Odd Behavior: New Blank Rows Created from Webform Entry

David Owens

I'm wondering why the default behavior of a standard sheet is to create 10 to 50 new blank rows when a new webform entry is received.  

 

New blank sheets are created with 50 rows.  If you delete 49 rows and generate a new row from a web form then the sheet will automatically create 48 blank rows to bring you back to the 50 row default minimum displayed row count.  The new entry appears on row 2.

 

If you then generate a second new entry from a web form then the sheet will add approximately 10 more rows for a total of 61 rows.  The new entry is populated on row 51.

 

When you generate a third new entry from a web form no new blank rows are created and the new entry is populated on row 52.

 

The purpose of this test was to determine if specific cells could be automatically populated with formula-based calculations by copying the formula to all cells of a column down to the last row of the starting sheet.  I have proven this use case but the creation of all these new blank rows just seems odd.

Michael Bell

I experienced this as well and I am using formulas in cells and a webform.  I found that if I selected for the webform rows to insert at the top of the sheet, and made sure the formulas were present in the top row before the webform insertion, the new webform row would pick up the formula.  The extra rows would stay at the bottom of my sheet without a formula, so I just let them stay down there.

Travis

Hi David, I just tested this and I was unable to replicate your behavior. Here's what I did:

 

-Created a new blank sheet

-Deleted rows 2-50

-Created and filled out a web form

-New form entry was added to row 1 (upon refresh, rows 2-50 were added back)

-Filled out the form 2 more times and the entries were added to row 2 and 3

 

Blank rows are added to the bottom of the sheet when you open the sheet to enable to to add additional content to your sheet without having to add new rows. However, web form entries should be added to the next new row in your sheet, not at the bottom.

 

Web form entries are added to the next NEW row, not necessarily the next BLANK row. For example, if you had data in rows 1-10 and then deleted all the data in the rows, then the next form entry will be added to row 11. Deleting rows 1-10 then adding a web form entry will result in the form entry added to row 1.  Is it possible there was data in your rows are some point, which is why the form entries are added down the sheet and not at the top?

 

Dan Brenner PMP

I'm seeing a similar problem and I'm not sure if there is a setting to stop it from happening yet.

 

I'm using the following equation in row 1 of the sheet: 

=IFERROR(COUNTIF(Date:Date, YEARDAY(@cell) = YEARDAY(TODAY())), "Delete Blank Rows")

 

The forumla works perfectly to calculate the number of webform entries we've had today... that is until a new webform is completed and 11 new rows are added to the bottom of the sheet.

 

Only 1 of the 11 new rows actually has the data from the webform while the other 10 rows are completely blank that is causing an error in the countif date function.

 

When a second webform is completed it only adds 1 new row with the data from the webform and the 10 rows that were previously added, appear to remain blank.

 

It's almost as though there was an 11th commandment that says, "thou shalt have 10 rows at the bottom of thine SmartSheets at all times." 

 

Is there another way for me to handle this without breaking the 11th commandment, or is there a setting somewhere that will allow me to disable the 11th commandment... just this once.

Donna Ridgway

I am having a similiar problem and was looking for the answer to Dan's question. I did delete previous data and now the webform is populating on row 73 rather than 1.  How can I correct this?

 

G Santiago

Why can't just smartsheet fix this issue? Is there any reason why there's 10 emtpy row gaps per web form entry? I wasn't experiencing this when our form entries are below 50, but once it hit to 80's to a 100 it's always there now. Does anybody know what's causing it?

Shaine Greenwood

Hello,

 

We've found that this type of issue is caused for a few reasons:

 

1. Data was added to a cell in a row and then deleted. You'll need to manually delete the rows and inform people to delete rows themselves instead of deleting data out of cells in the row. (This can be difficult to track down, so I'd recommend right-clicking on all cells in one of the rows and selecting View Cell History to try and see who's doing it.)

 

2. Someone is manually copying a formula down the sheet that isn't returning a value at the moment, so it appears that the cell is blank. Formulas automatically copy in new rows as web form submissions are made, so let your collaborators on the sheet know that they don't have to copy a formula down manually.

 

3. Someone is leaving open an older version of the sheet that includes the blank rows that you previously deleted. Get all collaborators to refresh the sheet, delete the rows, save, and then get them all to refresh again—or close the sheet completely while you delete the rows and save, then they can come back just after the deletion.

 

If the above doesn't resolve your issue, please reach out to our Support team and we can troubleshoot further: https://help.smartsheet.com/contact

G Santiago

Hi Shaine, 

 

Thanks for this. 

 

I think it's number 3 reason. It doesn't seem to be doing it again after our work day. So nobody else is working on the sheet when I did my last deletion.

 

We do have an auto numbering that is locked to keep track if anything is deleted. and all the fields with formulas are locked and hidden as well so the collaborators won't touch it. But for some reason it has jumped entries and it keeps getting auto saved by collaborators as we go working on it the whole day. I'll monitor and see if it happens again.

 

Thanks again!

Shaine Greenwood

Happy to help!

 

If it happens again (knock on wood), the key might be getting everyone to actually close the sheet for a moment, then you can make your deletions and save. Then have them come back in.

 

It's rare to need to do the above, especially if you can get everyone collaborating on the sheet into the happy of refreshing the sheet before they make changes and save. (Right-click the sheet name at the top and select Refresh.)

Joseph Rispoli

Hello Travis,

I have recently run into the problem that people were experiencing on this thread. I saw that you ran a test and did not yield the same results. I was wondering if you ran that same test using calculation formulas in the first few rows of the sheet. I am creating an expense report that submissions from the field are all done exclusively through a web form, but after the first entry every time the form opens it creates extra blank rows. I am the only user shared to the sheet, and I have tried your previous recommended solutions multiple times and ways.

*If you use the featured Smartsheet template>Finance & Legal>Expense Report it almost works, but the calculations do not work on the added rows from the form. There may already be a fix for this since this thread is old.

I am very new to Smartsheet and love the platform. I am currently transitioning most aspects of my company over to Smartsheet. It would be very helpful if you could assist me with resolving this issue.

Thank you,

Joseph Rispoli

Lisa Doris

I am experiencing this also, except I am not creating a webform, but a Report.  The extra rows, makes my report not look very good.  I delete the rows from the main sheet, but when I switch to the report view it adds the rows back to the main sheet.  very frustrating

ryan.rubens65141

I am still experiencing this issue, and I am the only one with edit access to this sheet. When a web form entry is added, it adds the new entry 10 rows below the last record. I have an auto-numbered column, so if there was data in any of the blank rows, there would be an auto-number...but they are just blank.

This discussion was started 3 years ago, and all I see from SmartSheet is a few workarounds which don't actually solve the problem. Maybe it's time to actually fix this issue rather than suggest workarounds.

Jose Munoz

Im having the same issue every single time I use Check Boxes and build a formula using the check values for example on 50 rows I get 60 instead I keep deleting the additional rows then save the sheet and when I reopen the sheet adds the additional 10 rows . I can select the values only for those rows but when I sort the sheet all the reports starts to report weird numbers. We need support from smartsheet

Colin Entrekin

This is an old thread, but this may help someone.  



I had the same problem.  The solution for me was to set all new rows to go to the top of the sheet by checking the option on the webform.



On any sheet, follow the path:

• Click "Forms" tab
• Click "Edit"
• Select "Form Options"
• Under "Location of New Entries", select "Top of Sheet"

This will cause all new rows to go to the top rather than the bottom of the sheet, and the problem of extra rows will go away.  This will also keep all the formulas together with auto-fill.



For those on our team who prefer to see news rows at the bottom of the list, we created a report view for them and sorted the rows in ascending order by the "Created" column.



This has basically solved the problem for us.  Hope this helps.