Hey guys, I am using Coda as a mini ERP x CRM for my company. I appreciate the flexibility and modularity and was able to put something together in less than 4 months; something that would have taken us probably over a year to build ourselves.
However, there are a few things that really bugged me. Biggest ones are absence of data logs & ability to undo deletion.
On data logs:
I managed to create my own automation to log changes to key fields of a table, HOWEVER, it’s very costly to set up and maintain (in case I have to add new fields). Also, I cannot detect changes to a Canvas field, which is where we put our CRM notes.
So my suggestion would be: Why can’t you simply build log tables that automatically detect changes to any of the fields (all fields by default, with ability to unselect some) and trigger notifications for this. This is something that Notion can do a very good job at. I do not see how that would be so complicated.
On row deletions:
I am aware there are doc locking & page locking features (I’m on Team plan). However, sometimes, I have to allow my team members to delete rows for legitimate reasons (so I cannot toggle of the Delete rows function) and it happened a couple of days ago that somebody in my team deleted rows from a table accidentally and had NO idea until we detected a loss of some rows in our posgre table (we have set up a Postgre automation, which is accessible via Metabase). When I tried to restore the doc to an earlier version before those deletions took place, I had to contact Customer Support team, which only works Mon-Fri; and, so, now it’s Monday (I’m in Asia) and we’re not able to use Coda for one full day untl they do the restoration. I’m aware I could just copy the earlier version but all my packs would break and we use lots of packs, and so this would take forever to do. So a couple of suggestions on this:
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Why don’t you allow user to restore to an earlier version of the doc themselves IF you’re already allowing to copy the ealrier version on their own?
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If you can’t yet build logging for all table changes (as I suggested earlier), could you at least build logging for table and row deletions? Deletions are critical. We should at least be aware of them.
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Confirmation for deletions. Deleting rows in Coda is extremely easy that it’s so scary. Can you at least build a confirmation modal for row deletions? I am finally restoring to building a Delete button that user can press after expressly confirming they want to delete it by toggling on a separate field….but it just seems like a very costly workardound that I’d have to do for every single table I have.
Please consider these requests when you’re building the Sub-Sharing feature
( one col text and on col auto date created)