With required text fields; how do avoid people entering in a "blank" or "period"?

Mike Daly

Is there a way to put validation on required text form fields to avoid folks entering blanks, periods or random characters?

Paul Newcome

I haven't found a way. The only thing I can think of would be to use a dropdown, but that only works if you have a specific list. It unfortunately won't work for free text.

Andrée Starå

Hi @Mike Daly

I hope you're well and safe!

To add to Paul's excellent advice/answer.

Here's a possible workaround or workarounds

• You could add a Workflow that triggers an Update Request Until all fields are correctly filled in.

Would that work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Paul Newcome

I haven't found a way. The only thing I can think of would be to use a dropdown, but that only works if you have a specific list. It unfortunately won't work for free text.

Mike Daly

Thank you, sir!

Mike Daly

Andrée Starå

Hi @Mike Daly

I hope you're well and safe!

To add to Paul's excellent advice/answer.

Here's a possible workaround or workarounds

• You could add a Workflow that triggers an Update Request Until all fields are correctly filled in.

Would that work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

✅Did my post(s) help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please support the Community by marking it Insightful/Vote Up or/and as the accepted answer. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

Marc Hauge

Here is a solution that allows you to use regular forms as update requests allowing for validation. This also allows for requiring fields. This workaround requires Zapier. It is moderately complicated, but if you follow this video, I think most could get it.

https://vimeo.com/740950613

Paul Newcome

@Marc Hauge Have you thought of using Smartsheet to generate the unique row id (auto-number column) and using cross sheet references to pull data back from the changes sheet over to the main sheet instead of using Zapier. While it is only a couple of minutes in between each step using Zaps, it still slows things down a bit having to wait on it.

Marc Hauge

That would be an interesting approach. The cross sheet reference would have to pull data from the latest entry with the matching ID using vlookup. I can test that out. That would speed things up and keep it all with Smartsheet. I like the idea.

Marc Hauge

@Paul Newcome

I am going to redo my solution using your suggestions. I was able to make it work correctly using the cross sheet reference VLOOKUP formula. This gets rid of the need for Zapier entirely. I will re-upload a video when I have it completed. I think the solution will be much more elegant.

Marc Hauge

Here is the updated workaround without using Zapier: (Zapier still needed for file attachments moves)

Thanks for the thoughts @Paul Newcome

https://vimeo.com/743259328/e17e5ebb5c

Paul Newcome

@Marc Hauge I got a "Sorry. This video does not exist." error.

I am not sure how exactly you are using the VLOOKUP (I know how it works just not sure of how you are using it in this specific instance), but I personally tend to avoid it and go with INDEX/MATCH or INDEX/COLLECT for performance reasons. Are you having the form populate at the top of the sheet?

Marc Hauge

@Paul Newcome

Not sure why the video didn't work, here is the link... https://vimeo.com/743259328/e17e5ebb5c

This solution works great, but attachments and comments is an issue. Zapier doesn't have the functionality for attachments for row updates so I am going to try "Make" I think the smartsheet integrations with Make are more robust.