New Bug Encountered: Incomplete list of columns to choose from in Change Column

Whene we set a change column of some sort, we would be able to choose the appropriate triggering column from the list presented in “Columns” of “Type Details.”

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However, I’ve been having trouble getting the columns I want to use as triggers to appear in the pop-up menu. I tried regenerating the table but no luck. Finally, I tried changing the name of the column, regenerating, and then changing the name back and regenerating again. This worked but, of course, it’s a time-consuming and anxiety inducing process that should not be necessary.

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Hi @Kirk_Masden could you please give us an example where this isn’t working as expected (ideally give us the app name, the change column name, and the column you expect to watch for that isn’t being shown) . Usually, if a column isn’t shown, it is because it is read-only or something like that

Thanks @praveen!

Just for your reference, I’ve been able to get the app editor to show me the columns I need to set through the method I’ve described above. So, my immediate needs have been met. However, I think something about the app editor isn’t quite right so I hope the following will be useful to AppSheet:

App name: KankakuV5b-230844 (currently working on this app as the next version of my flashcard app)

Table: Kankaku

Column set as counter: For Praveen
(As I explained about, I’ve been able to resolve the issue for myself for now, so I made another column to demonstrate the problem.)

When I made this column a change column, I was shown the following list of columns as choices:

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As far as I can tell, the following columns should be visible but are not:

Media link
DW Set aside
DW View answer
Remote got it
Transfer

Some columns that I would not expect to be offered as options (e.g. “For Praveen,” which would be self referential, columns already designated as change columns, etc.) are.

Finally, the order of the list of choices is a bit of a mystery to me. To some extent the order corresponds to the order of columns in the table, but not completely. This makes looking for the appropriate column harder if the table is quite large.

Again, I’m good for now but I hope this helps you fix or improve the editor.

P.S. This app is one you helped get started with a couple of years ago. Thanks again for that help. I’ve been using it myself and with my students for quite some time now but my poor design (part of which stemmed from limitations of the 2016 AppSheet platform) resulted in an app that occasionally forces the user to wait for annoying syncs. All syncing with the new version can be done in the background so the user will never have to wait for the app to finish syncing before moving to the next step. I’m quite excited about this new version of my app.

Hi @praveen! I know you are all busy but I wonder if you would like me to keep “Praveen,” the text column I put in my app to demonstrate the problem, where it is now or whether I should go ahead and erase it. As I explained above my current needs have been met in this regard but I thought it might be to AppSheet’s advantage to locate and eliminate the bug. I just checked and the situation remains unchanged (certain columns do not appear as candidates for counting, for reasons I don’t understand).

Kirk, please keep it. Have been swamped but have some time today and will check it.

Hi Kirk, I checked our logic. We do not show columns that are marked as Hidden.

I’m unclear if we should allow a change column to trigger of a change to a hidden value. It is possible that a hidden value might be changed via an action or something, so I’m going to enable this.

I agree that the circular reference doesn’t make sense.

Thanks for pointing out these issues.

@praveen , It seems that hidden columns are currently not showing up in the “columns to watch” dropdown. Did this get changed for some reason?

Following Kirk’s suggestion, I was able to set the column as visible, add it to the “columns to watch” list, then set it back to hidden.

Thanks @praveen! I really appreciate your taking the time to look into this.

Indeed, in my app I wanted to count the times that a column is changed by an action. I wantef the column to be hidden because it doesn’t make sense to the user. Instead, it is necessary for the inner workings of the app, one aspect of which is dependent on the count. I hope it will continue to be possible to count hidden columns. Personally, I think that if a column can be changed, then the change count function should be enabled, regardless of whether or not it is hidden.

Also, I think that even before you made this adjustment, it had been possible to set the ChangeCounter first and then set the column to hidden. I think this may be what I did, without fully understanding what I was doing.

Thanks again!

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