Searching enum list ref type column?

Hello,

I have added a new table to one of our apps with ref columns. The ref columns are searchable by their label from the menu, but I noticed the enumlist with base type ref are not searchable by labels. I can use the filter in the search bar for these, I just making sure that I was not missing anything. Here are the column settings. I have another column that is ref to this table for selecting just one person and it returns a search just fine.

For example, if I search for my name (Greg) I get no results for schools I have access to (via the enumlist / ref column). However if I search for a name of a person who is in the โ€˜regularโ€™ reference column, then I see the correct results. I also confirmed I can search by key values for the enum list /ref base column so I know it isnโ€™t picking up the label but the key values stored there.

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Oh i see! I would consider that a bug.

One thing you COULD do is add a Virtual Column that uses an expression to get the actual TEXT values for all of the EnumList/Ref items. In the Table View, show your Text based list instead of the EnumList/Ref column. To the user itโ€™ll look exactly the same. Then youโ€™ll be able to search as you expect.

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Hi! @Gregory_Bounds Welcome to the Community! I see there has been no response. I apologize on behalf of the Community for that. Typically a response is made within minutes.

In this case, no responses likely means you have hit upon an issue that no one else encountered yet.

Are you still having the Search problem?

I am going to play with this to see if I see anything that helps. First thing that comes to mind is that a column has to be explicitly set as Searchable.

Iโ€™m not clear in your comparison of Ref vs EnumList/Ref columns if the differences you were seeing were on the same exact data.

You might check the columns in your EnumList referenced table to make sure they are Searchable.

If you donโ€™t know, you can find the Searchable property in the column settings at the bottom. See image.

I played with a Ref column and an EnumList/Ref column. I am not seeing any differences in how Searching works between them.

I could NOT search by any other column than the Label - even if they are all set as Searchable and not even the ID column.

As I think about this, allowing Searching by columns that are NOT shown, could be asking for trouble. Searching returns rows that has the search value in ANY of the searchable column so the results might not be as expected.

The only way I see as a workaround for this is to make a label column that concatenates multiple values together. Here I have used a hyphen as a separator,

3X_5_e_5e856e9310d98fa93cd61e1a6b077f7f4fcf0b23.png

Hey John, thanks for taking a look. The search Iโ€™m talking about is in the table view; the search as a dropdown works fine. I do have the column as searchable (see the bottom of the screenshot I provided). When I search in a view (table), the labels do not seem to function as searchable but only for the enum list / ref type.

So to be clear, in the gif below the two columns are pointed to the same ref table. the one on the left is a standard ref table column and searching works fine (based on the name Juana). Then I search my name, which is not in the left column at all for any row but IS in the right column. The only value returned is for a school with the letters โ€˜gregโ€™ in the name.

I also tried this on another app where I have the same enum list / ref base type and it does not work there either. 3X_4_b_4b5bc6ae497f9badbc2439ee0e33e29ff0b86b1b.gif

Oh i see! I would consider that a bug.

One thing you COULD do is add a Virtual Column that uses an expression to get the actual TEXT values for all of the EnumList/Ref items. In the Table View, show your Text based list instead of the EnumList/Ref column. To the user itโ€™ll look exactly the same. Then youโ€™ll be able to search as you expect.

Hey John thanks for following up. Glad to have some consensus on it being a bug. Given the intense virtual column needed for possibly 10-15 delimited links, Iโ€™ll probably just do it in SQL instead and enable search on that column.

HSAI
Participant I

This bug still seems to be an issue, i've created a support ticket today, but as far as I can tell, it hasn't been resolved

Here is a conclusion about Search and Filter limitations in AppSheet:

https://www.googlecloudcommunity.com/gc/AppSheet-Q-A/Search-and-Filter-limitations/td-p/430355

KON_TROLL
Participant V

@WillowMobileSys Yes this must be considered a bug or at least VERY misleading!

Why is it still not possible to search for ENUM REF values after this long? How can a user know that the column is a TEX, REF or ENUM REF? He would expect a result based om the values he sees...?!

Still can not search ENUM REF. The workaround adding the VC column to get the text of the ENUM REF .... is not ideal to me as I don't want to create too many VC columns.

I like ENUM REF as it's clean, no creating the REF_ROWS VC column in mother table. 

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