A question about user specific columns

Ask for Help
1

Trying to understand how user specific columns work in certain situations.

Let’s say I have a component that is toggled on and off with a button that sets the visibility of that component. I could:

  1. In the table that the screen is connected to, have a user specific column that the button writes ‘true’ to when tapped. This sets the visibility of the component and also makes another button visible that takes the place of the first button (with the accent on to show ‘switched on’).

  2. In the User table, create a column that is not user specific that holds the ‘true’ action and does the same thing as described as #1.

  3. In the User table, create a column that is user specific and then do the same as for #1.

Which is best? I have found that with number 1, which is my go-to method for lots of actions, that I get glitchy results, where the data in the user specific column will appear and then disappear randomly. Why might this happen?

Method 2 seems more stable, at least in my experience. As for method 3, I’m not sure if you even need to make a column user specific in the User table (at least for this task).

2

Does this happen when you are switching from viewing as one user to another?
That’s the only time I would expect something like that to happen.
I think either method 1 or 2 should be fine. My general rule is that I’ll use table based user specific columns when they are only used in that table, and user profile columns when I need a value to be globally accessible.

If your User Profile table is attached to a Google Sheet, then it often makes sense to make some columns user specific so they don’t show up in the Google Sheet.

3

Thank you, your explanation about #3 helps a lot. Unfortunately, I’m getting the issue from #1 without switching users. It’s no longer a problem as I changed to the user table method, but it’s come up a few times.

4

Do you maybe have any filters or sorting on your screen that would cause the current screen to switch to a different row, thus a different user specific column value?

5

The collection being toggled on and off is being pulled in from another table via a relation, if that’s an issue?

6

I wouldn’t think so. We are talking about the value on the user specific column being glitchy, right? The screen with the button is attached to a row. My thought was that maybe something was causing that screen to keep switching which row is attached to

7

I don’t think so, I’ve had another look and can’t see anything

1 Like