Question with symbols on top of table view form

Lucinda_Mason · 04-10-2020 11:24 AM

I am using a table view to display records to select, one at a time, for a user to make edits and grant approval. There is nothing to edit on this page yet the edit button appears at the top. I have no idea what the square box with a check is for. The search and sync are fine.

Is there any way to hide the middle two buttons (edit and checkbox)?

WillowMobileSys

What you are showing seems odd in several ways.

First the icons:

Edit icon - is for table editing and is turned on inside of the table view. You can turn it off if you don’t expect to use it.
Checkmark box icon - this is used for bulk actions. It gives you the ability to select multiple rows and then apply an action to all selected rows. This icon only shows when there are valid actions to apply to bulk rows. If you don’t want it to show at all, you could add to the Action expression, code that invalidates (and thus hides) it in a table view.

The Odd Bits

This looks to be a grouped table view. As such you should NOT be seeing those two icons in this part of the view. They should only show up when you have data rows showing - such as when you expand a group.

Also, if this is a grouped view, is it scrolled to the bottom of the list? I would expect to see the “All” at the top.

Is there anything unusual you have coded for this particular view? Just wondering how it might have gotten into this state.

Lucinda_Mason

Ok, I found that I had QuickEdit turned on for this table view. I turned it off and the edit button disappeared.

I clicked on the check box and it allowed me to apply the action button that resides on the detail form brought up when you click on a row in the table view. I certainly don’t want that to appear there as the user need to raid through the detail view and potentially make updates before they click on the !st_OK button which sets 3 approval fields. But I do have a confirmation that pops up that would remind the user to check. I’d rather get rid of the checkbox on the table view. Any idea if I can?

Thanks for your help. I would not have figured it out, as far as I have, without your help.

Lucinda

WillowMobileSys

Yes, you can “hide” that action (or any others) for Table views since you won’t be using them there. If there are no actions to apply in Bulk mode, then the Checkmark Box button will go away.

To make this change in you Action(s), go the Behavior section and update the “Only if this condition is true” expression to include:

CONTEXT("ViewType") <> "Table"

Obviously, if you already have something there, you will need to use an AND() function.

Once you have made this change to any of the Actions that are appearing for Bulk selection, the Checkmark Box button should go away.

Lucinda_Mason

I went to Actions. Selected this action.
Behavior and put CONTEXT(“ViewType”) <> “Table”
in the Only if this condition is true expression and it did NOT work. The checkbox is still there.

yes, I saved and tried it a couple of times. Any other suggestions? Thanks.

WillowMobileSys

Is it that Action that is showing or is there another one?

WillowMobileSys

It is possible. I have a test table that was showing the icon because it had Delete capability. Once I turned off the Deletes option on the table the icon was removed. If I were to add a custom action for this table, it would show up again.

It may be that you have to apply the function to all possible Actions in that table which may make this unfeasible. I have another table with many upon many actions and I was not able to get the icon removed.

At any rate, it seems that this feature needs an “off” switch!!

Lucinda_Mason

I only have UPDATES on this slice since it is for curating/approval of requests.

When I use the AND(TRUE,CONTEXT(“ViewType”) <> “Table”) expression, the checkbox is there and I can select records BUT I CANNOT apply the action. The CHECK to apply icon is not there.

If I switch back to just TRUE, both the checkbox and the ability to apply the action is there.

I do have another action on this slice, but it is just to return me to the table view from the detail view. So I don’t think that would effect this - but my knowledge is very limited.

I really appreciate your help. As I said before, I don’t think I would of been able to track this down without your expertise.

I do wish there were finer controls over some aspects of AppSheet. A lot of my issues are probably due to my lack of knowledge of AppSheet but I think there are some, like this and a few other items I found, that could use better control.

For now, I’ll remove the CONTEXT(“ViewType”) <> “Table” so the user won’t be stuck with having selected records and not being able to do anything after that.

Mike_T

Do you know if an “off” switch was ever added as a feature for the checkbox? I want to keep the Action in place but need to restrict the user to executing the action one row at a time.

Marc_Dillon

Nope

Can’t think of any way to achieve that, off the top of my head at least.

WillowMobileSys

I don’t know your app but it doesn’t really make sense from a design perspective to have a button at the top of the screen (which implies its for the view) and then only allow it to be used one row at a time.

Are you aware of Inline Actions? You can add any action to be on each row AND, if needed you can show it conditionally. See the view below.

Mike_T

That’s exactly my point. I am trying to remove the button that allows the user to select more than one row to perform the action.

Currently I have the action set to execute when the user selects the row (Table View) vs an inline button. I prefer this for now but may convert to an inline action.

Thanks for the reply!

WillowMobileSys

Have you tried adding this into the action(s) Behavior: CONTEXT("ViewType) <> "Table"

As an example, I have a table that has a system Delete action. If I choose the “Bulk Action” feature, I have it available as in the first image. However, if I simply add the CONTEXT() criteria above, then that Delete action is not available. See second image.

Frankly, I’m surprised in this second case that the “Bulk Action” feature still shows since there are no actions available. My recollection is that it would disappear but I haven’t used it in a couple of years now.

Bulk Action allows Deletes of selected rows

After adding CONTEXT() criteria - Delete is removed from “Bulk Action” capabilities

WillowMobileSys

In fact, it will disappear when there are no “possible” actions to show. If I set the Delete action to “do not display”, the “Bulk Action” feature is removed. Image below.

I guess if you simply not show it based on Behavior criteria, there is still “potential” for it to show since that is a row based decision? In other words, the feature currently doesn’t inspect ALL rows to see if the actions might show or not - only for selected rows does it make that decision.

Steve

Not possible.

Lucinda_Mason

Thank you John. I’ll have to look at that after I finish making and eating dinner.

Lucinda