Import Anomalies

[Jim Burgess]

1) I exported a form from the iPhone version of TapForms. It includes a photo field and a numeric field formatted as “currency” including some negative values which exported like “($3.45)”.
I imported the form into the Mac version.
In the resulting form in the Mac version the numeric field is blank in all records.

Next I modified the form on iPhone and changed the numeric field to “no format”. Exported the form and imported into the Mac version. The numeric field displayed correctly.
Other tests indicate that the import fails when a negative currency amount is included in any record in the CSV file. The numeric field in all records is blank even if only one record contains the negative value.

2) To confirm a procedure you specified in an earlier post:
If the exported form has photos, this procedure must be followed:
The exported photos must be manually relocated to ‘~/Library/Containers/com.tapforms.mac/Data/Documents/Photos taking care to create the Photos folder in the correct place in the container if it does not already exist.
Sorry, but this is really cumbersome, and potentially a source of error since you are forcing a user to open a container and modify it. You previously stated that a better way is being considered…I hope this occurs sooner than later.

3) Following an import into a new form that contains a map field, the first time the map field in any record is clicked, it displays an area on the map totally unrelated to the actual location contained in the record (looks like somewhere in Winnipeg). But subsequent views work ok. Shouldn’t the first-time click behave normally and show the correct location?

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[Brendan]

Hi Jim,

1. The import records function requires that numeric values don’t have any formatting applied to them. So just digits and the decimal point are valid. So no currency symbol or thousands separators.

2. Tap Forms will automatically create the Photos folder for you the first time you add a photo to any record.

3. I think if you just wait for a little bit longer Tap Forms will display your current location. It does initially display Winnipeg because the open-source library which I’m using was developed by some guys in Winnipeg. So I guess they just defaulted it to that location. You can also click on the find location button at the bottom-left to find your current location. But it takes a little bit of time to find your location so it may be sitting on the Winnipeg location for a bit longer than you would expect.

Thanks!

Brendan

[Jim Burgess]

“1. The import records function requires that numeric values don’t have any formatting applied to them. So just digits and the decimal point are valid. So no currency symbol or thousands separators.”

This isn’t totally true since TapForms properly recognizes scientific notation format during import.

Since TapForms exports values with formatting, I would expect it to import the same formatted values without issue. This restriction forces users to reformat a CSV file containing numeric values that TapForms can use internally but does not recognize during import. Hmmmm.

[Brendan]

Hi Jim,

Ya, I realize this is an oversight on my part. It’s something I need to fix.

Thanks,

Brendan

[Jim Burgess]

Well, this has reared its ugly head again.

I wanted to duplicate an existing form and import a portion of the existing form’s records into the newly created form. Seems simple enough, right. Not exactly. The existing form has a numeric field with a currency format. Because of the problem described in my post above, I can’t do this. The numeric field in all of the imported records is blank!

This should be straightforward, especially considering I am doing this on the same device. But it doesn’t work! If your app exports records in a specific format then the app should be able to import the records intact and without issues. But it can’t.

What is your suggested workaround for this flaw? And when can a fix be expected?

Thanks.

[Author]

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