CURRENT STATUS: Rolled out to 100% of accounts
Hi everyone,
Iโm very excited to announce that we are launching the INPUT functionality to General Availability. App creators can now define when information is passed from one context to another via dynamic โinputsโ so that actions and tasks behave differently based on these input values. Effectively, app creators can now โparameterizeโ the logic of some of the actions and tasks.
The INPUT functionality enables multiple types of rich and complex use cases, such as:
INPUT example
Probably the simplest example is with an app that lists tasks that have a status field and a comments field. App users are asked to update their task status to โDoneโ and provide information in the comments field on how they accomplished the task. App creators can now dynamically prompt the app user for that information (and only that information) in a pop-up modal when they mark the task as โDoneโ. It was already possible to provide a similar flow, but (a) the app creator had to do more work and (b) the user experience for app users was not as intuitive.
A little bit of history
The INPUT functionality unlocks a number of highly requested features that make app creation easier and expand what AppSheet apps can offer. Back in 2021, the INPUT functionality was released to Beta (a.k.a. Preview) but the team had some lingering questions. It is now (finally) Generally Available to all app creators. There are a few changes though. First, the syntax has been updated so that the feature is more easily discoverable, its usage is more explicit, and the syntax itself is more consistent with other existing patterns in AppSheet. Second, its scope has been expanded to now support Automation tasks for reusability purposes.
Many app creators have been using this functionality in their apps since its Beta launch, but others may have been hesitant to rely on it because it was still in Beta and so we are glad to finally make it Generally Available to everyone.
As Liz called out in our release notes on Monday, this is currently rolling out and should become available to all AppSheet users in the next 10 days or so. When it is available to you, we ask that you start using the new syntax.
Old and new syntax for existing apps already leveraging this functionality
In order to properly maintain this feature, we will have to turn off the old syntax in the future. Until then, all apps and automations using the old syntax will keep on working without app creators needing to take action. We also understand that adopting the new syntax in existing apps represents some amount of work by app creators and we want to give you time to adjust. In an effort to turn off the old syntax some time in June 2024, we plan on proceeding as follows:
We will be communicating to you about this as we go through that process.
Let us know if you have any questions (but donโt forget to check the FAQ section below first :))
Thank you,
Arthur Rallu, for the AppSheet team
FAQ
Documentation is available at Doc for input in Tasks, Doc for input in Data Change Actions.
The team talked about this feature in an AppSheet Office hours in September.
I also want to mention this community post by @Kirk_Masden. It walks you through the capabilities of that feature in a very simple way. If you're new to using this functionality, it's a great way to discover it IMHO. The app used to be implemented with the Beta syntax but Kirk updated it recently to use the new syntax (Thank you Kirk!).
Until the rollout is complete, we are keeping this documentation as is. We will tag it when the rollout is complete and add a link to the new documentation.
The two syntaxes can be used in the same app for two different tasks or actions, but the two syntaxes cannot be used within a single action or a single task. In other words, in an action with 2 inputs, both of them must be specified with the same syntax.
Not yet, but we still plan on doing it. Weโll update this FAQ and add a comment to this thread when it is done.
We are aware of this request, but we donโt have a timeline to share at this point.
Is INPUT() function still considered 100% Generally Avaiable? If so, could someone please update the documentation - INPUT()
Does Input() works with time ? Like
Today () + 1
@Arthur_Rallu
Do you have any plans of making [_INPUT] available in the action "Data: add a new row to another table using values from this row"?
The workarounds of having to use Grouped actions just won't cut it since it requires creating the records then editing it, and if the user cancels at the last step, it doesn't cancel the record that was added.
I recently made a video on the [_INPUT] feature recently covering the context, syntax and use-cases. Take a look if you want some further explanation/walk through of how to use the feature in an application. Hope it helps!
@Arthur_Rallu If I am right, the input function does not support the image data type as of now. Can that feature be added?
This is one of the weakness of the current AppSheet UX for Input, but you can select TEXT type. Then you can accomodate IMAGE through the modal. Don t ask me why.
What do you mean by adding image through the modal.
Does this new syntax supports default value ? @Arthur_Rallu