Solved: Bot clearing wrong columns

dhdevans · 02-14-2023 03:51 AM

I've got a bot that when a thing happens it sets a row's column values to "". This is working as it should, but it is unexpectedly resetting two other values to "" that are not specified.

These values getting reset are both REF type columns that are editable and required.

Would there be any reason these might be being reset?

WillowMobileSys

@dhdevans wrote:

Would there be any reason these might be being reset?

Yes. First, it must be understood that AppSheet is a ROW-based platform - meaning any edits made are to the ROW - not specific columns. It could be each edit has multiple column changes. Each edit (those little numbers you see in the upper-right corner indicating changes being processed) - each one of those is a change to the ROW.

For example, saving a Form is a single row edit where potentially multiple columns have been changed. If, on that Form Saved event, you have actions that are triggered, each action executed will apply an additional row edit.

If your editable Ref columns changes on an Edit and is not being explicitly modified by any actions or automation, I can only think of one reason - Reset on Edit is on. If Reset on Edit is turned on for these columns, the ROW edit will cause the Initial Value expressions to re-trigger. And, of course, if the expression results in a different value calculated, then that column will also get updated.

If this is what is happening then you can use the CONTEXT() function to ensure the Rest only happens based on changes in the Form.

View solution in original post

Marc_Dillon

How do you have it set up? Screenshots please.

WillowMobileSys

@dhdevans wrote:

Would there be any reason these might be being reset?

Yes. First, it must be understood that AppSheet is a ROW-based platform - meaning any edits made are to the ROW - not specific columns. It could be each edit has multiple column changes. Each edit (those little numbers you see in the upper-right corner indicating changes being processed) - each one of those is a change to the ROW.

For example, saving a Form is a single row edit where potentially multiple columns have been changed. If, on that Form Saved event, you have actions that are triggered, each action executed will apply an additional row edit.

If your editable Ref columns changes on an Edit and is not being explicitly modified by any actions or automation, I can only think of one reason - Reset on Edit is on. If Reset on Edit is turned on for these columns, the ROW edit will cause the Initial Value expressions to re-trigger. And, of course, if the expression results in a different value calculated, then that column will also get updated.

If this is what is happening then you can use the CONTEXT() function to ensure the Rest only happens based on changes in the Form.

dhdevans

So, this gave me some context and other things to look at it and yes, 'Reset on Edit' was enabled for one of the columns but not the other!

Disabling the 'Reset on Edit' button for one of the columns seems to have fixed the issue. Bizarre.

Thank you for your help!