Row Link - Can it be extracted or used in an Alert or Form?

Dennis Wierzbicki

My users are getting a little lost when they are sent to a sheet via an Alert or Update Request. It would help if there was a way to point them to the correct row.

I know you can get to the specific row via selecting the row, right clicking and selecting "Properties", then looking under Row Link, and the URL/hyperlink appears.

My question is, can this link be displayed elsewhere, like in a cell, or next to the Row Number in the Alert or Update Request? Sure would clear up a lot of confusion.

Thanks in advance

Genevieve P.

Hi Dennis,

As far as I'm aware there's no way to automatically have this URL displayed in the grid of the sheet (which is how it could be present in an Alert) - please submit an Enhancement Request when you have a moment!

You may have already done so, but you could turn on the Highlight Changes formatting in the sheet, to highlight any cells that have been updated since the last time that user looked at the sheet. Hope that helps!

Cheers,

Genevieve

Dennis Wierzbicki

Genevieve, thanks. Yes, I understand the "highlight changes" function, and the "view cell history", however the issue I'm having is that inexperienced users are getting lost on the large sheet.

It seems odd that Smartsheet would establish a way to generate a row URL, then hide it in an obscure right-click and open another window only manner. I mean, the URL has to be within the sheet somewhere, if it can be found like this.

Paul Newcome

One option would be to include instructions on how to "jump" to a specific row. I am not sure what it is for Mac users, but Windows users can press CTRL+G and enter a row number to jump to it.

You could include the instructions and the row number in the alert and also have the instructions in a cell at the top of the sheet.

Paul Newcome

I am not sure if there is a way to use the API to pull the row ID then have it inserted into a column on the sheet. @Andrée Starå is more well versed in 3rd party apps than I am.

Dennis Wierzbicki

Paul, good idea, and one I thought of. Even incorporated a way to make it "easy", but in the end, an Alert and an Approval Request both list the row number, so it wasn't much more user friendly than what is already baked into Smartsheet. Inexperienced users are still thrown, willy nilly, onto a sheet they've never seen before.

Dennis Wierzbicki

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/254042#Comment_254042

Paul, I've asked that of our Smartsheet CSR, and he's checking. I could probably use something like Zapier, but the one time I tried that, via the trial version, I exceeded my trial allowance for Zaps in one day, and my boss said "we already pay for Smartsheet. Why should we pay for another piece of software to make it do what we want it to?"

Paul Newcome

I understand trying to keep within the limits of the free version of Zapier. I am under the same constraint.

I am not familiar with the API, but I am fairly certain that you are able to grab Row ID's. That's why I looped Andree in. He definitely has more knowledge regarding that than I do.

Andrée Starå

@Paul Newcome Thanks!

@Dennis Wierzbicki Let me know if I can help in any way!

Be safe and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Dennis Wierzbicki

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/254743#Comment_254743

@Andrée Starå, thanks for your reply. Did I miss your suggestion?

I believe Paul was asking about the API, and whether there is some way to pull out the Row ID URL, to allow it to be embedded in a cell, or included in Alerts, Approval Requests or Update Requests.

Cheers,

Dennis

Doyle54

Paul - I just wanted to say to Paul - 75 Posts??!!!!. Wow!

Andre - 35 Posts?!!

Very Generous of you Both.

c

Dennis Wierzbicki

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/254831#Comment_254831

???

Andrée Starå

@Dennis Wierzbicki

Apologies, I misread Paul's comment.

Yes, I'm pretty sure it's possible. Here's more information about the API and row objects.

https://smartsheet-platform.github.io/api-docs/#row-object

WGTP

We have the same problem. One near solution is to include the URL in an alert message to a report that is filtered to the current user. So, although the current user might still have many tasks they are likely to be fewer than in a whole sheet.