Solved: Error referencing User Settings in automation - Page 2

dbaum · 04-12-2023 06:16 PM

I have longstanding automations (triggered by data change events--not schedule events) that reference User Settings and continue to run successfully. Starting a couple months ago, any new automation I create where I try to include User Settings generates an error due to an invalid expression. Then, the app won't load or run at all unless I disable the automation or remove the automation's reference to User Settings. The support case I opened has yielded no resolution nor, for a long time now, even any status update.

I can replicate the error in different AppSheet accounts, and assume it affects others. Has anyone identified a way to get new references to User Settings to work?

dbaum

Based on a tip from @AleksiAlkio, I tried a new technique. Here's a summary of what I unsuccessfully tried previously, along with the new successful technique.

The upshot seems to be that, at least in some situations, the automation somehow is not explicitly aware of the user settings values from the triggering user's device, but it nonetheless indeed has something like a table of those settings and can access that table's values, which are de facto limited to a single row comprising the values from the triggering user's device.

So, as documented earlier in this conversation, there's still seemingly a bug precluding standard techniques for referencing user settings in some automations. However, there's also an apparently reliable workaround available.

My test involved referencing user settings in the body of a Call a webhook task. Results follow.

Technique	Outcome
`USERSETTINGS("Tenant ID")`	Error Expression 'USERSETTINGS("Tenant ID")' is invalid due to: Unable to find column '_THISUSER', did you mean '_RowNumber'?.
`[_THISUSER].[Tenant ID]`	Error Expression '[_THISUSER].[Tenant ID]' is invalid due to: Unable to find column '_THISUSER', did you mean '_RowNumber'?.
`ANY(_Per User Settings[Tenant ID])`	Success

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