Forum Discussion

Flo's avatar
Flo
Qrew Trainee
23 days ago
Solved

On Form Open, populate an User and Timestamp field. No way to trigger rule on Form Open?

Hi!

Use case: On opening a form (new or existing record) I want to auto-populate a field (e.g. timestamp field with now() and a user field with currentUser()) when the fields are currently empty.

I tried the following:

  1. ❌ A trigger that is just user == <other> with a blank field --> should be true on open but does not do anything
  2. ❌ A custom when formula with the content `true` --> definetly true on open, but does not do anything
  3. ❌ Record ID != -1 (also always true) does not do anything
  4. ✅ A trigger "when checkbox is checked" using a helper checkbox: As soon as user checks, checkbox, the field fills correctly. But this is not the intended behaviour
  5. 🤔 The options to change field value after save and validation also seems to work (mostly) But this is not the intended behaviour.

Any way of enabling this pattern of "fill a field when form is opened (and field is empty)" would be helpful.

  • Just to clarify for anyone that needs help: You need to uncheck "Run change actions when a condition changes..." which will be checked by default. When you uncheck this, the rule will be applied instantly (on form open), otherwise it is only applied if a field value changes.

     

    If you wanted to run the rule only on a new form, not an edit form, you can also add a rule like if Date Created = blank, then do something combined with above.

4 Replies

  • I was able to successfully accomplish this with form rules.

    See screenshot for example for defaulting the user.  (A similar configuration works for defaulting a date field.)

    • Denin's avatar
      Denin
      Qrew Assistant Captain

      Just to clarify for anyone that needs help: You need to uncheck "Run change actions when a condition changes..." which will be checked by default. When you uncheck this, the rule will be applied instantly (on form open), otherwise it is only applied if a field value changes.

       

      If you wanted to run the rule only on a new form, not an edit form, you can also add a rule like if Date Created = blank, then do something combined with above.

  • I'm sure we can get a form rule to work, but why not do it the more obvious way.

    Just going to field properties and set a default both of those fields.  There should be the option to respectively default to current user and default to now.

    • Flo's avatar
      Flo
      Qrew Trainee

      That only works for the first field on record creation. I have 5 user fields and timestamps for the different states of my item as it goes through manufacturing.