CRUD forms with certain design specs

Hi all - excited to discover SS yesterday. I began building database apps in the 90s with MS Access and moved on to platforms including SalesLogix, SFDC, LongJump, HTMLOS(Array), TeamDesk and more recently Sheets in addition to trying many low/no code products since 2008. I just read your TechCrunch interview and was thrilled with the SS mission of adhering to the spreadsheet paradigm while adding relationships to data. I can’t imagine a faster way to build web apps than to do what we all do now… create a sheet …but then have the option of a sheet evolving into an app.

I have found that when a sheet starts to solve a problem, I want to track additional info (usually milestones or stages). As the columns grow, the sheet is harder to use since it requires lots of horizontal scrolling and if columns are not adjacent, makes it tough to review. A form can solve this.

To avoid the same verbose info problem hurting the form, where a user would have to vertically scroll a monster 3+ foot long form, I would like to have…

  • collapsible sections
  • 2 or 3 column width
  • position field labels to right and be able to right justify label name
  • reasonable tab order (top down then left to right)
  • multi tab / page element

Here’s a sheet that I would like to convert into an app. Note the titled and colored sections that are begging to be organized on a form with sections… link

I have been checking out SS for a few hours so certainly might be missing something obvious, but it looks like the form feature is only for capturing new rows and the design is limited to what fields are displayed. I found a topic titled “Ability to add button or hyperlink to a form in workspace” that simply asked about placing a button on a form, however the excellent response from SS indirectly touched on what I am looking for.

Thanks for a fascinating product and I look forward to more exploring - Chris

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Hello @Chris_Swanson , As you rightly guessed from the previous response to Ability to add button or hyperlink to a form in workspace , the feature that you are requesting for is in our medium term roadmap.

We already have a form designer (Form View) - We will pretty soon be working on another iteration to the form designer. We also will be allowing end users to specify such a form as the one appearing on a ‘Preview row’ popup action. And possibly other places in the future - For eg the approval step of an approval workflow ( approve Leave Application etc).

Will update this space as the dates/ETA become clearer.

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