Tracking Time Duration (new from Bento)

[daiya]

Hello, I am new to Tap Forms and having problems understanding how TF tracks a duration of time in my database. Reading the manual has not clarified. I have two specific issues:

Context:
Just yesterday, I moved over from Bento/Snow Leopard to Tap Forms/Sierra. I am using the trial version of TF5. It appears that I have successfully imported my Bento templates, for the most part.

Issue 1) I had an Hours Worked field in Bento, which allowed me to track how long each project took me. In Bento, I had to enter it like so: 3h 20m; 10h 15m; 30m; etc. In TF5, that full data shows up and sums properly in the multi-column list view, but in the individual layout record, it is truncated to show just the hours, eg, 3, 10, 0. What is going on?

Issue 2) I cannot get the Hours Worked field (a Number field) to behave. In the individual layout record, it won’t accept data at all. I have tried changing the Number Format, I have experimented with entering various formats and all I ever get is “invalid data”, or, it just changes Hours Worked to 0 without telling me. In the multi-column list view, it will accept data, and I finally got “:30” to produce “30 mins” (although “30 mins” produces “30 hours”, “.5” produces “5 mins”, which seems bizarre). The individual record, however, declares “:30” is invalid, with the Number Format set to Time (hrs, mins).

thanks for any assistance!
Daiya

[Mike Schwartz]

Dayia,

If you want a field to track hours and minutes, then the field type should be “Time”, not “Number”. For a Time field you can define many different formats from a pop-up menu. If you have already imported the time data from Bento into a number field, it is not clear what will happen if you try to change the field type after-the-fact. Since you’re just in a testing mode, you can just give it a try. But I think that you might need to start over with your Bento import, making sure that you’re importing the time data into a time field from the outset.

Hope that helps,
Mike

[daiya]

Thanks, Mike! I tested changing the field format on a dummy import and it wiped all the data for that field entirely, across all records. According to the manual, this type of Duration field to track time is properly imported as a Number field and Number is the right way to track Duration. It’s not explained how one can pick and choose field format during Import from Bento?

I’m now thinking it’s more of a display bug than a field format issue. The fundamentals seem to be fine, since the duration data is correct in the single-column list view, multi-column list view, and in the Default Layout view. It’s my imported template layout that is giving the problem. (although if I have one record active, switch to list view, then switch back, Hours Worked will temporarily show up correctly and then truncate again as I switch records).

I tried creating a New Layout, but the data is truncated there as well. I made the box bigger but that doesn’t seem to matter.

Thanks,
Daiya

[Mike Schwartz]

Daiya,

Even if your field is a Number field, you can still specify a number format such as “Time (hrs, mins)”. Turn on the Form inspector and select the Fields tab. Then select your number field and look down toward the bottom of the inspector panel (you may need to scroll). You’ll find a number format control with a pop-up menu. See if that helps.

— Mike

[daiya]

Hi Mike,

Yes, the Number format is already set to Time (hrs, mins), and it is showing that way in several views. It doesn’t seem to help with the individual layout view where the problem is–I turned it on and off without making a difference.

I thought maybe Auto-Increment could be the issue, but that is off too.

BUT, I spoke too soon when I said it seemed to be just a display bug. Now it appears to be randomly resetting certain records to 0 hrs, 0 mins, even in the views that were previously correct.

thanks,
Daiya

[Brendan]

Tap Forms stores durations in a Number fields as seconds. The Number Format is used to convert the seconds to HH:MM:SS or hrs, mins, secs, etc. (and the other 2 formats).

Converting from Number to Time will definitely remove the values because those types are incompatible.

1. There is a bug in the custom layout which isn’t showing the duration values properly. It shows and works properly in the Default Layout though. I’ve fixed this for the next update.

2. Switch to the Default Layout view and those fields should work properly. Wait for the next update for it to work properly in the custom layouts.

Thanks,

Brendan

[daiya]

Thanks, Brendan, will do. Did you see my last note that some of the fields were resetting themselves to zero even in the Default Layout?

[Brendan]

Hi Daiya,

Hmm… No I didn’t. It may be possible that if you had put your cursor into the same field on a custom layout, even without changing anything, if you had then switched to the Default Layout it would have updated that value anyway.

[daiya]

Thanks, Brendan. Good to know it works that way! Yes, that’s likely the case as I was messing with that field pretty closely. I’ll keep an eye on how it behaves and look out for the update.

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