Referencing a column from a column

Wayne_Moyer · 03-13-2019 05:16 AM

I had asked this over in G+ and got a good answer. So I’ll go for a deeper dive here. First let me say that I have taken over a set of appsheets from our former CIO and I’m getting better at this but I still feel new some times.
Under Columns i one called “Tickets” that is all set up in SQL. Within here I want the ability to do file downloads. So I followed the directions and created the column called “File”, added the line, and I got that to work but with an issue. The problem is that this won’t work in SQL. This is fine because I have another column called “File Download” made with Smartsheet with a column in it just like above.
I’m probably using the wrong terminology above. I want to call them tables but I’m using the wording on the appsheet page. So how do I reference my “File Download” made in Smartsheet in the tickets one? What is the syntax that I need?

Reza2

So, do you mean in the table that is attached to a SQL data source your File column type does not work? Could you clarify what you exactly mean? What happens?

Wayne_Moyer

Yes it doesn’t work. When you click on the download button, that points to the SQL database, it changes the name of the file into something that cant be opened. Let me go through the steps.
So you use my app to enter a ticket.
You get down to the file download button and add a file.
In this case I’ll do “Creating an IT Ticket.pptx”
Which shows in the file box
Now I click on “Send Request”
In the app the file shows as zICKwjNR.File.043821.pptx
When you click on it this is what you get.

Something has gone wrong!

The URL is: /template/gettablefileurl?appName=IMSITRequests-131506&TableName=Tickets&appVersion=1.000734&fileNam...

Error retrieving file ‘zICKwjNR.File.043821.pptx’: File not found : Failed: Path: ‘/appsheet/data/IMSITRequests-131506/empty.txt:zICKwjNR.File.043821.pptx’, Message: ‘’.

Please contact support@appsheet.com

Reza2

Can you actually find an uploaded file named: zICKwjNR.File.043821.pptx anywhere in your Google Drive or whatever cloud provider you are using? Is something with that name located in /appsheet/data/IMSITRequests-131506/ path?

Wayne_Moyer

There are three Google Drives attached to the apps. I have the logins for two. Like I said, I inherited these apps. So what I was trying to do was match the account sources to the logins I have. Which is easier said than done. My “Google-3” is the one I created. So I know which login goes with this. The file isn’t in there.
Next I have another login and the file isn’t in there either but I can’t tell if this is my source “Google-2” or “GoogleDriveSCFF” and I don’t see a way under account sources to find out what the google login is that goes with each data source.
So I don’t know if that file is hiding in the third and last data source.

Reza2

I believe for that SQL table AppSheet will upload the file to the primary storage which belongs to the app creator’s account, so I am not sure how you would want to check and troubleshoot this without having access to that Google Drive, if that is the case and the account owner has left organization.

But if it is necessary to have SQL table in the same app that is owned by him, perhaps you could take advantage of the relatively new feature that allows to consider SQL database for file storage too. This way you bypass primary storage for the SQL table. You can read about it in the document below:

I am also adding @Harry, in case he wants to add any comments, or correct me if I am wrong.

Wayne_Moyer

I thought I was going to have to recreate this in Smartsheet since this app isn’t in production yet. I was trying to avoid that since I haven’t created one from scratch yet but it doesn’t look too difficult. I’ll look into the SQL file saving link.

Reza2

If it is not in production yet, I would recommend just build a new app that is fully owned by your account, or transfer the app to your account and then switch the data sources owned by former CIO to new ones owned by you; just the peace of mind that your account fully owns everything on the app is worth the extra work.

Wayne_Moyer

There are several important apps on the account that are in production. Meaning that changing them over is risky. It’s something that I plan on doing in the long term but in the short term I am propping them up and keeping them going. It’s in my plans though.