Workspace collections are here!

isa.ohara

I heard at Engage that Collections were going to replace Workapps - and I couldn't believe it… and now in the email announcement - it looks like it is true.

How is this going to be used for Portfolio Workapps? I was JUST getting this going so we have an easier way to share information with our clients.

I agree with @Cathy Salscheider about the need for clearer communication around this - especially since so many of us do not have access to it - even in the EAP because of the restrictions around it. There is no way I can put everyone in the EAP at my company - people already freak out about the little changes that happen that aren't announced.

Since this only available to the people who have opted in their whole org to EAP AND the people on the new subscription model starting in 2025… how is this being thoroughly beta tested?

EDIT: I just saw in the FAQ for the user subscription model and I quote: "Smartsheet Advance is not impacted by the new model at this time"

So for Smartsheet Advance users - how does this work? We have Advanced - and we still don't have Collections…

MarceHolzhauzen

I am in love!
Good job on creating this and making it work so easily.

Some questions for you guys:
1. How will Control Centre treat collections? Currently, Control center creates a WorkApp for every Program. Will I be able to rather use Collections - knowing that I would need 3 collections to replace 1 workapp to accommodate the Roles.

2. The only feature that I cannot see properly is how to add a Dynamic view to a collection.  I tried to do so using the "links" option but got a "use Smartheet items tab" message. Then went to the Smartsheet content tab (note the wording Smartsheet items vs Smartsheet Content) but there is no way to select the dynamic view on a sheet.Incidently, adding the dynamic view link to the links section worked, so i ignored the error and just added it anyway

3. In light of them having Collections enabled, I created a collection to test it out and see how I can start using it with a current solution and way of doing things.  So I created a collection and shared it with two users, not sharing underlying sheets etc. Using the link I posted, they were able open the Dashboard that I had shared, but when we tried to find the Collection in their Smartsheet platform, we could not. So the question is, how would we find this collection?

OshaK

I also have an Enterprise plan and a paid subscription via the university I work for and I'm not seeing it.

What is the Workspace panel? Is it not the folder in the left column File Explorer?

Also, can we add the workspaces into a collection? Thank you!

Tony Platts

This seems like a really simple, and yet very helpful, feature to be paywalling behind a new user Enterprise only requirement.

I guess the question I'd have here is, will this be coming to Business and Personal Plan users? If so, when? If not, is this a new model Smartsheet are following that we need to be aware of?

The reason I ask is that we bought into Smartsheet with the understanding that, although some functionality we needed wasn't available, much of it was "on the roadmap". To start seeing roadmap items being delivered that we're not eligible for is a bit of a concern.

Jason Hidek

Collections is ANOTHER step back for Smartsheet. Workapps are awesome. They have their own unique UI and URL that is role based and easy to maintain. Basically instead of sending any user to the Smartsheet home pages of hundreds of boxes or workspaces or have them save tons of bookmarks.

You simply just give them the URL to the Workapp.

I do not understand the changes of Smartsheet. Its like they are rolling back features trying to funnel everything to the workspace and directly to the underlying assets, in hopes to have more provisional memberships created to the underlying assets.

Collections is just a poor mans version of workapps. You basically have to create a collection within a workspace for each ROLE that you had in a workapp. So if you had 6 roles in a workapp you would have six collections within that workspace.

Having users in a file manger workspace UI versus the nice UI of a Workapp sucks. We beta tested some Collections of Workapps we have and not a single user likes it. At all. No idea who thought this would be better than workapps.

Collections and the new user subscription model and two huge negatives for us that we are finding alternate software for processes cause if we keep it in smartsheet it adds dozens of members.