Update Value for Dynamic List on Multi-Field Binning

[WillMoore]

Hello all,
I'm looking to try and feed in an input file dynamically, and select fields dynamically through update actions on a File Browse and List Box which ultimately go through a Multi-Field Binning tool and output as part of an analytical app.

The selecting of the file is no problem, but when trying to update the Tool through the field selection through a List Box >> Action Tool (Update Value with Formula), it doesn't recognizing any fields selected from the initial workflow.  I'm thinking it could be a case of needing to Update Value with Formula which worked on a previous app, but wasn't quite clear to me through debugging how it's meant to accept the inputs to the formula.  I've attached a packaged workflow for reference too.

Has anyone run into the issue before? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

[kelly_gilbert · Accepted solution]

Hi, @WillMoore - yes, getting the input values exactly right can be tricky. You were pretty close!

First, in your List Box, remove the quotation marks from the start and end text.
Second, add another =True to the End text (if the user selects two fields, then we want a list like field1=True,field2=True -- the last field needs an =True, too.

Next, go to your Action tool and change it to Update Value (make sure that the listbox value is selected/highlighted).

Also, you may want to consider using chained apps to first get the file input, and then a second app to let the user choose the fields for binning. The reason is that the Multi-Field Binning tool is designed to work with numeric fields, and your app as-is will allow the user to select other types of fields (e.g. string)... That may have unintended consequences. Normally, you could restrict the field types visible to the user by selecting only numeric fields in your List Box tool. However, the source file selected by the user could have numeric fields that are initially read as string (and therefore those fields wouldn't show up in the options presented to the user).

One last thing: if you want to see how input is being passed to a tool (so you can recreate that string in an app), you can look at the tool's XML. Just select the tool (e.g. the Multi-Field Binning tool), and then click the </> icon in the properties window. This is how I figured out that the quotation marks were the issue.

If you don't see the icon, go to Options --> User Settings --> Edit User Settings --> Advanced --> check the Display XML in Properties Window box/

[WillMoore]

Thank you Kelly! I tried those couple tweaks and it solved it.  You're also right that this is actually setup as a chain app in my main workflow where I'm splitting the String and Numeric fields before trying this out, just broke it out that way for the example to share.

Also good shout on the XML view, will definitely use this in the future!