happens, I have to go to into the Appsheet editor>data>Columns> open each column editor and apply data validation there. Since I have 1000+ columns, I was hoping I didnโ€™t have to do this 1000+ times.

Does anybody have an idea on how to do this?

Thank you,

0 11 2,102
11 REPLIES 11

Steve
Participant V

I recommend contacting support@appsheet.com directly for this. It sounds like a bug.

Thank you very much!

It is my understanding that AppSheet will apply Data Validation from a Google sheet into the AppSheet app. So yes, contact AppSheet to see why it is not happening your case.

However, I am curious what kind of data validation you might be doing that would require it on EVERY column? That would be highly unusual. And I assume you are speaking of the conditions that would appear in the Valid_If section of the column? Maybe you have a very unique use case? Maybe there is a way to simplify your app?

Agreed. This is an assessment (quiz) app. This assessment needs to be taken by hundreds of students. students are divided into groups and they can take the assessment in groups. There is a total of 40 groups. Each group is given a number and each group has a variation of the same assessment. In essence, the assessment is comprised of 8 questionnaires with 6 to 9 questions each. Each group will go through the 8 questionnaires in a different order (so that they canโ€™t cheat) Therefore there is a total of 40 different assessments x 8 questionnaires with 6-9 questions each. Since each question needs a valid answer to continue, thatโ€™s why I need to add validation to each column because each column is a question. Hope this makes sense.
I thought of a way to randomize the questionnaires so that, letโ€™s say group 1 starts the assessment and they are presented with questionnaires 3,7,4,2,1,6,8,7 in that order but when you choose "group 2โ€™ you may get questionnaires 4,6,5,2,8,1,3,7- does that make sense? But I couldnโ€™t figure out how to do that in App sheet. So I ended up making 40 unique combinations of the 8 questionnairesโ€ฆsigh. thatโ€™s why the 1000+ columnsโ€ฆ
Iโ€™m so open for suggestions, though! and thanks for replying to my message!

I believe I get the gist. If I understand correctly, you basically have about 48-72 UNIQUE questions but because they appear in different assessments they are replicated about 40 times each as their own column in each assessment. If I am right then I say OUCH!

There would be a much simpler way to build your app. It would require basically starting from scratch but the end result would something that is a LOT easier to maintain and MUCH easier to change if needed. I think we can even work in the random feature you suggested. It would probably take a week or so to build it - Iโ€™m padding for unknowns.

For example, imagine if you now needed the questionnaires to be 10-12 questions each. That would be a lot of work to add those 3-4 questions into each assessment! A lot of work, even if you just needed to replace questions!

If the app was restructured in the way I have in mind, you could add, update, remove questions and have them apply to all your assessments in less than an hour!

If you are interested, Iโ€™d be happy to help. No business or monetary angle. Iโ€™d help just because! Just send me a private message if you want and we can figure it out from there.

Hello
I want to create the same app, can you give me a hint about how to design tables ?
Thank you

Hi! Its been a while since Iโ€™ve thought about this use case but here is what I believe I would do:

  1. Create a โ€œQuestionsโ€ table - with columns for question related info. E.g. Question ID, Question, Correct Answer, Answer Choices, Category, etc.

  2. Create a โ€œQuestionnairesโ€ table - with columns for questionnaire info. E.g. Questionnaire ID, Name, Category, etc.

  3. Create a โ€œStudentsโ€ tableโ€ฆ

  4. Create a โ€œStudent Groupsโ€ tableโ€ฆ

Likely you will want questions to appear on multiple questionnaires. To accomplish that you will want a โ€œbridgeโ€ table maybe named something like โ€œQuestionnaire Questionsโ€. In this table, the columns might be Link ID, Question ID and Questionnaire ID. The only purpose of this table is to to link which questions should appear for each questionnaire.

The idea is that you can create a Questionnaire record and then choose which questions appear for that questionnaire. Category might be used to automatically choose available questions.


This is a very brief and very high-level description of the data structure. I hope it helps you get started. let me know if you have questions.

Amine
Participant II

Thank you for your help, Iโ€™ll start making it and Iโ€™ll get back to you in case.
Thanks again

Can someone please explain me how to simply make the chosen item on a menu open an other menu?
I canโ€™t find this simple task explained anywhere.

AppSheet has no built-in accommodation for cascading menus; youโ€™ll have to construct it yourself.

Sure, Iโ€™ll do it myself, but the question was how.

Top Labels in this Space