How to indicate there was an update via Dynamic View.

earl_bennett

I need to be able to identify when sheet content changes when using a Dynamic View. I see where this can be done via form logic on a new entry, but not when entries are updated.

Thanks,

Tim C

Have you ever used the highlight changes function? It can do just that! You can set the time frame. For example you could highlight only the changes for the last 1 hour, or I like to use "since I last viewed the sheet".

https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/521974-highlight-changes-made-to-a-sheet#:~:text=Activate%20Highlight%20Changes,-Open%20the%20sheet&text=Move%20the%20slider%20to%20ON,they%20last%20viewed%20the%20sheet.

earl_bennett

Thanks Tim, but the highlight changes option on a sheet will show you any change that has occurred regardless of how the change was executed.

My use-case is to identify changes that were executed via a Dynamic View so that I can send an alert when the Dynamic View was used.

Genevieve P.

Hi @earl_bennett

Currently there is no way to indicate if an update to a row was made through Dynamic View or directly on the sheet. The Activity Log will log the change as coming from the user who made the update, with a small identification that this was done via the API (meaning a secondary application, such as Dynamic View).

What I would personally do here is restrict access to the underlying sheet so all my users had to access it via Dynamic View, except for the Owner/Admins. Then you can use the Modified By system column to highlight who made the change. If it was someone who wasn't shared to the sheet, they made the change through Dynamic View. Does that make sense?

Cheers,

Genevieve

earl_bennett

Thank you, Genevieve.

That is pretty much what I'm doing. Basically, I have an alert that is sent out when someone other than myself and my admin makes a change. Not perfect but it was a work around.

Neil E

Hello @earl_bennett. I don't know how often you have dynamic view edits, but this may work if you don't have multiple same row edits. This would still work but you would have to reset the triggered cell

You could set up a new column in your source sheet title "Reason for Dynamic View Update" make it a dropdown list or it could be a check box column named "Update", either would work. After you create this column hide it on the source sheet. Then in your Dynamic View you could add that same dropdown or checkbox column to your details pane and make a choice required. Then go back to the source sheet and set an automation trigger alert for a row change to that hidden column. But like I said above this may not work for you if you are constantly having updates to same row of data because the hidden column would have to get reset to blank or unchecked for the trigger to send the alert.