Expand my Community achievements bar.

The next phase for Workfront Community ideas is coming soon. Learn all about it in our blog!
Read now

Auto-recalculate custom expressions with fields from another object (eg: custom Task field which includes field from the Project)

Avatar

Kathy-AnnEd
Level 6

3/23/17

Currently, to recalculate a custom object with fields from another object requires either 1) manually edit each form on which the custom object resides or 2) using the Recalculate Custom Expressions, after selecting Edit, Custom Forms.

The results are: 1) neither of these options are user friendly; 2) this is also a potential risk, as data may be out of synch without the user being aware; and 3) this method is also not 'real time'.

If this design option is due to potential performance considerations, perhaps one solution could be to provide options that would allow the user to prioritize which fields to auto-recalculate?

This functionality would be really useful to have.

It would also help the PR in the client base for as you know, a lot of goodwill from other functionality is quickly wiped out with "I have to keep track of my changes? Isn't the system supposed to be able to do that?"

Thanks

7 Comments

Avatar

VincentGo
Level 6

11/20/17

I very much agree!

I have a custom field to calculate a DATEDIFF called [Current Age Months]. It calculates the date difference between TODAY and the [Entry Date], and then groups them into "Less than 1 month", "1-2 months", "2-4 months", "4+ months".

We use this field for reporting & groups, so we can see in a graph how old our items are.

I noticed that the calculated field only refreshes when a request is updated. For example, in my attached image, the first line item was submitted on 7/28/17, making it 3 months old. However, the request hasn't been updated since 9/20/17, so it says it's only 1-2 months old. Compare that to line 3, which also was submitted on 7/28, but was last updated on 11/8. There the custom field calculation was refreshed, and it's showing 2-4 months.


I know I can select these items and do "Recalculate Custom Expressions", but these custom fields should refresh automatically, not with a manual refresh. Also, items that are in an approval workflow are locked, so the Custom Field calculation gets locked and can't be updated.

Avatar

AndrewPa1
Level 3

9/23/18

What would be really useful for us is if on the custom field we could specify what would trigger a recalculate (eg change project status, or new issue added, or a particular field changing value) - this way you can contain it so that it is only the triggering even that causes the recalc (and the the resave of the form) - but can get a recalculation happening when an activity happens that would change the value of the calculated field.

My example is we have a check that compares the overall project condition with some component parts that are held on a "Project condition report" that sits as a specific type of issue. We want a check that shows an error message if the overall project is Green (On Target) but 2 or more of the component part are amber or red. I already have a calc field that shows number of not greens but then want to use this to compare to the project condition. My problem at the moment comes in that the calc field is wrong when someone changes the overall status after adding the detailed project condition report since they haven't come back in and resaved the custom form.

Avatar

AutumnRi1
Level 2

12/17/18

We would like this too. We have an integration that looks for a few calculated fields but if someone copies a project or moves the project into a different program after creation, the calculated field doesn't update causing integration issues downstream.

Avatar

ryanbrogz
Level 3

5/15/20

This one has been out there for a while, it's surprising that other organizations don't struggle more with this! We are attempting to deep link users into other applications using several fields found on a WF custom form, namely an ID field. Until then, we'll likely just bulk edit the applicable tasks every couple days, manually. :(

Avatar

JoshuaWe
Level 2

4/14/22

We fill out the Program or Project custom form once and feed that information downward into tasks. This ensures consistency across tasks. This is a huge blocker, would love to see this functionality go live.

Avatar

foggd
Level 2

8/9/22

I would also love this functionality. 

 

Also, and maybe I'm confused by the wording, but check out the last piece of info on this page: https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/workfront/using/administration-and-setup/customize/custom-fo...

Automatic updates of calculated custom fields
Calculated custom fields on an object recalculate automatically when the following things happen:

-Something on the object changes, such as a daily timeline calculation.
-Someone edits another field that is referenced by a calculated custom field on the object.
-The calculated expression is empty and the field contains a value—this sets the value to null.

 

Am I missing something or shouldn't this functionality already work?

Reply