Delete cell triggered by change

Cabelo · 02-20-2020 07:37 AM

Hello team,

I’m trying to create my first workflow here.
Basically there is a question called “Prepayment Done?” which is a “List” type.
I’ve created another question called “why not?” which which only shows if the answer for “Prepayment Done?” answer is “Not Done”.
What I want to achieve is that once the “Not Done” gets switched to “Done”, the explanation text on “Why Not?” gets deleted.
This is something I would like to do in a few different places in my form. I tried using the SWITCH function but although it really sounded like what I needed that function is for achieving something else.

I would appreciate some light on this if anyone can help me!

Thanks a lot!!!

Kirk_Masden

I don’t think you need to “delete” the text – just write a show condition for the “Why not?” column:

[Name of column where done gets written] <> “Done”

With this condition, the column will show if the value is not “Done” but once it is change to “Done” it will disappear.

Cabelo

Thanks @Kirk_Masden

That is already done with the condition for the “field” to open. My hope to have it deleted was because some people actually use the spreadsheet instead of the app but you are right it is not a big deal!

Thanks!!!

Kirk_Masden

It you would like to do so, you could make an action to delete the information. I’m not sure about you table structure, but it should be possible to make a cell blank, if that would be better for your records. The only thing is that, the more such actions you have, the more time it takes to sync.

MultiTech

What do you mean? Are you talking about actual values, or the text above a column?

Cabelo

@MultiTech_Visions
“Done” and “Not Done” are values available as options in my Enum type column…
“Why Not?” is the name of the column which content I would like to be deleted automatically when “Not Done” value becomes “Done”.

Thanks!

MultiTech

@Cabelo Okay, I think I understand what you’re wanting.

So when the status is “Not done” you want the field available for people to type in, but when they mark things as done then it shouldn’t be available anymore - right?

Edit If is the space you’re wanting - with a formula something like:

[Enum_Column] = “Not Done”

This way when someone changes it from that value, the explanation column becomes un-editable.

yes?

Cabelo

Hi @MultiTech_Visions

What I really wanted to try is that once the values get changed from “Not Done” to “Done”, that the content on the next column called “Why Not” gets automatically deleted!
If the payment is now “done”, I would like the column that asks why it was “not done” to be deleted and be blank.

Thanks!!

MultiTech

Kirk was right, you’ll need to create an action.

There’s only 3 ways data will be changed in a field:

Someone opens the form and manually changes it;
Someone opens the data source and changes it there; and
Someone uses/triggers an action to change it.

You could create your action and put it in the event action for the form (where people change things from not done to done), or create a workflow to do the same thing.

Cabelo

@MultiTech_Visions

Thanks! Yeah that is exactly what I would like to try to achieve. I tried to create a workflow for that but I couldn’t figure out how to express that change from “not done” to “done”.
I tried using SWITCH but as @Kirk_Masden has explained that has nothing to do with what I need… any clues on which function to use to state that change?

Txs!!!

MultiTech

You need to create the action first; then create a workflow, and in the “Do This” space, select “Data Change” and the action on want to fire off.

Here’s a video showing how I’ve done something similar in an app of mine:

In your case, the condition formula would be something like:

[Enum_Column] = “Done”

Cabelo

@MultiTech_Visions Thanks so much!!!

This is actually a lot of fun!

Now, the way it currently works is:

If anything gets edited, as long as [Enum_Column]=“Done” by the time it gets saved, the action is triggered.
I would like to specify that not any edit triggers the action, but only when “Not Done” gets switched to “Done” in the [Enum_Column].

The flow of ideas everytime I learn a new thing is such a great feeling!

Cheers

MultiTech

I agree! That’s why I’ve been hooked ever since I found AppSheet.

It’s like magic for the internet. ( *￣▽￣)o ─═≡※:☆