Creating app field that exceeds max character length error

🔧 Bugs & Issues
1

Tape field names have a max length of 200 characters. When creating an app via the API, sending a field that exceeds this limit throws a 500 “An unknown exception occurred” error rather than throwing the proper error.

Trying to create a field directly in Tape with a name over 200 characters also appears to crash the UI rather than throwing an error.

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Since it’s somewhat my fault this was discovered…I know a field name of more than 200 characters is very uncommon but the reason I have those is to create a webform for the SmrtDialer that callers can follow while on the call.
See the below example:

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as an aside note from the identified issue of incorrect error messages…

@Martin_E - I’ve built webforms in Podio exactly like that before, trying to get the caller script format dialed in within the constraints of the Podio webform features.
While it does technically solve the problem, there are other inherent issues with that approach (obviously you’ve found a new one here…)

We certainly hope that Tape releases some improved functionality for webforms, even an ability to re-name public facing webform fields with different names than the field names seen by logged in users. See comments in this other thread for more ideas people have shared on that topic: 🟢 Feature requests needed! Relaunching records, developing web forms, redesigning mobile

That said, at the current moment (Q4 2024) I do believe that the best way to accomplish your goal here is to utilize a separate webform creation tool like JotForm that can be scripted/formatted as nicely as you want. And then simply have a submission there automated to drop values via webhook to create the item inside your Tape (or Podio) app. And within that structure you can avoid the long field name issue you’ve encountered here.

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4

Thanks for your report - fully understood. We’re looking into resolving these two issues respectively:

  • Increase the field name limit to a common value that is known from other systems. Suggestion would be 255 characters.

  • Ensure that the API throws a proper error when that field name limit is exceeded in an app creation or update step that creates/updates fields.

We will come back to you once this is resolved.

Thanks for your patience &
Cheers
Tim

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