Inventory Scan Update, Possible?

[kennebel]

Ideal scenario:

1. Have an input screen
2. Scan bar code in to a field (this already works with a hand held scanner or the camera QR option)
3. It reads if the number has changed since the last input, if it has, resets that row ID count field to 1, if not new, +1 to the count field value
4. Waits for next input

(basically, you just click the scanner on each physical thing's bar code, and if there is more than one, it auto-counts them, you just have to do them in order, no jumping around)

I know how I would do this in a traditional app, the code etc., but in appsheet, not sure if I have the access to even put in this simple logic. Open to suggestions on where I can look to have a simple logic input form.

[SkrOYC]

I don't understand your need completely.

Try to explain the need based on the information you want AppSheet to give you instead of how things would work on the UX, since that's the least flexible part

[kennebel]

I want to make inventory quantity updating simple. Scan a barcode for each physical item (grouping like items together), and at the end, the google sheet is updated with the right quantities. Product A = 3 things (three bar codes scanned), Product B = 1 thing (one bar code scanned), etc.

Right now, the user has the simple edit interface. They click the bar code, and then have to enter a number or (+) button to the right quantity. This introduces counting errors if they don't hit the (+) button the right number of times. A scanner audio feedback of beeping/not beeping is going to be more likely to be accurate.

[SkrOYC]

Well, I know that scanning you can't put on a row the amount of items scanned because AppSheet uses the scanning (as well as NFC) feature just to insert something inside the field, that's all it does.

You could instead try to "automate" the process by making a form where the scannable field is the only one present and it has auto-save and auto-reopen so you can scan one after the other. This will add one row per scanned item. I don't think there is other way

[kennebel]

I'll look in to that possibility. I may have to have a "reset all" button to push all quantities to 0, then have the form/automation just +1. I guess in that case, the items could be scanned in any order with that extra step at the beginning. Not ideal, but if it works, would be a solution.

[SkrOYC]

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@SkrOYC wrote:

This will add one row per scanned item.

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Now, since a table with a lot of rows with just 1 item is not ideal, you could use a table that receives the inputs from the scanning process and then on each form save it also triggers an action that checks if the scanned item is the same as the last scanned item of the dataset. If it is, there is a row update on another table (the one with the more useful data) adding the amount and if it's not, there is a row add to that same table with the new item. You can also add other data like a timestamp. You could also add a userId field so that you will know who added the items and also if two people add the same item the data will be separated by user