LookUp function on Nintex Mobile

I
Badge +4

Hi everyone! This is my first time working with Nintex on mobile devices!

 

We already have a form that completely works on Desktop, but we need it to work on Nintex Mobile, on an iPad. Os this form, we have some calculated values, which uses the run time LookUp() function. This is not currently working on our form, on the Mobile app only. We get an "Error" value.

 

But I read in some other posts that this functionality was recently added to the App. But I still get an error. Is there any way to overcome this?

 

Thanks, Igor.

10 replies

G
Userlevel 6
Badge +13

The Lookup runtime functionality does not work in the mobile app. The List Lookup control works, and this might be what you read about. It's frustrating as it's an important function to have available. 

I can only imagine the difficulty is around the offline functionality of the form.

C
Badge +1

Ryan you are quite correct. Nintex Mobile must support off-line forms at all times.  This means we have to cache form definition data on the device. Lookup runtime functions as you can imagine offers quite an impossible challenge.

I'm interested to know, what do you think would be a good way to solve this from a feature view?  

Do you think that it would be a good idea to allow Lookup runtime functionality with a "buyer beware" type clause to say that it won't work offline?

We could improve the experience by caching the Lookup data locally for access offline but depending on how dynamic that data is, this solution may not suffice. 

What do you think?

G
Userlevel 6
Badge +13

Personally I would like the functionality with the "buyer beware" message. I look at offline functionality being a feature, not the core reason for using it, others are different I guess. In our case, offline functionality is very useful for certain forms, less so in others. 

Alternatives, I guess you could look at caching the source of the lookup but I imagine there are some issues there around the size of the data you can include.

Another scenario the folks I'm working with at the moment wanted was to have an offline file deployed to devices on a daily basis (when online obviously) so that sales reps always had access to the client info. Any changes made were then synced back when online and the updated client file synced with changes made by other users and updated to the device again. Something we were sort of able to achieve with PowerApps but it relied on too many manual processes from the user (button presses in the app) to be considered. Being able to deploy an offline file/data source to the device at intervals would be the utopia here I guess and would allow you to cover off the runtime lookup functionality. How that can be achieved, especially within the confines of o365 I'm not sure.

C
Badge +1

Ryan Greenaway‌ thanks so much for the feedback.  We'll take that in to consideration.

To your other scenario about begin able to sync a daily client info file inside the app.  Well currently Nintex Mobile doesn't support this.  However, have you considered using Nintex App Studio?

Nintex App Studio allows you to take a white labeled version of Nintex Mobile and re-skin it to your brand and identity.  As well as this you can include additional Custom Content inside the app that can support a process or task.  This content can be bitmaps, video, MS Office files, PDF and HTML.  This content is static as it is built into the app itself before it is deployed.  It is possible however to include a HTML document inside of the app that then points at dynamic content on the Web.  This might solve your problem.

We're getting a little off topic for this post so here is a link to a blog post that Dan Stoll created that gives you an excellent over view:

‌

  

Have a try and let me know if you need anymore help.

H

Personally, it would be great if in App Studio we could select what lists to Sync to the device. So I could choose to sync a list that I wanted to look up.

G
Userlevel 6
Badge +13

Yes, although the same functionality will be required in the default app. But agree that being able to sync data into the app would be great. What restraints would there be around this though? I would suggest that going as far as being able to specify which columns from which lists to sync would be most efficient as you'll know at design time, which columns you require for your lookups.

F
Badge +2

Given that Lookup Columns work fine on the Mobile app - I don't understand why the lookup function wouldn't be able to work the same way (I assume it is some sort of cache based on last time it connected)

rhia
Userlevel 6
Badge +15

I'd love an update on this Nintex Support‌ -- I know that John Corry has left, and I see that User Voice is also reflecting the requirement for Lookup() and there are some great ideas here on possibilities. 

A

I would also love to see this feature added. Any updates Nintex Support‌??

EuanGamble
Userlevel 5
Badge +13

Hi Alex Fortson‌,

As you may be aware, we are working on a new Forms technology that is the same engine across Office 365, SharePoint and Nintex Mobile.

This means that it should be nearly exactly the same across all platforms. The only challenge we find is caching data for offline use in Mobile. This includes the Lookup control and Lookup runtime function. When we get to building this functionality, we will definitely be taking this into consideration.

Cheers,

Euan

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