I am wondering if a feature exists that can solve my problem:
I have a loop with the key element being BOX - inside that box - a loop adding an item and its attributes.
so you end up with a table
box item color size weight
1 shirt blue M 1/2lb
1 pants red XL 1 lb
2 shoe purple 10 3lbs
That was easy to do
now I would like to get a summary
box 1 - 1.5 lbs
box 2 - 3 lbs
is that possible?
Thanks
box 2 3 lbs
Hi Veronica.
You could achieve what you're trying to do if you used a screen for each box. Like this:
Box 1 Screen:
Then you could copy the Box 1 Screen and re-configure it a bit like this to make the Box 2 Screen:
Then on your Summary page (or whichever page you want the aggregate data on):
Add a Summary field for Box 1 like this:
Field Label: Box 1 Total Weight (lbs)
Field Type: Summary
Style: Number
Summary Screen: Box 1 (or whatever you named it)
Summary Field: Weight (lb)
Then go to more >> and choose the number of decimal places you want
Then do the same thing with another Summary field for Box 2.
Would that work?
Is it important to know the contents and weight of each box, or just the total overall weight?
If the overall weight is important and you can place items in boxes as needed, you could possibly just remove the box field and then divide the items between boxes?
If it is important to know the contents and weight of each box, you could use a Zapier integration to pull the data into a Google Sheet or an Excel Online file and then do your calculations there, depending on your needs.
GoCanvas also has a custom PDF team with access to tools that aren't available to customers. They may be able to perform the calculations in their tools so that they show up on the PDF how you want them to. You could contact your rep to see if they can indeed do that and for pricing, etc.
It would be a nice feature request also to be able to natively perform a calculation like that within GoCanvas without having to jump through so many hoops (aggregate data by like values in a field of your choice from a loop screen).
Another option would be to set up as many screens as you think there might ever be boxes and then put a screen after each box with a question like "Do you need another box?" ... if the user selects yes then use conditional logic to show the next box screen, and so on. That could get really messy though, especially if you have quite a few boxes that could be needed.
This might be another option, but you would again have to try and guess the maximum number of boxes there might ever be in order for it to work and it could get messy.
You could add a hidden Number field with a default value of 1 to your existing loop screen and name it something like "Box Counter".
Then you could add a hidden calculation field called some thing like "Box 1 Weight". Set the calculation to "Box Counter" x "Weight". Then use Field Conditions to set it to only show if the Box value is 1 kind of like this:
Then you could add more hidden calculation fields for boxes 2 through X and set the condition to show them only if the box number = 2 or = 3, and so on through X.
Then on your summary page you could add a summary field called something like "Number of Boxes" to total the number of boxes based on the "Box Counter" field.
Then you could add add a summary field to total the "Box 1 Weight" field values and use Field conditions to only show it if "Number of Boxes" is greater than or = to 1 like this:
Condition Screen: Summary
Condition Field: Number of Boxes
Condition: >= (Greater Than or Equal)
Condition Value: 1
Then you could keep copying the Box 1 Weight summary field as many times as needed and just change the values to sum up Box 2 weight if the number of boxes >= 2, Box 3 weight if the number of boxes >=3, and so on through X.
This might be the cleanest way to do this natively inside GoCanvas without using a Zapier integration or having to go to the custom PDF team. You could then add a Total Box Weight (calculation) field if needed and just set it to add the weight from all of the Box Weight fields together.
It probably sounds crazy, but you could probably easily do this for quite a few boxes.
If the number of boxes is just potentially too high to deal with like this, you could always add a question or field to ask the user if they need more boxes than how many slots you have available... then you could have static text field(s) show up based on the answer and tell them something like "Please submit additional form(s) if you need more than X boxes" or "Please contact sales for a custom quote if you need more than X boxes".
Does that seem like it might work?
Hey ya'll,
Thanks for hopping in and helping out Nathan! This is a really interesting concept that you have cooked up and I am carefully re-reading to make sure I follow! Although we don't have a summary field that can pull out values individually from a loop screen, only a summary field for summarizing every instance of a numeric field value i.e. price, you could use screenshots to re-cap those box weights later on in the app.
By setting the loop screen in a "Grid" style, the image would be a clean table summarizing that information later in the app. This could be a solution for if the submitter needs to see those values after they have nearly completed the app. By using a photo field that can pull photos from their gallery, they can review the information entered before submitting. A static text reminder in the loop screen that reminds them to take a screenshot may be enough to encourage that behavior.
If the submitter does not need to see these summaries and only the person who receives the PDF, a loop screen in the app will look like a clean table in the PDF and that table can be pulled in as many times as is needed. The loop screen can be in full further up in the PDF and then later, the table can just show the column that list the box and the column that lists the weight. This is achievable with the PDF Designer and does not require custom PDF.
So as an example, I set up a screen called “Box” and looped it (Loop this Screen in the Screen Settings in the left nav).
I named parent Screen “Boxes” and named the key field “Box” and set it to Number
Then I set up the Box Screen with a number field for Box Number and short text fields for Item, Color, and Size. They could easily be any other field type, I just used short text for simplicity of the example. Then I added a number field for Weight (lb) and set it to allow 2 decimal places in the Field Settings >> More.
Then I added a Number field for Box Counter and set the default value to 1
And set it not to be visible on mobile in Field Settings >> More
Then I added a calculation field for Box 1 Weight and set the calculation to Box Counter X Weight
And set the field conditions for it to only show if Box Number = 1
Then I set it for 2 decimal places. Unfortunately it seems you have to leave them visible in order for the calculation to work (but they will only show up for the appropriate box number in this example)
Then I copied the Box 1 Weight field a few times and just changed each one sequentially to be Box 2 Weight only showing if Box Number = 2, Box 3 Weight only showing if Box Number = 3, and so on. I just went to 4 boxes for the example.
Then I added a Box Summary Screen and added:
• A summary field for Number of Boxes and set it to sum up the Box Counter field (which will be 1 for every box regardless of box number) from the Boxes screen
• A summary field for Box 1 Weight and set it to sum up the Box 1 Weight field from the Boxes screen
o And set a field condition for it to only show if the number of boxes >= 1
• Then I copied the Box 1 Weight summary field 3 times for Box 2 Weight showing only if Number of Boxes >=2, Box 3 Weight showing only if Number of Boxes >= 3, and Box 4 Weight showing only if Number of Boxes >=4.
• Then I added a calculation field for Total Weight and set the calculation to add up Box 1 Weight through Box 4 Weight
Then I went back to the Boxes screen settings and enabled Grid view and Allow Duplicate Entries so that more than one row can have the same box ID / number if needed (you could easily call the field Item instead of Box and then you would have both an Item number and a Box number and wouldn’t have to worry about enabling duplicate entries).
Then I tried it on mobile. It works other than it shows the Box X Weight values on the Box Summary screen for based on how many items there are rather than how many boxes there are… ugh.
You could either elect to show (rather than hide) the Box X Weight values for all slots whether those boxes exist or not, or you could find a different way to count the boxes… Maybe something like this:
- Add a drop down or single choice field for First item in box on the Box loop screen Like this
- Then add a number field called Box Quantity Counter with a default value of 1 and only show it if First Item in Box = yes
o Making the bottom of the loop screen look like this in builder
- Then set the Number of Boxes summary field on the Box Summary screen to sum up the box quantity counter instead of the box counter field.
I tested that in mobile and it works fine.
In retrospect, the Box Counter field should probably be called Box Item Counter and the Boxes Screen should probably be called the Items Screen... anyway, I hope that helps.
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