Definite solution for "today" handling in calculated fields (days since, days until, countdown,...) / incl. possible solution
Hi folks,
sorry for opening this many requests but I just had to dive into Podio and Podio API for a current project and although I like the idea a lot and see the potential Podio offers, I hit walls every now and then and have to find solutions for trivial stuff. The worst thing in my opinion is that many problems feel "unnecessary" ie. could easily be fixed in my understanding.
One such thing which seems that many many users here are facing is the fact that calculated fields are not recalculated unless a variable changes. This is a big problem for every use case having to handle anything like e.g. "days since x" and "days until x". So it is a much requested feature and there are many posts about it. Sadly many of them are answered, although answers are wrong (do not take into account that formula is not recalculated) or recommend to use third party tools or some hacky workarounds which are not only dirty but also not guaranteed to be future-proof and safe for production use like use fake apps that you reference from every item, update calculation formula with fake timestamps, switch to number fields that are daily updated via API,...
@Podio officials/devs:
I would really appreciate an official answer what is considered the best way of doing this and which way is also the "official" one, meaning it can be safely used in client projects.
So to not only bring up questions, I also want to share what I feel should be a viable solution (coming from database and software development myself).
Why not simply introduce an implicit variable like @currentdate in calculated field formulars and update all calculations that use this on a daily basis? If you are brave (and users could need it) you could also add @currentyear, @currentmonth, @currenthour,... I understand this recalculations eat server resources, but be honest - now we also have some workarounds out there which do the same and cause the load but are at least to say "dirty" and make Podio feel weak. So I think this would be a very good improvement which could help lots of (potential) Podio users and make such a trivial thing like calculate "days until next weekend" a no-brainer.
Kind regards,
Andreas
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Dear Podio team,
I understand the implications of constantly running calculations in the background. However, not automatically running them at all for at least the current date is making us customers force them to update anyway, spending not only Podio's server resources anyway but our resources as customers as well.
Could there at least be a compromise for calculations that rely on current date? This would implicate only one automatic re-run per day per calculation with current date variable and ONLY if the calculation is requested, either by opening the item or viewing a list that contains the calculation...
For each calculation that has a current date variable, have Podio make a note of that by automatically saving in the background the last date that the specific calculation was ran.
Then if an item is opened that contains a calculation with a current date variable that has not yet been re-ran for the current day, have Podio automatically re-run the calculation just before showing the item to the end-user.
Same for lists. Just before Podio shows any list of items for an app, have it detect if the list will include a calculation with a current date variable that has not yet been re-ran for the day. Automatically re-run the ones that have not just before displaying the list, and of course update the date that each calculation was re-ran so it isn't ran again until a new day that it's specifically requested.
For apps that don't contain calculations with the current date variable, just have Podio skip over this logic when working within those apps so that the server load and speed is the same as always for those apps.
Minimal load on your servers while making your software smarter and your customers happier. Thank you for your consideration!
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I too, 4 years after the opening of this discussion, have yet another problem.
Luckily there is FLOW. Make a change action every day and in theory solve the problem. But it is not the right solution.CALC every 10 minutes every day etc. But this does not mean that it cannot be easily solved!
It's very simple: you can create 2 types of solutions or both.
1_La first type is MANUAL, it is made friend of Podio. For each APP, add a button as an option when clicked, update all CALC fields of that APP. A useful way to reduce calls in PODIUM is to put filters for the CALC fields, and for the VIEWS so that if an app has 100 items, but the view contains only 20, then only the 20 on the list will be updated .
This system is useful for information sheets that work from day to month or month and so what does the secretary do? goes into the APP view, needs to visually check the situation and then click the calc update button, in 30 seconds it has all updated and can do its job by checking the updated fields.
2_ the second option instead allows more, solves the problem of flows for example. Virtually create a podium section that programs calc field updates. The user selects APP, the view, the single CALC he wants to update, and then sets the update period. Example I need 1 day updates, while others may need it every half hour. Obviously you decide how to program it, but consider that if the user needs to see the updated calc field, you put a system that updates the field (a bit like globiflow) periodically. But following the user's schedule.
For example, I have a trivial situation but I need at least a button or automatic update:
Rental period May 20 June 20, pay within 10 days from the start, or May 30th. I have a CALC system which tells me it's missing 5 days, 3 days are missing, expired in days is late.
This system is based on fixed dates, but since the CALC is not updated what happens: The payment has expired for 3 days but tells me that there are still 5 days to go.
So you mess up if you've made a system to simplify it and the calc doesn't update !!
I believe that a button: update the calc you could do with a lot of simplicity, ... Why don't we take this problem off then !! we pay anyway for the globiflow service !!!!
bye
Barbara
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