How can we use "uniqueid()" for an existing spreadsheet created by Google Forms?

[hichimi]

I am running a local athlete club team and using Google Forms to accept new membership registrations.
I recently created an AppSheet App using the spreadsheet where the registration form results are stored.

Now, I set up a column both in the spreadsheet and in the AppSheet that sets a unique ID for each record. I set the "ID" column at the last in the spreadsheet so that it won't conflict to the Forms, and put random IDs to the existing records. I did "regenerate" in the AppSheet so that it captures the new column. Once I confirmed the "ID" shown in the AppSheet "Data" configuration UI, I put "uniqueid()" in the "initial value" field.

What happened was, a random ID was created when I add a new record (member) from the App, and the ID was also populated in the spreadsheet at the same time, but that was only the records from the App, not for the records from the Forms. When I inserted a new record from the Google Forms, the record didn't get the ID and the cell was left empty.

There are some requirements that AppSheet form can't fulfill, so we need to use the Google Forms. How can we solve this issue?

Have a great new year, everyone! Love from Japan.

[dbaum]

In case it's helpful:

• Use data from Google Forms - AppSheet Help
• Google Forms Integrations: Best Practices - Google Cloud Community
• External eventing with Google Sheets - AppSheet Help

[hichimi]

Hi, thank you for your reply.

I have read through all of the articles that you listed, but as far as I confirmed, there is no resolutions for my issue I could find there.

I thought the automation and "add-on for AppSheet" might work, but ID column has a formula as an initial value, so it didn't work.

I want to accept a new record both from the Google Form and from the AppSheet App, so I need to keep the initial value formula for ID.

[dbaum]

If you don't find a way to reliably use a single worksheet for data submitted via Forms as well as data entered via your app, consider instead using the Forms-connected worksheet solely as a data intake mechanism for then populating a separate table that you can indeed interact with via your app. There are multiple techniques you could use to automatically copy to another table each new row that is created via Forms. For example:

• Data change action: Add a new to another table by using values from this row
• API: Example: Copy newly added records