How to pull data from User Typeahead field attached to the Project Object into a Task Report

[BrownPaperBag]

Hi community.

We want to pull a user name entered into a typeahead field at the project object level into a column in a task report.

In the task report, the typeahead field shows up as an available section to report with, but as this is a task report, I expect that it will only pull that data into the report if the data was entered into a form attached to the task. In this scenario, the data is actually attached to the project.

Here is the typeahead field as it appears in the 'Show in this column:' section of the task report editor

 and here is the text mode of that column when selected

... when saved, the column returns no data (it is blank)

I hoped that updating the valuefield line to project:CAM | Requestor Name:name would do the trick (see below), but it still shows up blank.

Keeping in mind, it is possible to pull some project data (such as the owner) into a task report using this method, for example:

gives you 

Any ideas on how we might achieve this?

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore · Accepted solution]

Hi @BrownPaperBag,

One (and possibly The Only) technique to pull a Typeahead user's name from a Project into a column on a Task report is to create a calculated parameter at the Project level that plucks it out of the Typeahead, then refer to that calculated parameter in the column of the Task report.

UPDATED: The link I cited is quite dated, and referred to a then upcoming backend improvement that could skip the calculated parameter interim step

Regards,

Doug

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Hi again @BrownPaperBag,

As updated above, I invite you to use  this syntax;

valueexpression={project}.{DE:Typeaheadfield name:name}

NOTE; the line above replaces the valuefield line in the column's textmode

Regards,

Doug

[BrownPaperBag]

Thank you Doug for the idea.

I've updated that as suggested, unfortunately its still not pulling in that data. Has this worked for you?

Here's the updated text

[KellieGardner]

in your value expression you are using a : instead of . 

Try updating to this:

{project}.{DE:CAM | Requestor Name:name}

[BrownPaperBag]

Thank you for pointing that out @KellieGardner.

I've updated the text with the period in place of the colon

The result is still a blank field

Safe to conclude that using the calculated field method is optimal here?

[TechAt]

Hi Cian (via @BrownPaperBag),

I've just confirmed that (somewhat remarkably) that typing this Absolute Minimum textmode then correctly returned the "backend" improvement I mentioned to (upon saving the view and viewing the results) reveal the project level's "Typeahead Project 1" typeahead parameter's selected value's name:

valueexpression={project}.{DE:Typeahead Project 1:name}

When I edited the column again, I saw that the new Form Builder popped in one extra line (where the old Form Builder put in several such extra lines):

valueexpression={project}.{DE:Typeahead Project 1:name}
valueformat=

The moral of the story is that Less Is More: when in doubt, clear the textmode, type in the Absolute Minimum to test a theory, and once it is working, add back any other extra lines (e.g. column header, formatting, etc.) as desired...but keep checking as you go to confirm the data continues to render as you'd expect.

With that confirmed, I expect that he other goodies @Sven-atClient mentioned below would also work accordingly.

Regards,

Doug

[Sven-iX]

Hey @BrownPaperBag 

the reason for this is the valueformat: 

If you use valueexpression you're creating a string and for some reason, the custom value formats make it return a blank. 

As soon as I use valueexpression I change to string. The only downside is that e.g. status will now print out "NEW, "PLN" etc becaseu the connection to the map of "human readable status names" is lost. 

[BrownPaperBag]

@Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore  the solution cited in the link you shared worked a treat. Using a calculated field to pull in the name and then reporting on that calculated field does the trick.

Thank you very very much.

Cian

[Sven-atClient]

Hi @BrownPaperBag and @Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore 

You can easily traverse the parent object and present a typeahead. 

For example, I have a task report on which I show a project typeahead of Type user: 

valueexpression={project}.{DE:Business Partner:name}

In this way you can access all Out-of-box fields from the object (eg.g ID, emailAddr, name, title etc etc)

The only "weirdness" is that since the typeahead contains an object, you don't specify the attribute in separate curly brackets, but inside the field name.