Force / Trigger Calculation Fields to Update in a single item only
There are occasions, due to circumstances beyond anyone's control, that Calculation fields do not update on a change of related fields or creation of a record in total.
Sometimes this is as simple as a title field that combines two or more basic fields from the present app. Sometimes it can be something with relationships and the calculations hang up and then give up after so much time.
The current solution is to go into the app and add some spaces to the Calculation in question. This forces the system to recalculate the present record as well as all others.
This method is wasteful from a system resource point of view when it is often a single record that needs to recalculate and not every record in the app.
Might we get some form of recalculating of a single record only ability and hence spare having to have the system update many records for the benefit of one?
This function could be triggered from the Action drop-down in the form of Update all Calculation on this record or via the Calculation Option for a given Calculation field in the Modify Template.
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Good luck getting a response from Podio. Ive got 3 tickets outstanding and one has been from 6 days ago. Not a great service for $24 a month and when I am looking to upgrade to 50 users in the coming weeks.
I posted a questions regarding some calculations on the forum and had nothing back. Is podio on its way out?p.s. Sorry to hijack your post!
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To combat this issue, I've used the following steps effectively with several client systems:
- Add a category field to the app template called something like "Refresh Field"
- Make it a drop down with a single selection of "Update Calcs"
- Just for OCD I build a quick globiflow that says anytime we select that drop down, instantly go unset that field so it's ready to use again next time.
- Then in any Text result calc fields on that page you can add a var refresh = @Refresh Field
That variable doesn't have to be used in the displayed result of that calc field at all, it will still prompt any/all calculated fields on that item to update themselves whenever the Refresh Field value is changed.
Known limitation is that this doesn't work for numerical result calc fields, but it's generally simple to refresh numerical calcs by manipulating one of the input number fields.
Hope this idea can work well for you as it has for me. -
A workaround for number fields is to add some @refresh_number to all number calculation fields (not just as unused var as in the string example above, but really as part of the calculation of the return value), which is usually empty but when you put a number in it all fields are calculated anew.
However, it's a shame that this is necessary. Fields not updating is a known bug since forever. Podio, find a solution!Maybe it will give you a motivational kick when you realize that both workarounds presented here might produce massive numbers of calculation eating up expensive resources on your server you will not be able to bill to the customer. I for one send such value from one place through many referenced apps with dozens of calc fields each.
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Thank for the idea. My problem was to refresh the formula daily, to receive Days on Market of my properties when I look at my dashboard. I have added a @current date on my field formula and used globiflow to refresh it once day midnight.
hope it helps someone in the future! btw google spreadsheet refreshes dates and formulas in real-time it would be a good addition to Podio.
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