The Audit Pack [Get more formulaic access to columns]

Love it @Steve_Simon2 - thanks :pray:

1 Like

Ya this is great. I have a large doc that runs a few different processes. The doc is years old and you better believe I’ve got all kinds of extraneous columns left over from past ideas and experiments. Would love to see everything in one place.

Also being able to scan for outdated formula approaches that I now know better solutions for.

1 Like

What a great idea. :smiley: I would also find it really useful to run a report showing all references in a doc to a particular table, column, row or formula. When planning changes to a complex doc, it’s not always easy to refresh one’s memory on all the different ways that a particular object is used throughout the doc, which sometimes leads to changes having unintended consequences and needing to be rolled back and redesigned. The Doc Map goes some way towards this, but not quite at the level of granularity needed.

3 Likes

Great idea @Tim_Sherman1 - I’ll be looking into it!

Maybe we could utilize @Leandro_Zubrezki ’s mermaid pack to create auto visuals and maps of doc structure, etc.

Think that’s possible @Leandro_Zubrezki ?

3 Likes

100% possible, if the Audit Pack can show a table with all the references then it is super simple to create a flowchart based on that.

@Scott_Collier-Weir let me know once you have the table and we can show an example :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Hi Scott,

This sounds like a data dictionary?

P

What exactly do you mean @Piet_Strydom ?

1 Like

HI Scott,

Something like the below screen:


I can enter any table in the database, and get this info.

It looks very similar to the screen shot in your first post, but I couldn’t figure out the table to which the columns refer? Is your info per table, or per doc?

And if @Leandro_Zubrezki and you could show the links between tables that would be amazing.

Regards
Piet

2 Likes

The pack im building will have some different major elements, really similar to your screenshot!

It will hav a “tables” sync-table that will pull every table within a single document, whether its a view or parent, etc.

Then the pack will also have a “columns” table which will pull the metadata from a single table in terms of its columns name, type, formula, etc.

How would you end up using a Pack like this in Coda? Would love to hear your thoughts!

2 Likes

Launched today!

@Leandro_Zubrezki , @Piet_Strydom , @Nick_HE , @Tim_Sherman1 , @Steve_Simon2 , @Vince_Balsamo try it out and let me know what you think! Still have some feature ideas in mind but wanted to hear your thoughts if you end up using it!

3 Likes

Hi Scott,

Please help!

I have imported the pack, but when I ask it to sync a table for me, I get the below error:
image

Thank you very much
Piet

1 Like

:wave: Hey there!

Its best not to use Doc Names or table Names, but rather their IDs.

This is how you can find them

(1) Turn on Developer Mode for easy access to IDs
In your account settings, scroll all the way down to find this option under labs

(2) Find your docID
There are multiple ways to do this, but the easiest way is with Codas Doc Id Extractor found at this link: → Coda API (v1) Reference Documentation

It can always be found in your URL too. Its the string that is after the page name and the lower case d up until the /
So if this was my url: https://coda.io/d/Jedi-School-Signups_dPLcnImR-ON/Example-Table_sunUR#_luUzF

My Doc ID would be: PLcnImR-ON

(3) Find your table ID
This you can do easily in your doc by selecting the little snowman menu next to a table and copying its id

4 Likes

Thanks a lot. I will have a look at it next weekend.

P

1 Like

Maybe we could utilize @Leandro_Zubrezki ’s mermaid pack to create auto visuals and maps of doc structure, etc.

Finally! This could be the solution to this issue that has been frustrating me for months.

Great work, I’ll start to play with this pack right away. Thank you!

2 Likes

This pack is amazing. Could it be expanded to include buttons ( “free-floating” buttons) ? My most complex docs rely a lot on them in order to avoid decrease in performance due to “excessively” complex/verbose formulas

1 Like

Hey there @Ford ! Can you explain more what you mean? What functionality are you looking for in the pack that it currently does not have

1 Like

Hi @Scott_Collier-Weir ! At the moment the pack seems to analize only tables and views, but not Controls and Buttons. It would be nice if those were included too.
EXAMPLE
Objects in doc:

  1. TYPE: table ; NAME"Catalogue" ; COLUMNS: “Item; Price; Margin; …”
  2. TYPE: button; NAME: “Reset prices in Catalogue” ; FORMULA: Modifyrows(Catalogue, Price, 0)

SCENARIO
if I delete the column “Price” of the table “Catalogue”, this pack allows me to know in advance that by doing so I would break the column “Margin”, because (in this example) it depends on it, but it would not tell me that the button "Reset prices in the table Catalogue " would break too because the column that this button is supposed to edit would be inexistent

Sorry for the weird example :sweat_smile:

EDIT:
Correction

2 Likes

Got it! Ill look into it for sure. Great idea!

2 Likes

HI Scott,

I have used this in two docs now, and it works well for my requirements.
I use it on tables that I created to make notes on what the columns mean.

But then I recently I conceived of another way to use this.
For our SAP implementations we need to collect master data from business.
The master data file looks like this, for example a cost centre list:

But to assist them in completing the data, I use the Audit pack to get all the columns. I then add some columns at the back to provide info, list of allowed entries, etc.

What is ESPECIALLY useful is that refreshing the table keeps the information added manually in place.

This latter use if of huge value, thank you very much.

Rambling Pete

2 Likes

Great update! The Audit Pack has become even more indispensable!