Smartsheet incorporates LOVs, which allow the user to select values from a dropdown, thereby minimizing the number of mistakes. While there are a lot of benefits, there are a few limitations that need to be considered when performing data exchange with the Smartsheet format.
Limitations
The following is a list of limitations to consider when using LOVs in a Smartsheet:
- The error message 'Lookup values were not applied, please reopen workbook.' is caused by a client-side runtime error upon opening the workbook. In very rare cases, reopening the workbook resolves the issue. However, a re-export is usually required to successfully open the workbook.
- Smartsheet always includes LOVs and applies filters from attributes and attribute links but never filters classification references. Since Smartsheet requires the same (sub)set of attributes and LOV values for all products in a worksheet, it is not possible to support classification reference filtering.
- If the exported list of values is empty after applying filters, the following messages will be displayed in the background process log:
- For hard LOV: 'Column [attribute id] has empty look up list. Column will read-only.'
- For medium LOV: 'Column [attribute id] has empty look up list. Column will not facilitate lookup.'
For more information on LOVs, see the List of Values (LOVs) topic in the System Setup documentation here.
- It is recommended that the newest supportable version of Excel is used. For Excel 2007 and later, the maximum number of exported LOVs is 16,380. Applying a filter can reduce the number of LOVs, allowing for a successful export. After applying filters, if the number of LOVs exceeds the numbers referenced above, the following message will display in the background process report: 'Column [attribute id] exported without look-up because it has a LOV with [n] values. This exceeds the allowed max of [n-max] for this version of Excel.' The column will be editable, but will not facilitate any lookup (dropdown or popup selection).
- In cross-context Smartsheets, the following messages can appear due to attribute / LOV configurations:
- 'Column [attribute id] marked read-only because its LOV ('[lov id]') is dimension dependent and does not meet the requirements for use in Smartsheet.'
- 'Column [attribute id] marked read-only because both attribute and its LOV are dimension dependent.'
For more information on cross-context exports for Smartsheet, see the Smartsheet Data and Template Configurations topic here.
- The property Portal.Excel.UseLOVFilters in the sharedconfig.properties file no longer has an impact in Smartsheets. It was only for Quicksheets, which is deprecated.
- LOVs in Smartsheet exports may be empty due to a mismatch between the user's value privileges and LOV privileges.