Show ALL Fields - even blank ones on a form

PJMatelli · 09-01-2021 04:45 PM

I have a few columns in a form that are not required data entry for the “New Record.” When the next user looks at the record “Edit Record,” I need them to see all fields, whether or not they have data. I have read through several posts and have tried several options with Show_if and Valid_if, nothing works. Also, the user that needs to see that these fields are not filled out cannot edit the fields.

I know some have said something like …why would you want to do that? To answer the question, my users are asking for this feature, the why is not important, it is just that they need to see that certain fields were not filled out.

Any help, as always, is greatly appreciated.

TIA!

Koichi_Tsuji

Create one column, lets name it to [Init] and set the initial value to 0 (this is number type)

For those column you need to hide for new forms, set the showif constrain to show when [_this]<>0

Create action to change the value for [Init] column Just increment value from 0 to 1

For the form view, on save event, attach above action. Once the new form is saved the number is changed to 1

You can set this action to work conditionally when the [Init] field value is equal to 0

yes, we understand your client requirement like this. We are using this tricks here and there with our apps.

PJMatelli

I am not sure what you are saying here, but if I understand, I went ahead and used another field (that is required) and made the Show If use that field with the ISNOTBLANK([CustomerType]) thinking it would display the field. However, the person that needs to see that the fields are not filled out is a person that does not have edit capabilities for these fields. As soon as I add her to the EditIf, then, of course, she can see (and edit) them. I really need this to work for someone who cannot edit, but needs to see empty fields. Any additional help is greatly appreciated.

SkrOYC

i think it would be nice if you explain us your problem better.
Let me check.
You need that a second user (not the one that have created the record in the first place) could open the edit form and just see the blank columns but not being able to add any data on those fields? Something like what a supervisor would like to be able to do?
Or see all the values but not being able to edit the ones that were left blank/empty?
May I ask you if you have read the help articles for

??
I’m a little confused

PJMatelli

Thank you for your response. Yes, I have seen the Editable_If information and we use it extensively. Here is what is currently on one (of the many) fields that are not required, but need to show in the Edit form, whether or not the individual has edit rights.

OR(
[Requester]=USEREMAIL(),
IN(“GAT”,SELECT(Users[Role],[Email]=USEREMAIL())),
IN(“JDENumberAdmin”,SELECT(Users[Role],[Email]=USEREMAIL()))
)

The JDENumberAdmin person is the one that should not be able to edit the fields, but needs to see the fields whether they are blank or filled in. When I remove this line: IN(“JDENumberAdmin”,SELECT(Users[Role],[Email]=USEREMAIL())), she doesn’t see empty fields at all.

I hope that helps explain it a bit better.

SkrOYC

If a certain column is not editable and is blank/empty, it’s hiden on the form and I can see why this is a problem for you.
You have 2 workarounds as far as I can see:

The easy one is to make all those columns (or the ones that you are interested in knowing if were left empty) with an initial value " " (space) and then the field is not blank/empty and AppSheet will show it “blank” (as far as the user didn’t deleted the " ", in that case it would be blank)
To make an aditional column (VC) called something like “Empty fields” and make it compute on a string (longtext) all the fields that were left blank, so the JDENumberAdmin will not see the empty fields, instead a new one listing all the ones that were left empty. This would make a more elegant solution since you can make it show the fields on separate lines with some kind of dot at the beggining of each one or something, but it will cost the computing power of a new VC. Also the formula will be long for sure with a lot of IF()

SkrOYC

I was thinking about this and realized that there is a third solution but it depens on what you need.
Since a VC would be listening for any change in order to update itself, the second method wouldn’t work if you want to see the empty fields left just the first time the record was made.
Then the third method would consist on a physical column with initial value. Hope that either of the 3 works for you.
BTW, you can use markdown or html to make that ‘empty fields’ column show up nice