Good afternoon GoCanvas team:
I have an app for job estimation that relies on a loop screen to add labor positions as needed. Each position has an associated hourly cost for each. To arrive at the total cost, each line of the loop is multiplied by the "job duration" (expressed in days).
If I run the app using one scenario, for example using 3 days of work, I get a result of "x"
If I run the app using a second scenario, using 5 days of work, I get a result of "y"
However, imagine if I run the app using the first scenario, (3 days), then get to the final screen and realize that I needed to change my duration to the second scenario (5 days). I go back to the job duration and change the "3" to "5". The final result should be "y" - correct? Well, it isn't.
In that third scenario, I actually get a third result, "z". The reason is that the labor loop screen does not update the calculations in the loop once the "job duration" variable is changed.
I have examples and submissions to prove it all at a more detailed level.
After discovering upon job closeout that our bids fell short of our costs on a few jobs, we now recognize the bug after losing a few thousand dollars. My team now just starts over every time they have to change job duration. It shouldn't work that way. Math calculations should perform dynamically, regardless of whether they are in loop screens or not.
I've submitted this previously as a help ticket and was told "this is how it was designed to work". OK, that's fine. Time to please reconsider, because that makes no sense on any level to me. If excel did math this way, we'd all be in a lot of trouble.
Please help. Thank you!
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Howdy Christopher,
Thank you for sharing this detailed use case example! I provided your feedback directly to our Product Managers, emphasizing the complications that are currently encountered with Calculations within loop screens.
Our Product Team is in the planning stages for major updates to the App Builder. We do not have an estimated timeline for changes to Calculation fields within loop screens, but they understand the challenges that the current system can cause and we are committed to improving Calculation fields as a whole.
Agreed. It is frustrating when calculations and lookups / references don't happen correctly when each and every screen involved is not visited.
This feature request was an attempt to sort of ask for the same thing if you wanted to upvote it.
https://help.gocanvas.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360025221834-Enable-values-to-post-correctly-even-if-some-pages-are-skipped-via-Table-Of-Contents-and-even-if-fields-are-hidden
Has this issue been fixed or is it on the roadmap still to be fixed? From where I sit five years later, I don't think it has. Math done reliably is pretty important to the product.
Hi Christopher Banks,
Thanks for following up! I have done some of my own testing and was not able to recreate the original circumstance, so I probably need more information. I also reached out to our Support team to make sure there isn't anything I am missing in my testing. I will be sure to update once I hear back from them.
I've done some testing and I've think I've uncovered the issue (again). Now that I went through the motions, I do remember researching and/or discussing this in the past (a long time ago). The problem only occurs when the Table of Contents is enabled. If you use the table of contents to jump backwards to change a value used in a calculation (that occurs on another screen), then you jump forward again using the table of contents, the calculations in that screen in between will not recalculate, unless it is physically opened. This is a vulnerability that can be eliminated by disabling the Table of Contents and forcing users to go forward and backwards using the next and back button.
Hi @...,
I believe you are right, after speaking with Support the suggestion was to make sure they revisit the screens that are impacted so those fields recognize the change and can update. Thank you for following up and apologies for the delay as I tried to troubleshoot it myself.