Howdy, first time app maker. so far everything has been going pretty good. However i ran into an issue. I have a short YouTube video link posted to a screenrecording of my exact issue. My app is basically a calculator to have agricultural fertilizer loads figured up based on truck sizes. For example our 1997 International semi has a 16 Ton bed on it. That basically means that you can fit 16 Tons of fertilizer total into the bed. However due to different densities of different fertilizers, you have different max weights per load depending on which fertilizer you’re loading.
So my app is to help make load sheets for those discrepancies. In the video, I start on the 1997, then I show that i am using my sheet labeled “KS 16T”, then I hit the 16T Potash Load on the app and I show that everything is fine. I then go back and pick the 1999 truck with the 24 Ton bed on it. The next page then shows that that page is using the sheet “KS 16T” as well, so I change it to “KS 24T”, and the next page isn’t setup yet, but it will be set up the same as the other. Everything is fine. I then go back to the 1997, and now its showing that it’s using the “KS 24T” sheet for info. So basically even though they’re on different pages with different numbers, the entire truck page, no matter what you click on, will always pull up the data from the last selected Google Sheet. Whether that be a 24T bed, 16T bed, 10T bed, 6T bed, or 4T bed. they will all go to the last selected source sheet. How do I fix that? Or is that even possible without making multiple tabs at the bottom?
First, please note that same-level details screen like you have in this case will have the same components, unless you choose “Independent screen configuration per item” here.
That’s why when you change the source sheet in one inline list, it updates for all other “details screen”. They are all set up as soon as you add a component.
Next, you can re-structure your data a bit, I think.
If KS 24T and KS 16T don’t have different structures, then you can combine them into one, let’s call them “Truck Loads” and then add a “Category” column, with the values being “KS 24T” and “KS 16T”, inserted accordingly.
Then in your Trucks table, add the same “Category” column above.
Make a relation from the Trucks table to the Truck Loads table using the two category columns, make it a multiple match, and use that relation as the source for your inline list.
Thanks for the reply! Before I get too in depth with the current issue, I ran into another issue with the sister app I made to go along with this one. That one is the same basic idea, but it’s for liquid fertilizer loads. I won’t bore you with the details of how that works, but it’s the same idea as dry, except it’s all liquid, and you can just type in how many gallons you want, and it does the math.
The reason why I started I have been challenged with making these apps, is because there is a bit of a learning curve to figure up these loads. We have new part time employees coming in for the spring and summer, and frankly they don’t always understand how this industry works. So in theory, we would like to hand the apps out to a few people that will be in the areas that would need the apps to help with the curve. Originally I made the liquid app with two data sheets, and everything worked fine. When I logged in with a different email on a different device as “a new user” for testing purposes, that one worked just fine as well. But when I had them sitting side by side, you could edit data in one of them and it would change on both devices. I understand why it changed, since they both edited the same spreadsheet page. So I made a copy of the spreadsheet, and made that one visible only to device 2, and had the original only visible to device 1. I’m sure there’s a better way to do that. What is the better way without have 900 different sheets for each user? The reason I ask that first is because this dry app will need to be setup the same way. Multiple people needing the same spreadsheets to figure similar data at the same time.
I did see that. However, how would that work when you have to edit many different numbers for each load? On the liquid app, there is up to 8 or 9 different columns to edit, and on the dry app there are up to 14 columns to edit per load.
How would I make multiple columns user specific in this case? A lot of those columns are used in functions to get other numbers, would that effect anything?
The biggest impact would probably be in the way that you do your calculations.
I imagine that right now all your calculations are done via spreadsheet formulas, yeah?
If you move to User Specific Columns, that will no longer be possible, as User Specific Data only exists in Glide - you will never see it in the spreadsheet. So all of your calculations would need to be done in Glide using computed columns.
This might sound a little daunting and you’d be forgiven for asking why even bother with this, but it would be well worth the effort. You would get a much better user experience, and the results of all calculations would be instant (as opposed to waiting for data to sync back and forth between Glide and the Google Sheet).
Oh also, the current idea is that once these calculations are made, you’d be able to send the important numbers in an email to a dedicated email address in the office for records and what not. I don’t plan to store any info in the sheets themselves in that regard.
Which that brings up another question I had… Is there an easy way to select only certain columns to email?
Alright, I’m following. Not what I wanted to hear, but I understand why you say that. I’ve got some tinkering to do I suppose for redoing all the calculations.
Getting the most out of Glide requires a little bit of a paradigm shift in terms of how you think about your data. There is a learning curve, but the benefits make it well worth the effort. And you’ll always find help here if/when you need it.
