General Caster is here. Get rid of formula columns!

Hi Rob,
I would really like to be able to use the IF function in generalcaster, is this possible and if so, how?

@Vincent We don’t provide support on formula building, sorry.

@jasonblairlewis Yes, it’s possible. Please visit General Caster documentation section at https://generalcaster.app/website/documentation/formula/

Hey,

I have a main item, with subitems - I have a connect column that is linked to a client board - which displays the client name, I need the client name to also show in the subitems. Would that be possible with General Caster?

Hei @johnners
Yes, it’s possible as long as the subitem column you need to update is not the first one (name), because you need to display the summary column in the parent item.

@rob

Thank you, Its not the first one, so the board structure is basically:

Project Name | Job Number | Client (mirrored from client list board) | Date|etc etc etc

then we have sub items:

Sub Name | Job Number | Team Member | Date | Time | etc etc etc

so I’d love to be able to show the client from the mirrored parent column to a column on the sub items.

Do you know what option in caster would I need to use?

Hey @johnners
Here’s an example about casting a date into the subitems.

As subitems columns are “special mirrored columns” you need to follow these instructions to change the values:
https://generalcaster.app/website/documentation/formula/#mirror

Hi Rob, I’m trying to use caster to send Person#Emails to a dropdown column, but can’t see it as a value when I cast to a text column, is there anyway i can retrieve it?

image

I’ve made a small advance on the above, if I use the SWITCH command I can switch the person ID for the email address assigned to that person e.g. SWITCH({item’s Crew}, “2603354:person:","email@email.com”,“”) but that only works for one person, do you have a statement condition to include multiple people? I need to accommodate the ‘+’
e.g.

Hey @Jof
General Caster doesn’t retrieve the email address at the moment, because it has no permissions to read the Users table.
Next major version will be able.

In the meantime, the SWITCH() function is a possible workaround, but, as you said, it works with one element only.
By the way we have now added the user’s name to what is returned by General Caster.
You can read about this and all other improvements in the Release Notes section on our website.

By the way we have now added the user’s name to what is returned by General Caster.

yeah, you must have done that just today, it changed halfway through my testing!

Switch is OK, but currently i need to create use cases for every possible return of the Person string

e.g.

“2603354:person:John Smith+2349844:person:Bill Burr” = “john@smith.com+bill@burr.com”

“2603354:person:John Smith+2349844:person:Bill Burr+24197489:person:Will Shatner” = “john@smith.com+bill@burr.com+Will@shatner.com”

“2349844:person:Bill Burr+2603354:person:John Smith+24197489:person:Will Shatner” = “bill@burr.com+john@smith.com+Will@shatner.com”,

and i have 25 email addresses!

Easiest thing is just to ignore General Caster and create a dropdown with the 25 addresses, but I wanted it all fancy for my users. Can you think of anything else I can do? Ideally use SWITCH to examine everything up to the ‘+’ and replace what it finds keeping the ‘+’

Thanks,

Or find someway to print this Monday function result to a dropdown column using Caster
image

Function is simply {Crew#Emails}

And i need to use a dropdown, as I’m using an Outlook calendar integration to invite users, but the only accepted field type for invitees is ‘Dropdown’.

Hi all, I’m afraid I have a question that is probably an easy fix but I can’t seem to get it working right!
I just need my timetracking column to be cast to a number column and show results as HH:MM

Otherwise, I have this reading correctly through a Formula column, but can’t seem to cast this to a number column either.

I feel like the solution shouldn’t be too hard but I’m struggling to grasp it! Any help would be very appreciated.

Hey @Taegs
Please take a look at documentation at https://generalcaster.app/website/documentation/formula/#helpers

Hi @rob
I’m new with the GC - Monday integration

Could you please help me with creating a formula that each time when a new item is being created, the integration will cast the item’s name into the another field (this field is a connected board field and I can see the field in the formula)?
Thanks


Sorry for my late reply @Oronbar
As said privately, General Caster doesn’t support this kind of integrations.
You can’t take the item name and set the corresponding Deal Name in the mirrored board column.

Hi @rob ,

I have a problem with the triggering of the integration. I have a sub-element summary column, and that’s the only column that gets to change, but I feel like the “when any column changes” feature doesn’t support triggering on columns abstract.

Do you have a trick to solve this problem?

Thank you for your answer !

UPDATE:
I just realized that it’s not due to a trigger issue since in the embed history I can see the new activity at the time of the sub-element update.
So I don’t understand what’s going on, it looks like the formula is retrieving an old value from my summary box

UPDATE:
By dint of testing, I better understand the problem, it turns out that in the summary of my sub-elements I display the maximum among all, but I think that in reality it is the minimum that is kept in the database given. Indeed, the formula I’m using is like adding a value to the maximum of my sub-elements, but if I add a new sub-element that’s bigger than all the others, nothing happens, whereas if I add a smaller element and I remove all the larger ones, then the automation works.

@robinjoseph Triggers are handled by monday. If a change in a subitem doesn’t trigger General Caster (you don’t find a General Caster call in the Activity section), you need to contact monday support.

Rob why does General Caster need to exist? Why doesn’t monday just buy this off you and integrate into the core product, this seems like a huge gap and IMHO basic / assumed functionality ?

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Good question, but you need to address it to Monday :grinning:

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