Joined JSON workaround for big tables

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1

Hi Gliders,

I’m currently rebuilding an app using big tables and I realized you can’t use JSON objects in joined lists using big tables.

What would be the ideal or best workaround for this?

Thanks!

2

Couple of questions:

  • what’s the maximum number of rows you are wanting to aggregate?
  • which column types are used to feed the JSON Objects? Are they all non-computed columns? If there are any computed columns - which types?
  • What will you do with the aggregated JSON once you have it?

Depending on answers to the above, I may be able to offer some options.

3
  • Max number of rows is unknown, will usually be a between 2 and 15 but could go up to hundreds.
  • Columns will me mostly non computed columns but there might be a need to include computed columns.
  • It will be used for line items for invoicing, quotes and contracts.
4

Okay, so my first thought is to replace the JSON Object column with a regular Template column.

You should be able to use a Joined List with that, with the following caveats:

  • I believe you’ll be limited to 100 rows
  • It may or may not work depending on which types of computed columns are being referenced by the Template

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5

Ok I’ll try that thank you!

6

Quick update for new readers:

Joined List of template columns work to list (in my experience) up to 5000+ rows now. I configured a template column to use basic column values and formatted it as a json object. Hacky, but works. Some issues to watch for if you do this. Your columns cannot have any erroneous tabs, newlines, or backslashes, and even quotes can throw it off.

  • If you’re analyzing the resulting list with Javascript you’ll either need to build in checks for bad JSON objects or try to escape/format around these values. I am unaware if dynamic values work in template columns in the sense of detecting these bad characters or empty values and not inserting them (or using default values).

Have been thus far unable to get JSON objects to work, which would be ideal, but might be because I have some computed columns going into the JSON objects in my Big Table.

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