People Picker field showing as blank on the Task forms on Nintex Mobile App

  • 24 September 2016
  • 11 replies
  • 12 views
C
Badge +9

I’m having some difficulty displaying People picker fields values on a task form on Nintex Mobile App (for Mobile and Tablet). I'm wondering if someone can give some insight on how to resolve or have had a similar issue.

 

Problem:

The people picker field does not display the values when on a task form on the Nintex mobile App for Mobile and Tablet layouts.

Scenario:

  • I have multiple task forms within my workflow, some have all fields open for edit in addition to the outcome and some others are the default; meaning that all list item fields are in read only mode in addition to the regular (edit) outcome field.
  • The original form has about 4 people picker fields in which two of them are required. So when the approvers get their task form on Nintex mobile app, they should be able to see those people fields filled in before they can approve. What happens is, those fields come back as blank on the task form. Although they have been saved correctly on SharePoint.

 

  • Note that I noticed some blogs recommending to use single line of texts instead of people picker. unfortunately, that option won’t work for us :-(

 

  • The approver who has the task form opened for him to edit all list item fields, can simply re-input those values (people fields) and submit. But when it comes to users who have their task form Item properties fields in read only specially that two of the people picker fields are “required”. They cannot re-insert or even submit the form because it is showing as blank (and required in read only mode) - so they are stuck.
  • The only people picker field I can display is the OOTB “assigned to” field. Any other SharePoint list people picker field shows as blank on mobile/tablet.

 

The only solution I can think of is simply have the people picker only on the original list form but not the workflow task forms. I will need to edit the tablet/mobile task forms for all approvers and remove all the people fields. But I don’t think my client will be very happy with this option.

 

Can you please advise or direct to someone who can help!

Thanks!

Addition: after looking at some of the release notes. I think the below might be related to my issue as two of the required people picker fields on the list form do have some default values setup.

--> On Release 2.9.0.0 for Nintex forms: However, my environment is indeed updated to 2.9.0.0 version, may be it is not a confirmed fix!!

  • Fixed an issue where the People picker control Default value may not work for Nintex Task form (00077886; 00062695; 74537; 66640)

Can someone confirm this fix?

11 replies

E
Userlevel 5
Badge +14

are you on the most recent version of nintex mobile? there were addressed some issues with PP recently as well.

when you try to respond to the task on desktop, can you see PP fields filled in?

how are you managing RO/RW state of controls, through  control appearance options or through rules? => rulles are better option.

if you use some complex conditions to manage RO/RW state of controls, make sure you use just built in function and not javascript functions/operators (eg. use and() instead of &&)

if you do not apply any restrictions (RO/RW, or any others) do PPs get filled in?

C
Badge +9

Hi Marian,

Thanks so much for your response.

yes, I'm using the most recent version of Nintex Mobile app version 4.3.1.

The people fields are working perfectly fine on the desktop version for task forms and on list forms.

I should add that the PP fields that have default values are the problematic ones on the Task mobile forms.

People fields with no default values are working fine on mobile and desktop.

I'm controlling the RO/RW fields through the Control UI settings, Appearance-> enabled(Y/N) and Advanced -> Control Mode (Edit/Display).

Some fields are inserted in Panels and I show/Hide those Panels(group of fields) through rules.

I don't use any javascript in the forms , in fact I don't even know how to use javascript.

Those people fields only have RO/RW change in settings through the UI as mentioned above. I haven't noticed any issues using the above with the rest of the form. The RO/RW are working fine with all others.

I have a feeling that the problem is related to task forms for People fields that have default values. Note that the default values are setup on the list Nintex form. SharePoint does not allow settings up default values for people fields through the list settings. I can only insert default values on the Nintex form. Those default values also can be configured on the task form but since they can be modified after the item created and the task is assigned , there is no really a point of setting up a default on the task form....am I making sense!!

any other areas that I need to check?!

Thanks!

E
Userlevel 5
Badge +14

ok, if you think those default values cause problems, let's try to investigate that.

can you explain/post how do you set those PP default values?

if I understood you correctly you only set PP default values on New/Edit forms, and you do not set it on the task form at all, ie. task form just accepts PP values from list fields. is that so?

as far as I'm aware, PP default value in forms can only be set

- to current user

- to a static value/user

- URL query string

- from a javascript code

you have excluded javascript already, so there remains three options which usually should work.

or have you used any other way?

can you confirm, once you submit new item to the list - are list fields connected to those PP controls correctly populated in list view?

hopefully. list fields are of people or group (P&G) type...

do you perform any changes to P&G fields within workflow?

are those PPs controls resp. P&G fields single value or multiple values allowed?

could you post configuration of a control from New/Edit from and of a control from task form for the same list field which experience the issue?

are controls on desktop task form and mobile task form linked or have you configured them independently?

regardless of how PP values are entered (manually or as default value), if it is done correctly then there shouldn't be a difference in behavior on the task form. are there any other differences worth to mention between prepopulated and not prepopulated controls?

C
Badge +9

Thanks Marian,

Here is my answers:

- This is how I post the default values:

On the list -> got to Nintex forms -> customize the item form -> double click on the people field-> select "specify default value" -> then insert emails seperated by semicolons ; for fields that need multiple values. another field I just insert the first and last name and it automatically picks it up upon form rendering.

- Yes, I only setup PP default values on the Nintex new/edit form. and the task forms just accept people values from the list fields.

- I'm inserting a static value to the default PP. so I insert the users' email address and again these are working fine on desktop displaying and retrieving the user data.

- yes, once I submit, the fields are connected and show in the list view and form as well on the desktop.

- yes list fields are of people and group type and are picking up from "users only".

- One field allows only one entry and the other allows for Multiple entry. both have default values.

E
Userlevel 5
Badge +14

thanks for clarification.

that all sounds good.

once users are correctly populated in item's fields, task form shouldn't have any problem to take over and display them.

so I think it's not related to default or not default values at all.

I did setup my own similar testcase and I managed to reproduce your behavior.

after some investigation I have a feeling that task form do not refresh list of the users from field's backed group at runtime for unknown reasons. it just supplies list of users that were resolved from respective group at the timepoint when the task form was changed last time. once a current user wasn't member of the group at that design time point, it's not populated in task form neither you can enter it manually.

workflow re-publishing do not help either.

when I tried to enter the user manually, despite I requested to 'Search Server' list of possible user wasn't updated.

I have managed to reproduce that behavior on nintex mobile for android  and win10 clients.

on android I tried 4 or 5 versions from 4.3.1 down to 3.9.

so, from my point of view that's a bug.

I would suggest to contact Nintex Support‌ and ask for fix.

C
Badge +9

Thanks Marian. That's a relief knowing that you were able to reproduce the problem and also knowing that it is not just me seeing things or I'm overworked.. grin.png

I will contact Nintex Support and let them know.

Thanks again! your prompt response and effort is appreciated. 

C
Badge +9

Just an update on this. I contacted Nintex support and we did work together to replicate the issue.

The problem was that I had to remove the fields from the nintex Mobile forms and re-add them. and when I did that the people fields were broken (not reading from the list any more) although i did that for other types of fields and they all worked fine. This was an unexpected behaviour. All other types of fields such as single line of texts and date fields which I tested are working fine when I remove and re-add them, but not people fields.

The only workaround it is to reset the mobile forms on the task forms and recreate them without having to remove and re-add for any reason which will solve this problem for the time being.

In my case, the reason I had to remove/re-add those fields is because of the background colors that the desktop version is using. Those colors are bound to the Mobile forms as well, which look horrible and unreadable. When I remove/re-add those fields it gives me the flexibility to change the colors on the Nintex mobile/Tablet version. In which this way it is possible to have different forms formats for Mobile and desktop. Again it is all working fine for other types of fields but not "people fields".

I will have to work with my business users to change the colors before trying the workaround to reset the mobile task forms and re-publish them using plain colors on the desktop version so it goes through well on the mobile as well.

This was reported as a bug by Nintex Support and I will keep this post updated once I receive any further information.

J
Badge +5

Hm, I ran into a similar issue where only certain people didn't show up and only on iPhones. After some back and forth, we discovered that it was in fact an issue with some user profiles -> Department = "Director & Coordinator" etc. 

The ampersand in the department property was causing the issue. I understand that's patched now though. The reason I'm saying this is to point to some potential causes that may be outside of what you'd generally look at when troubleshooting this.

C
Badge +9

Thanks for your note and contribution ‌. I'll keep that in mind.  It is also great for the community readers as well to know what to look for..  

E
Userlevel 5
Badge +14

‌ have you come to a solution with nintex support?

C
Badge +9

I haven't heard back on it. But as far as I remember, I had to reset the the form and rebuild it to get it to work.

Reply


View our Community Site Map

Nintex Community Sitemap
Terms & ConditionsCookie settings