New Bug Encountered: Missing column choices for ChangeCounter + incomplete Regeneration

[Kirk_Masden]

Today I when I tried to add a change counter, the desired column was not visible among the column choices. I thought this was particularly odd because columns that I could NOT choose because they were of the wrong time (e.g. self-reference to this change column, other change columns, etc.) were visible.

I thought I needed to Regenerate the table to get the platform to “see” the missing column but that did nothing. I was only able to get things to work after “breaking” my app by changing the name of the target column in my Google spreadsheet and adding another column with the same name. To be honest, I can’t remember the exact sequence of steps that worked but, in essence, I feel like I had to change various things until I wound up forcing to take another look at the columns I actually had in my Google sheet (as opposed to what the platform thought I had there).

Though I have no idea about the actual code used in Regenerate on AppSheet platform, I suspect that something about the algorithm that was intended to make it work faster has led it to a less than 100% thorough rebuilding (regeneration) of the table data. My issue has been resolved but I hope the good people at AppSheet can take a look at this.

[Aleksi · Accepted solution]

Have you checked that the field is not hidden or if you have used a slice, that field belongs to that slice?

[Kirk_Masden]

Thanks for reminding me about that. I think it was a problem with the “Show” attribute. This has come up once before but I had forgotten about it. The thing is that, whether or not a column is “Shown” shouldn’t mean that it’s excluded from editing or calculations. So, this “Show” attribute problem is rather counterintuitive in my view. “Show” should govern what is shown to the user, not what the app developer is allowed to see. In this case, after we set the ChangeCounter we can hide the column again with no problem so not allowing us to choose columns that are “hidden” from the user only serves to make the editing process that much more complex. I’m not complaining to you, @Aleksi. I appreciate your help. I just hope that AppSheet can modify this aspect of the editing process to make it more intuitive.

[Aleksi]

@Kirk_Masden Good point. @Adam Any thoughts?