As AppSheet has grown, it has become possible to develop apps in which columns, actions, and expressions interact in increasingly complex ways. The ability to build more complex apps is great but it can be very difficult to figure out what is connected to what when one returns to an app after some time has passed.
We can use our browser’s search function in some contexts to solve such puzzles but the current search function is extremely limited.
So, here’s my proposal: Add the capability to the AppSheet editor to create a text file (either to download or display in a browser winder) that includes ALL of the text in our app: all of the column names and their associated formulas, all of the actions and their associated formulas, etc. Such a text file could then be searched comprehensively using either the browser’s search function or the search function in a text editor.
Primary reason for requesting this feature: It’s easy enough to find the columns that are referred to in an expression but very hard to answer questions like “What expressions in this app refer to this column?” or “What actions in this app invoke this action?”
By the way, the AppSheet editor currently has a Spec tab in the “info” section. The animation is cool but, to be honest, I have never found this feature to be particularly useful. I think a complete list of all of the actions, columns, expressions, etc that is fully searchable would be far more useful – though not as pretty.
This request is related to an earlier one by @TalkNet_TechnoStore:
Search expressions that contain column names Feature Requests
It would be very useful if you could search within each table in the search box of the DATA> COLUMNS section.
For example, put a name (or part of the name) of a column and show in color (such as when there is an error or a warning) all the columns that contain that word in the expressions.
This would allow to easily locate all the dependent columns when modifications have to be made.
That post did not get any positive responses but I suspect that readers may not have recognized the utility of such a search feature.
This request is also related to the following posts I have made recently:
Is there a good way to find the connections between actions? Questions
On my app, there are quite a few instances were I have grouped actions and one or more of the grouped actions references an action on another table (parent action, child action, grandchild action). If I’ve forgotten how the actions are connected, I can start with the grouped action and eventually figure out what actions may be invoked when the grouped action is invoked. I say “eventually” because it’s not super easy. As you can see in the following example, I can see the names of the actions …
and
Does a row description really need to get evaluated like an expression? Questions
Hi! My app has gotten rather complicated so I’m in the process of adding descriptions to rows in certain tables to help me remember how they function in my app. I was a little surprised, however, to find that even a text description is evaluated like an expression and therefore can break my app.
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The workaround is simple enough. All I need to do is put a quotation mark at the beginning and end of my text. This seems to work even if I have other words or expression in quotes inside the…
Thanks for your attention!
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