Head's up! Behavior Change with Forms & Connections planned for Week 39/Sept 23

Announcements
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1

Currently, if a connection field is excluded from a form, its default value is not applied when creating a new record.
The default value is applied correctly when:
* The record is added directly from the Builder
* The connection field is included in the form

**Expected**:

Default values for connection fields should always apply, even if the field is not displayed on the form.

**Actual**:

If the connection field is hidden from the form, the record is created without the default connection.

Impact: This leads to incomplete or inconsistent records in workflows where the default connection is critical, affecting both Classic and Next-Gen.

**Upcoming Fix (Week 39)**: Connection fields set to “Default Selection: First Value” will now default as expected in these scenarios:*

  • Submissions from live app forms where the field is not included
  • `Create Record` API calls that omit the field
  • Record imports where the field is not mapped

If you do not want a default value applied, ensure that in the Connection Field settings, ensure the default value is set to “None”.

2

For anyone who wants to check for impacted fields due to this change, in an app that uses the Classic builder you can run this code, thanks to @Callum.Boase , to find any connection fields that use default value setting and are therefore impacted by the change.

  1. Open your app front-end (classic builder app front-end)

  2. Right click on the page and select Inspect

  3. In the bar that opens (usually right-hand side) select “console”

  4. Paste the following code and press enter

 function findImpactedConnectionFields(){
    const matching = []
    for(const [key,field] of Object.entries(Knack.fields)) {
        if(field.attributes.type === 'connection'){
            if(field.attributes.format.conn_default !== 'none') {
                const obj = Knack.objects.models.find(object => object.id === field.attributes.object_key).attributes.name
                matching.push(`${obj} (${field.attributes.object_key}) - ${field.attributes.name} (${field.attributes.key})`)
            }
        }
    }
    console.log(matching)
}
findImpactedConnectionFields()
3

This is great thanks @Callum.Boase & @Kara