Form Saves without all of required fields filled (specific scenario with tabs)

[PolaEla]

Hi, I have found a bug in my project. I spent some time verifying its validity, so please bear with me while I explain.

1. The Form has 3 tabs, 2 of which are inaccessible until "Is Equipment?" option has been selected. If a user selects one of the provided options everything works fine. Tabs Price and Other are enabled, the SAVE button is replaced with NEXT, and the user has no choice but to finish the form or discard data. But if the first thing they do is to click on the SAVE button, before selecting any of the "Is Equipment?" options, the Form breaks.

2. What happens, the SAVE button is never replaced with NEXT. Required fields on the first tab still have to be filled, but if other tabs are not clicked on, user can click on SAVE and form will save the record without requesting to fill other required fields on the never opened tabs. 

To summarize, 4 things have to happen to reproduce the bug:

1. Multiple tabs, where all of them are disabled on the condition from the first tab, so the SAVE button is visible when we open the form.
2. Those disabled tabs have to have some unfilled required fields on them.
3. The SAVE button must be clicked before the requirement is met and tabs get enabled.
4. Enabled tabs with required fields are not opened before we click on the SAVE button (which is still visible, even though we can continue with filling the rest of the form)

I hope I explained it clearly enough. Please follow up with questions if anything is still unclear.

[WillowMobileSys]

I do agree, that the button not switching from Save to Next is a bug and should be addresses for better user experience.  I recommend reporting it to AppSheet Support

I have an example of a Form with tabs.  I tested based on your use case and I get the same behavior where the Save button does not switch to Next.  

However, tapping on Save, I cannot Save if there are required fields on the newly enabled tab.  On the Save button press, I am automatically switched to the newly enabled tab and required to fill in the additional required fields before the Save is successful.

So it seems the functionality is correct and there should not be any lost data entry due to required fields - at least in my use case. 

I hope this helps!


State of Form is active on 2nd of 3 tabs with "Quality Assessment" tab just being enabled.  Save button has Not properly switched to Next.

Tapping Save on Form in state above results in the below.  Form automatically switched to "Quality Assessment" tab due to required fields needing completed before Save is successful

[PolaEla]

That is not the behavior I get. If I didn't open newly enabled tabs, just filled the first page, and clicked SAVE, the form is saved with no prompt to fill in other required fields on those tabs.

The behavior you described occurs when I open enabled tabs before clicking SAVE. But doing so is not the solution. I must assume, that users would click on the visible button SAVE when it appears. And they are not responsible for data loss. Also, the application is not syncing correctly after saving forms with missing required data, so it is a critical issue on my end, that forces me to change the design.

PS: We are talking about a corner case, so there might be other factors causing differences in our results. Opening tabs might be only one of them. What I'm getting at is that I reproduced this issue dozens of times. It is real and happening.

[Steve]

This is definitely a bug. Please contact AppSheet Support to report it. Beyond that, what are you looking for from us?

[PolaEla]

Nothing, I guess. I don't believe support will fix it any time soon, so maybe my post will save someone's hours of frustration and pointless work. Isn't that a point?

[Steve]

Truth!