Status update on next release

[Alexander Bautz]

I have completed the vLookup functionality and added a lot of other features, but want to also add support for document libraries. This requires a few more days of development and I plan to get the new version out later this week.

Sorry for the delay,
Alexander

[Alexander Bautz]

I have now release a new BETA version: https://spjsblog.com/2022/08/11/modern-dffs-v0-9-0-8/

Alexander

[SteveE]

Hey Alexander,

I’ve just barely started testing the new version so I’m just going to give you a few things from what I’ve seen.

I’m not having any luck getting vLookup to work. It doesn’t show the “New” button and the table isn’t visible but I do see the “header” which shows on the left side. I put a filter in but it’s just blank – the table isn’t there.

I can still add Created By and Modified By fields even though they don’t work.

It might help to see a “Save” button on the vLookup config. Even if it’s already saved, maybe it just closes that section.

Similarly when you click save, the dialog would be helpful if you could close the dffs configuration screen from there, rather than having to go back to the top right to close it.

I do like that the details pane is fairly locked down. However, if you click the “edit all” hover that you see, and then you click the back arrow, you can see the activity more detailed and there’s a link that says “you created test”. That link will let me go to a details pane view where I can edit the item without dffs. Sounds confusing (it is) but I can recreate it.

I also am wondering about the dffs link. I’ve seen it on someone else’s computer and didn’t want to draw attention to it, but how do we control access to edit the form? Is it strictly in the password configuration? This is tricky because it shows that link on all forms even if they are on the old configuration so I worry about a conflict there.

I’ll keep testing when I have time.

[Alexander Bautz]

Thanks for the feedback.

vLookup: I haven’t added any “There are no items” label so are you sure your filter is set up correctly? Look at the developer tools (f12 > console) for any errors.

Created by and Modified by: I must have reintroduced this when I have changed other things regarding selectable fields – I’ll get that fixed.

I see what you mean by the “missing” save button in vLookup, but all panels that open are auto-saved so I’m not sure I can add a dummy save button here, but I’ll think about it.

Selecting to exit from the save confirmation is a good idea, I’ll try to get that in the next release.

Configuring the old and the new version is not done in the same way so I don’t see any potential for conflict here.

The link to open the configuration is in the old version at the bottom of all forms, and the config is only guarded by the password. You can however (in the old version) hide the button for all but selected users / groups (in the Misc tab).

In this new version the enter setup link is on the DFFS icon in the list view banner and not in each form, but I haven’t added any method other than password protecting the config here. I’ll think about it and see if maybe hiding this icon for persons that cannot modify lists for example, but in any case you should password protect the form (you set the password in the Misc tab in the new version also) to prevent others from modifying it.

Best regards,
Alexander

[SteveE]

I’ve tried a few different filters to show the vLookup but I’m not getting anything.

I’ve tried your example Title eq ‘test’. I’ve also tried dynamic like [[currentuser:displayName]] eq ‘PeoplePickerField’. I probably don’t understand the syntax but I’ve tried some different combinations.

Regardless if I have the filter set up correctly, shouldn’t I see a “New” button if I’ve toggled on “Add new item enabled”? No luck with that either.

Thanks for your comments on the feedback.

[SteveE]

More feedback!!

We need a warning if we close the configuration and don’t hit save. Similarly, if we switch forms from the new dropdown (nice!) it doesn’t prompt me to save.

If I enter some custom js and click back to rules, it loses whatever I’ve added in custom js.

Feedback on using rules:
– It allows me to create multiple rules without names.
– I often use the option “on field change” for the entire rule and it’s not available.
– For an individual field we are missing the option “changed from initial value”
– If I add a rule to show a message under a field, it works but then if change a field to make the rule untrue the message remains. This also happens with requiring a field. The required field stays required even if the rule becomes untrue.
– I was not able to receive an email. It shows “sending email” but I never got one. I checked my junk mailbox.
– Set field value seems to be working great!

Custom JS isn’t working. Judging by the developer console I need to call jQuery which we didn’t have to do previously. Here’s the error:

Uncaught (in promise) ReferenceError: jQuery is not defined at warning (<anonymous>:2:18)

I still get authentication errors at odd times. I was working a while and then all of a sudden it came up. I open configuration, don’t change anything and hit save. It goes away. I wasn’t away from the browser long and wasn’t doing anything specific to trigger the error.

[Alexander Bautz]

Thanks again for the feedback.

Regarding the name of the rules:
This is not actually required as it is only used as a reference when configuring the rules. In the older version you could check status of rules in custom js and use the name to trigger a rule, but this is not possible in this version.

Field change:
I’ll add a trigger for on-change of fields.

Message under a field:
For now you must use a similar action in the “If no” section and add a blank message under the same field. I’ll see if I can add a “Remove message under field” action.

Required fields:
In the old version the rules “auto-reversed” actions like required fields and made them optional when the trigger was no longer true, but that was a major cause of confusion. I therefor I added the “If yes” and “If no” sections for each rule. You must reverse any required, optional, visible, hidden, editable or readonly fields in the “If no” section manually.

Email:
Did you put the email in the to field, or did you pick from a people picker?

Custom JS:
I have confirmed the issue with the code disappearing when navigating away and will fix it in the next release. I haven’t loaded jQuery in this solution, but will look into the possibility to do that so you can use it in Custom JS.

Please note that any custom code used to manipulate the form itself cannot be used in this version because of how the form is generated (using React). Code that does other things like write to another list is OK.

I’ll try to figure out what causes the authentication errors.

Alexander

[SteveE]

Thanks for the reply.

I understand the “If Yes” premise. I was just pointing out that it was different and didn’t know if that was expected behavior.

With email, I just put a direct email address in. I can try a field reference and see what happens.

I will test the custom JS by adding a reference to jQuery. Again, different and wasn’t sure it was expected. I will be interested in what I can/cannot do with it since I’ve used it for a lot of different types of things. One main thing is date checking/writing so I’ll be interested in if that works or what other way I can handle it.

Let me know what I might be doing wrong with the vLookup information I provided above. Thanks.

[Alexander Bautz]

Hi,
Using the email address should work, but I’ll do some more testing myself before the next release. You can bring up the dev tools and look at the console to see if you have any error messages there.

You can use custom js to do set field values so setting a date field or (other fields) should be OK.

Using custom js to manipulate the form in other ways (like inserting HTML or modifying fields) will not work because of how the form is rendered using React.

If you can email me some screenshots of the vLookup setup I can have a look.

Please note that vLookup is not rendered when you just preview the form in the editor.

Alexander

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