Hi,

We are a fan of Applications for a number of reasons, but have found an issue that turning us away from them without there being a change to the product.

When loading an asset from an application the first time, Workspace returns the most up to date data from the server. If you click onto a separate asset, change data that affects a view on the first asset, and then back to the first asset, then it just returns the data it has in cache. The only 2 ways I've found to make the data refresh from the server again is to hit the refresh button or have the grid refresh on a timer. When asking our users to manually refresh they are getting confused at why the data appears wrong before realising they need to refresh, and having the auto refresh on is not ideal for data input cubes.

Swapping the link navigation for buttons and abandoning Applications altogether is our workaround, but we lose some of the benefits we enjoy from Applications. When we configure navigation buttons we can set to pass context or/and refresh target book - which seems to do the trick. When editing sections in applications we have the option to pass context, but not the option to refresh the target asset (book).

Has anybody else been through this experience, and did you end up moving away from Applications?

------------------------------
George Williams
------------------------------

Hi,

We use applications a lot and its not something I've thought much about as our users (like myself) are used to just pressing the refresh button - its got to a point where its habitual and we probably actually refresh far more often than needed. In my opinion (it sounds similar to yours) applications are the strongest method of storing books and building a navigation menu that we have in Workspace and I certainly wouldn't want to move away from it, but I can understand that the risk of it not refreshing could make you consider it.

Now you have pointed it out and made me think about it - it would definitely be a very positive RFC for the general experience of workspace if @STUART KING or any of the development team are looking to just have the book automatically refresh every time it is clicked on from the left pane in the application navigation (be it automatic or an option setting for the book) - some of the bigger application we use might contain multiple books and concurrent users so by the time you go back to one it is likely to have changed.

On a positive of the way it currently works - it won't let you enter data and will inform you that the grid needs to be refreshed with an error message. On the downside if you are just looking at the values you may incorrectly take it away and assume its fact without receiving any error message.

Thanks,

Declan

------------------------------
Declan Rodger
Technical Director
Spitfire Analytics
Manchester

Original Message:
Sent: Fri July 25, 2025 10:11 AM
From: George Williams
Subject: Application Assets Not Refreshing Target Book

Hi,

We are a fan of Applications for a number of reasons, but have found an issue that turning us away from them without there being a change to the product.

When loading an asset from an application the first time, Workspace returns the most up to date data from the server. If you click onto a separate asset, change data that affects a view on the first asset, and then back to the first asset, then it just returns the data it has in cache. The only 2 ways I've found to make the data refresh from the server again is to hit the refresh button or have the grid refresh on a timer. When asking our users to manually refresh they are getting confused at why the data appears wrong before realising they need to refresh, and having the auto refresh on is not ideal for data input cubes.

Swapping the link navigation for buttons and abandoning Applications altogether is our workaround, but we lose some of the benefits we enjoy from Applications. When we configure navigation buttons we can set to pass context or/and refresh target book - which seems to do the trick. When editing sections in applications we have the option to pass context, but not the option to refresh the target asset (book).

Has anybody else been through this experience, and did you end up moving away from Applications?

------------------------------
George Williams
------------------------------

Hi,

We are a fan of Applications for a number of reasons, but have found an issue that turning us away from them without there being a change to the product.

When loading an asset from an application the first time, Workspace returns the most up to date data from the server. If you click onto a separate asset, change data that affects a view on the first asset, and then back to the first asset, then it just returns the data it has in cache. The only 2 ways I've found to make the data refresh from the server again is to hit the refresh button or have the grid refresh on a timer. When asking our users to manually refresh they are getting confused at why the data appears wrong before realising they need to refresh, and having the auto refresh on is not ideal for data input cubes.

Swapping the link navigation for buttons and abandoning Applications altogether is our workaround, but we lose some of the benefits we enjoy from Applications. When we configure navigation buttons we can set to pass context or/and refresh target book - which seems to do the trick. When editing sections in applications we have the option to pass context, but not the option to refresh the target asset (book).

Has anybody else been through this experience, and did you end up moving away from Applications?

------------------------------
George Williams
------------------------------

Hi,

We are a fan of Applications for a number of reasons, but have found an issue that turning us away from them without there being a change to the product.

When loading an asset from an application the first time, Workspace returns the most up to date data from the server. If you click onto a separate asset, change data that affects a view on the first asset, and then back to the first asset, then it just returns the data it has in cache. The only 2 ways I've found to make the data refresh from the server again is to hit the refresh button or have the grid refresh on a timer. When asking our users to manually refresh they are getting confused at why the data appears wrong before realising they need to refresh, and having the auto refresh on is not ideal for data input cubes.

Swapping the link navigation for buttons and abandoning Applications altogether is our workaround, but we lose some of the benefits we enjoy from Applications. When we configure navigation buttons we can set to pass context or/and refresh target book - which seems to do the trick. When editing sections in applications we have the option to pass context, but not the option to refresh the target asset (book).

Has anybody else been through this experience, and did you end up moving away from Applications?

------------------------------
George Williams
------------------------------

Hi,

we are currently going through UAT with a customer and they raised this precise issue with applications. To use their words:

"having to constantly click refresh button makes each task laborious"

I would echo what Declan said, in that you end pressing refresh more often than you have to. It gets a bit tricky thinking of all the scenarios where you need to refresh screens, especially when its a websheet used within PAW and the selection filters use different methods.

regards,

Mark

------------------------------
Mark Wragg

Original Message:
Sent: Fri July 25, 2025 10:11 AM
From: George Williams
Subject: Application Assets Not Refreshing Target Book

Hi,

We are a fan of Applications for a number of reasons, but have found an issue that turning us away from them without there being a change to the product.

When loading an asset from an application the first time, Workspace returns the most up to date data from the server. If you click onto a separate asset, change data that affects a view on the first asset, and then back to the first asset, then it just returns the data it has in cache. The only 2 ways I've found to make the data refresh from the server again is to hit the refresh button or have the grid refresh on a timer. When asking our users to manually refresh they are getting confused at why the data appears wrong before realising they need to refresh, and having the auto refresh on is not ideal for data input cubes.

Swapping the link navigation for buttons and abandoning Applications altogether is our workaround, but we lose some of the benefits we enjoy from Applications. When we configure navigation buttons we can set to pass context or/and refresh target book - which seems to do the trick. When editing sections in applications we have the option to pass context, but not the option to refresh the target asset (book).

Has anybody else been through this experience, and did you end up moving away from Applications?

------------------------------
George Williams
------------------------------

Thanks for sharing your experience Mark.
I've raised the following idea on the portal here - please vote to help us get this higher on the IBM priority list.

Cheers,

George

Hi,

we are currently going through UAT with a customer and they raised this precise issue with applications. To use their words:

"having to constantly click refresh button makes each task laborious"

I would echo what Declan said, in that you end pressing refresh more often than you have to. It gets a bit tricky thinking of all the scenarios where you need to refresh screens, especially when its a websheet used within PAW and the selection filters use different methods.

regards,

Mark

------------------------------
Mark Wragg

Original Message:
Sent: Fri July 25, 2025 10:11 AM
From: George Williams
Subject: Application Assets Not Refreshing Target Book

Hi,

We are a fan of Applications for a number of reasons, but have found an issue that turning us away from them without there being a change to the product.

When loading an asset from an application the first time, Workspace returns the most up to date data from the server. If you click onto a separate asset, change data that affects a view on the first asset, and then back to the first asset, then it just returns the data it has in cache. The only 2 ways I've found to make the data refresh from the server again is to hit the refresh button or have the grid refresh on a timer. When asking our users to manually refresh they are getting confused at why the data appears wrong before realising they need to refresh, and having the auto refresh on is not ideal for data input cubes.

Swapping the link navigation for buttons and abandoning Applications altogether is our workaround, but we lose some of the benefits we enjoy from Applications. When we configure navigation buttons we can set to pass context or/and refresh target book - which seems to do the trick. When editing sections in applications we have the option to pass context, but not the option to refresh the target asset (book).

Has anybody else been through this experience, and did you end up moving away from Applications?

------------------------------
George Williams
------------------------------

Hi,

We are a fan of Applications for a number of reasons, but have found an issue that turning us away from them without there being a change to the product.

When loading an asset from an application the first time, Workspace returns the most up to date data from the server. If you click onto a separate asset, change data that affects a view on the first asset, and then back to the first asset, then it just returns the data it has in cache. The only 2 ways I've found to make the data refresh from the server again is to hit the refresh button or have the grid refresh on a timer. When asking our users to manually refresh they are getting confused at why the data appears wrong before realising they need to refresh, and having the auto refresh on is not ideal for data input cubes.

Swapping the link navigation for buttons and abandoning Applications altogether is our workaround, but we lose some of the benefits we enjoy from Applications. When we configure navigation buttons we can set to pass context or/and refresh target book - which seems to do the trick. When editing sections in applications we have the option to pass context, but not the option to refresh the target asset (book).

Has anybody else been through this experience, and did you end up moving away from Applications?

------------------------------
George Williams
------------------------------

I agree with you Nick and I am not holding my breath on this one.

As far as I am aware we can't even order applications yet or have the ability to nest applications inside menus.

regards,

Mark

Hi,

We are a fan of Applications for a number of reasons, but have found an issue that turning us away from them without there being a change to the product.

When loading an asset from an application the first time, Workspace returns the most up to date data from the server. If you click onto a separate asset, change data that affects a view on the first asset, and then back to the first asset, then it just returns the data it has in cache. The only 2 ways I've found to make the data refresh from the server again is to hit the refresh button or have the grid refresh on a timer. When asking our users to manually refresh they are getting confused at why the data appears wrong before realising they need to refresh, and having the auto refresh on is not ideal for data input cubes.

Swapping the link navigation for buttons and abandoning Applications altogether is our workaround, but we lose some of the benefits we enjoy from Applications. When we configure navigation buttons we can set to pass context or/and refresh target book - which seems to do the trick. When editing sections in applications we have the option to pass context, but not the option to refresh the target asset (book).

Has anybody else been through this experience, and did you end up moving away from Applications?

------------------------------
George Williams
------------------------------

Hi,

We are a fan of Applications for a number of reasons, but have found an issue that turning us away from them without there being a change to the product.

When loading an asset from an application the first time, Workspace returns the most up to date data from the server. If you click onto a separate asset, change data that affects a view on the first asset, and then back to the first asset, then it just returns the data it has in cache. The only 2 ways I've found to make the data refresh from the server again is to hit the refresh button or have the grid refresh on a timer. When asking our users to manually refresh they are getting confused at why the data appears wrong before realising they need to refresh, and having the auto refresh on is not ideal for data input cubes.

Swapping the link navigation for buttons and abandoning Applications altogether is our workaround, but we lose some of the benefits we enjoy from Applications. When we configure navigation buttons we can set to pass context or/and refresh target book - which seems to do the trick. When editing sections in applications we have the option to pass context, but not the option to refresh the target asset (book).

Has anybody else been through this experience, and did you end up moving away from Applications?

------------------------------
George Williams
------------------------------