Site Page title with a!refreshVariable

2 things:

1. this code would only work in an Interface, not an expression used elsewhere (as mentioned by Krishna Chaitanya previously).  If you look up the documentation for a!refreshVariables, it tells you that all optional parameters are ignored when used outside of the context of an interface, which would include the refresh interval.
2. Even if you are using an interface, I discovered a bug (which still hasn't been fixed apparently) where, in the Interface Editor specifically, an auto-refreshing variable won't auto-refresh at all if it's either the ONLY local variable, or the FIRST local variable declared.  If the only local variable you need is the auto-refreshing one, then to get it to apparently work correctly within Interface Editor you should define a "spare" local variable before the auto-refreshing one.

2 things:

1. this code would only work in an Interface, not an expression used elsewhere (as mentioned by Krishna Chaitanya previously).  If you look up the documentation for a!refreshVariables, it tells you that all optional parameters are ignored when used outside of the context of an interface, which would include the refresh interval.
2. Even if you are using an interface, I discovered a bug (which still hasn't been fixed apparently) where, in the Interface Editor specifically, an auto-refreshing variable won't auto-refresh at all if it's either the ONLY local variable, or the FIRST local variable declared.  If the only local variable you need is the auto-refreshing one, then to get it to apparently work correctly within Interface Editor you should define a "spare" local variable before the auto-refreshing one.

I understand these limits, although I thought that the page title was some kind of oob interface component. I was wrong

Thanks everyone!

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the info.

Could you please post sample code snippet for the 2nd point you mentioned?

Thanks in advance.

Rajesh Mahenderkar - here you go. In this example, the auto-refreshing variable (when it's the first/only one) will never auto-refresh.  However if you un-comment the commented-out "override" local variable above it, and press "test" to start fresh, it will work as expected.

a!localVariables(
  /* local!override: "testing", */

  local!firstVariable: a!refreshVariable(
    value: now(),
    refreshInterval: 0.5
    /* will never refresh unless/until the local!override variable is un-commented. */
  ),

  a!formLayout(
    label: "Variable AutoRefresh Test",
    contents: {
      a!textField(
        label: "RefreshTime",
        readonly: true(),
        value: text(local!firstVariable, "yyyy/mm/dd hh:mm:ss"),
      )
    }
  )
)

Hi Mike,

This does not work

a!localVariables(
  local!startTime: now(),
  local!lastUpdated: a!refreshVariable(
    value: now(),
    refreshInterval: 0.5
  ),
  {
    a!textField(
      label: "Last Updated",
      value: local!startTime,
      readOnly: true
    ),
    a!textField(
      label: "Last Updated",
      value: local!lastUpdated,
      readOnly: true
    )
  }
)

This does work

a!localVariables(
  local!fixAppianBrokenFunctionality: "Please",
  local!startTime: now(),
  local!lastUpdated: a!refreshVariable(
    value: now(),
    refreshInterval: 0.5
  ),
  {
    a!textField(
      label: "Start Time",
      value: local!startTime,
      readOnly: true
    ),
    a!textField(
      label: "Last Updated",
      value: local!lastUpdated,
      readOnly: true
    )
  }
)

So having a first order local var that is referencing text seems to work whereas referencing now() does not.

Interesting, thanks for making the distinction - I didn't realize that the behavior was different depending on the data type of the initial local variable - I obviously didn't test that robustly after discovering the bug ;-)

Hi Mike,

I'm also noticing that once a button is pressed on form (even though it doesn't submit the form) the interval refresh variables seem to stop working.

Interesting... under what conditions?  I just added a buttonWidget to basically the same test form as linked above (it doesn't save into anything but is clickable), and for me at least the autorefresh does continue happening correctly.  But you might be doing something differently.

Yep, I encountered the same issue...