Update row timestamp in AppSheet Databases

[ShirleyN]

We’re excited to announce the release of a new column type in AppSheet databases: Update row timestamp. This feature allows you to track when a row was last updated from both the database and app. Tracking row updates can be useful for a number of reasons, such as for auditing purposes. This is available for everyone now.

How to use Update row timestamp

Add a new column to your AppSheet database table with the data type "Update row timestamp".  This type is found under the “Metadata” column type category. Note that there is also an “App specific” category, the columns there are only updated when using an AppSheet app. 

Timezone used to track updates 

When a change is made in a table, the timestamp saved is taken from AppSheet’s servers. That means that it is stored as an Epoch timestamp, a universal time for computers, then converted and displayed according to the table's timezone settings America/Los Angeles timezone. Since it uses the server time when an update was made, it can be used to determine the objective order of when changes happened, regardless of which user made the update and what timezone they were in.

We hope you find this useful and look forward to sharing more AppSheet database related features in the future, especially around automation! 

Thanks,

AppSheet database team

[AleksiAlkio]

May I ask why it is displayed with LA timezone where other times from AppSheet server are showed as UTC+0? For example Audit history, performance analyzer, version history etc. Now it's probably just confusing app creators as it's not consistent. Any thoughts?

[ShirleyN]

Hi @AleksiAlkio , sorry for the confusion, the data is actually displayed using the table's timezone settings. If that fails it will fall back on UTC. By default, the table's timezone settings are set based on where the table was created. I just updated my original post.