Organize Fields in Update Request

Hi all,

I've developed a request approval process flow wherein someone submits a list of requested parts, then an update request is triggered for our planning team to review and approve / deny each line requested. Since this requires multiple fields to be approved / denied, I couldn't use a basic approval workflow, and instead built this using an update request.

The update request needs to include some basic non-editable data for the reviewer to make a decision, as well as the editable 'approval' checkbox. This is functionally working as expected, but the formatting is being problematic. I have added in the fields to the update request in the order I want them to display, but when I save the workflow, these get reorganized in a way that is effectively useless:

I'm hoping there's some way to control these, and they don't look to be defaulting to an alphanumeric sequence, nor are they reflecting the column order in the sheet. Appreciate any insight into why this is happening and how to resolve.

Thanks!

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Accepted answers

Bassam Khalil

Hi @Rob W.,

Here are some steps and considerations that might help you address this issue:

First, double-check the column order in your Smartsheet. While you mentioned that the fields don't seem to reflect the column order in the sheet, it's important to ensure that your desired order is indeed set up correctly in the sheet itself. Smartsheet generally respects the column order when displaying fields in forms and update requests, although there are exceptions.
When creating or editing an update request, you have some level of control over which fields are included and their order. Make sure you're adding them to the update request in the desired sequence. Although you've done this, it's worth reviewing to see if any step was missed or if rearranging them slightly before saving could yield a different result.

All comments

Bassam Khalil

Hi @Rob W.,

Here are some steps and considerations that might help you address this issue:

First, double-check the column order in your Smartsheet. While you mentioned that the fields don't seem to reflect the column order in the sheet, it's important to ensure that your desired order is indeed set up correctly in the sheet itself. Smartsheet generally respects the column order when displaying fields in forms and update requests, although there are exceptions.
When creating or editing an update request, you have some level of control over which fields are included and their order. Make sure you're adding them to the update request in the desired sequence. Although you've done this, it's worth reviewing to see if any step was missed or if rearranging them slightly before saving could yield a different result.

Rob W.

Thanks @Bassam Khalil,

I checked this with an end user today and was surprised that even though the order in the update request is out of sequence, the values in the request the user sees are in the proper order. This isn't ideal as there's no good sense from the admin perspective that these are ordered properly, other than to check the output.

Still, my problem looks to be a cosmetic one that only I will see, and the function for users is working as intended. Curious why these reorder and what logic is sequencing them, but it's effectively a non-issue. Based on prior experiences, I believe you're correct that the order in which values are added seems to be the driver for output sequence.

Thanks for the response!

Bassam Khalil

You are welcome @Rob W.,

CV1

@Bassam Khalil I am experiencing a similar issue, that appears to only have begun recently. It appears that the email with the approval request shows the correct sequence, but when the user clicks to Open the Request, the list in the browser is completely out of order and does not reflect the same order, nor the order of the columns. When I head back into the automation, the column order has been changed automatically from what I set it originally (and also does not match the visible sheet column order). It appears random. Attaching some images that demonstrate this.

Original automation order:

Sheet column order:

Email order:

Approval request order (after clicking 'Open Request' which opens it in the browser)

And lastly, the automation order, which automatically changes when I Save the automation. (Edit: I'm noticing now it also deleted the 'Blanket Start' and Blanket End' fields. Is there a maximum number of fields that can be in an approval request?)

Curiously, if I trigger the automation to run again, the email matches my original ordering, but the approval request still is this weird order.

I appreciate any help you might have!

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